Another Life

chapter 2

When I awoke again I had been stitched up. The cut that ran along my shoulders and back were healing and had been bandaged. The window curtains were drawn and the bedside light illuminated. My brother lay asleep in the chair next to me; he snored lightly which I always found comforting. There was a soft knock at the door which didn’t wake him. The door creaked open and a woman in her thirties peered in. When she noticed I was awake she opened the door a little wider. She looked as if she was trying to not wake my brother which made me smile. “You won’t wake him, he is a deep sleeper,” I said.  My voice seemed to be louder then I would normally talk but she got the message and came into the room. The light of the room was dim but I could see that she had laugh lines around her eyes and that she had once had long dark hair which now had streaks of grey forming in them. She wore a blue dress and black coat. The dress looked as if it had been worn many time but still looked beautiful on her. “May I help you?” I said, she looked hurt as if I was meant to have known her but she look like no woman I had ever remembered seeing. “Emily Jillian Beaker, you have grown since the last time I saw you. I was there the day your mother gave birth to you” she smile, she seemed kind but at the mention of my mother and my full name I knew that she was from before, she was probably someone my brother might remember but I could not. I had no memories of my mother, only the feeling of loss. I had no memories of my father either, only the feeling of pain. We call the time with our parents "before" because it was before they were killed in front of my eyes, before we were shipped off to foster home after foster home. Before our futures looked as bleak as they do know. “You must be from before, I’m sorry but I don’t remember anything from then. I could wake my brother he might know you” I started to wake my brother when she stopped me. “don’t worry about not remembering me because soon you’ll be coming home” she smiled and the smile reached her eye which was something that I had notice was rare not many people smile and it touches their eyes. I didn’t understand what she meant but I knew my brother needed his sleep and that whatever she meant she made it sound like it would be safe but then again she used the word home, I had never liked the word home; it made me think of foster homes and that just reminded me of being sent to hospitals.

The lady took a chair and sat in the corner. She got out a phone and started to text. She didn’t seem to want to intrude like a lot of people; she wanted to make us feel comfortable with her, she wanted us to know that she was there without smothering us but that she also cared for us. Every now and then she would glance up at us, as if to check we were real and still in the room. My brother awoke a couple hours later. The lady was still in the chair, but now she was flipping though a magazine. As soon as he opened his eyes they darted over to her as if to see who the intruder was and to see how much danger she could be. I quickly grabbed onto his hand and looked into his eyes. “Water, please” I whispered and he quickly got me a drink. By this time she had noticed that we were both awake. “Taylor, I think you received a call about me” the lady said gently. My brother frowned with confusion but then recognition flooded his face. He looked down at me and I looked at him with confusion. I remembered the phone call before I fell asleep but I had fallen asleep half way through the call. His face went back to its blank stare which I found comforting. “You're the woman who claims to have known our parents and intends to take us back home.”  He said the word "home" with disgust, it was dripping with hatred but not for the woman, she had done nothing wrong so far, so he would not hate her. She seemed to ignore the hatred in his voice although I’m sure she heard it. “Something like that, I knew you mother. She was my best friend in high school.  I lived in the Arctic the last ten years with my family. My husband and I are zoologists. I got back two months ago and found out that my dearest friend had been killed,” she stopped and breathed; she looked as if she was about to cry but was trying her hardest not too. As soon as her breathing was under control she continued, “when I found out that she was gone and that her husband as well, I thought about the will your parents had. I went to your family lawyer back home and got the will to look at, he knew I was a family friend and I was one of the names on the list who could read it. It said that the two of you would inherit nothing until the age of twenty five” she stopped as if expecting us to say we didn’t know this but we did. We had always planned that once we were both twenty five to go and get whatever our parents left for us. After she was sure that she could continue she did “but I read on it seems that I was left your guardian but as no one knew where me and my husband were, you seemed to have been put in the foster care system. And now that I am back I can now reclaim my role as your guardian until you are both eighteen; you are to live with me and my family.” She seemed pleased that my brother and I had not objected. I remembered him telling me about a lady who was meant to be our guardian but no one could find her so this is how it ended up. I felt a tear roll down my face and my brother swept it away.

*****

Kane arrived later to tell us that the lady was right and that we would be going with her. We were told her name was Sophie Water; she was our mother’s best friend and our new “mother”. One thing that everyone else forgot when they were so excited about us finally going home was that, it wasn’t our home. We didn’t know these people, this place. It was as if we were going to back to when we were little, it was as if we were going to a place that our parent never left and that we would always be haunted by them there. I turned to my brother before we got in the car which was to be our last car ride in this city or at least until we were grown. “You sure we always land on our feet now?” I asked before getting in the car not waiting for his answer.

 I never talked back to my brother, it never seemed worth it if he was all I had but now he would have more, now he would have the town that he often had dreams of. He told me every memory of our home town when we were little hoping that I would one day be able to remember but I never been able to, I just knew that he was happy in a way he was going to be closer to our parents where as I would just feel further away. The car ride was long. Sophie had gone ahead while I was in hospital; she said that she had to tell her husband about us living with them thought she knew he would be ok with it. He had always wanted to have six children but after Sophie had three she had an accident and been unable to have any more, they adopted another baby but had never got around to the other two. She said it was like their dreams were coming true. The Water family had two twin girls both seventeen called Tabby and Sam. They also had two boys the older of the two called John, the younger Loco. Loco was the adopted son and as he was only four, he was very crazy so Sophie told us. John was two months older then I was. Tabby and Sam was a couple of weeks younger then my brother.

       When we arrived at the house it was in the nice part of town. There were lots of cars around and it looked as it was safe or at least for them. Everywhere was safe for me and Taylor; we had lived with gangs, abusers and paedophiles. We had been through it all and come out the other end - this place just looked like somewhere that rich white people lived. On the way into town we saw the bad part. The part that we knew we belonged in, these people look like us, talked like us. They would probably be more like family then the Water’s ever could be. Their house had three floors and was probably one of the nicest houses I had ever lived in if not the nicest. Every one of their children had their own room and so did we. There were four bathrooms which we all used. Sophie told us that the house had been specially designed for six children and that the house would finally be used for its proper design. My room was huge, I had room to sit on the floor, and there was even a desk and a set of drawers. I had a single bed although Sophie said I could have a double if I wanted but I said no, that would be too much. My brother’s room was across the hall from mine and looked exactly like mine. The whole family was out except for Sophie. She had asked them to get breakfast out so that we could settle in, which was nice of her. I didn’t trust them but I hope we could stay because I knew that eventually I might be able to.

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