Author's note: What a month indeed! It was such an honor to be part of Maynia. One thing for sure.. the journey has just begun. There's a long way ahead.
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Maynia -- Day Thirty-One -- 766 words
A month later..
“Sheriff Heins, glad you could make it!” Luke passed by me on the hallway as he made to greet my uncle at the door, a popping sound had me glancing back in the kitchen to see my mom had now opened the bottle of champagne.
“So, you finally decided to celebrate your candidacy huh, Mayor Heins?” I watched my mom as she started pouring the champagne.
“It’s not over until it’s final, dear. Maybe that Mr. Harris has a better chance at winning the elections, I’m just happy the people of Samheinrock now get the chance to choose on who they’ll be voting for.” She smiled cheerily at me as she made to hand me a glass of champagne, but I only shook my head and reasoned that I’d be the one driving later, making her previous cheery expression somber a bit.
“Mom.. I’m really sorry I can’t be here when they announce the election results..” I hadn’t meant to dampen her spirits at the mention of me leaving but she only raised a hand to my arm as she gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“You don’t have to apologize for anything, Jack. It’s time you be your own man and spread those wings, just remember, you’ll always have a home here.” She smiled at me as she pulled me in for a hug.
“Hey Jack, your uncle here helped load the rest of your stuff in the back—oh.” Luke came in then and stopped in what he was supposed to say, just as Uncle Derek showed up beside him, “You boys, leaving already?” He asked me with raised brows.
I looked back at my mom and smiled as she gave me a nod and patted me away. I turned back to my uncle as I replied, “Yeah.. We don’t wanna lose anymore daylight.”
“You got this message from Z?” I heard Luke ask as I glanced up my rearview mirror and saw my mom and uncle waving us off. I gave a wave out the window before I pulled away from the driveway, focusing back on Luke as I asked, “Yeah? What he said?”
I briefly glanced down as Luke held out his phone to me—there was Z, with a huge grin on his face, as he held Jaden in his arm for a selfie by the beach. But what I focused on in the background almost had me swerving into a streetlight—Shiela stood by the beach, not really aware of the camera but.. Damn! She looked good in that swimsuit! “Better hurry down here or she’ll only have me and the cat before you know it!” Was the message Z had left with it.
I snickered as I focused back on the road, “Tell the bastard we’re on our way to give him a run for his money.”
“Already did.” Luke let out a laugh as he said that, and I continued to grumble before I noticed he was rummaging around in his bag; then spied as he pulled out some sheets of paper from a plastic envelope. “Those the list of properties Doc Alfred left you?” Days after I got discharged from the hospital, Luke had suddenly been surprised with the list of assets his grandfather left in the will for him—turns out the good doctor had a habit of collecting properties in the towns where he had settled in his younger days as a veterinarian, but the question here was why?
“Yeah.. I just kinda noticed something actually.. The last two towns Z updated us on where he and Shiela stopped over—gramps has a property in both and this last one too.. It can’t all be a coincidence, right?” Luke seemed to be overanalyzing again as he continued to ask, mostly to himself, “Our memories.. maybe they didn’t get wiped off because of that ‘blood sacrifice’ we made up there..”
Luke leaned back in his seat as he glanced out the window, lost in thought, and I could only let out a deep sigh before I spoke up, “Don’t you think we’ve ‘sacrificed’ enough? We’re now more involved in this than Shiela thought.” Luke turned back to me and I briefly met his gaze before I focused back on the road, “That’s why we’re going after her, aren’t we? To get more answers..”
“Is that really the only reason?” I heard Luke mutter but I could only smile to myself as I thought.. Maybe it wasn’t..
But the truth still remained that Shiela wasn’t going to shake us off that easily from her life now..
Image from Pixabay, by Phan Minh Cuong An: https://pixabay.com/users/minanfotos-9565064/ (edited with dreamscopeapp)