when you were my father

isla

I walk straight through the front door, finding Isla asleep on our old couch. She's moving around frantically, as if she's witnessing something very gruesome or displeasing.

Ignoring this behavior, I walk past her and into the bedroom portion of our house.

"Mom?" I ask, entering her room.

She sits on her bed. Just sitting there, still as a rock. Not doing anything.

"Mom?" I repeat. She blinks before slowly turning to look at me.

"Valentina?" She calls, barely seeming to notice that, like yesterday, I'm not this Valentina she wants.

"No, it's Mai. Your daughter. Remember?"

"James?" She asks, giving up on Valentina.

"No, Daddy's not here." I tell her, which draws a large frown.

"Brian, no. She's our daughter. Don't give her away..." She says, her face changing to a distraught and tired expression."Nooooo! VALENTINA!"

I watch my mother break down into tears over Valentina and Brian, whoever they may be."Mom, it's me Mai Mai. Your daughter, Valentina and Brian aren't here. Please come back."

She comes to silence, and then looks back at me, tears still streaming down her face. "Maile?"

"Yes, I'm here. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Yes, just a little tired. I'm sorry."

"No problem. As long as you're okay. I love you."

"I love you too, Kammy." She tells me, and I smile. Her calling me that brings back memories of my dad calling me it, in his laughing smiling way.

************

"Mom? Mai? Come look at Isla." Micah says, bursting in on our little moment.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with her?" I ask, confused.

"Just come, please."

My mom looks to me, shrugging so we both stand up and follow him out to the living room.

Isla's still apparently asleep on the couch, still moving and squirming around like crazy."BLOOD!" She screams, loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood.

I look to Micah and then to my mom, who looks at the ceiling and faints. Isla seems to have calmed down after her outburst, and sleeps calmly.

"Isla?" I ask again, lightly shaking my sister to see if she'll wake up now. Micah bends down to see to our mom, who's still out cold.

She turns slightly on her side and opens her pretty eyes. "Hi, Mai." She says calmly. "How are you?"

"I don't know. How are you?"

"I'm great!" Isla exclaims. She suddenly sits up, looking around the room and noticing our mom on the foor with Micah bending over her. "What's mommy doing on the floor?"

"Umm... she just fainted. Nothing crazy." Micah tells her, gazing at me.

"Right, well I'm going to draw." She tells us plainly, swinging her body off the couch and heading down the hall to her room.

"So now what?" Micah asks, staring at me.

"Well, we should probably get our mom off the floor." I suggest, somewhat sarcastically.

"Sure, yeah. Let's do that." So the two of us attempt to pick our mother up. I grab her left arm, while he takes the right, her small figure helping since neither of us are that strong. Together we lift her off the ground, and slowly make it to the couch, where we lay her down to continue her sleepish pass out.