So much for happy memories, she thought, wiping away a tear gathering at the edge of her eye.
She was close to her dad. She’d always been his little girl and she missed him dreadfully every day of her self-imposed exile.
It was her mother she struggled to forgive, and she worried about how she’d feel having her back in her life full time again.
Three months before she’d graduated from high school her mother, Roberta, lost the ranch to the bank. It had always been her mother’s job to do the books for the ranch. Neither Lily nor her dad knew that Roberta was pilfering money out of the account to pay for her gambling habit. Lily and her dad hadn’t even known about the gambling. At least not until it was too late.
Lily had been at home by herself when the bank manager had called. Of course the man on the other end of the line wouldn’t give out any details to her, given that she wasn’t a director of the company, but Lily knew then that something horrible was about to happen. Luckily it was her dad who came home first. Lily told him about the angry banker on the phone and he went straight to his office to call the manager back. Apparently it wasn’t the first time that he’d called. It was just the first time her dad knew about it.
Her dad had stayed in there for a very long time. Lily remembered how she had waited outside the door long after she heard him hang up the phone. The muffled distress noises she heard had her reaching for the doorknob. Just as her hand grasped the handle though, her mother came home fresh from shopping.
Lily remembered that day as though it was a movie. For some reason, in her mind, everything moved in slow motion. Her memory was crystal clear, clearer than real life, and the colors were unnaturally bright. Her mother’s hair was tied up in an intricate style and she had on her favorite floral dress. Lily remembered thinking she looked absolutely beautiful.
Roberta had taken one look at her and asked what was wrong. When Lily told her about the phone call from the bank, the blood drained from her mother’s face. She slipped into the office and shut the door behind her. Lily could still hear the click of the lock as if it had just happened.
Her parents didn’t fight and she rarely ever heard her dad raise his voice in anger. But that day, locked together in the office, her parents raged at each other. It started off as muffled murmurs that Lily struggled to decipher through the door, but soon their voices rose until Lily had to back away to save her ears. Glass shattered and wood splintered inside that small closed-off room.
Her father yelled at her mother, demanding to know where all his money had gone, and her mother cried and shrieked, begging for forgiveness.
The house was quiet for weeks after the initial blow-up. Lily recalled all too clearly the wreckage of the room and the redness in both her parents’ eyes from crying. They didn’t speak to each other for a month and Dad moved into the spare room across the hall from Lily.
Finally, at least a week after the bank manager had called, Lily worked up enough courage to ask her dad what was wrong. It was the first time she ever saw her father cry.
“She lost it,” Lily remembered her dad saying softly, as though he still couldn’t quite believe it.
“Lost what?” she’d asked when he didn’t continue. “What has she lost?”
Her world fell away at his whispered reply, “The ranch.”
She had cried herself to sleep for days as her world collapsed around her and she quickly started making her plans to leave. She didn’t want to stay long enough to see the ranch pulled out from under them, but she knew if she had any hope of ever making anything of herself, she needed to finish high school. But she couldn’t handle the rumors that flew around town. She was never sure as to who had started them because she sure as shit never told anyone about what was going on. Not her boyfriend Wade, and not any of her friends.
As soon as the ‘Foreclosure’ signs went up, her life changed forever. Suddenly the ‘rumors’ were all true. She couldn’t stand to look anyone in the eye and she felt her long standing relationships fall apart. Some of her so-called friends dropped from her circle instantly, the rest were hurt that she didn’t confide in them. They couldn’t understand that she didn’t want to talk about losing the ranch or what it was like to live with a gambling mother. Worse, they felt betrayed that she couldn’t trust them. She couldn’t trust anyone. She still couldn’t.
The day after she graduated, the bank came and took away the only home she had ever known, by auction, and they moved into a small house on the edge of town. The ranch sold lock, stock and barrel to Donald Franklin, the greediest son-of-a-bitch around. Lily still felt sick whenever she thought of him anywhere near her beloved horses. His daughter, Jenna, had once told her that Lily’s favorite gelding was lovely to ride. Lily promptly burst into tears. Jenna, mortified, quickly apologized and never mentioned anything about the ranch to her again.
Lily shook off the bad memories and pulled into a rundown motel for the night. She rubbed her eyes, partly to try to erase the memories haunting her and partly to get them to focus. Spending twelve hours on the road made her eyelids feel as though they were made from sandpaper.
There was a small diner across the street from where she was staying and after checking in to her room, she wandered over for a bite to eat. The Doritos she was munching on all day just weren’t cutting it anymore. She needed real food.
The dirty glass door pulled open easily until Lily tried walking through it. It jammed halfway open and Lily ploughed into it with her hip, sending it flying open all the way back on its hinges and crashing into a table hiding behind it. Cutlery clanged to the floor and the plates and glasses rattled as the table wobbled from the impact.
“Oops,” she said, heat rising in her cheeks as everyone inside turned to stare at her. “Sorry,” she mumbled and slipped into the nearest empty booth.
The clientele turned back to their own meals and the din of the diner returned to the level it had been before Lily had made an absolute fool of herself. A short squat red-haired waitress came over with a plastic covered menu and a smile. “Don’t worry about your entrance,” she said as she filled Lily’s glass with water, snapping her gum between her teeth. “It happens all the time. Bertha really should move that table. None of the locals will sit at it of course; too much of a risk I suppose. Our special is the tuna melt. I’ll come back and take your order in a minute.” The waitress turned around and sashayed back towards the counter before Lily could do more than smile her thanks.
Lily opened her menu and took a few minutes to decide what her baby wanted to eat. She was starting to have weird cravings at times, but tonight all she wanted was a cheeseburger and French fries. With lots of ketchup. And an iced tea. And a slice of apple pie. Her stomach growled in response to the descriptions on the menu. The waitress couldn’t return fast enough.
Lily clutched her stomach as it let out another loud growl.
Several people at the tables closest to her turned to look her way. She gave them a weak smile and a small wave. It seemed like she was determined to completely embarrass herself tonight. Thank goodness she was only staying one night.
Finally, after what seemed like hours to her hungry stomach, the waitress returned to her table, her order pad at the ready.
“What shall I get you, hun? Did you want the special? This place does it crazy good and all these good people flock in on tuna night, don’t you Don?” She turned her attention to the old man sitting alone at the table next to Lily’s.
“Actually,” Lily smiled, hoping her stomach would cease its growling long enough for her to place her order, “can I get your cheeseburger with fries, a strawberry milkshake,