Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(33)

"Yes, but clearly Hector doesn't make those same concessions. Why? Has anyone ever asked him? Perhaps the gods ordained it so? Is that it?"
"Calder," my mom hissed. I had never spoken to her this way and I was suddenly ashamed.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I shouldn't have said any of that."
She waved her hand in front of her. "It's the rain. It's gotten under your skin. This cabin is small for four. It will clear tomorrow, and this mood will lift. You'll see." She smiled at me and patted my cheek. I did my best to smile back.
We were quiet in our work for a minute. "You'll be able to marry soon if you wish. As soon as you've had your water cleansing," she said. "Have any of the girls caught your eye?"
Yes, as a matter of fact. Funny story, though . . .
"No."
My mom huffed out a breath. "Oh, Calder, surely one has." She hesitated in her canning, looking upward as if thinking. "Let's see, there are four girls here about your age. Lucie Jennings, Hannah Jacobson, Leah Perez, Sadie Campbell . . ."
"What does it matter anyway? The great floods draw closer every day," I interrupted.
My mom stopped her work and looked up at me. "Yes, and that's precisely why you want to take a wife. So you can bring her to Elysium with you."
I laughed a humorless laugh. "Maybe I should wait until I get there. What if the options are better?"
My mom narrowed her eyes at me and put down the ladle that was in her hands. "What's gotten into you?"
I let out a breath. "I just . . . don't you ever question things, Mom? Don't you ever have questions you wish someone other than Hector would answer?"
Her eyes went to the small window next to her for a minute. Finally, she looked back at me. "We'll never have all the answers to all the questions, Calder. But Hector is good and Hector has only our best interests at heart. That's all I need to know, and that's all you need to know. The devil is testing your faith and you must win against him." She picked up the ladle and began working again before continuing on. "You know, if not for Hector, you wouldn't even be here. He saved my life, Calder, and he saved your dad's life, too. He gave us a family, a purpose."
"I know, Mom," I responded. She had told me the story many times, how she and my dad had grown up in loveless homes where harsh beatings were a daily occurrence. They had met Hector when they were both eighteen, when he was on one of his missions. My mom had been pregnant with Maya and they didn't have anywhere to go. Hector showed them the first kindness they had ever known, and they were thrilled to know they were meant to be two of his people, and among the first to live on Acadia. It was the very first time they'd felt their lives had meaning.
My mom waved her hand around our small cabin. "This may not look like much, but there is peace here. There is order here. There is faith, and there is purpose. We're all very lucky. Blessed. I know sometimes the simplicity of life here seems difficult. But there is peace in simplicity. The big society is filled with chaos, uncertainty, and hurt. Believe me, I know." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. "Have you had a good life, Calder?"
I regarded her. "Yes, Mom." But I want more.
She nodded as if she'd known what my answer would be. "Then you have Hector to thank for that."
"I have you to thank for that."
My mom looked like she was about to say something more, when my dad and Maya came laughing into the room from the bedroom where they had been doing their Holy Book reading, their matching red hair glinting in the sunshine coming through the kitchen window. My mom had red hair, too. My mom said I had gotten my dark coloring from the "black Irish" in our genes.
My dad sat Maya down on the chair directly beside me and I put my arm around her small, rounded shoulders, tickling her ribs with my other hand. Maya was nineteen now, but she still had the mind of a child—a sweet, angelic child.
She laughed out and it ended in a coughing fit. She had had this same cough for days and days now and I was a little worried about her. When she finally cleared her throat, she said, "Calder. Take me out in the rain on a piggyback! I want to get wet!"
I laughed down at her, thinking that she needed to stay right here in this cabin, probably under a warm blanket. "Can't. Know why?"
She looked at me and shook her head, her eyes curious.
I leaned over and whispered in her ear. "You know how I bring you sugar cubes sometimes?" I leaned back up and put my finger over my mouth to indicate it was our secret. I glanced at my dad and mom and they were talking in hushed tones about what other canning needed to get done. Truly, it wasn't even our work, but in the rain, we all needed to occupy ourselves, so we all helped out with whatever inside work there was.