Between the Perennial Blooms || Paul Lahote

One | Lavender

"Standing here in the mist I feel different, unattached to the world I'm used to being in. I cannot say what has happened, but I feel drawn toward something unknown."
-Anonymous

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To Bailey Swan, Forks, Washington seemed nothing short of a dream come true. Landscaped with endless evergreen trees and spongy beds of moss, the surrounding flora of the un-cleverly named town appealed to her in ways sunny, sand-filled Arizona never could. It called to her, beckoned her out into the brush as if welcoming a long-lost member of kin, and wept for her as she sat pressed against the door of the back passenger seat of the rusted red pickup truck her older sister had forced her into. Its tears dripped down the window as she peered outside of it, and though her eyes were droopy and reddened with jet-lag and fatigue, they were filled with a sparkling longing no doubt. After all, Bailey Swan was a girl of the wild; and if there was anything to be learned from her bright eyes and sweet smile, it was that wild things weren't meant to be caged.

It had been two years since she had last seen her older sister Bella and nearly eight since she had last seen her father Charlie. Having lived with her maternal grandmother for the lattermost part of the past seventeen years, it was safe to say that Bailey Swan epitomized estrangement to an alarming degree. Raised in a cramped tin-roof cottage just on the outskirts of the border between Arizona and New Mexico, Bailey had grown complacent in the small South-Western desert mesa her grandmother Edith called home. It had been quaint and humble with only two bedrooms and a joint-bathroom, but Bailey had loved it all the same. After all, birth had graced her with a stroke of bad luck, and though her mother Renée had loved her dearly, taking on the role of single-mother to two newborn daughters proved far more difficult than just one. So in lieu of the hardships she grew inevitable to face, Edith Higginbotham took it upon herself to harbor the youngest Swan child with open arms and room to spare. She loved her as her own, and slowly, surely, raised her to be the beautiful young girl she faired presently.

And there was no refuting that Bailey Swan was beautiful.

But her newfound reunion with her older sister and father proved no jovial affair, because her move from the heat-sweltering Acoma Pueblo (more commonly known as 'Sky City' to locals) to the rainy wilderness of Forks, Washington had come at a price. Edith Higginbotham had passed away in her sleep late one summer night in June at age eighty-seven, and though Bailey had long since known her beloved Gran's bones had grown old and weary, nothing had prepared her for the final closing of her eyes. Bailey loved her grandmother; truly, she did. She acted as both mother and father, both sister and brother, and had filled the gaping hole in her chest left from her mother's unceremonious abandonment and her father's long distance. So when Bailey called her Gran in for breakfast early that one summer morning in June only to realize she would never again wake, she found herself absolutely destroyed. The only consistent source of love and support she had ever known had suddenly vanished, and in her place stood a half-hearted consolation from her mother and an immediate up-rooting to a town she held only vague memories of.

But time for mourning had long since come and gone, and Bailey Swan stood determined to make the best out of the hand she had been dealt. So with the wide smile her Gran taught her to wear and a light in her eyes that had dimmed only slightly from her newfound loss, Bailey jumped from the back seat of her sister's truck with an energetic flourish. "Daddy!" She exclaimed, and upon view of the wide grin that split Charlie Swan's cheeks in two, she jumped into his awaiting arms with a giggle so sweet only a child at heart could have let it fly past their lips.

"Bailey-bug," he sighed affectionately, twirling her around in a wide circle as he cradled her petite frame to his aged -though still strong- chest, "oh, how I've missed you!"

"Missed you too, Papa," she mumbled against his sternum, unable to help herself as she squeezed him tighter upon arrival of a sudden plague of emotion that swept over her like a tidal wave as she breathed in his familiar scent. Nostalgia and sorrow raged a war inside her, but she fought her own battle to suppress it from laying claim on her face. Instead, she simply burrowed her nose into his uniform jacket and allowed herself a quick moment of sadness. Then by the time he pushed her away only to hold her gently by the shoulders and scan her body from head to toe, happiness had filtered back through her system once again.

"I wish I could make a comment about how tall you've gotten, but baby I don't think you've grown more than a foot since I last saw you, and that was back when you were barely up to my hip."

Bailey smiled a bashful smile and experienced trouble controlling the soft blush that alighted her cheeks. "I tried to grow," she lamented softly, letting loose a quiet giggle. "But Gran always said the fairy blood in me just wouldn't allow it."

Charlie patted her head gently while Bella hooked her arm over Bailey's shoulders with a sympathetic smile. "Sorry about your Gran, baby." He consoled in a gruff yet tender manner. "We know how much you loved her." Bella added.

"It's okay," Bailey smiled. "I know she's finally dancing with the ka'kanas around the fire in the sky just like she always longed to."

"Well," Charlie stated after an awkward pause fell about the trio as he and Bella mulled over the youngest Swan's statement in confusion. "Let's get you settled in then, yeah?" Then one-by-one they each carried the pieces of her luggage into the room opposite Bella's.

"It's not much," Charlie admitted, heaving her heaviest suitcase onto the old twin bed with a stifled groan. "But Bella said your favorite color's yellow, so I figured it's as good a color as any to match the white walls."

Bailey smiled at the new interior -the room itself far larger than the one she had occupied back in Sun City- and trailed her nimble fingers along the soft, pale yellow comforter adorning the bed. A mountain of white pillows sat against the headboard pushed up against the large bay window while sheer white curtains hung loosely from either side. Beside the bed sat a weaved-wicker bedside table that housed a lavender colored lamp while across from it was a wooden chest-of-drawers with an antique embellished mirror hung atop it. Pushed to the far corner stood a little wooden desk and matching chair, and though they seemed out of place in the otherwise bare room, Bailey found herself loving the simplicity of it all in conjunction with the light refracted off the white walls from the large forest-facing window.

"I love it, Papa," she praised before turning to squeeze her older sister in a warm embrace. "Thanks, Bells."

Bella smiled but otherwise averted her eyes, and for the first time since they had been reunited, Bailey noticed the pain etched into her sister's features that she tried -and failed- so desperately to hide. "Bella?" She called softly, reaching for her hand with her much smaller one and grasping it gently. "Is everything alright?"

"'Course," she mumbled with a wariness that failed to remain hidden while retracting her palm from her grip only to run it down the side of her face in a nervous gesture. "Just tired is all. I think I'm going to head to bed early."

"Oh," Bailey murmured, trying her hardest to reign in the fluttering disappointment that plagued her chest at the prospect of her sister running off so quickly despite Bailey having only just arrived. "Sure. Yeah. Get some sleep, Bells." Then she smiled small. "We can just catch up in the morning or something."

Feeling the despondent air that befell them, Charlie quickly interjected. "You're goin' down to the Rez tomorrow, right?" He asked Bella. "Why don't you take Bailey with you? Introduce her to Jake and show her around La Push. Maybe walk down to the beach if it's not too cold out."

After a hesitant pause, Bella nodded her head shortly. "Yeah." She turned to look at the youngest Swan. "Be ready by 10:00?"

Bailey smiled a jubilant smile. "Sure," she stated, and after the corners of her mouth edged downward softly, she continued on. "Goodnight Bella," she bid only to receive the phrase repeated by both her sister and Charlie, the latter of which closed her bedroom door after pressing a chaste kiss to her forehead.

Then after a resigned sigh and a quick change into the ratted t-shirt she called sleepwear, Bailey Swan proceeded to spend her first night back in Forks since she had left it all those years ago.

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ka'kanas -Keres (language of the Acoma tribe) word for 'wolves'