Amnesia

How It All Ends

One day, I was leaving Algebra, and I felt a hand pull me to the side.
"What?" I said.
Clara was wearing a black shirt and jeans.
Her hair was down.
"I want to show you something."
•••
We drove into town.
"Turn left."
Clara was giving me directions like a far less annoying GPS.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"I'll tell you when we get there."
So much secrecy.
It's been about three months since the Battle of Panda Express.
My face is mostly healed.
We haven't heard from Marcus or her father-thank Jesus-since then, either.
But Clara was leading me surprisingly well, since she's never been to Australia at all.
"That house."
'That house' was an old, cracked home with ivy growing up on the walls and broken windows.
So I highly doubted anyone lived there.
"What is this place?" I said.
"This house use to have a family," Clara said. "The Walker family. A mother, father, son and daughter. They were happy. Until the daughter decided to take a trip to Sky Tower where she fell to her death. She killed herself. Then, the family just fell to pieces. The mother lost her job and started to drink-like my dad. The father slept around and cheated on his wife multiple times. They parents soon divorced. Then, the son couldn't take it anymore. He joined his sister at the bottom of Sky Tower. The dad was caught with a hooker and arrested, the mother died of liver cancer."
I looked at her.
She looked at the house like she could see the kids laughing, see the parents loving each other, see the good times.
Like she knew what it was like.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"The mother's name was Teresa," Clara said. "My mum's sister. Molly and Sawyer, the son and daughter, were my cousins. They killed themselves two years ago. Teresa died last month."
Last month?
"From far away," I said. "From Sky Tower, it looks beautiful and perfect. Everything does. But, if you look past the lights of the city, you will see how broken every thing is."
"Everything is uglier up close."
I would say 'Not you' like Q did, but nah.
"I'm sorry about your aunt," I said. "I haven't gotten this close to Sky Tower since Lucy died. She took me there and that was my first kiss."
Clara looked at me with empathy. "I'm sorry."
"Were you planning to live with your aunt?" I asked.
She nodded.
She can't live with her uncle since he's in prison.
She can't go back home.
She can't go anywhere.
"I'll find you a place," I said.
"What?" She said.
"You will have a place to live by the end of the school year, I promise," I said. "You will not go back. I promise."
"Thank you, Luke."
Now, for the last paragraph of my speech.
"No, thank you, Clara," I said. "Thank you for helping me. After Lucy passed, I thought I was done with romance. I would never find anyone like Lucy ever again. And I didn't. You are nothing like Lucy, in the slightest. But I still love you. Because a miracle isn't getting what you want, it's getting what you never knew you wanted at the right time. And I am lucky. Luck isn't getting what you want, it's living through what you don't want. And I lived through the most painful experience I ever had. And for years, I wanted to wake up with amnesia, forget Lucy. But, I am a better person because of her. I see that you can't sit around and with something to go away, you can't just give up."
"Shut up and kiss me."
"Okay."