The stepsister

5> Questions

How good the air conditioning felt! My mother and I entered the supermarket. Before it was very close to home, when we lived in the city, but now we had to spend a lot of time traveling by car. But the trip was fun: beautiful scenery, loud music and... my mother 'singing'.
I took the shopping list out of my pants pocket while she drove the cart like it was a Ferrari. <She's like a goat...>. My mother had said "go shopping" but for her that meant "do the shopping". Luckily I already knew her and so I didn't get my hopes up.
We walked down the freezer aisle and I got goosebumps. There were few people and we were walking slowly while we talked like parrots.

"Well, he was telling me that he wanted to organize the socks by color"

"My goodness..."

"Oh by the way. I don't know when it will be but I'm going to do a new art exhibition"

"Oh!"

"I will exhibit all the latest paintings, which are not few"

While my mother was talking, I disconnected from the conversation when I saw a redheaded woman out there shopping. The image that I saw last night came to me immediately and that she left me totally disconcerted. It's amazing how anything makes me remember her.

"...and your father called me to ask how you were doing at Uni and I told him that everything was going well and blah blah blah. How tiresome is he! Right, honey?"

"Uh...yeah" I hadn't heard anything she had said.

<What the hell had she gone into the woods for? What was she doing there? I'm sure Paul doesn't know anything. I don't know what to say but I'm worried about her. I hope she don't do anything to harm herself or that anything bad happens to her. Well, maybe she has friends and she'll see them there. But...?> My head was going to explode with so many questions. I needed to know more about her.

My mother was silent. She seemed to be deciding whether to buy egg or vanilla flan. Finally, she put the two in the car.

"Mom..." I called her determined but when she looked at me I didn't get any concrete questions.

"What is it?"

"Melanie is not studying or working, right?"

"No. She finished high school and at the moment she is not doing any of that"

"Then, she will have friends from the institute right?"

"Paul told me that she didn't have any friends back then and that she doesn't have any now either. Why do you ask?"

"Well... it was to know if she goes out with someone"

"Well no. If she's not up for a walk alone... You know? It would be a good idea if you suggested going that way. Paul and I would really love for you to get along since you don't have any more siblings"

"Yes that would be great. Maybe one day..." I said unconvinced.

We finished shopping and went to checkout. The car was full of food. Surely we bought more things than what was on the list... It took us a long time to get all the bags out and put them in the car. We return home and put the purchase in its place.
In the evening I went to dinner and Melanie was not at home. Although neither of them seemed to care.
When we finished I went up to my room. The next day I had another exam and I had to study a lot. I filled my desk with papers. Dozens of papers full of underlined words and annotations. Others with numbers and graphics of all kinds. I don't understand how my father can stand it.
Hours passed and I knew almost everything. It was not costing me as much as I thought but I was very tired. Still I continued. I went over and over again what I already knew. So much so that I began to make mistakes and confuse terms. It was 2 in the morning and my head went from being full of words to being black. I had fallen asleep. Surely I would be drooling over the notes.
But a noise woke me up. It looked like a hit. I raised my head and looked at the clock. A digital clock that I had on my desk. It was 4:18. I had to go to sleep yes or yes but I immediately remembered why I woke up. <That noise...>. I walked to the door and reached for the handle to open it, but at that moment, I heard a few more noises, somewhat fainter. <Are they stealing?>