Mind Games

“Really hard. It just sort of came through. And the blue stairs. Just be careful on the blue stairs.”

“All right, Thea. Give my best to your grandmother. And call anytime.”

Knowing she’d done her best for Jessica Lynn Vernon, Thea did what she could to close the door on that other world.

* * *

At fourteen she cut her hair to chin length, an impulse she regretted for months after. She won an award in math, an accomplishment that both thrilled and embarrassed her.

When she was fifteen, they lost Aster and grieved. The best of best friends, Maddy brought them flowers.

They called the new cow Betty Lou.

Waylon married a rawboned blonde named Kyra Lightfoot who had a wonderful wild laugh and played the fiddle.

She developed an obsession with a rock band—four young guys who called themselves Code Red. And most particularly the lead singer, songwriter, and all-around hottie (according to Maddy) Tyler Brennan.

He starred in dozens of her dreams and cast every boy she knew in his shadow.

So for her sixteenth birthday, Lucy took her, Maddy, and Gracie to their concert in Louisville.

And there he was onstage, tall and lean in ripped jeans and a black tee, his wild mop of hair the color of the sipping whiskey her grandmother sometimes poured.

The music, his music, simply filled her. She considered her heart lost to him forever.

In her journal, she wrote that no matter how long she lived, she’d never have a better birthday.

* * *

As her senior year approached, she knew what she wanted to do with her life. College loomed, and she focused on computer science at the University of Kentucky. With a double major in art.

She’d add an online course in computer game design.

Because that was the dream. She’d design, maybe even develop video games.

Another dream included somehow meeting Tyler Brennan, having him fall in love with her. They’d marry and have three children and live on a small farm near her grandmother.

He’d write and play his music; she’d design games.

And they’d live happily ever after.

Waylon and Kyra gave Lucy another granddaughter and had a second baby coming. Caleb landed a co-starring role as a charming yet dedicated police detective in a TV series called Case Files filmed in New York.

On the fifth anniversary of her parents’ death, she stood, as always, with Lucy and Rem at their graves. As always, they laid hydrangeas against the stone.

Rem stood two inches taller than Thea’s five-nine, and didn’t appear to have finished growing as she had. He had their father’s eyes, but the rest of him looked like Caleb.

Thea knew the girls swooned over him.

At the end of the summer, she’d leave them both when she went to college. She’d leave Maddy, too, who would head to Duke to begin her journey toward becoming a doctor.

Gracie had her waitress job and a boyfriend she’d moved in with. So she’d stay right in Redbud Hollow, at least for now.

Most of her friends would scatter, she knew. Some already had.

But she’d come back. She’d always come back to the hills and the forests, to the farm, to her parents’ grave.

“They’d be so proud of you.” Lucy gripped Thea’s hand, and Rem’s. “So proud of both of you.”