The First Drop Of Rain

Chapter Forty

I sat down, my Halloween costume vines still strewn across my bed as I crossed my legs. The events of the dance still ripped at me, and the song had changed twice since I found the letter in my desk, so I sighed and admitted defeat. Nearly forty seven days since I received the letter from my dad, I broke the seal. It smelled of aged paper and ink, the yellowed edges teasing me from inside the marked envelope. I wanted to burn it, I wanted to throw it out my window, I never wanted to look at the parchment ever again; the desperate burn in my chest that had always caused pain but never caught my attention, however, begged for answers, and I had no choice but to obey.

With a cautious breath, I unfolded the papers and began to read.

Dear Arabella Viviana,

I'm sure you have so many questions, and I wish I could answer them, but I know I'm only going to leave you with more questions.

Shock ran through me as the words lept from the page, I barely had time to set the envelope down on my bed before staring in shock once more and continuing with the bizarre letter.

I am your mama, though I'm sure by this point you've come up with many many nicknames to refer to me as. I can't blame you, I am about to leave you after all. It is for good reason however, I promise.

Before I begin to explain everything, let me explain your name. I'm sure at some point you've wondered why I chose such odd names to smash together, but it is because those are names of great power, names of virtue, and I am a firm believer in the name creating destiny. I have to believe that, because I would cry until the end of time if I found out I left you with the destiny I am fighting to keep from you. Your name is to encourage your strength, to make you as mighty as the lion that was painted on your nursery wall. Viviana comes from the paternal side of your family, it was your Grandmama's name, well hers was Vivian but I felt that wasn't dramatic enough for you.

My name is Ally, I was named after my Auntie, and in turn you were named in honor of her, for her strength and power. Maybe one day you will meet her, though I fear your Grandmama Cynthia, her sister, will have passed just years before you read this. You see, you come from a wonderful line of women Arabella, a line of women that have wonderful power. If you are anything like the rest of us, you will have that power too, and maybe even better. If what I've seen is correct, you will be the last of the family now, aside from your Grand Auntie. She shouldn't be too far from you, I know this picture is old but it should help, she doesn't change that much after all.

I fished around in the envelope for the picture, feeling its scalloped edge graze my finger as I continued reading, extracting the image but never peeling my eyes from the looping letters of my birth mother's handwriting.

I keep saying the things I've seen, but I haven't given you much context, so I will do my best, but you look like you're about to wake up, so I need to make it brief. Arabella, you were gonna be born here in Mississippi on September fifteenth, but shortly before you were born I used my power to see if you would have a fruitful life, but I saw something else. I drove us to Forks, barely made it, and had you here at the hospital. I do apologize, I lied on my medical chart so you couldn't find me before you could receive this letter. You see, I had always been told by my momma that we had powers, that Auntie had to be locked away because hers were too strong, but it wasn't until I saw everything that I knew what she meant. Momma never had visions like me or her sister, it was always the way of word with her. She got me out of more trouble than you could imagine, she had magic in her sweetness, that's what your daddy always said. Oh yeah, you do have a dad. Well did. He is going to die a week from me writing this, which for you would be about a week after that new family of yours is going to take you in officially. I should be gone in about a year from that, if not I'll see about finding you.

The realization dawned on me that this meant she was in fact dead as I pulled the second page to the front, the photograph still gripped tight, just outside of my eyeline. Part of me feared the image more than I had feared the letter, knowing somehow it was going to reveal something I didn't want to know.

If I didn't give you to these people, you would die with me, there isn't anything I can do about my death, that's my gift as you would call it. I see the inevitable, I can't change the futures I see, unless I am given an alternate strand to follow. I was given that strand for you, and it was a bright one. You have an amazing future ahead of you, and I know you will see your Auntie real soon, if you haven't seen her already. She should be moving into that little town I'm leaving you in, for me it's what looks like sixteen years away. I can see what you look like, reading this right now, you look just like your daddy. Red hair and all. He is going to die in a car crash, it will be quick for him, don't you worry. I'll save you the details on my death, just know I couldn't escape it, and it's not genetic.

I felt the morbidness of the letter sinking in, never had I thought that my parents would be dead, and even worse that my mother would have the ability to predict it but never prevent it. Some part of my heart panged with the realization, and the idea that I so closely resembled my birth father made the pain of that loss deepen. I wiped away a couple of tears before they could hit the page and smudge the decade and a half old ink.

Now your Grandmama Cynthia has made some arrangements to ensure you have a good life, and if you go lookin for the family that you will be met with blessings. I made sure to enclose a family tree for you, but I know it's incomplete, that's on account for the murder of your Great Grandmama, it was never solved but your Auntie knows who did it, that's why she got locked away. I'm sorry for leaving you with so little answers my sweet bird, but I don't have much time to write this if I am hoping to give you a good life. That new mama of yours should live a nice long time, I see her walking you down that aisle someday as long as everything goes according to plan sweet pea. You're waking up now, and I want to spend every second with you that I can before I need to leave.

With Love and Well Wishes,

Ally Marie Brandon

I suppressed the tears that fought harder, my breath caught in my lungs. I felt all of the love that my birth mom had intended to give me pouring out from this letter. With a shaky sigh I pulled the supposed photo of my Aunt from where I had set it, my heart racing as the words on the back came into focus. Mary Brandon and Cynthia Brandon at Macy's on 6th Ave NYC Christmas 1918. The handwriting was so similar to my own I nearly sobbed, but that sob died in my throat as I turned the photo over and saw the face staring back at me. My whole world crumbled around me, everything I knew spun like a top, leaving me dizzy and breathless.

Alice Cullen had barely changed, even in the last eighty plus years.