Homebound Ch. 02

"Oh Rachel!" Good thing I thought enough to turn my face into the pillow again or my words may have traveled through the entire city of Bellingham. My body shook, my legs trembled, my arms quivered as I gasped for air. We held each other in the aftershocks of our lovemaking and I cried. The happiness filling me was overwhelming and she just held me, tears streaming down her own cheeks. "I don't know how this is possible. I'm not a spiritual person but I can't deny what's happening right in front of us." I paused, kissing her damp forehead. "I love you, Rachel," I whispered.

She erupted in giggles and she kissed me soundly on the lips before saying, "I love you too, Jo."

We drifted into a light slumber at some point for when I woke up, the gray sky outside her bedroom window was a shade lighter. I stretched slowly, not wanting to disturb Rachel, whose head was laying across my breasts. She was so beautiful, her blonde hair splayed over my dark, naked skin. I felt that wave of affection and ardor in my chest again. Fuck, I loved her and she loved me. Rachel stirred with a soft coo and she lifted her head, gazing up at me. I sat forward, grabbing her and pulling her into my arms. "Last night, before I came in here, did you have a weird dream?" I murmured, my mouth on her neck.

"I did. It was so strange, like a memory but most of it in this weird mental slide show. Images of a barbwire fence, barrack like buildings in neat little rows with tiny cots in tinier rooms. Mostly, I remember coming back, to you grabbing me into your arms again. I couldn't stop crying," Rachel said. She was shivering, and I pulled the blanket back over her. I kissed her head and snuggled to her even more, the strange memory of our time apart, our reunion. The memories kept pouring in and I feared for my sanity. She told me about her family, her older brother being gay, and I found it kind of ironic that two of her four siblings were queer. Her mother was very devout to her religion and that scared me.

Her face was suddenly bashful as she ran her hand over my scarred abdomen. "Who hurt you?" she whispered, her palm grazing the ugly flesh.

"It happened during a fight I picked. I had a bad habit of picking fights with bigger, stronger opponents as a teenager. It made me feel like I had some kind of control in my life." Sympathy flashed across her face but not pity, which I was thankful for. She settled her chest against my breasts again and I squeezed her, cherishing our closeness and the feeling of her skin on my own.

****

"What do you mean, you told mom?" Rachel snapped at Kayla. The three of us sat in the kitchen around the island, nibbling on doughnuts Rachel had gone out and bought from the corner store up the street. I sipped my coffee, trying to mind my business. I mean, the conversation was actually sort of my business, as Rachel and I were going to move forward with a relationship and her sister outing her to their very Mormon mother kind of involved me.

Kayla looked down at her cup of tea and grimaced. "I didn't mean to, sis, I swear! She was spewing all this hateful shit and I just couldn't stand it. I told her that it wasn't fair you had to hide yourself because of her hate and her beliefs."

Rachel paced, running fingers through her hair. "Then what?"

"She just sat there with her mouth open like I told her I talked to Jesus. She didn't say much other than to get out, so, I did. And then I called you."

I watched Rachel tense more, if that was even possible. I hadn't known much about the inner workings of her family other than what she told me the previous night after our dramatic profession and acceptance of the strange world we were in.

"Kayla, it wasn't for you to tell her," Rachel said quietly. Kayla began crying and she stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the guest bedroom door in teenager fashion. I stood and brought my arms around Rachel. She was shaking but settled with the contact, winding her own arms around me. "You have no idea what can of worms she just opened."

I sighed because I could only imagine the extent of said can of worms. I knew it was bad because of the way she spoke of her mother and her long time concealing the fact that she was a lesbian. The only thing that came to mind to calm her upset was, "We've been through worse."

Rachel laughed and shook her head. "I can't believe this is even possible. On top of my kid sister outing me to our crazy mother, I'm entertaining the concept of finding a woman I spent my life with, in a past life. This has to be the definition of crazy. How am I supposed to process all of this?" She looked at me and smiled despite her apparent distress. I had to admit she had me there. I didn't know how I was supposed to process all of it let alone how to help her do the same. It was different to admit the ethereal happenings in the privacy of her room, after a night of lovemaking but trying to grasp the reality of it in the real world was odd.

"I don't know, baby," I pushed an errant strand of blond hair from her face and she leaned her cheek into my hand. "We deal with it. Kayla was kicked out. What more can your parents do?"

She snorted and pulled away from me, securing her cup of coffee and taking a long sip. "For one thing, they're going to cut me off, financially and in general. Second thing, I'm sure them kicking Kayla out wasn't the end of it. I know my mother and she will do her best to try to throw guilt at her." She turned and looked at me. "And she's only seventeen. Legally, my mom could consider her a runaway even though she kicked her out." Rachel was scared, not for herself but for Kayla. I could see that for certain. "One of our brothers has been excommunicated from the entire family for years now. He's okay, only because he had some great friends who helped him along the way. He's made a good life for himself in Seattle but, before he left, she threatened him with conversion therapy."

"That's illegal now," Kayla said from behind us. Rachel moved away from me, grabbing her cup of coffee. Kayla continued with, "I looked it up and it's illegal in this state, as of June. So, unless she wants to uproot my life and take me to fucking Utah or Idaho, she's out of luck and I'm still a lesbian." I attempted to hide my snicker behind my hand. She had been pretty proactive with figuring out her rights. The sound of my phone ringing caught my attention. "I'll just file for emancipation," Kayla retorted.

"I'll be right back, I've just got to grab my phone," I told Rachel. She nodded and then turned toward her sister with a scoff. I went to Rachel's room and grabbed my phone, seeing a few text messages from Alejandra and one from Ana.

The latest text from him made me laugh. Hey, Ana told me you had a date last night and I wanted to make sure you didn't hookup with a serial killer. Text me, dude.

I quickly sent a text his way, letting him know I was fine. As I rounded the corner to the kitchen, I heard Rachel's voice. "I said no, you are not working. Your work is school right now and I don't care how you swing it. I can't have you dropping out of school—," the sound of a knock on the door halted Rachel's words. The visitor knocked again, and Rachel moved toward the door. I peeked around the wall and saw Rachel head to the door.

"Dad?" Rachel stepped back and let the towering man enter. I saw the similarities between him and the two siblings. His blonde hair was sprinkled with grays and he held a commanding presence as he stepped into Rachel's living room. Deep wrinkles were set in his forehead and he set his watery blue eyes on Rachel. "What are you doing here?" Rachel shut her door, resuming her spot in the kitchen and folding her arms as she waited for her father to reply. Kayla had plopped onto a barstool at the island, nibbling on a doughnut as if this were a normal occurrence. Rachel's body language told me otherwise.

The man sighed, and I realized how tired he looked. "I've been meaning to tell you both this for some time now. Your mother and I are getting a divorce." The two siblings gasped, and I decided to slink away from the private, familial discussion. It wasn't mine to listen in on and I wasn't going to intrude without Rachel's permission. We may have been lovers from a past life, but that didn't mean she wanted me involved in the current inner-workings of her family issues, especially with the bombshell her father dropped on her.

I headed back to her room and sat on the bed. The strangeness that crowded the last month and a half swirled around my mind. How could it be possible to remember a past life? How could reincarnation even be a thing? My mama raised me Catholic until she passed but I didn't follow any particular religion. I believed in science. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. So, if that were the case, in respects to a soul, could it be possible that instead of someone's consciousness fading away and decaying with the physical body, it moved forward to another form? The possibility of it freaked me out but I couldn't conceive how else Rachel and I had shared dreams, memories from the past. There was no real way to test my theory, though but I couldn't deny what we shared.

"Jo?" I heard Rachel's soft voice lift from the hallway and I stood, opening her bedroom door. "Come on," she said, holding her hand out. I took her outreached hand and was led to the living room where her father was still standing. "Dad, this is Jo."

The man smiled warily and reached out to shake my hand. It was so fucking awkward but I shook his hand anyway. "Nice to meet the woman who makes my daughter so happy," he said. His tone was sincere, I'll give him that. After the introduction, Rachel and Kayla said goodbye and their father left.

Rachel dropped onto the couch, shaking her head and letting out a dramatic sigh. "Wow," Kayla chuckled, entering the living room. "I guess I get the spare room indefinitely?"

***********

Rachel Emily Moore

The conversation with our father was strained at best. He apologized to us for our mother's abhorrent behavior and for following along with her radical religious notions. He told us he had been in contact with Matt and did his best to reconcile what he could from their relationship. It warmed my heart to know he reached out to our brother, not only because it gave me and Kayla hope for the future but because Matt deserved some recognition for the treatment he endured at such a tender age of young adulthood. Our father was holding off the divorce as long as he could but our mother kicking Kayla out had been the last straw, he'd said.

With his blessing, Kayla was to stay with me in my apartment with his financial assistance until she graduated high school. It was an unbelievably turn of events and I was in disbelief. He asked how I was and of course Kayla had to blurt out that I was happily in a relationship. She used much more colorful words that made our father visibly cringe but he said nothing to lead us to believe he disagreed with my joy.

A few short weeks later, the three of us had settled into a somewhat normal routine. Well, kind of normal. Jo spent most nights at my condo and she finally moved in with me after I met Ana and Alejandro. We'd had the talk numerous times but she didn't want to impose no matter how many times I told her it wouldn't be a problem. She invited me to her shared home one night for dinner and I was flabbergasted by the warm welcome exuded by her friends. The siblings accepted me with kindness and I couldn't have been happier to meet Jo's chosen family.

Kayla, Jo and I sat at my kitchen island after eating a delicious dinner of homemade chorizo and rice that Jo made for us. She was working out a lesson plan for school, lifting her gaze to smile at me from time to time while I read a cheesy Lesfic novel. Jo had spoiled me, buying me half a dozen new romance novels for my scant collection and I got right to work on reading them. She reached her hand over and placed it on my thigh, the unspoken understanding still a little strange at times. Since our realization of our shared connection, it was as if I couldn't be away from her for longer than my twelve hour shift at the hospital. I needed to feel her, to be close to her, to kiss her. I smiled at her before getting back to my book, her thumb caressing my skin over my jeans.

Kayla was grumbling over a textbook and I finally cleared my throat, catching her attention. "What are you huffing and puffing about over there?"

Kayla rolled her eyes before looking up from her book. I ignored the sister sass and raised my eyebrows. "It's just Pacific Northwest history but it's the bane of my existence," she groaned, throwing her head back.

I laughed at her dramatic statement. "Isn't that a class you take in eighth grade?"

She grimaced. "I failed it in the eighth grade. If I don't pass it this year, I won't graduate."

I scooted my barstool closet to her, the disconnect from Jo only slightly alarming and I snatched the book from my sister. "What are you working on now?" I asked, my eyes scanning the book before I flipped through the pages.

"The Japanese interment camps during World War Two. It's pretty fucked up what the government did, in my opinion. Kind of like what they're doing to those poor immigrant kids now, but that's worse because they're taking them away from their parents at the border."

The picture I stumbled upon in the book had me gasping, "Jo, look!" My tone seemed to startle her as she stood and came over, an arm wrapping around my shoulders. The picture in question was of family of Japanese Americans in front of a long stretch of single file buildings. The woman in the middle was without a doubt Keiko, her slender arm clutching her younger sister, Hana's shoulders.

"Oh my God," Jo whispered.

"What is with you two?" Kayla poked her head over to look at the page that we reacted to and then stared dubiously at us. The caption beneath the photograph readThe Takeda family at the Tule Lake Internment Camp, California 1944.

Although we had come to the agreement that nothing else was a suitable explanation for the strange memories we shared, when we looked at that photograph and our eyes met, we knew without a shred of doubt that we were correct in our assumptions.

*******

I'm debating whether to continue with them or maybe another couple with a similar plot. Let me know if anyone has an interest in this. Thank you so much for reading and please comment your opinions!