From Ashes to Roses

“We found two empty, burnt out steel jerry cans the next day where the fire originated. They hadn’t been there the day before. I didn’t put them there. None of my family put them there. It had to be her. Why else did she fly out of town quicker than an eagle?” Ryan had no response for him. He was so furious, so baulked the man was refusing to see their side. “And that reassured me how much of an unfit mother she would have been. There was no going back after that.” He gave a suspicious look behind him and felt a tinge of guilt, but refused to show any remorse whatsoever. “I suppose she had you two. You look decent enough. Anyway, if she cared so much about Luke, why isn’t the bitch here with you now?” “She passed away.” Shaking his head and dusting away old images from the past he’d rather forget, the man faced them full on and took a long sip from a metal cup, slamming it back onto the table. “Ah, the only thing you have in common with my grandson is that you have half of the same DNA. You don’t know anything about him and after all these years, he won’t want to know anything about you. Let’s not unsettle the past, shall we? I don’t think anyone in the family will ever be able to let bygones be bygones. Now, I won’t say it again. Get off my land before I call the police.” Andie placed her hand on her brother’s shoulder and guided him out of the house, where they met a woman, who they presumed to be Malcolm’s wife. Centimetres above the shy woman’s head, there was a framed photo of five young men in their teens on the chalk landscape of the South Downs. Andie, and not her brother, noticed this photo that was snapped in the early eighties. Indubitably, the strapping adolescents were Malcolm’s sons. One of them was Emmett, but the Baxter’s time on the premise was cut short. The lady stood still with pricked up ears and it was blatant she had heard the last of her husband’s words from her hiding place out in the hallway. Saying nothing and simply bowing her head humbly, she stepped aside to let the defeated pair plod out. She watched as the strangers walked off her front yard and remained still in her spot while listening as the car hummed away. By the time she entered the hushed room her husband had disappeared out of the back kitchen door and was already starting up the engine to his tractor, leaving her no choice but to begin chopping the vegetables for lunch.