Chapter 6- Leaving Veil Falls

The evening after graduation, their mother broke down crying, into her fourth glass of wine, "Charlene, you should have told us about not going to college. Enlisting in the Navy? Didn't you need our permission?"

Blinking at her mother as she took out the dishes to set the table, Char answered with one word, "Nope."

"Louis? Did you know about this? The Navy? I mean really!" Miranda gulped her glass. "People will think you're gay..."

"Lesbian," Char corrected with her back to Miranda. "But I'm not that, I'm ace."

"What does ace even mean?" Their mother's voice went up an octave.

While Char explained that she didn't feel sexual attraction to anyone of any gender, Meri rolled her eyes at their mother's outraged reaction, and kept cooking. She was happy to make her sister and her cousin's favorites for them since there was no indication that Miranda and Louis would take them out to celebrate.

Trina worked on a fruit tart for dessert, whispering, "Is Char trying to..."

"Yes," Meri murmured.

Louis walked into the kitchen. He looked upset as he said, "Trina, you don't have to leave tomorrow... You can stay for the summer."

"We are all leaving, Dad. All of us together after Memorial Day," Char challenged him.

He breathed out noisily. "I don't want to fight."

"Char, please," Trina begged, then she turned to him, "Thank you for taking me in so I could finish school after Aunt Miranda sold Mom's house, but I don't think staying in Veil Falls is the right thing for me."

"Katrina! Don't be rude. It was for the best. Your mother hadn't put back money for your trade school or community college or anything," Miranda announced. "You can come back and run the bakery and live above it after you get over the ridiculous notion of being a nurse aide or..."

"Pediatric Nurse. " Correcting her aunt, Trina painted fruit glaze on the tart then set it in the refrigerator. "I am sorry Uncle Louis, but until you reveal who murdered my mother, I won't be visiting." She went upstairs alone.

"Smooth, Mom. Trina is going to Colorado State to become a Pediatric Nurse and with the money from Aunt Layne's house, she won't even have to work or take out student loans while she goes to classes. Heck! Maybe she will become a doctor and need all the profit, so don't go shopping with it. You got your commission," Char snarled. "The rest is her money."

Miranda threw up her hands and would have sloshed her wine if the stemless wine glass hadn't been nearly empty. "I'm not a thief! Honestly, Charlene, what you must think of us to say such things!"

"She's not wrong," Meri murmured as she bent to check the food under the broiler. "It's why I'm going to school in Vegas, not Denver."

"We can't trust you. Either of you," Char finished with a hard finality in her tone. Her eyes flashed with her feeling of betrayal and rage.

Shaking his head, his father looked defeated as he said, "We have only ever tried to protect you. We failed once, and we regret it deeply, but there are things neither of you understand."

"We understand that you let him escape!" Char hissed as Meri put her hand on her sister's arm in silent support.

Miranda's hand shook as she poured the last of the bottle of wine in her glass. "I know you both hate us, but... we did what we had to for our family, for our community," she slurred, spilling the Merlot on the counter. She stared at it, then at her hands and rubbed them on her pants before she rushed to the master bedroom. Through the open door, they could hear her sobbing as the shower turned on.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Louis gritted his teeth. "Someday you are going to have to forgive your mother. She has always regretted what happened to you, Charlene... Things happened after we found out, and your mother was never the same."

"She was never the same!" Char sounded outraged. "What about me?! Or Trina? Or..."

Interrupting, Louis insisted, "Charlene! You need to know that no one will ever love you more than your mother." He picked up Miranda's stemless wineglass and carried it to the master bedroom, closing the door behind him.

The timer buzzed and Meri began pulling the pans of Italian stuffed chicken and baked ziti from the oven. She took the vegetables from the steamer and turned off the sauce. Looking around at the food for the graduation celebration dinner, she worried her lower lip with her teeth, trying to decide if she should still plate the meal or just put it into tuppers.

Realizing what she'd done again, Char seemed to deflate as a rare tear leaked from her dark eyes. "Sorry, sis... I know you worked hard... I can't help it."

Dabbing at the moisture with a tea towel, Meri hugged her twin with a wan smile. "I know. I understand." But Meri wondered if she could ever truly understand what Char and Trina had gone through at Winston's hands. She only knew the pain of it clung to Trina like a cloak of insecurity and mistrust, while Char wore hers as spiked armor and wielded it like a weapon.

"Plate the food, I'll get the fam to the table," Char decided for her, then she left the kitchen.

~~~~

While Miranda and Louis went to church with Chuck the next morning, Trina, Char and Meri prepared for Trina's moved to Grandma Nina's in Pueblo, Colorado. They didn't know Meri was joining her the Sunday after Charlene shipped out. The moving van Grandma Nina sent arrived only ten minutes after their parents left.

"Hello, I'm Bernardo, call me Bear. This is my wife, Liz. Nina sent us," the giant man grinned through a dark brown beard with a silver streak in it.

Char shook his hand confidently. "I'm Charlene. That's my sister, Meredith, and cousin Katrina. Let's get to work."

Surprisingly, it took less than two hours to load everything. Trina followed with the couple as they left. Driving her mom's car, she kept waving at the sisters until she turned out of site. Meri felt a little sad, but relieved that they were getting away from this horrible town. She was especially glad, Trina was getting away without seeing Hank.

"There she goes." Char stopped waving. "Are you going to be okay with what's left here?"

Shrugging, Meri nodded, revealing, "I have five days' worth of clothes, and my trophies have been packed away since my accident. They probably won't even notice the boxes are missing but I don't want Mom to throw them out."

They closed the door and went to the kitchen. Meri began unloading the dishwasher which had been Trina's assigned chore. They had always rotated, in spite of the very biased chore list Miranda posted on the board by the landline phone.

"I'm glad she's gone. Mom treated her like a maid and Dad let her." Char dug the leftovers out of the refrigerator and began to eat them cold.

Taking the tupper from her sister, Meri fussed, "At least, warm it up."

"Sis, I am eating as much of your food as I can before I leave because none of the Navy cooks are going to be as good as you." Char grinned as she began eating cold sesame sweet potato cubes like popcorn. Suddenly, she put the plastic container down slowly and squinted out the window, then she sprinted out the front door. Meri stared after her like she had lost her mind. There was some shouting, so Meri rushed out the garage door in time to see Charlene tackle someone and drag him back in a choke hold.

Throwing him against a wall, she demanded, "What do you want, coward?"

"I just... I just wanted to see her one last time." Hank said softly. His brown eyes looked pained. "She didn't come to church today."

"Why would she ever go back to that church? Everyone pities or mocks her about her mother dying of an overdose," Meri scoffed with hate in her hazel eyes.

"You never corrected them, and you know the truth. Aunt Layne was murdered. You've done nothing but hurt her or let your harpy sister bully her," Charlene reminded him viciously. Her brown eyes illuminated by her fiery desire to murder him.

"She is gone! Far away from you forever," Meri finished in triumph, adding, "You and Heather can't hurt her anymore, Hank Richmond, so, go home."

"But... but I love her. Please, can you give me her address or new number? I need to ask her to do something for me."

"No way, José." Char scoffed as Meri reminded, "You were the first guy she trusted. She fell in love with you, but you bailed on her the day after her mom was murdered. And then, you didn't deny it when your sister told everyone she was just your occasional one-night-stand girl. So, excuse me if it doesn't seem like you loved her back."

"It's not Heather's fault, you don't know her... She isn't a bad person." Hank looked torn-up.

"You're the second person in two weeks to tell us Heather Richmond isn't the wicked witch of the western range, but since we three have all been the victims of her bullying, I don't see how she is anything but a bad person. Don't defend your sister, Hank! She told everyone what your parents' good friend did to me and my cousin." Char shouted at him, "She had no right!"

Meri stepped between them in fear her sister would attack the son of the richest family in Veil Falls. "Easy, sis. He's not worth it."

Hank looked to the side, "You and Trina weren't the only ones."

"We know. But we didn't go crazy like Donna, or runaway to never be heard from again like Vanessa, or kill ourselves like Serene," Char pointed out.

"Mikayla's parents were the only ones who loved their daughter enough to leave and find a cop who would listen after your dad forced my dad to bury the truth," Meri reminded.

"Mark my words, someday, the law will catch up with Winston and I am going to testify to the truth. I will tell everyone how our fathers and mothers hid the truth and let him get away," Char vowed.

Hank looked like he wanted to cry. "I gotta go. I'm sorry Winston hurt you. He was a terrible person, but you weren't the only ones," he repeated then shoved past them and left.

"What was that about?" Meri looked at Charlene, who was still vibrating in her need to hit someone.

"Who cares? Trina's gone; she'll get over him. I leave Thursday, and you're leaving next weekend. Our parents and the Richmonds can rot in hell. They let that bastard get away because he was rich like them." Walking inside through the garage, Char paused and punched her father's old punching bag a solid dozen times. "I am not coming back until we bury them."

"What about Chuck's graduation in three years?" Meri asked, she didn't want to abandon their younger brother. He was only six when it all happened.

"Fine, Chuck's graduation, and Mom and Dad's funerals. But three times is enough, if you get married here, you're on your own," Charlene threatened with a smirk, knowing that would never happen. She sighed, "I should have dotted his eye just once. It would have felt so good."

"You know the Navy doesn't have assassins, right?"

"I can assassinate computers," Char admitted. They were laughing as they went back inside.

When their family arrived home from church, Meri had Sunday dinner made. Their mom just looked at them like they were betraying her, but neither spoke to her. Their father left to go to work and wouldn't come home that night. All afternoon, Chuck hung out with his sisters, begging them to game with him, as if the realization that they were truly leaving had sunk in.

~~~~

Standing in front of the MEPS office building in Denver, Chuck and Meri hugged Charlene for a long time before they left and she went back inside. They got to watch her swearing in ceremony and now she was leaving for basic training in Illinois. Her sister was going off to join the Navy and Meri couldn't be prouder, but Chuck cried as they drove home.

"Don't cry buddy, you're getting your favorite wish. To be an only child and have the whole upstairs to yourself," Meri teased.

He sniffed, "But what if I don't really want you to go." He was breaking her heart.

"I have to go. I have a job and Trina needs me right now. She is so sad after losing her mom. Plus, my classes and dorm room are already paid for. My fall and spring scholarship money will be given to someone else if I don't go, but I promise, I'll come home and cook for you once and a while." Meri didn't want to make the promise, she felt the same as Char about the place that they were supposed to call home. She wanted to leave and never come back. Meri wasn't worried about Chuck, their parents treated him like a prince, but he was her baby brother and she loved him. Southern Nevada suddenly seemed so far away.

"Hey, we still have a few days. Help me cook, and I'll put a bunch of stuff in the freezer, so you won't starve."

"And when I run out?" He asked, suddenly seeming much younger than fifteen.

"Then I guess I'll have to come home and make more. You can't bulk up for football on Mom's cooking, you'll die of food poisoning," Meri teased, and he laughed. Their mother was a horrible cook. "We'll spend this weekend learning you to cook, so I don't have to worry, and you won't have to live on TV dinners, deal?"

He grinned at her, "Deal!" Then Chuck asked quietly, "What about Dad?"

Meri shrugged, reminding, "Dad married her, he's required by god to eat her cooking. It's in the vows." They broke down into giggles again as Meri parked Char's car in front of the grocery store. "Let's get groceries and get started."

~~~~

Trina and Meri both loved working at a cute little bistro near Grandma Nina's, on the weekends and Friday nights. Meri was a waitress too in the beginning, then one day the sous chef got sick and after seeing Meri's skills, and tasting Aunt Layne's recipe for apple pie, the owners promoted her. They were working on re-doing the entire menu slowly and changing the style of the restaurant to a fusion bar-b-que and taco place. They made Meri feel valued for her love of food and her amazing palate. She thought Helm and his life partner Grayson were awesome bosses, and she loved learning about new cooking styles.

"Order up!" Meri yelled out into the seating area. Polynesian-flavored pulled pork with pineapple and cabbage slaw served in homemade tortillas and a side of mango salsa with cinnamon-dusted chips.

"Got it!" Trina picked up the tray with a grin and appreciative sniff. "Smells amazing, sis." She was starting to sort herself out.

Watching her cousin for a moment, Meri felt like Miranda had done everything to keep Trina in the pit of despair. Free of Meri's mom's toxic attitudes, Trina was slowly returning to the ray of sunshine personality she had before. Grandma Nina got her a good therapist and was paying for the sessions. Meri had always wondered about exactly what had happened between Miranda and Aunt Layne, but Nina didn't know. Her father's mother had very little contact with her son or daughter-in-law after being widowed, remarrying, and moving away from Veil Falls. She had never agreed with Louis senior's decision to make Layne stay in Valleyview or to cut her off. Meri learned that despite his polished reputation as a sheriff turned judge, that he had been an abusive man and an alcoholic with a violent temper. Learning the truth about a grandfather she barely remembered, there was suddenly so much about her father's personality that made sense.

Turning back to the prep area, she picked up the bowls of food Helm was preparing and plated them to go out to the tables of hungry customers. Who would have ever thought Hawaiian Bar-B-Que Tacos would be so popular on the riverwalk on prairie at the foot of the Rocky Mountains?