Chapter 25
The Skeleton Is Thrown from the Closet
The next Saturday morning, Jacob woke to the front door slamming. He looked out of his window to see Carolyn and Uncle John backing out of the driveway.
“Whitaker Wedding,” Katrina said from his doorway.
He jumped at the sound of her voice. He’d assumed she’d gone with them. Before he could tell her to take a hike, she helped herself to a seat at his new desk.
“So, how’s it feel to be the family charity case?” she said. “My God, look at this place.”
“Excuse me?” he said. “If you have nothing nice to say, just leave. Get out of my room.”
“Well, I just thought we should get to know each other, I mean if you’re staying and I’m leaving.”
“Katrina, you haven’t said more than a sentence to me in months. You’ve treated me like crap since I walked in that door. Why in the world would we get to know each other now?” He glared at her and pulled a T-shirt over his head.
“Do you want to know why I hate you, Jacob?” she said.
He did not dignify the question with an answer.
She seemed to be considering something. She tapped her fingers on the desk for so long Jacob was tempted to reach out and slap her hand. “Has anyone told you why we’d never met before you came here?”
“No. I never got a straight answer on that one.”
She looked at the floor. “Paris is a small town, an all-American town. Do you know that almost every man in the Laudner family has served in the military?”
“No. I didn’t know that.”
“They did. See our grandfather served in the Navy during World War II.” She motioned for him to follow her out into the hall and pointed at a yellowed picture of a man on an old battleship. “In 1944, he was on the USS Essex when a Kamikaze pilot hit it. You know what Kamikazi were, right?”
“Of course, I grew up near Pearl Harbor. They were Japanese suicide pilots. So what?”
“Grandpa’s ship was hit by one,” she repeated. “He lived but he never fully recovered. He had nightmares about that last day on the Essex for decades. And, as you can understand, he hated the Japanese until the day he died. It was just two years ago, you know?”
Jacob’s face twisted. If Grandpa Laudner died just two years ago, he was alive at the time of his father’s death. Why hadn’t he ever met the man?
“Here’s a picture of our great Uncle Jerry, Grandpa’s younger brother.” She pointed her finger at one of three uniformed men standing in front of the Laudner oak tree. Jacob recognized the man on Uncle Jerry’s right to be a young Uncle John and on the left was the same man from the picture with the USS Essex. It was Grandpa Laudner but older.
“Grandpa must have been so proud when his brother left for Korea. I never met Uncle Jerry though. He was killed in 1952 in the war.”
The picture of Uncle Jerry was yellowing but the man looked young, too young to die in a faraway war.
“My dad fought in Vietnam. Barely made it out alive.”
“Katrina, I’m really sorry about your uncle and grandfather, but what has this got to do with me?”
“It has everything to do with you, Jacob. It is you!” she hissed. “Don’t you get it? Your father, my Uncle Charlie, after all the pain these Orientals caused this family, brought one home to marry!”
Jacob’s breath caught in his throat. “What?”
“You heard me.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Sure, there was bigotry in Paris, but Uncle John had treated him pretty well since coming here. Katrina must be exaggerating. There was no way marrying his mother was reason enough for John to cut off his own brother.
“Grandma was beside herself. Grandpa told Uncle Charlie it was your mother or the family. Uncle Charlie chose your mother.”
“That doesn’t even make sense. My mother was Chinese. She wasn’t Japanese or Vietnamese, and she wasn’t a soldier.”
“So, there’s a difference?”
Jacob stepped back as if her words had knuckles. It was all he could do not to punch the smirk right off her face. She was lucky he wasn’t near water or she might be a Popsicle. Katrina was a liar and for all he knew this was a ploy to crack him. She would love it if he blew up again.
“That’s why you’ve never met us. Uncle Charlie was estranged from our family since I was three years old. My mother told me he even changed his name as a last strike of defiance against our grandpa. That’s why your last name is Lau, not Laudner. Apparently being married to one wasn’t enough.”
What she said was horrible, but was it true? He scanned the images lining the hall. Every one of them was white. It would explain some things. Was this what Uncle John was talking about when he mentioned the worst thing he’d ever done? Jacob had to admit the pieces of the past fit within this frame. Uncle John and the rest of the Laudner family had disowned his father for marrying his mother.
But something didn’t make sense about Katrina’s story. Something was missing. The way she paraded the family skeletons made Jacob believe there was more. He didn’t trust her, but still, he needed to know the truth.
“So, you’re telling me that your family is a bunch of bigots.” His voice sounded louder than he’d intended. “If that were true, then why did Uncle John bring me here?”
“First of all, there’s a difference between bigotry and good common sense.” She sneered at him and he resisted the urge to slap her. Through her teeth, she said, “My father brought you here because I’m a girl. My parents can’t have any more children. That means that you, as hopeless as you are, are the last male Laudner heir. Apparently, meeting the terms of our great-great-grandfather’s one hundred fifty-year-old last will and testament is so important that it is worth associating with you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The shop, the Laudner livelihood, is held in trust based on a vision our great-great-grandfather had one hundred fifty years ago. The shop must be handed down to a male heir or the property will be donated to the city. No, it doesn’t make sense. But it’s the truth. So excuse me for not being overjoyed at your presence here. I’ve worked in that shop for my entire life and they pick you. I’ll be gone soon enough and you can swoop in and seal the deal. My inheritance is all but yours. Obviously, my father hasn’t had any problem casting me aside for you.”
Katrina turned on her heel and stormed into her room, slamming the door.
“I don’t even want it. You can have it,” he yelled after her. He could hear the click of her door locking behind her.
Jacob rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. It made sense. This was why he’d never in his life heard of the Laudners. In a numb fog, he dropped his hands and backed down the hall, never taking his eyes off of Katrina’s door until he was inside his own room. He collapsed onto his new comforter, bringing his knees to his chest. It wasn’t his choice to come here; it certainly wasn’t his choice to stay. At this point, he had very few choices.
Jacob had allowed himself to grow close to Uncle John these last couple of months. But now, now that he knew how twisted this family was, now that the evil of it was poured out at his feet, he knew for sure what he must do. He had to leave this place. He had to find his real family, the only real family he’d ever had. And, he had to do it soon. Because now that he knew how his uncle really felt about his mother, every minute here felt like a betrayal.