Truth and Lies (A Logan Howlett Fanfic)

Operation: Catnip; Stage 2

I was about half a mile away from my mom's cabin. I ran to the edge of the clearing and stopped. There wasn't a frame for a new house there, in fact all of the ruble had been removed, the hole from the cement was filled and left there as a large patch of dirt. I walked onto the dirt patch and looked around what was left of my once home. A single tear ran down my cheek as a looked at the area that had once been my front yard.

I had learned self defense there, had built my first snowman there, planted my first rose bush there, and it was the last place my mom's brother stood when the cancer won the battle for his life. I remember the day very clearly even though I was only seven when he died. A recording of it is on my mom's phone, and Logan had my mom's phone. He would see it eventually. I forgot to watch the sky so I stayed there remembering every moment I had spent here, my entire life up until I was sixteen. The memory of my uncle lifted to the front of my brain and I let it play out on the earth in front of me. 

"Uncle Jake! Your home!" Seven year old my self yelled running out the front door to meet him. He knelt down on one knee and gave me a big hug when I reached him. "Hey Lee Lie," He said with a smile. I smiled and laughed. My mom got of the car and leaned against the front of the car. "Mommy!" I shrieked in my seven year old cry as Jake lifted me off the ground and tickled my sides. 

She smiled and I laughed again as Jake tickled me again. I wasn't ticklish any more, not after I turned nine and began running with my mother. Jake lifted me to his shoulders and set me on them. He had once served in the military so he was strong and built. He held my feet I put my hands on his head, shrieking with laughter as he ran around the front yard laughing with me. He put me down when he was breathing hard and I tackled his legs, sitting on his shins, determined not to let him stand and tag me.

We laughed and he attacked me with tickling again. When he finally stopped I had laughed so hard that my face was red and I was breathing hard. I jumped and and said "I'm going to get lemonade, do you want some Uncle Jake and mommy?" "I think lemonade would be perfect Lie." my mom smiled walking over and sitting in the grass next to Jake. I skipped to the house, opened the door and walked in. 

I grabbed a small tray, three plastic cups, and the plastic pitcher. I set the cups and the pitcher on the tray and carefully made my way across the kitchen and out the door. I walked over to my mom and uncle, poured some of the pink lemonade into the cups, and handed one to my uncle and one to my mom. I smiled as we joked around and drank lemonade. We had spent all day out there, sitting on the lawn, and laughing. 

We had polished off the pitcher of pink lemonade, and the stars were beginning to show in the sky. It was a rather warm night so we all changed into our pajamas and laid in the grass looking up at the stars. I had fallen asleep first out of the three of us, considering that I was only seven at the time. I am sure that my mom and Jake were talking about the future or his condition. I felt bad for my Uncle Jake, he had end stage cancer at the time, only I never knew until I was ten and began to run with my mom in the mornings. 

I felt a chill in the air and found that the sun had risen and set while I was locked in the memory of that unfaithful day. I started walking trying to find a patch of catnip. I found a pretty large patch of catnip and laid down in it. It was soft and comfortable, I had found that if I spent enough time close to a certain plant that I would temporarily smell like that plant. Tonight; though; I knew I would smell like catnip for quite a long time. It was going to rain tonight, I could smell the metallic smell drifting in the air, feel the humidity of it, I could here the loud thunder of the storm, and I could see the clouds coming closer.

I shifted to my side in the catnip patch so my face wouldn't get to wet from the rain and waited for the storm to shed it's water on me and the forest around me. It didn't take long for it to rain and I found the fast, steady beating of heavy drops, the clashing of loud thunder, the swaying of the trees in the wind, and the crackle of the brightly colored lightning very relaxing and fell asleep to the rhythm of my knew favorite lullaby. I fell sleep with the sound of the lullaby playing in my head. When I woke I was standing in the field again. Like always my mother was waiting for me next to the river bank.