Before the Ever Green (BTEG #1) ✔️

Chapter 37

"I can't believe I never heard of my great aunt Allison." Brit says
"Mom never talked about family, Brit. Remember?" Jaeger says. I can't help but laugh a little. Mor to myself than anything. Allison went to the kitchen to get snacks and lemonade. I love lemonade. Mom almost never makes it. But, it's okay. Mom always said it was almost as bad as French fries. French fries have salt, lemonade has sugar. I really don't care. I believe in believing in fate. I don't think that how you live your life will change how long you live. I will live as long as I am planned to live.
"Do you like cinnamon chips?" Allison asks us.
"Never had them." Brit says
"Huh. Funny, it's your mothers recipe." She tells jaeger and Brit.
"You knew our mother?" They ask in unison.
She nods, "Before She was sent to marry Davis. You know Hena never knew that she was sold, she thought your mother went willingly. That she was in love with Davis Lawson."
"Why didn't you tell her?" Jaeger asks
"Your grandfather threatened me. He was never a brother in law to me. I never considered him family. He never cared about me, or you, I assume."
"Not really." I say, "But, he did help us. He told us about you, then we found your address in one of Amelia's address books."
"Oh. He's changed. I guess he's stopped drinking." Allison tells me
"He might like to see you."
"Maybe. But, I wouldn't like to see him. I have scars from that man. I have no respect for him, even if you say he has changed. I will help you, but not him. I refuse."
"I'm sorry." I really am sorry. I can't imagine what he was like when we was drinking. He was a little mean when we were meeting with him. Well, going to his home, hoping it was his home.
She doesn't say anything. She just sets the cinnamon chips down on the table, and walks back to the kitchen. I can hear her going up the stairs. I wonder what she is doing.
She comes back 5 minutes later. She has a photo ok in her hand, "This is how I'll teach you."
"A book?" Jaeger asks
"Exactly." She tells us
"Books are the best weapon, that's what I've always believed," I say
Allison smiles, "indeed."
She takes us into the backyard. "Show me what you can do." She says, before sitting in a wooden chair. Jaeger goes first. He turns into a wolf, then a bird, then a lion. "Brit." She calls. Brit does the same. "Addilyn."
"I don't do magic."
"Of course you do. Both your parents did,"
"No, I mean...I've never done any magic before. Ever."
"Oh." She seems shocked. I don't blame her. But, it's true, I have never used magic. Never in my life. I only found out a few weeks ago. I never thought to try anything. I'd be too scared to kill someone, not knowing my power. There has to be a reason that people are sacred and hate mom. I am her offspring, I am probably a little like her. They have reason to hate me, don't they?
On the other hand, why should they hate me? I was born this way, I can't change it, not if I wanted too, could I? Is there a way to take away my powers?
I go to sit on the back porch steps, and watch as Allison teaches Brit and Jaeger how to use their powers. I am trying to watch, but I feel so lost in thought. There is so much to obtain, but my brain is in its own state, when wit doesn't want to use my eyes, my ears, my nose, my mouth, or even my hands. It just wants to be in its own cocoon. It doesn't want to be distracted by the world. The trees. Bushes. People. Animals. It doesn't want to be in this place, or any place. It just wants. To huddle into its self, and pull the rest of my body in, so I am nothing but a thinking machine. It wants me to be nothing more than a simple being that can do nothing but think.
I can't let that happen.
So, I force my self to pay attention to Alison's teachings. It is worse than school. Allison is clearly not a teacher. She gets mad too easily. I can tell she is trying to hold back laughter and anger when either of the 2 mess up. I am, too, well the laughing, not anger. Why would I be angry? I have nothing else to do? Do I?
They keep messing up, and it is a little annoying-watching them attempt to do something, and do it exactly the opposite. Brit turned herself into a frog, in attempt to be a butterfly. Well, "to be the inner workings of a butterfly" as Allison says. She is becoming a better instructor as time goes by, but I think it's because she is getting tired, not because she is seeing hope.
I'm not even seeing hope.
They seem so hopeless, but I have to hope. That's all I can do. All I can do is hope, and dream. I can imagine it working. I can see a story, where everything is all better. But, then I open my eyes and ears and see the struggles of my cousins. My mind can't handle it, and drifts to my third cousin. Hena. How is she doing? Is Mom getting frustrated with her? Is she coloring? Napping? Reading? Probably not reading. Moat of what I read is too advanced. Then again, mom might have brought out some of my young books. The one I'd read over and over again when I was her age.
I wonder if I have other cousins. Maybe Mom has siblings, who had children. I mean, I know I have more family some where. But, where? Where are all the magical people of the world? Are they lost? Dead? Hiding? Or, is it really just the few of us? Those that I have met.
I hear a noise I haven't heard Allison give before, and I look up, to see her clapping. Allison Gold-clapping. It seems so weird, like a ghost has possessed her body. She is laughing, too. "Great job. Both of you." She looks at all 3 of us, skimping the perimeter, "Do you wanna see what I can do? Something your mother never mastered, being as her disappearance?"
We all nod, even though, she can't see me, because she is looking directly at Brit and Jaeger. She puts her arms out at her sides, and I can see a golden spark coming from her hands. The ground is slightly shaking, and then all at once...it happens. She is wearing a flower as a dress. Purple. And gorgeous. The water is swooping around her, and she looks like a human water lily. Stunning.
She waves her right hand is a circle, and the water starts spinning away from her, splashing Brit and Jaeger, knocking them down. They are laughing, and clapping, when she makes it disappear. "It's cool, but how does it help anything?" Jaeger asks
"It's how I met the boys." She is laughing, " I am kidding. It knocked you down, didn't it?" They nod, "It's a war trick. I wasn't using any force. If I were, I could knockout a whole army. And that, could help you win a war."
Useful. But, why is Allison being so open? She has been hidden for so many years. I read in one of Amelia's journals, that she thought she was dead. Like her mother.
And, while I understand people may have wanted her dead, did she have to make everyone think she was dead. Why not tell certain family members that, 'hey, I am alive, I just want to be hidden, ok?' Or maybe there is more to it than I am seeing. Maybe she was being hunted, and needed everyone to believe her death. To have her family be sad, too. But if that's so, how did Mr. Ember, my grandfather, know that she'd be alive. Maybe he just knew she'd be too smart to be caught. Maybe.
So many questions. Too little answers.