12. Code of Silence

Chapter Three

She stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. Someone had attached it to the inside door of the closet. It was a small walk-in closet, with built-in shelves and in any other situation, she would have liked it. She liked the house. All her life she’d lived in one-story houses, no stairs, no space to herself, she’d shared a bathroom with her brother but this house. It was like a suite, with private bath, sitting room and everything but it wasn’t hers. Nothing was. Not even the image in the mirror. 

They’d straightened her hair with something that was the exact opposite of a chemical perm. They’d dyed her hair black and she sometimes wondered if she’d had freckles if they would have bleached them. Her mother had freckles and red hair and blue eyes, her father used to always say she looked just like her mother. Her brother Geoffrey looked like their father, deep blue eyes and black hair the color of midnight. Black Irish, Daddy used to say, referring to the fact that their mother’s maiden name had been Douglas.

She’d never been to Ireland, never been beyond her neighborhood in Manchester until this happened. She felt like she was completely losing herself. It was bitterly ironic that she used to hate her curls, used to hate the vivid red of her hair but at this moment…

She yanked a knitted cap over her long straight black hair with a vicious tug, picked up her backpack and slipped it on. She was lonely, she missed her friends and the two people downstairs treated her like she was a disobedient puppy. 

She hadn’t wanted to move away from her school, her life, any of it, but meeting nice people at the school here had helped a tiny bit. She remembered the girl with the reddish-brown hair, blue eyes and the faintest of accents. Where had she come from?

“Prague.” Lydia whispered the word and thought it even sounded exotic. She wanted to go there one day. Just like she wanted to go to Ireland one day but she’d never wanted this. If she dwelt on it too long, she’d be a blubbery mess and not be able to do what she’d planned.

She reached up and pulled down a small square tucked in the frame of the mirror. And most of all, she missed Todd. A week before her life was destroyed, they’d gone on their first official date, he’d taken her to a special dinner, then the movies. They’d gone to see Super 8 which she’d liked better than she would have thought.

She adjusted the straps of her backpack, slipped the photo of Todd in her jeans’ pocket and headed for the window. Despite the chill in the air, she had it open. It was probably the best thing that the house didn’t have a security system. She slipped out of the window, held onto the window frame as she judged the distance to the tree. When she’d seen the tree that first day, she’d gotten the idea but she never imagined she’d actually do it. 

She jumped and nearly fell, but she wrapped her arms around the branch, even though the rough bark scraped her skin something fierce. She climbed down as slowly as she could manage and looked at her palms in the light of a security light in the yard next door. She was bleeding in several spots but she didn’t care. She wiped her hands on her dark jeans and kept close to the  house. 

She skirted the small porch and headed down Pequot to where it met up with West Shore Drive. She knew the other two men were hidden away in a small building, watching everyone who came and went, including the real families on this street, so she slipped around the back of the house, bypassed the van and found herself on the road out of their line of sight.

She took a deep breath and started walking. It was dark and cold but she figured a brisk walk would keep her warm. She’d managed to see a local map of the area when she’d first learned that they would move her here and she knew that she would have to head north to get home. She wanted her room, she wanted her grandmother and if she thought it was even remotely possible, she wanted her family back.