Free Whispering Minds by A.T. O'Connor

ago.
    Besides, there was no way I could forget Travis.
    Yet he seemed to know things. Like the funeral lady had. Like my mom tried forgetting.
    Lies of omission swirled around my head.
    My mind raced, examining possibilities of extramarital affairs. Could Granny and Clarence have had a thing like Travis suspected?
    Honey, there ain’t none of us that don’t know your daddy and what he done.
    Had my dad taken revenge and hurt Clarence? Is that why he was missing a foot? The thought made my stomach roll, and no matter how hard I tried to make it fit, I couldn’t figure out what that had to do with me. Unless my dad had served jail time. That would explain why everyone had let Clarence—and my dad’s past—slip from my memory.
    I tucked the rest of the letter, unread, back into the envelope. When Clarence returned, he gave me the bunny. I looked at him with renewed interest—as a lifelong partner for Granny, replacing her dead husband just two months after my father’s birth. And then my heart stopped at the unthinkable. Could Clarence be my dad’s father?
    Time blurred.
    An engine hummed.
    Scooby Doo nodded.
    The question from Clarence’s office raced through my mind. Was my dad the product of a relationship between Granny and Clarence? An uncle to Travis? Could this be why my dad hated Travis so much? Why I’d been lukewarm to his affections all these years? I ran through my family tree and expanded it to include Clarence as my grandfather and Travis as my cousin. I shivered and dismissed it. There’s no way Granny would keep something like that from me. Promise or not.
    “Gem?” Trav’s voice was a caress. “What happened in there?”
    “How long have you known my granny?”
    “Forever.”
    That didn’t make sense. Because if he knew Granny and Granny knew him, then I had to have known him long before high school, and he knew me. If so, my entire life was a lie. Mine, not Granny’s and not Clarence’s.
    Somebody was playing with me, trying to make me crazy. “You’re gaslighting me.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Gaslighting. It’s what abusers do to torment their victims. We learned all about it in psychology. You drive people insane by messing with their minds.”
    Travis met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “That’s crazy, Gemi. Nobody is trying to hurt you.”
    “But you’ve lied to me.”
    A pained look crossed his face. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
    “You mean to you. Don’t do this to you.” I nearly spit the words at him. “And her. She lied to me, too. You all did. If you all knew each other, how come you didn’t know me?”
    “I did.”
    My lungs stopped working. It felt like I’d been punched in the gut and couldn’t catch my breath. I was dying inside, my body shutting down just like Granny’s had. The ache of death crushed me, and I silently begged for it. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t I know?”
    “I was only trying to protect you. We all were.” He rested his hand on my shoulder.
    I threw it off. Anger replaced my shock. “From who?”

Chapter 11
     
    I pushed my cheek against the cold glass of the window. I couldn’t deal with life right now. I cried out in my mind, calling for Granny to confront her for the truths she’d kept hidden, for her part in the Big Secret. She didn’t answer.
    Daisy did. You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to.
    I focused on her voice and found her in a corner of my mind, created out of nothing by my needs. I had taken lucid dreaming to a whole new level. She patted the floor beside her. She wasn’t alone. While the Dozen looked nothing like their avatars of scenery or cartoons, I recognized them just the same. Abandoned by everyone else, I embraced this new ability to conjure up my cyber friends. Daisy was right. I didn’t have to be alone.
    Travis threw his jacket across my lap at the same time my dream-self snuggled up with Daisy under her fleece blanket. She squeezed my hand and whispered,