Page 68 of Where the Waves Kiss the Shore
Stef rolled his eyes at her. “Maybe someday. It’s a long way from here.”
“But Auntie Kasia has traveled to be here.”
“Can we go on a boat?”
“No, we’d have to fly on a plane.”
“I like flying.” Beata spread her arms and crashed around the room.
Kasia took the opportunity to slip out and pack her bag.
“You’re leaving us again.”
Engrossed as she was in folding her clothes, her mother’s voice made her jump. “Of course, I’m going home.” Why did her mother have to make it an accusation?
“Thisis your home, Katerina. You belong with us.”
She’d had enough of avoiding the issues between them. “Do I really? So you’d be happy if I brought my girlfriend home to meet the family?”
Her mother paled, her hands twisted in front of her, and she didn’t say anything.
“And if we chose to have children together, you’d welcome them and their two mothers as you do your other grandchildren?”
Kasia stood tall, shoulders back, even though it hurt. She might be leaving, but she wasn’t running away.
Her mother stepped inside the door and closed it behind her. “There’s no need to shout. We’re not like Mama was. We understand what you are, Kasia, and that we have to deal with that. It’s not easy for us either, you know.”
“What Iam? What you have todealwith?” She didn’t care how loud her voice was. “I’m your daughter.”
“I mean your lifestyle choices. We don’t have to approve, but we can accept that you have these inclinations. Because we love you, Kasia.”
“Real love is about loving someone for who they are, not despite it. How do you imagine my life back here, Mother? I’d be allowed to sneak around and fulfill myunnaturalurges as long as I maintain a veneer of respectability? If I hide the person I love in a closet of shame?”
The door opened, and her dad slipped in. “What’s happening? I heard shouting.”
“Mother is just explaining to me that I’m lucky you’re prepared to tolerate my existence, and that I should come running home in gratitude as long as I understand that you’redealingwith me andwhatI am.”
“Stop being dramatic, Kasia.” Her mother reached for her, but she stepped back.
“All these years I convinced myself that it was Grandmother who was the problem, and that you didn’t dare to stand up to her. But you’re just as bad.” She let all her years of frustration out. “I’ll never be who you wish I was, and I’ve spent too much of my life hating myself for that. I deserve to be proud of who I am. I live in a place where people like me and fully accept who Iam—nottolerate, accept. And I’m going to start accepting myself too.”
She stood again, feeling full of power in front of her family for the first time.
“Until the day comes when you can say the same, I won’t be back. You’re always welcome to come and visit me in my world and see that I’m not hated, or derided, or ashamed, but I don’t think you will. You’d rather I hang my head and live in silence than be happy, proud, and in love. And that’s incredibly sad. For you, anyway.”
When her parents didn’t seem to have anything to add, she grabbed her bag and walked out of her room with her head held high.
“Stefan let’s get moving. I’ve a flight to catch.”
“We could’ve stayed and tried to talk things through,” Stef said as soon as they were in his car.
She was annoyed he’d left the girls at home, so he could grill her on the journey. “And what possible resolution could you imagine, Stef?”
He kept his eyes on the road and shook his head slightly.
“Exactly. They had the chance to make things different, but it was the same old story.” She sighed. “And you too. You might love me, but you can’t accept me. You kept me from telling the girls anythingyouwere uncomfortable with.”
They continued in awkward silence for a while.
