#resilientbcnes

pay attention to me

        She didn’t know what to think. Logically, she knew she had a father. But reading it in a letter from her mother after the funeral still made it a hard pill to swallow. Preparations were made in the month after her mother’s passing for Corinne to move in with him and his daughter ( she has a sister! ). And now, here she was, sitting on a suitcase outside the airport waiting to be picked up. 

        Corinne knew very little about her father, Thomas Kimball, and his daughter, Autumn. What she did know, is that she really didn’t have much choice but to accept the path God had given her and hope that her family--- her strange, new family--- would be as kind and as loving as she hoped they would be. It was all so very new. More than once she longed for the comfort of her own bed, the familiar creak in the third step going up the stairs, the dusty attic of piles of books with flowers pressed between the pages, her mother brewing coffee in the morning after a double shift at work. She would find none of those comforts of home here--- though she was determined to find new comforts.

       When a sleek, luxury car pulls up to the curb fifteen minutes later, Corinne’s first reaction is surprise. She’d done a little research. It turns out her father was a well-known businessman. Money would never be an issue. It was a stark contrast to the sing-parent income household she had been living in for the past sixteen years of her life. The door opens, and Corinne gives a nervous smile and a wave to the redhead that steps out. She had been mentally preparing herself for this moment for the last month, but it doesn’t sink in completely until she sees the girl’s face. 

                                        She has a sister.

   thomas kimball is a man who demands perfection in every one of his professional pursuits. every part of his day is organised with a precision that would impress even those who’d spent their life working in the military. today, for exactly 2 p.m., he had scheduled a meeting. and knowing how he got about timing and perfection, everybody had made it their aim to show up five minutes early.

           everyone. except autumn.

usually he’d cut her some slack, but today was different; there were billions resting on this deal that only she would be able to seal for him. (he didn’t want to think about why it had to be her. if he lingered on that thought too long, he might start to feel guilty, and then where would they be?)

           sunlight beams in his eyes and makes an effervescent halo upon the earth. it’s a beautiful day as the town transitions from spring to summer, and evidence roots from the wheat fields and the apples growing on the trees she’d once laughed at when he CLIMBED on. the sound of her laughter still echoes in his ears, a frail reminder in case she stops laughing for the rest of the day with what he wants to tell her. 

             he’s laying on her stomach, spring english novel perched between his calloused fingers, when he looks up at her and says it. there’s not really a PERFECT way to put all the words together, but he figures they’re pristine the way that they are. he breathes in deeply and fixes his eyes on her in his upside-down manner, finally alleviating the dissonance between his head and his heart.

          “ listen. i don’t need you to gimme attitude. you know i ain’t got nothin to do with that girl. “

        and this feels like home. he’s been gone for quite some time now; figured the only sense of home he’d have would rest in the barracks, dirty feet and tired bones. but this feels like home. he lets her press into his skin before he molds around her, arm wrapping around her shoulder to bring her closer to him, god forbid they’d ever pull apart again. there’s a kiss laden on the top of her familiar red hair before he murmurs.