Paradise Wild Read Online Free PDF Page B

withholding her love. She no longer smiled or laughed. She began to drink heavily, and frequently cried silent, hopeless tears.
    For two years Jared lived in a state of confusion. He didn’t understand why his mother didn’t love him anymore. He didn’t understand why his parents fought all the time. And then Ranelle was expecting a baby. Rodney had first been delighted, but then things between them got even worse. Ranelle turned from melancholy to bitterness. She didn’t want the new baby. Rodney stayed away from the house, but the arguments didn’t stop. Now Ranelle also fought with Akela, who warned against her heavy drinking. Jared stayed away from his home as much as possible.
    When Malia was born, Ranelle wanted nothing to do with her. She gave the baby over to Akela, took to her bottle again, and was hardly ever sober. Jared finally came to understand why his mother had changed. She was still in love with Samuel Barrows. He had overheard many fights between his parents, but one in particular explained much.
    It occurred early one morning, just after Malia’s birth, before Ranelle had a chance to find her rum. Jared wasstill in bed, but his room was next to his parents’ and their loud voices woke him.
    “For God’s sake, go to him then!” Rodney was shouting. “You’re no good to me anymore, you’re no good to your children. You haven’t been a wife or mother since that bastard Barrows came here. Yes, you gave me another child, but only because I forced myself on you.”
    “Please leave me alone, Rodney,” Ranelle replied. “I can’t help the way I feel.”
    His father’s voice was filled with pain. “Why, Ranelle? Just tell me why? Our first eight years were good. We were happy. How could we have been so happy if you still loved him?”
    “I had given him up. I thought there would never be a chance for us, don’t you see? I made myself forget him. I should have waited for him. He had always intended to leave his wife after a few years, but I didn’t know that. I should have waited.”
    “Did you ever love me, Ranelle?”
    “Oh, Rodney.” Ranelle started to cry. “I never wanted to hurt you. I did love you. But Samuel was my first love, and I can’t help loving him still.”
    “Then go to him,” Rodney said brokenly. “I will give you a divorce.”
    Ranelle laughed, but it was not a happy sound. “It’s too late! He wrote me after he returned to Boston. His dear wife had a baby while he was gone, six months after he left. Now he’ll never leave her.”
    “Ranelle, Ranelle, forget him. Can’t you do that? You did it once before. Forget him again.”
    “How can I when I know this time that he still wants me? He proved that by coming here to find me. He loves me and I love him!”
    “You must do something, Ranelle. We can’t go onlike this. I can’t work anymore. And it’s affecting Jared. He’s withdrawn, he’s become moody. You have got to stop drinking and start acting like a wife and mother again.”
    “Leave me alone, Rodney.”
    “Ranelle, please.”
    “Just go away. I don’t want to talk anymore.”
    There was silence. But now Jared knew why his life had been turned upside down.
    And when Malia was one year old, Ranelle Burkett died.
    It was a stormy night, the night Jared still had nightmares about. His father was in Honolulu, and Akela had taken Malia and two-year-old Naneki to visit relatives in Kahuku for a few days. The eleven-year-old Jared had become very protective of his mother, and would not leave her alone in the house. Just the two of them were there that night.
    Jared heard the patio door leading to the beach open and close, and he got out of bed to see if Akela had returned. When he found no one in the house he ran to his mother’s room but found it empty, a half-filled bottle of rum lying in the middle of the bed.
    He panicked, for his mother never left the house at night. He raced outside and down to the beach, screaming Mother over and over again.