Page 27 of Fire and Rain
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Eden walkedwith her grandmother on a forest trail across the highway from Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park, a warm breeze making the leaves above them rustle, the air sweet with the scent of earth and growing things. The trail was mostly flat, which made it easier for her grandmother, who was frail and had balance issues.
This foraging walk had been her grandmother’s idea. She’d asked Eden’s mother to watch Maverick so the two of them could have some time together. Eden was happy to get away for a while, and she loved spending time with her grandmother. So far, they’d found claytonia, fresh salmonberry leaves, docks, and wild garlic.
“There.” Her grandmother pointed with her cane. “Those look like some good docks.”
“You have sharp eyes.” Eden walked to a patch of docks and filled a small paper bag with the tender leaves.
“These old eyes are still good enough to see a thing or two.”
Uh-oh.
Eden recognized that tone of voice.
“I have two granddaughters who are hurting.”
So, this was about Mila.
Eden didn’t want to endure a lecture about how Mila had been trying to help, but she would never say a cross word to her grandmother. And so, she said nothing.
“Mila was wrong in what she did. Yes, your mother told me.” Her grandmother gestured with her cane. “More docks.”
Eden crossed to the other side of the trail and picked more docks. “Mila has been bossy since we were little girls, but we’re not children now. She does a lot of hurtful things.”
“Mila has always been jealous of you,aa’icagaq.” Her grandmother used Eden’s childhood nickname, which meantlittle cute one. “That doesn’t make up for the wrong she has done, but it’s true.”
“Jealous? Of me, Baba?” Eden found that hard to believe.
Grandmother pointed to something in the middle of the trail ahead of them and laughed, exposing her few remaining teeth. “What’s the story behind that?”
In the middle of the trail ahead sat an old running shoe. It was covered in moss and had a small sapling growing through it. It had clearly been there for a very long time. But that’s not what held Eden’s attention.
“Why would Mila be jealous of me? She has a lot more money than I do. She and Charlie own a nice house, cars, and lots of jewelry. She’s on every board and committee in town. She’s an important person here in Kodiak. I don’t understand.”
“Let me explain.” Grandmother walked to a bench and sat.
Eden sat beside her, basket in her lap.
“You both grew up to be beautiful women. That is true. Mila has more money. That is also true. But you are rich in things that money cannot buy.”
It seemed to Eden that money bought pretty much everything. “Such as…?”
“A good heart. A kind soul. You know how to love and how to give of yourself. Others are drawn to you because of those things. But Mila doesn’t believe that she is enough. She puffs herself up not to make herself seem better than others, but to keep herself from feeling that she is lower than everyone else.”
Eden had a hard time believing that. “But she’ssosmug and irritating. She thinks her way is the only way, and she’s always been like that.”
“She doesn’t know how to feel safe without controlling everything. You see the world through the richness inside you, and because of that, you always have enough. Mila only knows what she doesn’t have, and she fills that emptiness with things that the world admires—money, jewelry, clothes. But those things cannot bring her happiness.”
Her grandmother’s insights almost made Eden feel sorry for Mila. And for a time, the two of them sat without speaking, the breeze and birdsong the only sounds.
Eden broke the silence. “How long did you grieve for your first husband?”
Her grandmother had been married to an Alutiiq man before she’d met Eden’s grandfather, but he had died in a kayak accident not long after they’d married.
“It was quite hard in the beginning because we were so young, and it was unexpected. I mourned for him and missed him every day. But when I met your grandfather, that grief lifted bit by bit, until I saw that I was being given a second chance. We were married a year later.”
“Why didn’t you remarry after Deda died?”
