LITMIR.BIZ

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going to throw wild parties and trash the place?”

      She shakes her head. “Of course not. You are the most responsible, reliable seventeen-year-old I’ve ever met — including myself when I was your age. It’s just that six weeks is a long time, and —”

      “You just said it wasn’t! You said the time was going to fly by.”

      For the next few seconds, we stare each other down. I’m daring my mother to make me see things her way, and she’s trying to figure out how to do that.

      She gives in first. Her shoulders sag, and the fight leaves her eyes. I sense defeat. But I’m wrong.

      “Look, Dani,” she says, reaching out a hand to me. I shift my body away, and her arm drops to her side. “I was thinking about letting you stay on your own while Reed and I are away. I know you would be fine, and I’m sure I could find someone to check on you from time to time.”

      I sense a but coming on, so I jump in to avoid it. “I’m good with that. I don’t mind if —”

      She raises a hand to cut me off. “I’m not finished. Yesterday, I got a phone call from family, asking to see you. It was serendipity. Though I know you would be fine on your own, I think this option is better.”

      I feel my eyebrows dive together. “Family? What family? Granddad died when I was eight, and Gran passed away six months ago. What other family is there?”

      The tendons in Mom’s neck tighten as she swallows. “You have an uncle.”

      “Get real. How could I? You’re an only child — like me.” And then the penny drops. “Whoa. If you’re talking about a brother to one of my many stepdads, forget it. It’s not going to happen. Uh-uh. No way.”

      “I don’t mean that sort of uncle. I —” She takes a deep breath. “I have a brother.”

      I cross my arms over my chest and sneer. “Yeah, right. Since when? Or did you just conveniently adopt somebody?”

      Mom’s eyes narrow. “Be careful, Dani. You’re getting seriously close to stepping over the line.”

      I don’t say anything. My mother may not be a cookie-cutter parent, but we both know who gets the last word.

      For a few seconds my chest heaves, and my nostrils flare in and out like a fire-breathing dragon. Finally, I choke back my defiance and growl, “Fine. So tell me about this uncle.”

      “He’s kind of a black sheep, a free spirit, a bit of a rebel.” She shrugs. “He marches to his own drummer. It used to drive our parents crazy. It finally came to a head when Sam was about twenty-two. There was a horrible fight. Then he left. And he never came back. From that day on, my parents acted like Sam had never even existed.”

      “I take it this Sam is your brother.”

      “Yes.”

      “Older or younger?”

      “Older by two years.”

      “Soooo …” I draw out the word while I do some quick math. “All this happened about eighteen years ago?”

      “That’s right.”

      “And you haven’t seen or heard from him until yesterday?”

      “No. My parents never heard from him, but Sam and I have always kept in touch. I just never told anyone.”

      “Not even me?” I was incredulous. Who knew my mother could keep a secret, especially one as big as that?

      “Dani, you were a kid. I couldn’t tell you. You might have let something slip. It was too big a risk. Besides, Sam swore me to secrecy.”

      “So why spill the beans now?”

      “Because your grandparents are both gone. We don’t have to worry about hurting them. And with the wedding and all, Sam sees this as his chance to get to know you.”

      “Gran died six months ago, Mother. Why didn’t you say something then? And anyway, why isn’t this Sam coming to the wedding?”

      Mom heaves a sigh. “Sam has been out of the country until recently. He only just got back. I couldn’t say anything to you until I got the okay from him. Surely, you can understand that. As for the wedding, it’s not his thing. Like I already told you, he’s a bit of a rebel.”

      “Doesn’t he want to see you?”

      “I’m sure he does. But obviously, that can’t happen right now. But he also wants to see you, and this is the perfect opportunity.”

      “Why? He didn’t want to see me before. Why now?”

      Mom clucks her tongue in exasperation. “You’re not listening, Dani. It isn’t that he didn’t want to see you. It’s that he didn’t want to hurt your grandparents.”

      “Why would he care about that if they weren’t even talking? What happened between them anyway? I mean, what could be so huge that it rips a family apart like that? Did Sam rob a bank? Was he dealing drugs? Did he kill somebody?”

      Mom frowns and shakes her head. “No. Nothing like that. It was a personal thing between Sam and them. You’ll have to ask him.”

      “Why can’t you tell me?”

      “It’s not my place.”

      I don’t know if it’s the determined line of my mother’s mouth, or the way she roots herself to the floor like a three-hundred-year-old tree, but it suddenly dawns on me that I can argue right through the night, and it isn’t going to make any difference.

      “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” I say. “You’re going to make me stay with this guy while you’re gone?”

      “You make it sound like torture.”

      “How do I know it won’t be? How do you know it won’t be? You haven’t seen your brother in eighteen years!”

      “We’ve kept in touch. Besides, I know him. I know what kind of person he is. I love him. And I love you. You have no idea how much I’ve wanted the two of you to know each other — my two favourite people in the world. And now it’s finally going to happen.” Her eyes are shiny with happy tears. She smiles. “You’re going to love him, Dani. And he’s going to love you. I just know it.”

      Chapter Three

      Outside the bus window, trees and rocks blur by while farther below the Fraser River rolls westward, back to Vancouver. It’s a blur too. I wish I had the power to smudge my thoughts like the landscape. Then it wouldn’t bother me that at this very minute Mom and Reed are somewhere in the clouds on a plane headed for Europe. I wouldn’t wonder about the long-lost uncle waiting for me at the end of the bus ride either. I close my eyes in an effort to turn off my brain, but it doesn’t help. My thoughts keep right on coming.

      I think the bus is about half full. It’s hard to tell. I was one of the first passengers to board, and I went straight to the back. Along the route some people have gotten off and others have gotten on, though I don’t know how many. I can’t see over the top of the seats. But in Cache Creek, a third of the town gets on, and suddenly, the empty seat separating me from the rest of the bus-riding universe is gone.

      Call me a snob, but I think of buses as the transportation alternative for people who have no alternative. Otherwise, they would drive or fly or take a train. Unless, of course, the place they’re going isn’t serviced by planes or trains, and their novice driving status forbids them from taking their mother’s BMW into the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, I’m not thrilled when a rather ample middle-aged woman invades my space. I barely get my jacket and magazine out of the way before her generous rump lands in the seat beside me.

      There’s an armrest between us, but her thigh oozes underneath into my territory. I try to make myself smaller without being obvious. I cross

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