Pursuit of Happiness | Taz Skylar [1]

006. various stages of healing

After knocking on the front door, Zoe counted to ten before the door swung open, revealing a disheveled-looking man, as if he'd only dragged himself out of bed in the past half an hour. Despite that, the smile that he offered to Zoe was genuine and he stepped aside to let her into the house. As she stepped over the threshold and he shut the door behind her, he asked, "How are you?"

Zoe shrugged her shoulders. "It's been a weird couple of days to be honest, Nate."

Nate laughed as the door clicked shut behind Zoe. "What kind of weird are we talking?"

"I – " Zoe broke off as the sound of feet thudding against the floor above her head and a smile curled at her mouth, before she saw a ten-year-old boy come hurtling down the stairs at the end of the hallway. Nate opened his mouth to tell the child to not run in the house, but his words were lost as the boy shouted Zoe's name and launched himself at her. Zoe laughed as the boy reached her and she reached down, curling her arms around the boy's shoulders both to steady him and to hug him.

"How have you been, Ethan?" Zoe asked, brushing a hand over the boy's curly brown hair to move it out of his eyes. "God, you need a haircut."

Ethan grinned up at Zoe through the curtain of his unruly brown hair. "I'm good! Dad got me a skateboard. I'm not very good at it yet."

"Did he?" Zoe asked curiously, stepping back so that she could look down to where the boy's skinny legs stuck out underneath the ends of his shorts. Sure enough, Ethan's knees were covered in multiple scrapes and bruises, all in various stages of healing.

"Probably not my most intelligent purchase," Nate muttered.

Zoe smiled, shaking her head. "Nah, he just needs someone to teach him."

Upon hearing that, Ethan's hazel-coloured eyes lit up. "You know how to skateboard?"

"I used to. We're about to find out if I still do, aren't we?" Zoe asked. Then, looking over at Nate, she asked, "Do you mind if I take him to the park and show him a couple of things?"

Nate smiled, waving his hand as if to shoo them off. "Please, take him. I have some cleaning I need to do."

"Yeah, it looks like it," Zoe joked, laughing at half-hearted swipe that Nate took at her head. Ethan dashed off to grab his skateboard and Nate shouted after him to make sure that he grabbed his helmet and knee pads.

Fifteen minutes later, Zoe was standing on the wide path that ran through the middle of the park that sat on the opposite side of the house that Nate and Ethan lived in, looking down at Ethan, his face half-concealed by his helmet. They quickly discovered that Zoe didn't remember much of what she'd learned during her own time spent skateboarding, and Zoe's hands and knees were soon covered in developing bruises and scrapes similar to Ethan's. However, Zoe did what she could and before long, Ethan could at least remain standing on the board while it was moving.

"Thank you," Ethan said when they decided to call it for the day a few hours later, the two of them flopping down on their backs in the grass to stare up at the clouds. It was mid-afternoon, and Zoe knew she should take Ethan back before the sun started to set, but it was so difficult sometimes to make the time to see Ethan. Ten more minutes couldn't hurt.

"You're always welcome," Zoe said, smiling fondly at the boy. "Maybe I should get back into skateboarding. We can go for a ride next time I come over, if you want."

Ethan's eyes danced. "Can we?"

"See how we go," Zoe told him, reaching over to pluck a stray blade of grass from Ethan's cheek before she turned her head back to face straight up at the clouds that floated in the sky above their heads. After a moment of silence, Zoe pointed up at the sky and remarked, "Hey, that one looks like kind of like a genie lamp."

"Hey, Zoe?" Ethan asked quietly, turning his head to look over at the woman lying in the grass beside him. "Can we go see my mom?"

Zoe was quiet, but she nodded, rising to her feet and offering her hand for Ethan to take. He did take it, flicking his hair out of his eyes and scooping down to pick up his skateboard from where they'd left it on the ground.

Not a word passed by aunt and nephew as they moved through the park back the way they'd come, as they returned to the house to dump Ethan's things. Zoe paused to inform Nate of where they were headed, but aside from a brief flash of something like pain behind his eyes, he said nothing on the matter and waved them off, promising to have dinner for them when they returned.

Ethan's uncharacteristic silence still continued more than half an hour later when he and Zoe stepped out of Zoe's car. In one hand, he held a small arrangement of flowers that Nate's neighbour had allowed Ethan to pick from their garden and his other reached out to grab for Zoe's, hanging on for dear life. Zoe squeezed his fingers back as she led Ethan through the cemetery, until the pair of them were standing in front of a familiar trio of graves and a lump had formed in the back of Zoe's throat.

The graves in front of them were about as nice as they got, made out of matching marble material with names etched into them, along with the dates of birth and death. Zoe's heart felt heavy in her chest as she read the names etched into each grave - Lucas Carlyle, Catherine Carlyle and Ivy Carlyle-Makris. Her mother, father and sister.

How she wished she could have just a day where missing them didn't feel as if a piece of her had been torn out.

"Hi, Mom," Ethan whispered, his little fingers clenched around the bundle of flowers in his hand. His other hand released Zoe's and she clasped her hands together in front of her, watching as he approached Ivy's grave. After placing the flowers down on Ivy's grave, Ethan stared at the grave for a moment, before he turned to look up at Zoe, asking, "Why did she have two last names?"

"Your mom loved our family. When she got married, she wanted to continue to honour the family she came from," Zoe explained, her chest heavy. "But she loved your dad, too, and even before you came along, she wanted to have the same last name as you. The only thing that made sense was for her to have both."

"What will you do, when you get married?"

Zoe huffed out a laugh into the cooling evening air. "I don't know if I ever will get married, Ethe."

"But what if you do?"

Zoe hesitated, turning away from the boy to stare at the graves of her father and mother. She was quiet for a long time as Zoe gazed at the graves, at the only physical evidence that remained of the people that had brought her into this world, and Ethan began to think that she wasn't going to answer him. Then, she admitted, "I don't know."

Ethan climbed to his feet then, brushing dirt off of his knees. Zoe's heart felt heavy in her chest, but she pulled Ethan into a hug when he stepped closer regardless, leaning down so that she could kiss the top of his head. They stood there for a few moments more before Zoe unwound her arms from around Ethan and smiled down at him, although her eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

"Come on," Zoe breathed, using one hand to brush Ethan's hair back from his face. "I should take you back before your dad starts to worry."

Ethan only nodded, allowing Zoe to lead awayfrom the set of graves and back to the car.