What The Wildflowers Know

Chapter 10

"Cahello! For the last time, that's the 'done' pile! You idiot!" Kvetina growled. 

For three hours, they had sat on the floor and sorted through the newspapers, sorting them whether or not they were helpful. Cahello was constantly mixing the piles up together, and Kvetina was also constantly yelling at him for it.

"They look the same to me!" Cahello cried, falling onto the carpet with a groan. "We're not getting any closer, the librarian is gonna close the library, and my butt hurts!"

Despite Kvetina's urge to scream, she knew it wasn't Cahello's fault. She fell onto the piles behind her, slumped shoulder-to-shoulder with Cahello.

He glanced back at his tired sister, and placed his hand on her head playfully. "Come on, you can't give up." 

Kvetina closed her eyes, crumpling the paper beneath her, but not caring. Suddenly, all the confidence she'd had at finding traces of her brother disappeared. "What if... he's not here at all?" 

Cahello knew what she was saying, the faltering relationship between Kvetina and the memories of her brother. "He is, we know that he lived here-" He opened his eyes. Sitting up, he dislodged the piles.

"Cello!" Kvetina shouted in dismay. 

But he wasn't interested in the newspaper articles at all. "Kvetina, what if he wasn't here? What if he never lived here, and we've been looking in all the wrong places?" Kvetina was a little lost, muttering, "But... he... uh-" Then she got it.

"You're a genius, Cahello Loe Silvester!" 

Cahello winced.

Kvetina hugged him, laughing hysterically. Together, they hopped around the little library, sending black and white papers everywhere.

***

After the mess in the library had been cleared up, Kvetina and Cahello returned home for a late lunch. Tired but giddy, they had raced back to Kvetina's old home. Their breaths caught in their throats at the sight of the shack that had once been a house.

"So," Cahello panted, "What do you think we'll find?"

Kvetina was more grim as she replied, "We're not finding anything. I am. This was my house, and you can stand here and wait." Without another glance, she slipped in.

Cahello stood, open-mouthed, as the door shut in his face. Sighing, he sat on the grass.

Kvetina leaned back on the walls of the house that once had been home, and breathed in the smell of rot, mold, and a hint of lemon. Her mother had loved the citrus scents that wafted through the air, and Kvetina suddenly remembered her going with her mother to pick orange blossoms. Pushing the memory away, she took a step forward, towards their kitchen.

The kitchen was smaller than she remembered, cobwebbed corners and a rug on the floor. Kvetina shuddered as the memories started to filter in: her mom and her dad splashing each other with water, the table where she knocked her head. Suddenly it was too intimate, too private. This wasn't her life anymore, it was the Kvetina who had once watched her parents die. And she had changed.

Running out of the house, she yelled out to Cahello. "Come on!" He was perched on the deck, watching the sky. 

Without a second thought, Cahello rammed inside. "Wow," he gasped, "this is place is old!" Kvetina pulled him further into the house. "Check my father's office. I'll look in my room, it used to be my mom's." 

"Wait, why can't I check your room-" Cahello started.

Kvetina sighed. "Do I really need to explain this to you?" Cahello shuddered. "Girl stuff." He muttered, and swept into the office room.

He rummaged in the drawers, pulling out anything that seemed suspicious. But there was nothing that indicated where Kvetina's brother was. Spiders scuttled around as he pulled off the loose bottom drawer. "Oops." he whispered. Stuffing the drawer back into place, he noticed tape on the top of the place where the drawer was supposed to go. Leaning closer, he shouted his sister's name. He heard pounding and ripped the drawer back out again. 

"Look." He panted, breathless,  as Kvetina skidded into the room. He flipped the drawer upside down, and taped to the bottom of the wood was an address.