Autumn in Philadelphia Trilogy

Saudade: Deja Vu

At six o'clock in the morning only the heater rumbling in the basement could be heard in the Matthews' house.

It was so quiet and still that Shawn found it discomforting. Wandering bleary-eyed through the house, he eventually found himself in the kitchen. He put the coffee on to brew then headed outside where he sat on the bench under the tree that looked into the Feenys' yard.

The house next door was as quiet and still as the one he had just left.

Sinking down until the back of his head rested on the back of the bench, Shawn closed his eyes and sighed.

He slept very little the night before.

There was so much to be done.

Unraveling the past between him and Jon was going to take the bulk of their time with seventeen years to dig through. Then there were the texts and what was going on back in New York that Jon still had to know about before returning.

Shawn sighed heavily.

The exposure of Jon's past, whatever that was, loomed ahead of them. And now Cory needed to go back to high school as much as he and Jon needed to go back to the apartment.

He rubbed his eyes and slid his hand into his hair with another sigh.

Even though they'd only been back a short time and had the majority of the break ahead of them, Shawn worried they would not be able to get everything done that needed to be done before going home.

There just wasn't enough time to explore the past the way it needed to be.

Not for him or Jon or Cory.

Fixing things with them was more important than anything, but Shawn was at a loss on how to go about taking care of his father and brother equally.

He sighed again.

"You got a hole in you or something?"

Julia was standing by the arm of the bench he was leaning on. She poked him repeatedly in the shoulder.

Shawn opened one eye and gave her a peeved look.

"'Scuse me?"

"You sound like a bike tire leaking air."

Affectionately, he rolled his eyes. He was pretty sure he'd said those exact words or something very similar to Jon on more than one occasion.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Why are you?" she shot back with the very attitude he'd so often given their father. Her tone and delivery, even the pronunciation of her words was identical to his.

How was that possible when he only met her a few months earlier?

He knew people who were related could have similar mannerisms despite not ever meeting. Whether a mysterious working of DNA or familial behaviors passed along through the generations, Shawn experienced this with the Hunters he had not met until well into adulthood.

The similarities were disturbing.

But how Julia could have picked up any of them was incomprehensible to him.

Sometimes, Shawn wondered if they were blood related.

That wasn't possible, of course.

They did not share DNA.

Yet strangely Jon and Audrey's genetics had given him a sister that looked and spoke more like him than any half-siblings he had.

Even he and Jack weren't half as much alike as he and Julia were.