Coming Home to the Mountain: Complete Edition

10. Tallie

CHAPTER 10

Tallie

“ D ear sister, how will I go on without you?” I begin, feeling nervous as hell as I read what I have prepared. “Your heart was as wide and deep as the ocean. Your guidance saw me through many a dark night. You were the only soul I could navigate this world by. Fate could not let us defy it though, and now I must see the future without you, and what a dark place it seems to be. I will forever miss you, my dear sister, and with what time I have left, I hope to make you so proud.”

Good, bad? I have no idea. But it was suggested I eulogize my sister, and I gave it my all. There’s some polite clapping as I finish, but I guess a lot of people don’t know how to react at a funeral. Would huge, raucous applause be appropriate? Julia might have thought so, knowing her.

But I’ve heard it said that funerals are for the living, and I can’t help but feel it’s especially true in this case.

The entire Rough family is here, all dressed up respectfully. None of them ever met Julia, but I don’t take their presence as hollow. I know they’re here to support me, and Graham, and it means the world to me.

Truth be told, a funeral attended solely by people who knew Julia would be an empty one. Maybe a few of our acquaintances would show, but when I said Julia and I had only one another, I absolutely meant it.

I step away from the podium, and a preacher takes my place. My thoughts are too conflicted to even hear what he’s saying, and I imagine this is only the first of many sermons he’ll give today.

Graham and his family arranged all of this, are paying for all of it too. And they refused to let me be cheap in planning. They gave me input, yes, but they wanted to be sure that my sister was given the proper respect with her ceremony.

We’d traveled back to Hobson to bury her. The cemetery was untouched by the mudslide, which made me laugh from the cruel irony. Julia is being laid to rest next to our mother, and I still can’t believe she’s gone.

She was a few years older than me. Twenty-seven. She should have had another sixty years at least. Hell, maybe another one hundred with how good modern medicine is nowadays.

She deserved so much better than what she got. She suffered through the same feelings of worthlessness that I always do. I guess the world has worked hard to instill those feelings in us.

I watch as the coffin is lowered into the ground, a beautiful bouquet of flowers resting on it. The ceremony is called to an end.

“Come on, let’s head back to Home,” Graham says, taking me by the hand.

I nod, Lemon handing me Lucy as we head back to his truck.

I feel especially bad for her. She’ll never know her mother, what kind of person she was, what she struggled with. I imagined the pains she would face as she came to terms with never knowing the woman who birthed her.

“Are you alright?” Graham asks as we walk.

“I just buried my sister. Lucy’s mother. I’m as alright as someone can be in such a situation, I guess.”

“Time heals, Tallie. And I’ll help how I can.”

“You’ve helped so much already.”

“Yes. But I told you. We care. You’re family now, and by extension, even if we never knew her? That makes Julia family.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but I cry for Lucy. She’ll never know her mother.”

“Then do what you can. Remember your sister, Tallie. Keep alive what you can about her, and be sure to tell Lucy every detail when she’s a little bit older so she can remember too. Family’s important, and it’s one of the things that the Roughs hold dear.”

I nod. I’d do just that. Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll recover what’s in Julia’s apartment, and I’ll have something to share with Lucy beyond simply memories. But if that’s all we have? I’ll try to make them as strong and vivid as possible.

The entire Rough family goes to the patriarchal home, a beautiful homestead, one that was built by Red Rough himself over the course of thirty years. Graham jokes that the house was done about a dozen times, but his father always got a new idea to expand it and make it a better family home. He might be done for good now, but the itch might strike him and sixty-year-old Red might head up yet another construction project.

After some chaos of preparing a meal in the kitchen, there’s a huge family dinner. It’s way bigger than I could ever imagine, and this isn’t even Thanksgiving or Christmas.

“We do something like this every Sunday,” Graham says as people pass around the stuffing.

“Every Sunday?”

He laughs. “Usually it’s not this extreme or fancy. Have you ever had taco night with this many people?”

“I haven’t had a taco night at all.”

“Well, we’re going to change that.”

After the meal, everyone gathers in the living room, which I'm told is different from the family room because there’s no TV. Because apparently this place has another room with four couches that has a TV for family movie night.

I don’t think the Roughs are billionaires, or even millionaires, but they’re wealthy compared to anyone I’ve ever known, and a lot of their riches were made by building them themselves.

Anyway, there's a lot of chatter, but the main focus in the center of the room is Lucy, who everyone adores and is giving plenty of attention to. It almost makes me jealous that she’s getting all this attention. When I was a child, I only really had my own mother giving a care in the world about me.

The attention here is split with a five-year-old, who of course wants plenty of attention too. Plum, I believe her name is, because the food-centric naming conventions have carried on strong with everyone, an injection from Graham’s mother’s family, a melding of two family legacies.

“She’s such a darling,” Meadow, one of the wives of the Rough brothers, tells me. “Healthy too. Must have been hell to carry for nine months.”

“Uh,” I nibble on my lip. I haven’t had a chance to talk to a lot of the people here yet, and apparently Graham hasn’t filled them in yet, either. Do I go into it all now, today?

“Oh yes, you should give her a nickname based on that,” Prairie adds. She’s another of the wives, though it took me a moment to realize that she and Meadow weren’t sisters because they’re so close. “What did you crave during your pregnancy?”

Do I tell them? Do I keep lying? What did Julia crave during her pregnancy anyway? I don’t recall anything particular beyond her normal cravings, and calling Lucy oatmeal creme pie doesn’t have the same catchiness as ‘Lemon.’

I can’t keep running forever. I need to be honest. After all, an aunt taking up the role of mother after a tragedy isn’t that unusual, is it? “I couldn’t tell you what cravings she inspired, girls. I’m not her mother. Not by giving birth to her, at least.”

There’s a sudden silence in the room. Graham puts his arm around my shoulder. “I’m sorry – we’ve all been so busy, I should have told them.”

“Told us what?” Reuben asks as he sips his beer.

“Lucy is my niece,” I begin. “I didn’t mean to mislead anyone. Everyone just assumed I was her mother, and with being worried about securing custody, I guess I figured it’d be easier if everyone believed that. But with Julia gone, she’s as good as my daughter now. I’m going to raise her as my own. I’m going to give every of my sister that I have, and be the mother she deserves.”

There’s nodding through the room.

“I’ve known for a bit,” Graham announces. “This is hardly shocking. I support Tallie fully and hope you all will her too.”

The family patriarch nods. “Hardly a big deal. If this is going where I think it’s going, both Tallie and Lucy are going to be as Rough as anyone else. Families start with blood, but they don’t have to end there.”

Bart strokes his chin. “What if the father wants Lucy?”

“We’ve already looked into that,” Graham says. “I will support Tallie in any dispute over her guardianship.”

“The hell do you mean by that?”

He sighs. “I don’t want to spill Tallie’s whole life story to everyone until she’s ready.”

“It’s okay,” I say. “I don’t need to keep it a secret how much of an ass Marcus is.”

“Marcus?” Meadow echoes.

“Lucy’s...uh... biological father.” I never wanted to dignify him by calling him her father. “My sister’s ex. He’s a cruel and violent man, very manipulative. My sister had only recently gotten free of his hold on her, although he was still attempting to manipulate her.”

Graham paces about. “He has felonies on his record, and as of last week, a restraining order keeping him from Tallie and Lucy. I don’t usually call in favors from the judge, but here? I’m using everything I can to protect Lucy from a man who would not care for her, but might want to try for custody anyway out of narcissism and spite.”

“He loathes me. Always has, because I kept telling Julia how bad of news he is. He would gleefully deny me my niece, even at the cost of his daughter’s well-being.”

“Well then. He sounds like a horrible person,” Graham’s mother declares. “I do hope he has a come-to-Jesus moment and knows to stay far, far away from my newest granddaughter.”

I laugh. “Your newest granddaughter? You know I’m not married to Graham, right? We’re not... really... anything yet.”

Graham looks my way, smiling as he sips his beer, as if he knows something I don’t.

What are we? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Benefactor and beneficiary? Friends who have absolutely fantastic sex and awkward yet tender conversations about whether it’s too crazy to say we love one another so soon?

Still, it’s sweet to hear Mama Rough say those things. To be so accepted by the whole lot of them, despite my flaws and circumstances. Is this what having a family is truly like?

I wouldn’t know, as I never had much of one, but if it is?

I’m enjoying it.