Truth and Light

Chapter 5

The next two weeks I spent learning about Illumination and what Gabe, his friends and family had made. I had never thought a place like this could exist, a place that people treated each other with respect and love, and everyone worked together. If someone was sick or not feeling well the others would band together to pick up the slack. Children ran around freely, and everyone looked out for them.

Spending time at Illumination was amazing. I was the happiest I had ever been in my life. Everyone was awesome but I found that I was closest to Callie. She was like the sister I had always wanted. Although our personalities were very different; we also had a lot in common. She was outgoing where I was shy, she liked to be the center of attention while I liked to people watch, and she was affectionate where I had a hard time getting close to people but we both loved music, we both loved to cook, we both loved to read, and we both loved being around children.

Callie also had a secret power. She could pick up an instrument and just play it. Illumination had a music room that Gabe had filled with all sorts of musical instruments, including a piano. First thing in the morning after waking up, I would take a quick shower and then run to find Callie playing an instrument in the music room until breakfast. Although violin was her favorite, she wasn't any less great on the piano, cello, upright bass, guitar, even the French horn! She could play anything, and she was always wonderful at it.

Listening to her play the violin was like listening to Angels sing. If anyone was walking by the music room when she was playing, they would stop in their tracks, close their eyes, and get lost in the sound.

"My mom was big into music too, she always pushed us to play. Gabe hated to play but was always willing to listen to my mom or me play," she told me one morning after playing a new song she was writing.

"What was she like?" I felt a twinge in my heart, not jealousy, but envy that she had this connection that I'd always wanted. My adoptive mother had been wonderful, but I knew it wasn't the same. My relationship with my adoptive mother was more like she was my caregiver than my mother. She never really bonded with me.

Callie grew quiet, which wasn't like her at all. Callie was always loud and energetic. She always had access to a battery with unlimited potential. "She was strong, not stubborn, but strong. She was the kind of woman that made everyone sit down to dinner around the table and say something good that happened to them that day. All our friends always wanted to hang out at our house. She was always baking, ready to pass her treats to all the kids that came by. She was the kind of person who made sure that everyone had somewhere to sleep and food in their stomach, even if you weren't one of hers."

"Once, she heard about a friend of mine, Katie. Her dad had lost his job and they didn't have enough money for Christmas presents. My mom found out what the girl was into and made sure she had several gifts that year.

"She would give up anything she had before she would let any of us go without. She loved Gabe and me with everything she had. I miss her every day. I miss both every day."

I nodded, able to empathize with Callie, even though I had never experienced it for myself. She loved her parents; the pain went all the way to her soul and left a mom and dad sized hole that nothing or no one would ever be able to fix.

"What about you, where are your parents?" Callie asked. I didn't want to tell her, but I felt like I owed her. She had just told me about her parents, fair was fair.

"I was adopted when I was a baby. My adoptive parents told me that a man, red hair the same as mine, probably my father, had walked into a grocery store and asked another mom with a few kids if she could hold me while he grabbed something. The mom at the grocery said she'd only looked away for a minute to check on one of her own children and he was gone. The grocery store had called the police and I became a ward of the state."