~ "rainy girl, I can't wait to meet you. and I can't wait to hear your name and sing it to the skies above" ~
- Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness, Rainy Girl
Daisy was a gentle soul, kind and loving. Her exceptional empathy touche...
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I never understood what it was that made Bella hate Forks, Washington with such a vengeance. At even the slightest mention of the small rainy town her nose would scrunch up and her brow would furrow, 'I hate that place' was plain in her expression.
This fact only confounded me further as I scrutinized my far-too-calm sister as we sat on a plane to the aforementioned 'living hell' as she had so kindly dubbed it. With her nose plunged in Wuthering Heights I'd almost think we were relaxing in our backyard in Phoenix without a care in the world, but the nervous tapping of her foot gave her away.
I gently nudged her with my elbow. "Bells, do you want to talk for a second? My iPod just died." I gave her a soft grin and hoped she'd let me in. She doesn't love disclosing her feelings.
"Sure Daisy, lemme just mark my page." She returned the smile, but more reserved, no teeth.
"I'm pretty excited to see Dad, it's been so long. And I love the rain." I crossed my feet up on the plane seat, criss-cross-applesauce and stared her down, lowering my usually light tone to be serious, "But, I know you loved Arizona. And you hate the rain. Are you okay?"
Bella gave another smile. Almost like a tired parent trying to placate an excited child, "Yeah, Mom deserves to have some fun and Phil is great." She mumbled. The smile still didn't reach her sad almond eyes.
I felt a pang in my chest at her deflection. Bella had always been closed off, she got Dad's darker hair and his quiet demeanor, and I got Mom's light brown curl/frizz and her emotionality. While I tried to come up with a way for her to address her own feelings, Bella returned to her favorite novel and disappeared from the world as I knew it.
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The rest of the plane ride was uneventful. Dad picked us up at the airport and gave us the obligatory awkward Dad side squeezes and told us we looked nice. Bella beat me to the front seat so I sat in the back, which was fine by me because I was entranced by the rainy forest flashing past us.
Charlie cleared his throat, "So, uh girls. I was thinking. Bella you're already 17 and Daisy, you're 16, so both of you can drive." I shot up in my seat, aware of the awesome implication my father was making.
"Are you saying..." I prodded him, straining against the seatbelt to put my face between their seats. Charlie didn't look at me but he had a small grin simmering beneath his thick mustache. Bella glanced back at me with a glimmer of, dare I say, excitement.
"Well, I guess you'll have to see." Charlie's tone was light, lighter than I'd heard in a long time. His voice always sounded heavy on the phone, lonely.
The ride beyond that was quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Bella may be more like our Dad than I was but it didn't mean that I didn't appreciate peaceful silence. We were content in each others' company.
