Take A Step (unrestricted) (on hold)

Eleven: Paying a Visit

Eleven: Paying a Visit

Daniel

            “Honey, how many times do I have to tell you that Jill isn’t coming back? She’s in heaven, remember?” I heard my mom tell Lucy who was humming herself to sleep beside me.

            It wasn’t Lucy’s fault that she remembered Jill. She was about six and a half when Jill died, and we told her Jill was very sick that was why she had to be taken up to heaven to heal. She didn’t understand that we literally meant that Jill was dead, and she still thought we were together.

            “Yep, narrowed out chances for Daniel over there,” Dad pointed a thumb to me, and I looked at him through the mirror, prying my eyes away from the window.

            “Chances for what?” I asked.

            “Sophie,” Oh.

            “You like her, don’t you?” mom pointed out in the passenger seat.

            “Yeah, she’s beautiful. And nice. And she plays the piano.” I enumerated slowly.

            “Yes, she seemed like a sweet girl,” mom said again.

            “And she kissed me goodnight! I can still smell her lipgloss!” Lucy squealed, poking my arm.

            “You’re not the only one,” I muttered, too low for anyone to hear.

            The conversation died out after that, because we were also home already—the new one. I didn’t know they moved out from Oregon a month ago, and only this morning had I found out when dad picked me up early, saying it was going to be a drive about two hours longer than when I was driving from Oregon, but from Sophie’s house, apparently, it was just a ten minute drive. He was right. We parked infront of this house this morning, and it looked really nice.

            It was sunny all day here, and was three hours from Oregon. Dad said mom wanted to move out because she missed swimming out on water that didn’t have to be heated. Mom lived at Laguna Beach, California before—both she and my dad did. That’s how they fell in love, I guess. It wasn’t easy, my dad used to tell me, because when they were teenagers, he grew up with mom and her bestfriend, Aunt Carol, who apparently dated dad for ten months before he realized he was in love with mom. Aunt Carol on the other hand, was married to Uncle Andre, and they were Jill’s parents. I felt bad for them as much as I felt bad for myself.

            When we got home I was too exhausted to even dwell on that fact longer, except that I also figured out what to do with my explanation to Sophie tomorrow, and so I tucked myself into bed after throwing my shirt off.

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Sophie

            The next morning I woke up a little too early and so I took the longest shower (I was in the shower area for two hours) and then put on cotton pajamas and basics. I tied my hair up in a messy bun before I went back to lying face down on my bed. The sheets were cold enough to block out the heat I was sure I’d have to face when I get out of the house where the air-conditioner couldn’t reach.

            I raised my head from the fluffy pillow I had my face buried into and looked at the side desk. My alarm clock said that it was seven in the morning. I went back to dozing.

            This was the bad thing during holidays—it usually got too boring to even—

            My thoughts were splattered off the bubble when I heard our doorbell chime through the house. It was rarely used since we scarcely had visitors, and usually, Mary was at the ground floor to be able to hear the knocks. I sat up when I heard the doorbell again. Where was Mary? I hopped off the bed and walked over to the window. There was no car parked on our sidewalk, but the gate guard was closing the gate. I looked back onto the alarm clock; it said it was seven-fifteen. Who could be visiting this early? I heard it chime for a third time so I opened my window to scream.