"Well when you put it that way...." Charisma said drolly. Okasa gave her a tight smile. "Mama, why didn't you just call me?"
"Have a seat," motioning Charisma to one of the recliners while she reseated herself on the couch. "I'll start at the beginning of my part of this saga. Then maybe you'll fill in the beginning of yours."
************
"So by the time I was finished talking to the young man on duty and he roused his sergeant to explain to me what Brianna had done and why he couldn't countermand her directive and so forth and so on, it was close to midnight. I did call your cell phone, but when I got no answer I figured you were out at some party or other. It was only once I got here and saw that the house was dark that I realized you were probably in bed asleep. So I let myself in."
"She really had you banned from the building?"
"Not from the building per se - simply from her visitor's list. I couldn't even get the young man to call and find out if there had been a mistake. When the sergeant came in, he assured me that Brianna had spoken to him personally shortly after you'd left. And a short time after that, she'd left for the remainder of the holiday for parts unknown."
"I thought she understood," Charisma muttered.
"Understood what?"
"It doesn't matter - evidently I was incorrect in my supposition."
Okasa glared. "Charisma, what did you and Brianna argue about?"
"We didn't argue, Mama," keeping her gaze steady when Okasa snorted her disbelief. "We didn't," Charisma insisted. "We talked about a number of different things, including the nature of the business that is politics in this town, but we didn't argue. She gave me the letters you told me about and then I left."
"And have you read them? The letters, Charisma - have you read them?"
"Mama, I just brought the box home last night. I haven't had time...."
"Have you even opened the box yet, Charisma?"
Charisma huffed. "No, Mama... I haven't. I do have other things in my life that take precedence over some old letters that were written twenty years ago," her expression defiant. Okasa glared at Charisma with more than a hint of disgust and aggravation on her countenance and Charisma shrugged her shoulders diffidently. "What??"
"You're a coward, Charisma Tagherty, and we raised you better than that. However," she went on, ignoring Charisma's sputtered attempts at outrage, "except as it concerns Brianna's withdrawal from our family, it's not really my business, is it?" Okasa paused. "That's what you were going to say, wasn't it? " A beat. "Charisma, if the letters weren't that important to you, why did you push to get them?"
"Who says I did?"
"Charisma, I *know* what Brianna's reaction was when she found out you knew about the letters. I'm the one who had to tell her you knew!"
"That doesn't mean I demanded she give them to me!"
"She wouldn't have given them to you if you hadn't asked her for them. They were hers to give... or not... and I know for a fact she had no intention of sharing them with you right now - she TOLD me so. But then she's never really been able to deny you very much, Daughter."
"I don't see what the big deal is - they're just some old letters that are addressed to me. Wouldn't you be the least bit curious if it was you, Mama?"
"Yes, probably," Okasa admitted without hesitation. "But then I never treated anyone in my life the way you have Brianna."
"She's the one who walked away, Mama!"
"And you're the one who let her go." Okasa snorted, her mien tainted with more than a hint of sadness. "You'd like to think no one can see past the faзade you've built around yourself. But the truth of the matter is - you're the only one who can't... or won't... see past it." She sighed soundlessly and rose from the couch. "Go read your letters, Charisma - or don't. It's up to you. I'm going to go take a shower and then I'm going home."
"But...."
"You said you had things to do. So do I, and believe it or not, they don't involve staying here. The only reason I came down here in the first place is because Brianna refused to answer the phone after she said goodbye."
"Wait - she said goodbye to you?"
"Yes. And this time, I think she intends for it to stick."
"How dare she...!! After all this family has done for her!! I'll...."
"You'll what, Charisma??" Okasa asked kindly. "She's done as much for this family as any other member of it without any real obligation except the one in her heart. And no expectation of it lasting beyond the moment, though I blame her parents for that outlook as much as I blame...."
"As much as you blame me?" Charisma asked bitterly, shocking Okasa with her tone.
"I was going to say as much as I blame anything else in her life, Charisma. Why would you think I'd blame you for that?"
"You seem to be blaming me for everything else," her attitude almost petulant. "Why not this?" Charisma sighed and closed her eyes, willing herself to find the calm center she'd developed for dealing with crises many years prior. When she felt it slip into place, she opened her eyes and looked at Okasa. "I'm sorry, Mama. That was uncalled for."
Okasa wanted to cry. She felt like she'd been making headway, even if it had been inch by battering, bloody inch. And now Charisma's walls were back in place. She nodded and turned her back to Charisma so she could start stripping the couch of the bedding she had used. "No harm, no foul, right?"
Charisma chuckled, though it sounded strained and awkward. "You've been hanging around with the boys too much, Mama, if you're using sports idioms."
"They're the ones I see for dinner every week, Charisma. And there is always sports talk after dinner if not during." She finished folding the blanket and placed it on one end of the couch. "Even the girls get involved in a lot of it."
"That must make for some interesting meals."
"It makes for some interesting dialogue at any rate." Her smile held a hint of embarrassment. "I've already had to put a couple topics off-limits. They came perilously close to starting food fights."
"I'm sorry I missed that," Charisma offered quietly.
Okasa nodded, offering absolution. "We understand, Charisma. We always have. It's why we welcomed Brianna into our home and into our family all those years ago. And why we'll let her walk away from us now."
"Mama?"
"You needed us to make her part of the family. She needs us to let her go."
"I don't want to," Charisma whispered, her distress evident.
Okasa smiled sadly. "Neither do I... none of us do. But it's probably for the best." She turned and faced Charisma, then lifted a hand and cupped Charisma's cheek and tenderly wiped away the tear that spilled from blue eyes.
"How can you say that, Mama?"
"Call it mother's intuition, Charisma. Brianna's lived with this knowledge for a very long time. Maybe with some space from all of us, she'll be able to find some peace for herself."
"So I get a couple weeks to assimilate this whole thought-altering concept that by your own admission she's had years to deal with and she gets to go off to find peace?? How's that's supposed to be fair?!?" Charisma's outrage was overriding her anguish at the way her life was falling apart around her. Okasa shook her head and pulled Charisma's face towards her until she could brush a kiss over her forehead. Charisma squeezed her eyes shut tighter, recalling Brianna performing the same act of forgiveness the night before.
"Oh, Sweetheart - I never said anything about it being fair. Life generally isn't. Besides, it wasn't really that thought-altering for you, was it?? The only alteration to your thinking is that now you have confirmation of what you've always known in your heart. It's just at the forefront of your mind instead of something you can dismiss as your imagination... or wishful thinking."