The Mystery of Chad Harris: Fate Delivers Us, Chapter 40
 
 

Things weren't normal at the Russell House, but, people tried to make it so. While people tried to make like things were fine, everyone kept their distance. People began to 'miss' meals until Madelaine put her foot down and insisted that everyone make if for dinner, which they did, but, conversation was usually at a minimum.  Like tonight's dinner. There was silence all the way around, but, when the others left after dessert, Chad stayed behind to help his mother and Madelaine.

" Eve, I'm going to start on the dishes.", Madelaine said, leaving the dining room. Eve collected the rest of the dishes and began organizing them. Chad sat in his seat for a few moments and finally spoke up.

" The DNA test results came in."

Eve looked at him. " When?"

" This afternoon. Julian had them hand delivered to the Book Café. Three sets."

" And?"

" Just as you said, it proves he's my father."

" I'm glad that you don't have any doubts."

" I believed you. I knew you would never say that Julian was my father if he wasn't. You had too much to lose."

" Chad.."

" Look. I'm glad the truth is out now. But, if you want me to move, I'll understand."

" Move? Why would I want you to move?"

" Look at how things are around here. They suck. Nobody talks to anyone. Everyone is on eggshells."

" That's because we're getting used to one another. Once things are allowed to settle down, they will get better."

" Does that include Coach Russell sleeping in your room?"

Eve looked down and then looked her son in the eye. " That is my marriage, and TC and I have to work out our own problems. Which have nothing to do with you."

" Nothing to do with me? They have EVERYTHING to do with me? If I hadn't come into your life.."

" Don't finish that sentence, Chad. You might be a physical manifestation of the tensions between TC and myself. But, the problems were created by us. And, we will have to settle them by ourselves. "

" You think it's possible?"

" I honestly don't know. I consider it a victory that he hasn't moved out. And, as long as we're all under one roof, I grow in the belief that we can make it through - as a family."

" If things get really bad and you want me to go, just ask. I won't take it personally."

Eve goes over to Chad and cups his face. " That really is sweet of you, but, I WOULD take it personally. I have no intentions of not having my children under my roof. ALL of my children. I won't live with lies anymore. In that sense, I feel freer than I have in ages. And, I have you to thank for that." Eve kisses Chad on the cheek.

Chad hadn't been this close to his mother. It is both disconcerting and oddly familiar for him. To have her touch him like a mother would embrace her son. It's something he's never experienced.

" Doc…"

" Yes?"

" Would you tell me how you met Julian?"

Eve was surprised by the request, but nodded. " Let me get these dishes into the kitchen."

Eve and Chad took the dishes into the kitchen and then came back to the dining room. Eve took a seat next to Chad, and drew in a deep breath.

" Well, unlike what I told my family, I didn't have a nice childhood. Actually, I suspect that you and I shared a similar childhood. I don't know who my father was. My mother was an alcoholic and a junkie who overdosed when I was ten. I only had two friends in my life: books and music. I was always a terrific student. A voracious reader. By default, really. When I was a kid, the library was where a kid could spend lots of time and be relatively safe from the junkies, dealers and other vermin my mother had traipsing in our house. I really only slept at home, if you could call it a home. It was usually a hovel. Plus, if I stayed away, then  my mother would usually be passed out, from one drug or another, when I got home, and ' I' couldn't be offered up as a payment."

Eve's eyes went to the floor, and Chad looked at his mother. He understood. His soul ached for her because he could see the pain in her eyes. He knew what happened to girls who were unprotected. They were preyed upon, and he felt a rage in his heart that his mother had to fight those battles.

" I got sent to a few foster homes from hell, until I was fourteen, and somehow I lucked up on a terrific old woman named Miss Lola Hawk. To the system, I was a runaway. No way that she would have ever been approved as a foster parent, but, she saw me on the streets one day, and offered me a few dollars to help her take her groceries home. Once there, she got me doing a few chores, and then, offered me a bed since it was 'too late to travel the streets'. She told me to call home and tell them where I was, and I pretended to. We kept this up for a few days until I finally confessed that I didn't have a home because I wasn't going back to the foster home that I had left. She knew. She offered me a deal: help around the house, help her shop, and I could stay there. I took the deal. About a year later, she told me that she used to run the reading program for the children at the local library, and that she recognized me. She thought I was a good student, and not a troublemaker.  I wasn't. The people I ran away from never reported me missing, because they wanted to keep on getting the check that I provided. So, they left me alone, and I stayed with Miss Hawk.

She had some record collection. She had EVERYTHING. I mean, from Billie Holiday to Irving Berlin, The Gershwin Brothers, Rodgers & Hammerstein, to Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong. Everything. I think she had at least a couple thousand albums. And, music was everywhere. We listened to it all the time. I always sang. Singing and reading took me to another world. A world far from the hell that I was usually living in at the moment. She had been a backup singer for a number of Black Bands in her youth, and she used to tell me stories about life outside of the city blocks where I was raised. Once, we traveled to the Newport Jazz Festival. We stayed in her car at night, but the music…I never forgot the music. She told me that I had a voice that needed to be heard. I didn't think I believed her. She died when I was seventeen, and until I married TC, that was the most stable period of my life.

I had nothing, so I packed up and went to Boston. Got a little apartment, and found a job singing at The Blue Note. I was going to be the next Billie Holiday.  I hadn't been singing there 3 months, when, in the middle of a set, Julian walked in. I didn't notice him. I finished my set and went to the bar. He gave me a glass of champagne, and told me that I had the best voice he'd ever heard. I declined it, but persisted, and I gave in. He stayed until I was finished that night. And, for a month straight, he was there, every night, from my first set, to my last. In between, he'd given me gifts, flowers, arranged for dinners. I…I just had never been in close contact with anyone White before. Not like this. Before I knew it, we were involved. It….it overwhelmed me. I was SO young."

" Did…..did you love him?"

Eve nodded. " I guess I did. At the time I was sure of it. I think I found out what true love was about because of my relationship with TC. Julian and I…we were like this burning light. A meteor. It's bright, fast, intense…but, it doesn't last. We had so many things against us, the biggest of which was Alistair."

" What did you have in common?"

Eve laughs and then gets quiet and serious. " I suppose - our souls? I grew up with nothing. Julian had every material possession possible, yet our souls were mutually barren and craving love. I think we saw that in one another. The music was just the vehicle that helped us go behind the barriers."

" Did…..did he love you?"

" He's told me that he did. I didn't know at the time. Of course, to be fair, he didn't know that I loved him. How could we express those feelings openly, when we had no practice in our lives doing so?"

Chad nodded.

" Things went so bad. So bad. I can't really tell you how bad things went, but it was awful. A series of events that culminated in your ' death'. Once you were gone, I had nothing. Nothing but Alistair's bribe of putting me through medical school, which I accepted. I was poor and alone when I gave birth to you prematurely. I always believed in my mind that being poor, and not having access to good health care is why you came early, and why you 'died'. Which is why part of me said that they would help other women have a different outcome. I did school. I could function in school. I excelled at it. But, I was like a zombie, going through life, functioning like a human robot. Until….until I met TC. "

Eve began to cry. " TC doesn't understand. He doesn't understand what he means to me. I was dead until I met him. I hadn't celebrated a birthday, a Christmas, a holiday. I had felt nothing from the day they told me that you were dead until I met him. All those years. All those years I was numb inside. Life was in black and white. Then, I met him. And color began to form. I began to FEEL. Really feel. He saved my life in so many ways. In all the ways that someone can for another person. "

Eve couldn't speak anymore. The tears were coming hard, and Chad instinctively drew his mother in for a hug and held her. " I…I don't need to hear anymore. I understand, Doc.  It's ok."

Mother and Son just held one another, seeing beyond the pain.