When The Roles Reverse

Chapter 14

Mimi has stayed for four days so far.

                Those may have been four of the worst days on the Girls’ Side.

                John and Cassie seemed to understand the position we were in, and neither of them dared to step out of line. I wasn’t entirely sure as to why Cassie was going with the secrecy. After all, she was a girl. She could have gotten both boys and Sofia nailed.

                I had to assume John was the reason.

                John was surprisingly quiet. He didn’t seem like his usual self, much calmer than normal. He held himself in a small ball, resting his chin between his knees. His eyes moved around the dark room for the hundredth time. He didn’t let Cassie touch him, which seemed to hurt her a lot. Any time she tired, John shrugged her off, shooting her a dirty look before falling back into the fetal position. I didn’t try to talk to him, not simply out of disgust. I didn’t want to risk Mimi hearing any of us.

                Sofia had been good, though. She tried to keep Mimi out of the house as much as possible so that we weren’t forced to keep it down. She came up with the idea that anytime there was light shinning in through the crack of the door that meant they were home.

                It worked fairly well.

                A few times I would listen to them talk in the kitchen above, just as something to do. I would sit on the top step, leaning my head against the cold wall, eyes closed. Their voices were muffled a bit by the door, but nothing too bad. Sofia was always tight with Mimi, but Mimi didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

                This reminded me of when Ellie was alive. She told me of life when she was living and anything before she could remember. There was a story once where, in the Second World War, a family remained hidden for years at a time. They weren’t allowed to make a single noise during most of the daylight hours, and had to remain fairly quite in the evening too. Eventually, they were caught by the enemy and sent to a concentration camp. They were killed shortly after.

                Genocide was going on at the time, where anyone of a certain religion was being murdered. I could remember our conversation after she told me of that.

                “Why would people go after a religion? Was it really that bad then?” I asked her, trailing my fingers lightly up her side.

                We lie in the bed, only a dim light for us to see each other. Ellie’s head was on my arm, her fingers playing with the edges of my hair.

                She sighed, “The leader was insane. He wanted to create a master race of blonde hair and blue eyed people.”

                I chuckled, “I guess you and I wouldn’t be qualified for that ‘master race’”

                “Neither was he.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “He had brown hair and brown eyes.” She giggled, “And the funniest of mustaches. It was ridiculous.”

                I raised an eyebrow, “What did it look like?”

                “It was just a patch here.” She pointed to a spot right underneath her nose. “Back in my time, everyone mocked him for that mustache.”