21

“You don’t have to say a thing. I understand more than most people how overwhelming it can get,” Father Thomas said. Then he patted my head affectionately. “For all intents and purposes from here on out, you are one of us.”

I walked along the reservation with Brandon, his giant arm hung over my shoulders, greeting everyone who came forward to meet us. I met with the rest of the elders, let them pat me on my head, welcome me with their words, and feeling a little bit better each time I exchanged words with them.

“Are you ready?” Brandon asked.

“To meet your parents?” I asked.

“Yes,” Brandon said as we headed up to his quaint little house. The house sat at the edge of a calm and green lake. The water was so clear that I could see through to the bottom of the lake. From the garage, I heard grunting sounds coming from behind a truck.

I headed inside after Brandon. Brandon knocked on the truck’s door and said, “Dad! Alice’s here.”

Brandon’s dad was a handsome man, rugged and muscular. He rolled out from under the truck, face covered in dirt, hands all greasy from working on the truck’s motor.

“In this family, we don’t shake hands,” Mr. Caleb Caufield said, and then embraced me tightly. “We hug.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised, then hugged him back.

“Dad, you’re gonna kill her,” Brandon said, awkwardly scratching his head.

“Nonsense! Ain’t a girl who’s fallen for a Caufield who can’t take a little bit of a tight hug and lived to tell the tale,” Caleb said and thumped me on the back. “And you, you shouldn’t worry at all. You’re one of us. A fierce wolf if there ever was one.”

“You told them?” I said, blushing red again.

“By now, it’s common news,” Caleb laughed. “We heard all about how you can see into the future. Hey, next time, maybe you can look into the future and tell me when the IRS drops by instead of, well, you know, seeing Brandon die by gunshots.”

“DAD!” Brandon said, slapping his dad on the shoulder. “You’re gonna make her die of cringe.”

At that moment, Mrs. Caufield, Jenny, a woman of striking beauty, came into the garage, her hands covered by oven mitts, saving us all from the embarrassing conversation.

“My, my, is this pretty young thing Alice?” she beamed at me. “Now, I know my husband’s told you we don’t shake hands in this family. Come here!”

The next thing I knew, I was being cinched into the tightest hug I’d ever experienced. That woman was even fiercer than her son and her husband combined. I could barely breathe.

“Pleased to meet you!” I gasped once she let go of me.

“Then you’ll be really pleased when you taste my pies,” she said, smiling at me benevolently. She gave me a chin-punch with her oven mitt, then guided me inside the house.

The interior of the house was an ode to Midwestern Americana. From the wooden walls to the massive stone fireplace, everything in it was intense and came off as extremely homely and cozy. I could just fall onto that giant rug in the middle of the living room and let it swallow me whole. The window in the living room gave a view of the pristine lake and the trees that sloped uphill.

I could be in heaven.

“Come here,” Jenny grabbed me by the arm and led me to the dining table. “Sit. You’re starved. Here.”

In front of me were a spread of baked pies, mugs of frothing hot chocolate, brownies, donuts, waffles, French fries, and club sandwiches.

“Are you guys expecting someone?” I asked, giggling nervously as the entire family sat around me at the dinner table.

“Nonsense!” Mr. Caufield said as he slapped the table good-naturedly. “We didn’t know what you were partial to, so we just went and baked half a dozen things.”

“I heard you gave Brandon a right chase for his money. I said to myself, Jenny, there’s a girl who knows her worth. He was a righteous sorry sight, weeping in his room, all morose and remorseful. He didn’t even go to school,” Jenny said as she clapped my hand.

“Oh, my Lord in heaven, I am going to die of embarrassment,” Brandon groaned.

“I love your son, Mrs. Caufield,” I said. “He’s got a passion that I’ve never seen in big city boys.”

“Are you saying I’m a hick?” Brandon laughed. His dad shot me a quizzical look.

“No. No. Not at all!” I raised my hands defensively. “It’s just … boys in Chicago, they’re all about their Snapchat followers, their I*******m followers … their social media presence, you know? Then they have the most bizarre haircuts. Some have fades that go all the way to the top of their heads. Others just do away with all hair on the side, leaving a giant clump of curly hair in the middle. They’re comical. No self-respecting girl would ever, you know, think about settling down with someone so vain and superficial,” I said. I’d said a lot more than I had intended to on account of how nervous I was feeling.

“Sounds like you’ve come from another realm entirely. Are you sure we’re talking about Chicago?” Caleb asked.

“The very same. Brandon, by comparison, I mean, just look at him. He’s got that plaid look down. He might as well be Wolverine,” I said.

“I’m sorry, who?” Jenny asked.

“You know, Hugh Jackman. Wolverine. From X-men?”

“Oh. Yes. Yes. Hugh Jackman, the big muscular Aussie,” Caleb said.

And just like that, the conversation evolved from one topic to another. We talked so much amongst ourselves that we didn’t even notice that in all that time we had ravished the food on the table. By the end, I was on my third cup of hot chocolate. I wasn’t sure I would be able to move after stuffing myself that much.

Later, Brandon and I went for a nice swim in the lake. Brandon warned me there would be leeches in the water, but I wasn’t one to back away from a chance to have a nice, calming swim. It turned out he was trolling me. There weren’t any leeches. I really needed the long swim to digest the food that I’d just eaten.

“It feels so calm here,” I said, lying down on the other side of the lake, far from the houses on the reservation.

“Because no one else outside the reservation’s allowed in here. You can truly feel and hear nature if you close your eyes,” Brandon said.