Episode 2

We had finally arrived in San Angelo, the city seemed bigger or was my mind playing tricks on me? With the shadows of mountains on the horizon, it was easy to stop the car in the middle of the main avenue and admire the clouds passing in the sky. Mom decided to park the car in a spot right in front of the grocery store, perhaps the only one in town.

"Your grandma likes hazelnut chocolate, I thought of taking it as a gift..." I smiled at her words and waited inside the car. It was clear that my mom was stalling to finally get to the place where the family lived.

"Aunt Mary? Is that really you?" A woman with long blonde hair crossed the street, wearing a white shirt and black riding pants. My mom was startled by being called and immediately faced the girl.

"Cristal? Little Cristal Beauchamp?!" Mom responded as the girl opened a wide smile affirming it. That was my cousin Cristal, ten years older than me, which meant she should be twenty-six now. I watched from inside the car as the two embraced, it was quite a beautiful reunion. Cristal turned around and called for a man who was on top of a truck throwing hay on the ground. Looking more closely, I noticed that the man was her twin brother, Luke Beauchamp.

At some point, I refused to just stay in the car, pretending I hadn't seen anyone and that my mom was waving desperately outside, calling me. I threw my head back and got out, slamming the door right after.

"Is this little Louise? Wow, look at how she's grown!" Luke was the one saying as he pulled me into a tight hug that I couldn't return. Looking closer now, I noticed that both of them also had a pendant around their necks, just like my mom, but the designs on them were different.

"It seems like you didn't tell grandma you were coming... Take the chocolates and two jars of honey." Cristal whispered to my mom, which made us laugh because that was definitely not a whisper.

"See you later, we need to finish unloading the hay. We'll be back in the evening, is that enough?" Luke asked, looking at my mom, who smiled and caressed his face lovingly.

"It will be. Thank you, my loves. If she allows it, I'll make your favorite blackberry pie." Mom replied, earning a small celebration from the twins who hugged again and returned to the truck. At that moment, I didn't understand and just looked at her with some surprise. When the two were already far away, I dared to ask.

"What was all that? And since when do you make blackberry pie?" I was still in shock, hoping that my mom could honestly answer me.

"Maybe one day I'll tell you the truth. For now, there's nothing that needs to be understood here." She replied as she returned to the car, ignoring the main reason that led her to stop in that place.

(...)

The Beauchamp Ranch, as it was known throughout the state. My family had the largest number of land possible, thousands of acres where corn, soybeans, coffee, and vegetables were grown for the local business. My grandmother managed everything with great grace and joy, my cousins worked with her as well as their sons and daughters. I still didn't understand how my mom had abandoned the family in the past. Does grief cause this in people? The feeling of escape.

When we stopped at the entrance of the ranch, the employees smiled at seeing a different car, and in the center of it all was the big house with an elderly woman with gray hair holding a hat while giving orders to the group of young men in front of her.

"Mrs. Agnes, there's a visitor." That's what I heard when the car finally stopped and she turned around, looking sternly at the car, but that look disappeared when she saw us. Her eyes shimmered with tears.

"Oras Lorenzo, they're not visitors. My daughter and granddaughter!" she smiled and ran to embrace me. I couldn't quite understand what was happening, well, one day my mother would explain. I was tightly squeezed in her arms, almost running out of breath, but I still missed the scent of cookies that emanated from her. When it was my mother's turn, the silence between them was frightening. It was my mother who broke it, stuttering a few words, and then my grandmother hugged her as tightly as she could. Dismissing the employees to their tasks, she guided us to the entrance of the house, where a woman with long black hair and fair skin was standing, watching the scene with a smile on her lips.

"Eva, look at what the wind brought." I smiled awkwardly as I looked at the woman. That was my aunt, Evangeline Beauchamp, better known as Eva to close ones and mother of twins Cristal and Luke.

Radiating elegance and kindness, Eva walked towards where I had stopped and hugged me, as if she felt a huge weight lifting off her shoulders. Everything was so confusing, but in a glimpse, I saw the same pendant around her neck, sparkling in silver. In that moment, I remembered when I was six years old, before the move, and dreamt of the day I would receive my own pendant.