RECLAIM MY HEART(44)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Teens and cliques seemed to go hand in hand. Back when Tyne went to high school, there were the Rah-rahs and the Jocks, cheerleaders and athletes who lived in a world all their own and would rather die than be caught next to a Punkster, those kids who bragged about cutting class and smoking cigarettes or weed behind the gym. There were the Techs, those kids who boarded a bus each afternoon that took them to a school where they learned to rat hair or tune carburetors and who should never be confused with Techies who loved computers and gadgets and who couldn’t be confused with Trekies who dreamed of visiting galaxies far, far away with Captain James T. Kirk.
There were sub-groups within groups, insiders who snickered at outsiders, for the sole purpose of power, exclusion, and control. Coping mechanisms to combat pubescent insecurity.
But as the dusky pink twilight fell over the birthday gathering, Tyne couldn’t help noticing how well the Lenape teens got along. Sure, there was some teasing, but there was nothing mean-spirited in it. There could have been some underlying tensions going on; these were normal teens, but from what Tyne witnessed, these kids were amazingly friendly toward one another. It could be that the inequitable treatment these young men and women received from outside their close community impelled them to be more open to their own, more embracing of individual differences.
The change in Zach was unbelievable. Just as Jasper had predicted, her son had been contemplative for days following his camping trip. When he communicated, it was in quiet tones and measured words. He did what he was told without argument. He pitched in around the house. He hadn’t asked about visiting his grandparents, hadn’t mentioned Oak Mills even once. If Tyne hadn’t witnessed his dark eyes shine with anger earlier today, she might have suspected that Jasper left her son out in the woods and brought her back a ‘Stepford’ child.
The incident had been sparked when a group of teens had arrived at the house that morning planning to drive to Millersville to swim at the home of a friend of one of the girls. Tyne didn’t know the driver of the car, didn’t know the other teens, and the way they’d hemmed and hawed answering her questions about adult supervision had made her uncomfortable. She’d finally told Zach he couldn’t go, and he’d been furious. She’d braced herself for a tirade.
He’d wrestled with his emotions, then he’d grown quiet, taken a couple of deep breaths, and walked away. The other teens left with shouted promises of seeing Zach at the birthday party later that on in the evening. Although her son hadn’t spoken to her for a couple of hours after that, Tyne couldn’t really call his behavior sulking. He’d agreed to help Lucas replace the handle on the shed in the backyard, and once they had returned from the hardware store, she’d heard them laughing together as each took a turn trying to pry off the old, rusted latch.
If Jasper could find a way to bottle whatever techniques he’d used to transform her son, the man would be a millionaire.
“I brought you some water.” Lucas handed her the bottle and then sat down beside her on the old quilt they’d brought to the party.
“Thanks.” Tyne unscrewed the top and took a drink.
He looked over to where Dorothy Johnson was being fawned over. A little boy was perching a paper tiara on the old wom v.an’s head.
“She looks happy, doesn’t she?” Lowering his voice, he added. “And she doesn’t look a day over ninety-eight.”
“Lucas!” Tyne laughed. “I can’t imagine living a hundred years, can you?”
He grinned at her. “A better question is would we want to?”
Tyne causally lowered her chin, studying the cap of the bottle she’d just opened, a bright spot of white against the green cotton cloth. All he had to do was flash those dark eyes at her and her body reacted erratically.
Over by the cake table, Dorothy laughed and clapped at something the child said to her.
“Not that you wouldn’t make a beautiful centenarian,” he murmured.
Again, Tyne laughed. “Do you care much about beauty at that age?”
He shrugged and then stretched his long legs out in front of him, resting his weight on his elbows. The blue jeans he wore only seemed to accentuate his muscular thighs, and it was easy for Tyne to remember smoothing her hands over them even though she hadn’t touched him intimately in what felt like an entire lifetime.
“The chicken’s delicious,” he told her. “I snatched a piece. You should have something to eat.”
She nodded. “Later. I’m too busy watching all these people. There’s so much going on.”
A group of toddlers kicked a ball not too far away. Women shuffled bowls and platters of food on the long row of tables in order to make more room as people arrived with their potluck offerings. Further out on the field, a dozen or so adults played a game that looked a little like football, but the rules were obviously different. It was men vs. women. The men couldn’t run the ball but could only pass it from one player to another in their attempt to cross the goal line. The women could run, pass, and punt, and they became inordinately physical with the men in order to steal the ball. One woman jumped on a man’s back, tugged on his ears, then covered his eyes with one hand and smacked the ball from his grasp with the other. Her teammate scooped the ball off the ground and raced like the wind. When they’d arrived for the party, Lucas had told her the game was called pahsah?man. The players were having a good time, but the game looked too rough for Tyne to give it a try.
“I’ve missed this.” He tapped his thumbs on the blanket as if he were keeping the beat of some rhythm playing in his head. “The food. The family and friends. It’s really nice.” His thumbs stilled and he sank a little lower. “It feels homey. Comfortable. Right.”