It was so easy to identify with her situation. Every woman in my community, happily married or not, was in the same situation.
“I came home and ended up on my father’s door with my son in one hand and our bags in another. My mother welcomed us with a hug. Keeping his word, my father didn’t. He said I’d made my choices and turned us away.”
I was grateful my father wasn’t that kind of man.
“We ended up in a small town outside of Edinburgh. I was lucky enough to find a small room above the only pub, where I got a job waiting tables. It wasn’t much. Pride kept me from calling Roy for help. Not that I could have. Cell phones weren’t exactly a common thing back then and landlines weren’t cheap.”
She paused and I thought that might be the end of it, until she spoke.
“Kalen had a rough go of it from the start. The majority of the clothes he had for me to take were blazers and trousers. His father preferred him to look like a little man than a little boy.”
“How old was he when you left?”
She thought. “He had just started what you Americans call kindergarten.”
I wanted to ask if she had pictures of him, but she continued.
“As you can imagine, we didn’t live in a fancy place. The school kids teased him about his fine clothes. I remember the first time he came home from school with a bloody nose and torn shirt. I went mad on the administration for allowing my son to be beaten up.”
She shook her head more to herself. “Kalen didn’t complain. Instead, he took the can’t beat them, join them approach. He began talking in Gaelic like everyone when not in school, which sounded odd in his American accent. Eventually that faded.”
“Does everyone speak Gaelic?”
“No. It’s common in certain areas like where we lived.”
“Did he get in trouble a lot?”
“Aye. He wasn’t a bad boy, but there are only so many times a mother can be called into school and hear them say, ‘he’s smart but…’ His excuse was always, ‘Someone else started it first’.”
I could imagine Kalen as a teenager butting heads. He was more of a leader than a follower.
“Between that and barely being able to put food on the table, I threatened to call his father and beg him to take him. Kalen swore if I did, he’d run away and I’d never see him again.”
“So you didn’t?” I figured that much, but I asked anyway.
“I didn’t. Though it pained me to watch my sweet boy turn into a closed off and not exactly sad, but maybe a little mad at the world young man. One who did things over the years to help our circumstances that might not have been lawful even though he denied it.”
That fit the man I knew.
“I remember a time when I’d come home to a feast and Kalen had no job. I told him not to do anything illegal. He just smiled and said he was old enough to help so I didn’t have to work more than one job.”
I didn’t want to speculate on what she had to do to survive or what Kalen did. The very idea broke my heart.
“Only once did I get a call to pick him up at the police station. And on the way out, he promised it would never happen again.”
“What was he in for?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not for me to tell. I forgave him and he’s kept his word. Now he’s made a name for himself and done his best by his mates and me. Griffin is a godsend and like a son to me, and Keely…”
“Who’s Keely?”
Her watery smile spoke volumes. “Not my story…” She pinched her chin as if in thought. “Eventually, though he doesn’t think I know, he made a deal with his father to get us out of the debt we were in to survive.”
Heavy footsteps stopped her words.
“We survived,” Kalen said, shocking us both into silence.
Neither one of us knew how much he’d heard.
Isla hurried to her feet and went into the kitchen, most likely to get a breakfast plate for him.
He sat across from me with cold eyes and said, “It made me the man I am today.”
Isla set a plate in front of him with piping hot food. One glance at me and I saw her mourning as I did for the boy who hadn’t had long to be a child.
“Enough of that,” Isla said. “I’m grateful you’re home and you built us this place.” She patted his shoulder. “Every day I’m thankful.”
He looked up at her. “I would have built you a grander house if you would have let me.”
She laughed. “This is plenty big enough. It’s almost too big when you’re not here.”