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~Eight months prior~

“Mommy, I don’t want to leave.”

“Well, we won’t be able to stay for too long. I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Can’t we go back?”

“Do you want to live in a school?” Ororo watched as her daughter opened her mouth to answer quickly, but then shut it to consider the question carefully. “Little One, you may know what will happen, but you forget, I know you. Besides, you were so young when we left. I’m shocked that you remember.” She winked playfully at her daughter who in returned squeezed her hand.

Aya decided to test her Mommy’s knowledge. “If you think you know me then…what am I thinking of right now.”

Ororo quieted down the winds and ran her hands through her hair and waited, sure enough there was a small growl of a tummy. “Apparently, you’re thinking about lunch.”

Aya smacked her own forehead, “that was easy.”

“Common sweatheart, why don’t we go to that café at the corner, and I can give you a lesson while we’re there.”

“We get to sit outside too, right?”

“Of course.”

Ororo let her daughter pull her down the cobblestone street towards the authentic lunch café that had beautifully decorated wrought iron furniture.

“So, Mommy, what are you gonna get?”

“I’m not sure. Here’s an idea, why don’t you order for the both of us.”

“Mooooommy, I’m no good with Italian.”

“We’ve been here for two months, and this is our third town. Certainly you’ve must have picked up something.”

“Um…cappuccino, tortellini, tiramisu, latte and that’s it.”

“You stink.”

“Mom!”

After Ororo had ordered lightly pan fried eggplant sandwiches, she unfolded a map she carried around that was full of wrinkles and pointed to a small island shaped like a backwards “c” that wasn’t far from Crete.

“I think we should head there next.”

Aya looked at the map and pronounced the name slowly so wouldn’t butcher it. “San- - to- - rini. Wait a minute? Why does that sound familiar?”

Ororo innocently shrugged.

“MOM! That place was on the news for volcanoes.”

“Oh, stop being such a wet blanket. Look at this,” she said as she pulled out a brochure that was full of beautiful white beaches, grand views of the Mediterranean, and lush green valleys and farms. “Besides it isn’t like you or I won’t be able to tell seismic activity long before the radar picks it up. We will be just fine.”

“Ok, ok, you win. Santorini it is, Mom.”

“Excellent. I know this great little pastry shop that needed an experienced cake decorator.”

“What, you planned this?”

“And you didn’t see it coming. Looks like your slipping up, Kido.”

“That’s it, Mom. No more Kill Bill for you.”

Ororo smiled and stuck her tongue out. She was just glad that Aya didn’t ask so many questions this time. Aya probably didn’t know that she already knew the answers. Ororo thought that she would regret her decision to just pack up and not look back.

She didn’t even think about it.

Irony rolled its ugly head again.

The four biggest decisions in her life were spur of the moment and very, well, last minute.

The choice to run when her parents were killed.

The choice to declare the tip of Kilimanjaro as her own person domain. (The memory of that made her smile ruefully.)

The choice to join the American Bald Man and his dream of a better tomorrow.

The choice to sleep with a man who never said her first name, and thought better of elevator music. A man who didn’t even see through her because he would have look in her general

She knew that she was having sex with him, but he was not in any way having sex with her.

She hated thinking about that because as awful as her childhood had been, and utterly lonely her adolescence was, she had never felt so embarrassed and crucified as when they were finished.

“Mom…mommy….mama…MOM!”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“Where did you go just then?”

“Not too far. What were you saying?”

“I said, ‘are you ready to go?”

Ororo knew that she was beyond ready to leave the past far far behind her.


~Somewhere in the Canadian Outback~

“Hey solider, am I gonna have to get ya a taxi. That’s beer number eight.” Suzanne looked at the rugged man wrapped in tight denim and a flannel that desperately needed to be ripped off.

“Don’t cha worry, love. I ain’t drivin’ anywhere. In fact, I’m walkin’.”

“Aw poor you. All alone too?”

“I think I’ll be ok.”

Logan headed out the old style double shutter door and got hit by an artic wind. He missed his leather coat, but realized that it wasn’t worth going back for. Nothing really was.

As he continued to walk he could that’s when he heard it again. The searing wind was pleading with him, and then came the screams in his mind. It was constant.

The Phoenix still haunted him. She wanted him, she hated him, she needed him, she should have wasted him.

That was the usual sensations he got. But this new one that he’s had for ever since his departure from New York was scaring him.

It was Jean. Just Jean. The voice he yearned for finally called to him. But it wasn’t the coy playful one that he dreamed of. She was angry with him.

He wanted to tell her that she wasn’t the only one. Logan would never forgive himself.

Just as he opened his eyes, the snow in the night sky stopped mid flow. The breeze that blew the evergreens suddenly froze. Everything around him did. Not trusting anything he turned around very slowly and was amazed by the sight that greeted him.

He saw a bright light open up and it formed an image of a room that he had only seen once. Full of bright open sky lights, ferns, hibiscuses, flowers of every shape and palms it had a warm and friendly tone. Its embrace had welcomed him as did its owner. He snorted. If only he had stopped to smell the roses.

The light in the image flicked as a little girl in pink flannel pajamas with footies ran and bounced on the bed swinging a pillow wildly in an offensive manner. Her opponent was a dark skinned snowy-haired petite woman who was dressed similarly but in a what tang lifted her pillow and swung hitting her spitfire target. Both pillows burst and exploded in goose down and fell gently on the giggling pair.

Logan was confused. This was not what he thought he was going to see. He thought he would get to see Jean finally at peace and happy. Right? Wasn’t that what he wanted?

The image began to fade slowly, but not before the little girl looked up from the hug she was giving her mother, and glared directly at him.

“Oh shit.”





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