When the Echo Answers: A Companion Novel to In the Echo of this Ghost Town by CL Walters

Author:CL Walters [Walters, CL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mixed Plate Press

Chapter Fifteen

I walk down the steps from Freid Science building, feeling happy, and anticipating my jog. I’m looking forward to talking with Griffin, since we’ve sort of gotten into a rhythm of checking in once a day. I anticipate it more than I should, but being his friend makes me more content than not being his friend. I’ve stepped into a sweet rhythm at school, and for the first time feel like the outside beat of life moving around me matches my actual steps.

As I start across campus, someone calls my name. I stop and turn.

“Maxwell?”

I freeze. I may be eighteen, but suddenly I’m five.

It’s a woman I recognize, and my body bursts into cold flames.

“Oh my god! It is you.” The woman saying my name rushes forward and puts her arms around me for a one-sided hug.

My mother.

She smells mostly the same: like sweet lemon and a tinge of wildflowers.

My muscles won’t unlock.

“Oh my god.” She holds me away from her but doesn’t let go of my arms as she studies my face. “I’ve been looking for you. I hired an investigator. I mean, my parents did, but here you are!”

My tongue loosens the concrete. “What are you talking about? You left.”

“Well, yes, but–” She lets me go and steps back to study the rest of me.

I blink. “What are you doing here?”

She glances about as people move around us to and from class. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

“I–” I don’t know what I’m feeling. Confusion at the fact my mother is standing in front of me. Wary because she’s walked away. I don’t trust her or the rush of trepidation in my muscles. Fear because I don’t understand what’s happening and why she’s standing here. Guilty because I wish my dad was with me. Her being here would hurt him. “I have a class.” It’s a lie, but I need to collect myself.

“Maybe for dinner.”

“I have a library thing.” I need time to think.

“I just. I needed to see you. To talk.”

“You left.”

She looks down at her hands, then shoves them into the pockets of her gray coat. We have the same color hair, but her hair isn’t straight. Her eyes aren’t exactly blue, but they aren’t gray either. I have my dad’s eyes. She’s wearing a full-length skirt and her turtleneck peeks from the coat belted around her waist, stylish and expensive. She’s smaller and shorter than me, waifish, and I couldn’t be more different. Another set of traits I got from my dad. I am my father’s daughter.

“I would like the chance to explain.”

“Seems like you walked away from that right.” I surprise myself with my strength because I’m not feeling it. When I was younger, all I wanted was for her to walk back through the door. Here she is, and I’m pushing her away.

“You disappeared. I couldn’t find you. I came back.”

“What are you talking about?” This doesn’t sit right, as if she’s saying something sinister.

“I did leave. I did.” She shakes her head.

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