There are a million damn clichés about how unexpected life can be, calling all those moments different things.
Unforeseen circumstances and curve balls are two I can normally go with and understand. In just eighteen short years, I had seen my family grow, change and evolve. But with all those good times, unfortunate incidents came along as well.
Some would say that death was just an unavoidable part of life, but that's only something one would say if they were not like us. Sure we ran the risk of losing someone we loved every once in a while, but my great grandfather was still alive and kicking but my healthy younger brother – Silas – was gone. I guess for our kind, old age was not what killed us, it was normally diseases or misguided intentions to weed out the different. Boy... were we different.
Losing a family member though, the pain and grief was nothing you could explain with words, nor would you wish upon anyone, not even an enemy. Silas, the troublemaker, was still sort of the glue to our family in ways, keeping everyone on their toes, entertained.
Before his death, I'm not quite sure what I thought my family would look like but I suspect mom and dad would have added a few more to our already sizeable brood.
Guess I was wrong.
But just when I thought life couldn't throw us any more curveballs, not for a while at least. I hoped. We got Faith Ashlynn, this tiny wisp of a girl, but I think she was only small in stature. Not in bravery or weirdness.
Talia, my twin, was alive and well because of Faith.
But that didn't mean that the girl or her reactions and responses did not puzzle me.
And I was not the only one.
"Brennan it was so weird you should have heard the conversation we were having!" My sister gushed still shocked; "I asked her how she could afford a VPI Classic Direct turntable? I mean the one she has starts selling at around thirty grand!" Talia shook her head, "And she tells me that she got it from a friend, that he worked for four days in exchange," obviously aware of the price of that turntable that response was off to me.
Still weird or not, we were all grateful to Faith for rescuing Talia, but that's not where the story ended when it came to Faith. It was as though it was only the beginning, and she had her hooks in my family, though it was purely so. Faith had no ulterior motives but she was surely changing our family dynamic, but again, I'm not sure she was aware of her impact. I mean how could she? Between the fire and her burns, the stitches at the bottom of her foot and the flu she caught, the only person Faith was a danger to, was herself.
