The Road w/ Anna Part 3
For the next couple of days she work and tried to keep her mind busy as much as possible from the looks of those closest to her. She knew that she was a loner just like her mother and grandmother before her she kept quiet yet she was always in deep thought. She would come home every night to make dinner and do some chores that still needed to be tended to even after the renovations were completed. She knew that this place was her fathers’ pride and joy a part from her. He was a well-known architect in most of the cities but preferred to stay close to his roots as much as possible. That was partially why they moved a thousand miles from a growing city to his hometown. The old plantation home had once belonged to a distant relative of his and he had somehow inherited it once his cousin died.
Ana loved the place once she saw it before they had set to work on fixing it up to its former glory. She always had a thing for old houses like that for it brought her a sense of a forgotten time when customs were far different than they were now. She would sometimes find herself up in the attic above her room going through old chests imagining she would find a young woman’s secret diary from a lost time. She would always place it under the fact that it was due to all of those historical fiction novels she would always read but still the sense of discovery always enticed her to keep searching. St. Augustine was the oldest city in the United States after all so why not have a hyperactive imagination to go along with it?
This house held a lot of history than anyone could have ever imagined but more specifically her history. The only thing that really connected her to both parents was this specific place. Ana remembered coming across one of her mothers’ journals that talked about this place and each time she read it she could see all the things her mother had written. That’s what made this house worth coming home to every night. There was always something new to come across that was worth her thinking.
One night Ana sat in her rocking chair out on the back porch as she listened to the sounds of the night with nothing but a lantern lit nearby for light. A soft breeze came across the ocean and made its mile run up the path towards the porch. She took in a deep breath as she rocked back and forth.
Her brother came out on the porch and sat in the rocking chair next to her, “Hey, Annie.” He said as he gently squeezed her hand, “Are you doing alright? You haven’t been doing your usual experimentations in the kitchen lately.”
Ana looked over at her brother sadly with a light shrug, “A lot has been on my mind lately so what can I say? You don’t have to worry about me though, Jackie. I’ll be just fine sooner than you think. Why are you out here anyway? Thought you have to go to work early because of something about you being on probation for going to work late.”
He scratched his head; “Lets just say that I’ve got more important things to think about than work right now. Truth is I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind me coming with you seeing how there’s nothing much left for me here during the remnants of my last year. We haven’t exactly gone on a trip together in years and I think it would be nice just to hang with my big sister for a while.”
Ana cocked her head to the side, “Does it have anything to do with avoiding a certain girl by any chance?”
“You mean Nikki?” He scoffed before looking down, “It’s been tough dealing with the fact that she left me for your best friend who just so happens to be mine as well. Then again I understand where she’s coming from because he is older than her after all and that would entice any young woman to consider dating someone with more experience than little old me.”
“That’s not an excuse to say that you don’t still love her after all that she’s done to hurt you, Jackie.” She said sadly, “I know how it feels to have your heart ripped out of your chest and saying that there was a good reason that it happened but it doesn’t help get rid of the pain that goes along with it. You didn’t do anything wrong if that’s what you think because remember how dad would say that mom was always the first to leave a relationship before it got to mean anything more? She was afraid of getting hurt so she did the only thing she knew she was good at. My point is Nikki simply fell out of love and wanted to see if it would work if she was with someone else.”
Jack shook his head, “But it’s no excuse to hurt you too. I know you wanted to tell Dmitri how you felt when they first started dating. I could see that what he did really hurt you, Annie. I sometimes feel as if it was my fault that it happened that way and I just hate to see you that way.”
Ana shook her head; “You know that I could never blame you for anything especially something like this. A part of me is glad that it turned out the way it had because just think I would do the one thing that dad told us to never do. Leave before any good could become of it. It’s in our blood to want something that we know that we could never have.”
“Do you really believe all that he taught us about her? That we have to learn from someone else’s mistakes?” Jack asked with a deep sigh just as Ana nodded.
“It’s good to learn from mom’s mistakes and it’s gotten me this far in life every time I come across a similar situation. Yet when I look at you I see so much of her in you from what dad told us about her. You act on instinct and that’s what makes up who you are. We’re better than to think that life won’t throw the same obstacles that she had to face by herself even if we have an aunt who saw most of it long before we were ever thought of.” Ana explained as she looked into her brothers light eyes, “I think your dad would be proud just as I am.”
Ana quickly bit her tongue at that for she forgot about the subject being so hurtful towards him. She had once asked him if he would ever consider meeting him but Jack only said that Steven was the only man he would ever call a father to him. Yet she could tell that he thought of what would happen if he ever met his father and what he would say. Would he tell him about how their mother sacrificed her life for him when she needed his father then? About how alone she was in that hospital bed while someone else cared for Ana? All these thoughts ran through her mind every time she looked at her brother but she knew that it only made him stronger in not knowing the answers even when Ana craved for them most.
Jack looked down, “Yeah well we both know that he wouldn’t have cared either way. If he did care then why would he bother to care what happened to me after all this time?”
“I’m so sorry, Jackie.” She said as she shook her head, “It just sort of came out of my mouth and I wasn’t thinking.”
He shook his head once more, “Don’t worry about it, Annie. It happens to all of us especially to those of us who try to forget.” He then stood, “I should go get some sleep anyway. Just promise me that you’ll reconsider going on that trip. It’ll be good for the both of us to get away from all this mess.” Ana nodded as she watched him go back into the house and leaned back in her chair as she listened in thought.
