Full Hearted and Heartbroken

Chapter Six

6

“Alright!  I am off to my new job!” Aaron rejoices as he walks out of his study room, followed by a box carrier, Lucas.

I stop what I am doing, putting away the dishes, and watch Aaron walk to the front door where Lucas’ horse taxi is waiting.  Lucas stops to look at me, too.  We smile at each other before Aaron yells at him to hurry up.  Lucas nods to me and then walks outside to put Aaron’s stuff in the horse taxi.  Then, once everything is ready to go, Aaron walks over to me and takes my hands.

“Well, here I go.  Help your mother and no rough housing while I am gone,” Aaron says to me, and then looks me over from head to toe.  “And put on some of your lady clothes!”  I open my mouth to argue with him, but he puts his hand up.  “No arguing, young lady.  You need to act as though you are a lady, not a little girl.  Now, let me say good-bye to your mother before I leave.”

Aaron walks into the family room, and then walks back into the kitchen, looking for my mother.  I chuckle silently to myself; Aaron is having a hard time finding my mother.  I finish putting the dishes away and then move on to all of the canned food.

“Where is your mother?” Aaron finally asks me.

“She is in her room, sleeping,” I state without looking up.

Aaron marches away to his room, and then there is silence.  Silence I do not want to break, for it is peaceful to not have parents yelling at you all of the time.  I look up from the box of canned food, and stare at Lucas; he stares back.  Lucas looks down the hallway to make sure that Aaron isn’t coming back for a while, and then he walks over to me. 

I put the canned food that I am holding back into the box and turn to face Lucas.  He smiles; I smile back.  Lucas reaches for my hand and I just feel numb as soon as his warm, soft skin touches mine.  I just let Lucas take, hold, and kiss my hand.  I never want this moment to stop.  I don’t know what it is about Lucas that makes me so happy, but it just feels like we are connected in some way or another.

“So…” Lucas trails off.

“So what?” I ask.

“I am sorry I have to leave.”

“Don’t worry about it.  Aaron will do whatever he can to keep us separated.  Just believe everything will be alright and it will be.”

Lucas looks up into my eyes.  “Thanks,” he says.

We hear Aaron’s footsteps in the hallway.  Lucas and I are an inch close to being yelled at before Aaron comes back into the family room.  Aaron turns to me and nods, then he just about pushes Lucas out the door to get ready to leave.

The horse’s hooves fade in the distance, and then there is really complete silence.  All I can hear is my mother snoring down the hall.  Now it is just me, the boxes of stuff, my unpacking brothers upstairs, and my sleeping mother in the house.  And guess what, it is my job to unpack everything in the boxes.  Fun…

As I put away the last of the canned food, I see my mother drag herself out of her room and into the kitchen.  Her face is pale and her eyes are red and half closed.  I can tell that she is sick and tired at the same time.  I put down the towel I am holding, and then I walk over to my mother.  She flops into my arms and looks at me as though I am a stranger.  To me, she looks like a ghost who is scared of a cat.  I stare into my mother’s eyes and the tears start coming.  She looks like she is going to die any second, but I can’t let her.  I don’t know why she would die so soon.  We just got to our new home and she wasn’t even sick back at our old home.