Re-Arranged

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Sshhh, pull it aside softly. Last night I heard one of the kids stir."

"Okay, okay. I'm being careful, don't worry!"

Kelly's ears pricked up at the hushed conversation and she raised her head in surprise. The moment she heard the divider creak, she ducked her head under the blanket again, her eyes wide open.

Padded footsteps tiptoed into the dining area and someone clicked on a switch. The little light installed specifically for the dining table came alive, brightening the space around it while keeping the living area under the shroud of darkness still.

"Did you close the divider again?"

"Oops, sorry, honey. Pull out the chairs, will you? Don't scrape the floor with them legs!"

"Give me a little credit, all right? It's been more than a couple of nights. I think I got the hang of it."

Kelly could hear the rolling eyes stuffed into the last dialogue and had a hard time stifling a giggle. She raised her upper body, stared for a moment at her parents scrambling around to make the least amount of noise, their teeth bared and clenched together, and the giggle could no longer stay inside.

Two pairs of scared, caught-in-the-headlights, eyes turned towards her slow motion. Before their moving lips could produce a sound, she jumped to her feet and walked towards them, hands crossed behind her back.

"It's almost 2 a.m. and you're acting like teenagers. What gives?"

Ted inched towards a third chair at the dining table and slowly pulled it out. Waving his hand across it, he replied, "Well, why don't you sit down first?"

Amelia had taken the time to not only close the divider but also to fetch a bottle of red wine from the cabinet under the television. Kelly craned her neck and squinted at the latch.

"I locked it," her mother assured her as she slid into the chair beside Kelly and sighed. "Glasses?"

"I got those," Ted beamed as he placed three of them at the centre of the table.

"Wow, you guys are well versed with the house. I'm impressed, guys!"

"The last 3-4 days helped refresh our rusty memory, Key." Ted held out his glass by the stem and waited for his wife to pour the wine in.

"So? What's with the late night meeting? I thought you guys were done with that." Kelly swirled the wine around before taking a sip.

"The jet lag helped I guess." Amelia shrugged, running her thumb along the mouth of the wine glass.

"Yeah, we weren't planning on it. We were awake the first night here, and then we got to talking, reminiscing" - Ted waved his hand in circles - "all that... and realized we needed a drink. Beer seemed too heavy, so."

Kelly nodded. "It must be harder for both of you, huh?"

Ted and Amelia stared at their drinks for a long while, their expressions unreadable. They did not once look up or at each other when they spoke.

"It's a strange knowledge to have... that Wes... Wes isn't a phone call away anymore. Three years later..." Ted shook his head and in a swift movement, grabbed the glass in front of him and drained its content down his throat.

Amelia gave a little smile as she refilled his glass. "Wes, he is there in every crazy memory I can think of." She took a deep breath and picked up her wine for the first time. "So is Kat. I wonder how she is doing."

"We never got a chance to talk with her. Neither there, nor here." Ted pulled at his fingers one by one. "That's not good."

Kelly bit her lower lip and scratched behind her ear. This thought had not crossed her mind either. She had not even made time to have a one-on-one with Aunt Kat since they returned. Kelly pressed the heels of her palms into her eyelids, ran the fingers through her hair and stopped to wrap her hands at the back of her neck.