This was the place. I felt like I should remember it, but of course I didn't. I hadn't been here in twelve years, after all. But then I saw the splintered crib, and I knew. This was the place. The house where it all began. This was the place where my mother grew up, the place my father declared a second home, the place my father burned, where my grandparents died. We were back at Sky's childhood home.
The burnt ruins had never been cleaned up. Nothing had been built in this spot. There were still some bits of yellow tape, declaring this an active crime scene, but it had clearly been abandoned.
"They were too scared to sell it," Sky explained. "They thought Eli might strike again. Now, we just have to pray they were right."
"Are we even allowed to be here?" Tempest asked nervously.
"Technically, by inheritance, this is my property," Sky pointed out. "But no, I wouldn't tell Grantham we were here or anything."
"It's so terrible," I whispered. It really was. Some chunks of the house were still intact, albeit blackened, but most of it had burned to the ground. Then I thought of something. "Sky! Did your parents have a fire safe? You know, to keep birth certificates and stuff?"
"I think they did, actually, but my memory of this place is only a little less fuzzy than yours," Sky replied. "But... can I check it first, please?" I understood. His sister's birth certificate would be in there. It hurt me because I never got to know her, but Sky did know her. It had to hurt him more. I nodded. I knew he had to go. I knew I had to stay.
Tempest and Grey waited with me. The former put her arm around me. "I'm sure your family loved it here," Grey told me. He was trying to help, but that's the thing: they did love it here. Now "here" is gone, and so are they.
"Lillian?" Sky called, clomping down the broken stairs, almost tripping over the collapsed set. "Lillian, I found it." He was holding a bunch of papers, and he handed me two.
I looked at the first one, ready to read it aloud. Sky had literally put masking tape over the slot that gave the mother's name. "I'm sorry," he said. "I can't say it. Not yet. But I want you to hear it from me."
"It's ok," I said. "You'll tell me when you're ready." I glanced back at the first paper. "This is to certify that Elliot Cloud Aubergine, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces, was born on the first day of June to a masking-taped-over name..." I paused when I heard Grey snort. Then I continued. "... and Elliot Aphelion in the year of 2054. Full custody goes to the mother and maternal grandparents." I looked up. "This is my brother. My twin. And isn't Cloud my grandfather's name?"
"My father. Yes," Sky confirmed. "He thought if he had a weird name, he might as well carry it through the family line, result being me (except my name is bada**). Did you know Lillian was my grandmother's name?"
"I think you've mentioned that," I replied. "What does the other paper say?"
"Read it yourself," Sky said.
So I did. "This is to certify that Lillian Willow Aubergine, weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, was born on the first day of June to another masking-taped name and Elliot Aphelion in the year of 2054. Full custody goes to the mother and the maternal grandparents."
"That's you," Tempest whispered.
"That's me," I agreed. "Why didn't it say anything about us being conjoined?"
"That was in the hospital records, but your mother didn't want it on the birth certificate," Sky explained. "She said that things you couldn't control shouldn't define you more than your choices, the only things you can control."
"That sounds like something she'd say," Tempest chimed in. "She sounds like an amazing young woman."
"She was," Sky answered. "She was."
"Are we ready to start, then?" Grey asked.
I nodded. "For Mom. And little Elliot. And Grandma and Grandpa and Sky." Tempest and Grey looked at me questionably. "You don't have to die to hurt," I explained.
Tempest closed her eyes. "For Mom."
"For everyone Eli ever hurt." Sky summed it up beautifully.
"For change," Grey concluded. Those were the wisest words I ever heard him say.
YOU ARE READING
What Is Your Name?
Teen Fiction"The one thing Sky has never told me, though it's the one thing I've always wanted to know, is my mother's name." Sky and Lillian, ages 17 and 13, are all the other's got. They are held by the bond of Lillian's mother, Sky's older sister, the first...
