Mai Legacy
1.27 - The Sister
“I’m Jamie. Jamie Mai. I’m your sister.”
James took a step back. “Hang on just a minute… my sister?”
Jamie gave him a look and nodded slowly.
“But my parents- and you’re so much younger- so that means… after I left….”
“There you go, you’re getting it now James,” Jamie said with a sly smile. “That’s just it. After you left, mom and dad were so distraught that, after a year or two of looking, they had me! They needed a replacement, and yada, yada, yada, here I am. They wanted me to be you sooo badly that they basically used the same name.”
“But, no, mom and dad! Are you sure that Ed and Daniela-“
Jamie sighed. “How hard is this for you to understand, old man? The very same Ed and Daniela that gave birth to you gave birth to me!”
Behind Jamie, boots thudded loudly down the stairs as someone hurried to the front door. James was met by a teenage girl with the same black hair as Jamie.
“Wow! You’re him, aren’t you? You’re the James grandma and grandpa always went on about!” the girl said excitedly.
Jamie turned around. “Colette, later, okay? Let me meet your uncle first.”
Colette frowned bitterly, but still did as Jamie asked and sulked her way back up the stairs.
Jamie turned back around. “Anyway, James. You’re welcome to come in.”
Jamie gestured for James to enter her house, but James was still stood there in shook, trying to process the unexpected series of events.
“Or not…” Jamie sighed. She walked further into the house, and leaned around a corner just out of Jame’s sight. “Ty! It’s finally happened, he’s here!”
James followed Jamie into the house, and she gestured for him to shut the door behind him. He quickly did as she had gestured.
“Bugs get into the house if we leave the doors open,” Jamie explained. “I’m sure as someone who’s living the high life across the ocean in Windenburg, you wouldn’t understand the problem.”
“I grew up in Oasis Springs, Jamie…” James said quietly.
“Hmm… I’m not to sure about that, the parents I remember would never have raised a son who was so ungrateful that he couldn’t even be bothered to give them a call.”
James didn’t even have a response to that. The two stood there in silence for a minute, then Jamie let out a deep sigh. “Ty must be outside tending to the animals. Follow me.”
Without even waiting for a response, Jamie headed upstairs. James hurried after her and walked out onto the second floor. At the end of the hallway he was now standing in, he caught a glimpse of Colette taking a look at him before she quickly ducked into a room, slamming and locking the door behind her. Jamie led him past that door to another.
“This here’s the spare room,” she sighed. “Mom and dad expected this day to come, and told me that when you did finally gain the courage to show your face round these parts again, that this room be ready.” She opened the door, and gestured towards the desk, where an abundance of newspaper clippings sat.
James sat down, and began to shuffle through them. Each and every piece was an article about him, the family he’d built, the drama he’d endured ever since moving to Windenburg…
“You thought you were so clever, running off, moving miles and miles away in hopes to never be found. But find you mom and dad did,” Jamie nodded. “It may have taken them a good year, but your name finally showed up in an article after poor mom and dad spent every nearly every hour of every day searching. They weren’t ever going to fly out, they had a resort to run, but they hoped deep down that one day you’d return and introduce them to the beautiful Susan, your perfect children, Seth and Leah, and they loved both Jocelyn and Maverick from the moment they entered the spotlight by marrying into your family.”
James watched her speak with bated breath.
“But tragically, that day never came,” Jamie went on. “Dad went first. Cancer. Mom spent the last of her days in the hospital, she wanted me to email you so you could fly out and see her before she passed, but I knew that she deserved so much better than having to face the son who’d abandoned her while she was in ailing health.”
“Jamie, I-“
“No James!” Jamie snarled. “You don’t get to speak about them! While you ran off and got famous in Windenburg by battling the Le Chiens, I stayed put here in Oasis Springs, tending to their resort! The resort fell to shit anyway, Nancy Landgraab ran us into bankruptcy just before she died, and I sold the stupid place for as much as I could make off of it. So here I am now, a farmhand to my husband, with a daughter who hates every moment she spends in this ranch house. So, no, James, you’ve done nothing to further this family, you know who sat by mom’s side as she breathed her last? Me. You know who negotiated deals for the last of dad’s paintings as they rapidly fell in value thanks to the works of you and freaking Giovanna Cardwell? Me. I’m only being so nice to you because it’s what mom and dad would have wanted.”
“That was never any of my intention, Jamie!” James shouted loudly.
“Oh really?” Jamie said snidely, standing up.
“If I’d had any idea you were all struggling so much, I’d have been down here in an instant! In all honesty, I can’t believe that you didn’t tell me mom was dying when I’m her son too!”
“A bad son,” Jamie quipped.
A man ran into the room and stepped in-between the two of them, hands outstretched.
“Ty…” Jamie grumbled.
“Let’s stop the fighting in here, y’all hear?” Ty said. He gestured for the two to follow him.
James and Jamie gave each other smoldering looks but followed him anyway. Ty led the two of them into the kitchen, where he sat James and Jamie down, then he headed into the kitchen and began brewing a pot of coffee.
James spotted a picture from across the room, and pushed his chair back. He walked slowly over to it, and looked into his parent’s faces for the first time in years.
“They, uh, helped out on this ranch when they could,” Jamie said quietly, walking up behind him.
James nodded quickly, worried Jamie was going to go off on him again with another series of good points.
“Look, James,” Jamie said. James turned away from the picture. “No matter my opinion, it doesn’t change the fact that the Ed and Daniela wouldn’t have wanted us to fight like this. And plus? We’re both way older than adults now. We should be more mature.”
“I… er, yeah I agree with that,” James said with a slight smile.
Ty walked back over to the table, and carefully placed three steaming cups of coffee on the table. “I knew you two could be nice to each other,” he gestured dramatically.
“Oh, shut it, Ty,” Jamie laughed, lightly pushing his shoulder.
The three sipped their coffee in silence for a few minutes.
James broke the silence. “…I’ve had the feeling for a while now that, well, mom and dad had passed on, but it just didn’t feel real until today… I… I really just let them die, not knowing the man I’d become, because I was too afraid to face them again after running so far as someone who was young and stupid.”
Jamie and Ty shared a look. It was clear neither of them really knew how to respond to that statement.
James shook his head at himself. “I’m sorry, I shouldn't have said that. You're right, Jamie. I really don't have the right.”
Ty finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp. “I’ll show you around the ranch.”
“Okay… thanks.” James said, surprised.
James finished up his coffee, and followed Ty out of the room. By the time James and Ty walked back up to the ranch, the sun was setting. Jamie was waving from the back porch.
“I fixed up your bed, James,” Jamie called out. “Dinner’s long cold, but you’re welcome to leftovers from the fridge.”
James climbed up the steps to the porch, shaking his head. “I’ll just go to bed.”
Jamie nodded, and embraced Ty as he made his way up next to her. James let himself into the house and walked up the stairs to the second floor. As he passed Colette’s room, Colette opened up her door quickly.
“James! Please, can I talk to you?” she begged.
James gave her a concerned look. “Of course, Colette.”
Colette grabbed his arm and tugged him into her room, shutting the door behind her. She paced the room nervously.
“Okay,” she said, stopping pacing. “I need you to hear me out, okay?”
“Yeah, of course, Colette,” James nodded, a little confused about what was happening.
“James, please take me with you when you leave!” Colette said quickly.
James stopped to process what she was saying.
“Look, I know it puts you in a tough spot with my mom, but she already hates you anyway, so it won’t be a big deal! Please, James, I’ve spent my whole life wanting to leave this stupid ranch and the dust and the heat, when Grandma Daniela and Grandpa Ed told me about you leaving this dumb town, I pictured you coming back, rescuing me from this awful place-“
“Colette, I get where you’re coming from, but what you’re asking… I can’t do that.” James said, cutting in.
“James, please, you have to get me out of here!”
“I feel for you, Colette, I really do,” James explained. “But you need to understand, I just can’t take some girl from her home. If it helps, I’ll leave you with my number, okay? Feel free to text me, vent to me, just please don’t make the same mistake I did and leave your family for good.”
Colette rolled her eyes to hide her tears. “Wow. You’re just like the rest of them, aren’t you?”
“Colette, no-“
Colette opened the door and shoved James out. She slammed it after him and James heard the lock click, immediately followed by muffled crying. He resolved that even if she didn’t text him, he’d get her number from Jamie, somehow, and text her. He’d been in that place before, and the last thing he wanted was for another from his family to follow in his footsteps.