Kaitlin Danvers stood on the tiny front porch of the bungalow that she had shared with her mother all her life. Main Street was just a couple of blocks away, a tourist mecca with shops, bars, and some fine restaurants. Seal Beach itself with its excellent surfing was less than a five-minute walk. Their house might be little more than a shoebox squeezed between apartment buildings and multi-million dollar houses, but it had been a loving home, which was probably more than those more expensive ones could claim.
None of that mattered right now though. Katie fought back the tears once more. It was a constant battle these days. It had been for almost a year now, ever since the doctors diagnosed her mother's breast cancer. Surgery, chemo, radiation, new drugs...none of them worked. Her mother was dying. Her mother, her best friend, the woman that she had looked up to and emulated for a lifetime would be gone soon. Weeks, perhaps days. Of course, no one could say for certain how long she had left.
However long it was though, she was not going to miss a precious moment of it. Just as her single mother had worked so hard to never miss the important moments of her only child's life. PTA, ballet, soccer, Little League, her mother had always found a way to not only afford those things on her measly income as a masseuse, herbalist, life coach, and sometimes psychic, but she had always worked her clients around Katie's schedule. They had struggled financially when she was a child, but by the time she had entered high school, her mother's 'following' had grown.
Hell, she was practically a guru of some damned sort these days. Katie sighed, which meant she had been forced to share these precious final days of her mother's life with a string of needy, rich people putting an additional strain upon her mother's waning energies. But that was Joy Danvers. Always there to help when someone needed her.
It was not just her wealthy clients, though. Katie smiled as she remembered how her mother always had an open-door policy for all her friends. She chuckled. Sometimes she wondered if it was not more her mother's welcoming smile, open ears, and homemade chocolate chip cookies that had accounted for her popularity in high school more than her blonde All-American girl-next-door looks and sunny smile.
This house had been full every afternoon with half a dozen or more of her friends just hanging out, talking, and even occasionally doing homework. Most of them far preferred coming home to her house than letting themselves into empty apartments or even expensive mansions.
A tear slid down her cheek as she thought of two of the regulars, Chance and Chase Logan. Identical twin brothers, who also happened to be the only children of a single mother, but one who worked two, sometimes three jobs. They had moved to Seal Beach when Katie was a junior in high school. For the next two years, they were her best friends and almost constant fixtures around this house.
She sighed as she remembered the last time she had seen them. It was the night of their high school graduation. They had all joined a bunch of their friends afterward on the beach for illegal bonfires. It had been the first time that Katie had actually gotten drunk.
Oh, she had tasted alcohol before, her mother had never believed in sheltering her child, so from around twelve or thirteen, her mother had regularly offered her a half glass of wine with dinner. But that was a very different thing from half a dozen wine coolers, a beer or two and even a couple of shots of tequila. To say she was tipsy would be a gross misrepresentation. She was wasted.
If it had not been for Chase and Chance practically carrying her home between them, she might have gotten into real trouble. She shook her head, not that she had not, even with her best friends. Especially with them. That night was why she never drank more than a single glass of wine ever, and usually not even that. It had been a disaster that had cost her the best friends she had ever had. Other than her mother.
She should go back inside and check on her now. Of course, Melody, the young hospice nurse was here, so this was supposed to be 'her' time. But to do what?
Sleep was impossibly hard coming just now. Even when it did, it was fitful. She usually slept in the chair beside her mother's bed rather than her own room, even though it was just next door. She never really made it to the deep dream-filled kind of slumber as she remained vigilant for even the tiniest moan from her mother to indicate that she needed a top-up of the morphine.
She supposed she could take a stroll along the beach. It was almost sunset, and that was usually spectacular. The cool breeze might even relax and soothe her a bit after the scorching Southern California summer heat. But the truth was that she did not really want to be around that many people. There were certain to be loads on such a perfect summer evening like this one.
Katie had come to realize that she had inherited more than just her looks from her mother. Her psychic gifts as an empath, who could read the emotional turmoil of others as surely as some might read their thoughts, was definitely more of a curse than a blessing. It had over the years turned her into a virtual recluse, who came straight home from her job as a kindergarten teacher, who rarely dated, and would do just about anything to avoid crowds. Unlike her semi-famous mother, Katie had never found a way to dampen those feelings...hers or others.
So instead, she stood alone on the front porch of the only place she had ever known as home and looked off towards the beach, just hoping to get a brief glimpse of the sunset. Much as she had always stood on the perimeters of life, watching others live, but too afraid to take those risks herself.
All except for that one night. That one time, when she had been so drunk that she had jumped headlong into the deep end...and almost drowned. In them.
Katie cursed under her breath as she saw two Harleys turn off Ocean Avenue onto their tiny street. 'Damn it,' she could hear the low rumble of the machines already, and they were still a block or two away. Why now, she asked. Just when her mother was finally getting the most restful sleep she had had in weeks, perhaps months. Why did these two jackasses have to take a short cut back to the Pacific Coast Highway to avoid Main Street that was probably incredibly busy, especially as it was Friday night? Or she thought it was anyway.
"Damn them! Damn them to hell," she muttered aloud as she turned to go back inside the house and check on her mother.
Then the bikes came to a halt on the street right in front of the house. She frowned even more, probably more of her mother's 'groupies.' Why, even now, did she have to share the woman with strangers?
But she knew that was not how Joy Danvers saw things. If her mother could give others comfort and solace in her final days as she had always tried to in her all too brief life, then she assured her daughter that was what she wanted. So reluctantly, Katie plastered that same fake smile on her face as she watched the men get off the motorcycles.
