Three Little Birds

The Conversation

Mykel shut the back door behind him and made his way slowly across the kitchen. The trepidation he felt the nearer he drew to his sister's bedroom door was paramount and nerve-wracking.

He paused outside her door, fist poised to knock, but lowered his hand without a sound. He sighed and finally knocked, pushing forth all his courage to face Liz's wrath. Having more than once been on the receiving side of her anger, it was not something he was particularly looking forward to.

She opened the door looking tired and disheveled, her heart broken freshly as one secret came out, and another was on the tip of confession.

He could tell from her posture and her curt what that told him he was still on her shit list. Her eyes were dry, but her cheeks were still a bit puffy, indicating that she had stopped crying within the hour.

"Can I come in?" His throat was already closing at the apprehension he felt at the conversation that awaited him. Liz studied him for a moment as she contemplated slamming the door in his face before backing up and allowing him entrance.

He sat heavily on her plush bed, kicked his shoes off, and slid to the center. He stared at his folded hands, his weight shifting slightly as she joined him. Her leg rested over his knee, the physical contact bringing him comfort.

He heard the back door open and close, dishes clang in the sink as Mattie cleaned their dishes before heading upstairs. He did not pause as he passed Liz's room.

He started speaking as Mattie's door clicked softly into its place.

"Liz, I...I'm sorry. I had no right to go off on you like that." He swallowed trying to keep reign on his emotions. "There's, uh...something that I...haven't been...that I've kept from you." He closed his eyes as he felt them begin to fill. He was not someone who cried often or frivolously, but when it came to this particular subject, he could not hold back despite his best efforts.

He looked at her then, his eyes bright and reflecting the soft light that drown the room in ambiance.

"He left a note." Gingerly he pulled the note from his pocket and handed it to her. "I'm sorry I never told you."

Liz looked at the note in her hands, folded, and felt her own tears surface. "Mykel, I don't have to read this."

She attempted to hand it back but he stopped her and shook his head. "Read it, Lizzy."

Carefully she unfolded Kaiden's last thoughts, her eyes scanning line after line, tears free falling, unnoticed down her face. She said nothing when she was finished reading it, simply folded neatly back, and handed it to Mykel.

"I'm sorry I kept it from you all this time. I just couldn't..." He shook his head, slightly shrugging.

"Certainly explains some things. Mykel, I really don't think he blamed you. I think he blamed himself and you leaving that night was an opportunity."

Mykel nodded noncommittal to her statement. "There's more, Liz. Kaiden...he was going to leave me." The mere utterance of those words out loud felt like a stab to the soul. He bit down hard on his lip.

"He what?" Her heart broke all over again at the look on her brother's face. She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly, not understanding why Kaiden would ever consider something to that extreme.

Mykel nodded. A tear fell from his eye, landing on his interlaced fingers, slipping in the crevices his hands created.

"He was going to leave me. That's why I left that night. He told me his father was making him. I was furious...I told him he was grown, he didn't need Daddy's permission to love me."