Hot Winter Nights by Lavender Sage

Author:Lavender Sage [Sage, Lavender]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-26T23:00:00+00:00

2

Callum

I found myself winding through the crowd of richly dressed men and women at the Thorne’s Christmas charity ball. What am I doing here? I asked myself for the hundredth time as I struggled to find a quiet corner until the auction started.

The trip back home was supposed to last only a week but here I was, four months later, an employed teacher at Knightswood High teaching English to kids between grades nine and twelve. I lived two streets away from my parents’ house and each evening, I spent planning out lessons or grading through abysmal writing samples.

“Whatever happened to me,” I muttered under my breath as an older woman dressed in a gaudy purple gown narrowly missed from crashing into me. If I wasn’t watching my steps, I would be drenched in the vile red drink in her hand.

About four months ago, I received a frantic call from Jason, my best friend from high school.

“Callum,” he panted. “Are you in the US right now?”

“Yeah. What’s up?” I asked, standing in a rented apartment in Chicago.

“Good…actually, it’s about your Dad. Your parents were over at our house for lunch yesterday and Peter suddenly collapsed. We took him to the hospital and from what I heard, he had a stroke.”

“What?” I gasped. “Dad had a stroke? Is he all right?”

“He is doing better but the doctors haven’t discharged him yet. Your mother hasn’t been taking it well and so, Mom made me call you up. She said Judith didn’t want to alarm you until they had results from his tests but Mom thinks you should get here as soon as you can.”

“Of course,” I said, anxiety coiling around my stomach. “I’ll head out immediately. If all goes well, I can be there by this evening.”

I heard Jason exhale a long breath. “That’s good, buddy. Mom is really worried about your parents and she’d have given me all the grief if you weren’t here. Just come home. It’s been too long since we saw each other.”

It had been long.

After high school, I went away to Yale for four years to major in English. With university and the pressures that came with it, I visited home only during Christmas. It never gave us enough time to hang out with both our families demanding our time and attention. After graduating, I wasn’t sure which way to go. I could either look for a job or join my father in looking after our construction business. I wasn’t ready for either and decided to take some time to travel around the globe.

The nomadic life of a traveler was addicting. Traveling to each new place brought a thrill of its own. There was always something to look forward to and each trip brought new friends and adventures.

“I will see you when I get there,” I replied back and hung up.

That same day, I’d packed my bags and taken the earliest flight to Philadelphia. It was close to the middle of August and the evening was warm as I hailed a cab from the airport to drive me to Knightswood.

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