At age five, she was taken from her family. At age eight, she formed a new family. At age sixteen, she returns to her old one.
Eloise Leroy is the only daughter in her large French family. She was kidnapped before she could ever truly know them, and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Henri, as I learn his name is, is my oldest brother. He doesn't ask about the bruises on my face or the cuts on my legs, and I can only wonder what it was that the mean lady told him. I'm not going to say anything for fear of messing up her story.
"Here we are. Welcome home," he says.
I look out the window to find a huge house. Bigger than Lewis's. And I used to live here. This used to be my home, yet I don't remember it at all. It looks vaguely familiar, but I have no connection to it. No memories.
Henri gets out and waits for me. There's no white stuff on the ground, just the smooth grey rock. I touch my foot to it, then take it back. That's cold, too. I bet that means the green stuff is cold. How is that fair? It's always cold outside?
I put my feet on the smooth rock and stand, trying not to offend Henri. I don't want him to be mad that I don't like the smooth rock in front of his house. He seems to read me, though, and carries me into the house just like he did from the other place.
He puts me down when we enter the house. It's warm in here, and the floor looks like the one at Lewis's house. I remember having to polish it. Wood. The rest of the room is amazing, and this is just the entrance. There's still more house after this.
There are two sets of stair, both curving and meeting in the middle to form the hallway on the second floor. There's an opening in between the stairs, too, leading into another room, then hallways on either side. This will be interesting to explore once I start cleaning.
"Guys!" Henri shouts, causing me to jump. "She's here!"
Footsteps pound from every which way. I take a step back and behind Henri. Maybe they won't see me. I'm not sure if I'm ready for eight brothers. I just want my sister back.
Five guys are in front of us now, holding up a large piece of paper with words on it that I can't read. Some of the letters look familiar, but I can't put the words together.
"Welcome home!" two of them shout at different times.
"Sorry, we only found out about you a few hours ago, we didn't have much time to rehearse," the oldest looking of them says. "It's so good to see you, Eloise. I'm Etienne."
"And I'm Remi," the other one who shouted says. They all drop the paper.
One of them looks a little scary, another sad, even though he's smiling, and another just content. I try to count them all in my head. With the five of them here and Henri standing in front of me...
"Five plus one," Naomi says in my head.
Six.
The woman told me I had eight brothers, though.
"I can't help you with this one," she says.
Great. I have no idea how many are missing. I don't have time to count in my head.
