Forlorn Hearts

A Surprise -Chapter 1

It was a beautiful morning, the sun was up in the sky with petrichor from the previous night. Alicia was ready to take on the world.....or so she thought. Her older sister Paige was going to visit her at dusk today after TWO WHOLE years. You might think that's quite a lot of since since two sisters have been apart but it had always been that way. Alicia was the happy go-lucky kind of girl while Paige was quite reserved. Paige was also pursuing her PhD so it was pretty natural to be really absorbed by her work. Paige was working under a senior researcher at CERN in Geneva.

Well....being the sisters they are they would always facetime each other once in 6 months. They weren't close growing up because they had an 8 year age gap but now they had a cordial relationship. Inhaling the aroma of the Liberia coffee she had brewed and setting her Mac down to work on she opened Visual Studio to work on the code for her Encryption project.

You see Alicia really wanted to start her business, she'd worked as a free lancer and thus created web applications, desktop applications and what not but it was always her dream to start her own chain of company. Immersed in her work Alicia didn't realize it was 5 p.m. already...Gosh! she had promised to pick Paige up from the airport!!

And she hated going back on promises......

Paige had just landed at the airport , she looked around and to her dismay there was no one to help her, the question ,as to, why she needed the help well dear readers it wasn't just Paige who had landed but a little bundle of joy in a pram she pushed with her .

And Paige hadn't told Alicia about this 2 month old trouble maker...

Alicia : I have an important client I must get back to . Paige, I'm so sorry but I cannot pick you up from the airport. Could you call yourself a cab and reach home? I've left the keys under the doormat, I know its pretty obvious but anyway, let's catch up when you get back home.
I'm waiting for you to come back, there's a lot we need to talk about...
Alicia felt terrible. She had really been looking forward to seeing her sister, and now she had to cancel.

"She's still Allie, that cute, forgetful ,button nosed sissy of mine", said Paige to herself.

Paige : It's all good Allie, I need to tell you something too. XX

Paige pushed the pram and hauled a cab ready to set foot into the the beautiful suburbs of Melbourne,ready to explore the country of the kangaroos and tell everything to her sister. What both Paige and Alicia were unaware of was that simple text would be the last time they'd ever have talked to each other.

Alicia had silenced her phone at least thrice because she was amidst giving a presentation to one of the clients and then after half an hour when the presentation got over, she picked up the phone call. It was the most dreaded phone call of all her life. She went white, colour drained from her red cheeks , her eyes went wide open when the caller said "Paige Solberg was involved in a car crash a few hours ago,and they tried reaching her guardians and had successfully contacted their parents too, who would there any minute."

Alicia was so numb and couldn't hear what the caller said later all she heard was "...baby..crying...father" and she couldn't make out anything out of those words. She was too stunned and her eyes were all watery, she crashed onto the floor of that meeting room and beside her was a heap of papers...She couldn't believe her ears, and the words Paige Solberg was involved in an accident, Paige Solberg...accident...parents...baby...

But the truth of the matter that struck her instantly was Paige Solberg wasn't her sister, her sister was Paige Sørensen! She was Alicia Sørensen...But she had to go to the hospital to check all of this out, she took her car and drove through the beautiful suburbs of Melbourne, filled with agony and the traffic just made it worse.

She reached the hospital , hair undone , a perfect parallel parker like her had randomly parked her car , somewhere, and that wasn't of concern now! All she needed to see was her sister alive and well and saying all of this was a prank like the one's they'd played on each other when they were younger.

But as she reached the ER of the hospital , everything started becoming clearer , her mother was weeping silently and her father had blood shot red eyes and held her mother in a tight embrace.
She saw Paige lying there infront of her, motionless and still, she looked at her face, it hadn't changed at all , though it had been five years.

Alicia went up close to Paige and held her face and said, "Paige, get up I've to tell you about my start up ideas, and you wanted to share something with me too, c'mon sissy lets get back home and barbie a chook while we chat about our lives, there's so much we have to cat about."

There was no answer back.

She shook Paige a bit , "Paige get up now! Enough of these pranks , we haven't seen each other for so long and I really need to tell you about everything, show you how much Melbourne has changed" And yet the one who was supposed to respond remained silent. Alicia's heart stopped now, tears dreading to run down her cheeks, she violently started shaking Paige and told her to get up and yet again it was only silence that answered her back.

She felt a hand over her shoulder only to look at her dad shaking his head and now crying.Her mother pulled her into an embrace, and she started to cry profusely. She went closer to her sister and hugged her, she regretted not being closer to her sister! All those memories of when they were kids flooded back into her head.

She went closer to Paige's forehead and left a soft and gentle kiss. She went closer to her and held her hands and whispered "I'm sorry, its all my fault" and said a silent prayer.
She just couldn't believe it that her sister fell into a slumber that she would never wake up from and that silly text! She hadn't even bothered calling and hadn't heard her voice since forever.

Meanwhile the Paige's surprise for her, was still waiting...
" Paige Solberg's guardians?" , was a call she heard...