Claria Chamberlin

My Brother

The officer was right, Allen arrived about half an hour later.  "Please tell me you are Allen?" the officer asked sleepily sitting at the front desk with 3 empty cups of coffee. "Yes I am. I'm.."

"Here for your sister?" he stood up, "This way." him and Katy followed without a second thought. 

"Why is she in a cell officer?"

"Honestly because I was afraid she would follow me around the office if I didn't lock her in" he whispered as he unlocked the door.  Claria laid on the bed starring blankly at the ceiling.  "Claria?" Allen whispered.  She looked up, her body had filled out and she looked older, but he could tell it was her, still the same beautiful hair, still the same gorgeous round face.   She gazed at him motionless, expressionless.  He was finally there, after 8 years, he was really there. "Allen." she finally managed to choke the word out.  

She started to stand.  She was knocked back onto the bed when Allen all but tackled her in a warm comforting  embrace.  "Holy shit, it's you honey, holy shit." He held her close crying on her shoulder. "Yes, Allen." she couldn't say more, she wanted to but the words stayed there lodged in her throat, replaced by tears that fell without a care.  The tears streamed down her face but in all reality her face still held the same confused daze.  "Are you okay? Are you hurt where were you?" He held her at arms length looking over her.  "Yes Allen I'm fine" she smiled through the tears.  He held her tightly again. "I didn't forget." She whispered under her breath, "They forgot, but I didn't, I remembered." Allen thought nothing of it at the moment.  

Katy stood in the front of the cell watching in amazement tears building in her own eyes. "This must be your wife."  Claria stood and walked toward Katy holding out her hand to greet her. "I'm Claria, nice to meet you."  Allen sat there, she had stood and walked away from his embrace like nothing.  "Oh, yes I am, Nice to meet you to... I guess." she shook her hand and couldn't help but notice a large scar on her wrist.   She quickly looked away deciding that she would leave it, for now.

"Claria, what happened?" Allen's voice chimed out from behind her.  She smiled brightly and turned around,  "What happened when?" The look on her face was obvious, she was avoiding the question, but why?  Allen couldn't figure out why, the only thing he could think was that whatever had happened must have been unimaginably horrible, right? That's the only thing that could explain it.  

"Well," the officer was standing at the door, "My shifts over soon, the people who have been working on her case were notified and they will be coming to your house tomorrow." the sheriff sounded tired and bored, he was used to sneaking in naps during his shift, but since Claria was there he hadn't been able to. 

"Okay, let's go then." the tension stayed, everyone was hoping it would fade a little, but it didn't.  It wasn't just quiet in the car, it was still, no one dared to move, no one dared to breath too loudly.  Soon Claria laid down in the back seat and soon fell asleep. Allen and Katy let the tension build for a minute before they spoke.
"Why have you never talked about her? "
" I never wanted to talk about that part of my past again. "
"But why? "
"I never wanted to think about my family, or the horrible things that happened, so I never talked about what happened so I could look past it."
"It seems like an important thing to look past"
"Not to me."
"We're talking about this when we get home. "

"Okay." His hands started to shake on the wheel, but he tried to hide it.  He didn't want to think about anything from that area of his past.  The entire ride home the idea of talking about the past flooded his mind making it hard to focus.  What would he say? How would this go? Would she be mad he hadn't said all of the things he was about to?

After getting home and getting Claria settled with dinner, a bath, and a nice warm bed.  I was in the bathroom, brushing my teeth about to shower when Katy walked in.  He glanced at her in the mirror, but tired not to acknowledge her.  "We're still going to talk about this."

"Why?" He turned to the shower and started the water. 

"Because these are probably things that your wife should know! Are you gonna have any other random siblings show up out of  no where? Are your parents gonna come back from the dead?"

"No." 

"You need to communicate with me."

"My parents are alive as far as I know."

"Alive?"

"Yes."

"Why have you never told me this?"

"No point, I am never going to see them again.  They are never going to be part of my life. I had an older brother, but he killed himself when I was younger. Claria is the only other sibling that I have." he turned back to the shower, "I'm getting in the shower." Katy slowly left softly closing the door behind her.