Extraordinary Mistakes II - Blood Ties

You could never hurt me

"Marianne, Sofie is awake. Come home!" Erik tells her on the phone and slowly approaches his daughter's bed.

How? He looks at her, her ocean blue eyes are facing his. He shakes his head and tries to keep his posture in front of Megan. Sofie seems to be aware of the environment. Your eyes are following the movement of my fingers. How? You should be brain dead.

He grabs his phone immediately and calls the doctor and nurse they hired to monitor her now and then.

Marianne arrives and shortly after they do, too. Erik takes Megan away from the room while they check Sofie and disconnect her from the machines, take the tube out of her throat. The doctor and nurse leave and Marianne calls him inside.

"Megan, come here, please," Marianne softly says.

Megan enters and sees the blonde child sitting on her bed, talking.

"Sofie," Marianne begins in Norwegian, "this is your sister, Megan," she switches to English, "Megan, meet Sof."

"Hei!" Megan tries to say in a Norwegian accent while waving at her. Reluctant to come nearer.

"Hello, sister!" Sofie's eyes glow, "you are real."

"She can't speak Norwegian, Sofie, but you'll learn English and you can play together all the same," Erik explains.

Megan understands that they are talking about her, but can't comprehend what's being said.

"She remembers your voice," Marianne tells her.

"It's a miracle!" Erik's tears fall while he hugs Sofie tight.

Only a miracle convinces a man of science to believe in something else. Marianne smiles watching them. She goes nearer Megan and grabs her hand tight.

Marianne and Erik decide that Sofie should be home schooled, they are uncertain if her condition will ever return. They hire a private tutor to teach her English and a Norwegian grad student to teach her everything else.

They buy her a proper bed and change her room to fit a desk for her to study. She'd spend most of her day there, have lunch with Erik and Megan and play after all her studies were done.

She'd dance with them too whenever Megan lost another chess game. Megan wants to take her to the lake, but Erik warns that it's still too cold and they had to wait a few more months.

Things changed for Marianne after Sofie got better. She starts staying later and later and working on the weekends both at the university and at the organization. She ends her relationship, the sexual part of it, with Edward Hall. She did it in a way that almost seemed like he was the one who ended it. She knew his ego wouldn't handle it any other way.

Sofie was a fast learner, her tutors thought so. In less than six months she has already an extraordinary conversational level of English, something she tried hard because she wanted to play with her sister. It's summer and they finally make it to the lake. Erik sets the timer on the camera and they take a photo together.

It's a beautiful summer day. Megan and Sofie are playing in the garden and Erik is inside in an online meeting. He asked them to stay outside during it and that he'd join after.

Sofie grew a fringe and has a long braid in her blonde hair. Marianne's artwork. Every day she'd comb and style both her daughters. Megan's hair is now longer than ever.

Megan smiles while chasing Sofie, but suddenly her heart grows heavier. Something makes her heartbeat increase. Is it a smell or a sound? She's unsure.

Her hands shake and the saliva tastes like iron.

This child is death! The phrase keeps replaying in her head. The man's voice grows louder than anything else around her.