And she was nine years old, as of today- January 19, 2018.
Maria held the Polaroid picture between her trembling fingers. Her other hand ran through her long, blonde hair, before she began biting at her fingernail- a nervous habit she'd picked up.
Five years. Five years, this picture had been jammed shut inside of the front zipper pouch of that backpack Jeanie was clutching for dear life when they found her alone in that library.
How did they miss it? Such a valid, important piece of information- how could they have missed it?
All the birthday's they'd missed. All the wondering and guessing they'd done. When all this time- if she had just looked! Maria blamed herself.
They'd found it a week ago, and the thought of letting Jeanie know now- showing the girl a picture of her parents- it sent a chill down Maria's spine. What would the blonde girl's reaction be?
But now was as good a time as ever to show Jeanie the picture that read "Jeanie Miller's 1st Birthday" on the bottom.
Robin ran her hand over her friend's back. "Are you gonna tell her? She deserves to see it, y'know?"
Maria let out a breath and nodded her head. She clasped the small, black cross that hung around her neck- her mother's necklace.
"Yeah," she whispered out, turning off the lamp beside her, allowing the blue sky, on which the sun reflected off of, to shine through the window and cast shadows across her face.
Ross had found a generator and hooked it up when they first took up residence in this abandoned neighborhood.
After the bombing incident with the Fireflies years ago, all who survived, a fraction of what there was, were devastated- depressed. It was a hard time for them all, and they all laid low for a while, but Maria really beat herself up. She blamed herself for their losses. If she hadn't conducted them in the same direction of the Fireflies, they would've never been ambushed and so many people would probably still be with them. Maria stayed up in the deep hours of the night, wondering how in the world the Fireflies knew they were being followed. It disturbed Maria out of her sleep.
But nothing she could do would bring those people back. They were gone and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. So many people were angry with her; so many people blamed her.
But they were right to do so. Maria knew that.
Through it all, however, Jeanie held Maria's head up. She always demanded Maria's attention, whether it was to shoot the BB-gun, skip rocks in a river, or throw Buckley his stick, Jeanie constantly wanted to spend time with her older counterpart. And it was a good thing for Maria, because the woman found herself, oftentimes, laying in bed, thinking, I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for her, just like she was right now.
