Illusions of the island *A LOST fanfic*

Chapter 47: The drawing

"I have a meeting with Cara's teacher in 15 minutes. Can I take a rain check on lunch Rachel? Ok, love you too. Bye."

Juliet worried about what the situation might be about the whole drive to Cara's school. What if she's hurt? What if she can't walk again? Tears began to well up in her eyes, making it difficult to see the traffic light in front of her. Quickly wiping them away, she heard the car behind her lean on their horn.

"Alright, I get it, the light's green. I'm going."

Juliet definitely hadn't missed the driving in Miami. But she had missed having a car. Walking across the island got so tiring after a while. Finally pulling into the school, she found
Mrs. Sanchez, Cara's teacher waiting for her outside the front office.

"Thank-you for coming Mrs. Ford. Please come with me."

A pit began to form in Juliet's stomach.

"Cara's alright isn't she?"

Mrs. Sanchez turned to Juliet and smiled.

"Yes of course. She's at recess. I want to show a drawing she made this morning. It's quite... Disturbing."

Entering the empty classroom, Juliet listened as Mrs. Sanchez continued her thought.

"I gave the children an assignment to draw a picture of the place they were born. Cara decided to draw this."

Pulling a piece of paper from her desk she handed a child's drawing to Juliet. She swallowed hard and then tried to laugh it off.

"Cara has a wild imagination. She was born in Honolulu."

A lie. A lie. A lie. Juliet get a hold of yourself! Mrs. Sanchez frowned and spoke up.

"Do you know what she told me? She told me that she was born under a large tree with twisted roots in the middle of a jungle and a thing called 'The Black Smoke monster' was after you. I'd say she has a very wild imagination. Now I'm going to have her re-do the assignment again, and this time, she needs to draw where she was really born."

Juliet's heart sank. But I really did give birth to Cara under that weird tree with twisted roots. The people here on the mainland wouldn't understand. Nodding, Juliet shook hands
with Mrs. Sanchez.

"I'll have a talk with her Mrs. Sanchez. It won't happen again."

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Juliet walked into Cara's room with some of her folded laundry. Setting it on her bed, she glanced up at her wall above the bed. Her eyes widened and she gasped as she saw at least 30 drawings taped to the wall. All of them were of the island. She took down a drawing that was closest to her bedpost and fingered it. It had a woman with long blond hair, with a big stomach and she guessed the squiggly lines inside were Cara. Behind her was black squiggly lines with an angry looking face. 'The Black Smoke monster.' James appeared in the doorway and saw Juliet's tears.

"Hey blondie, what's the matter?"

Looking up, he saw all of Cara's drawings.

"Where'd these come from?"

Juliet looked James straight in the eye.

"Cara drew these James. Our little girl needs help."

If they were both completely honest, they all needed help. The island had done a real number on them. In a rash action of fear, Juliet began taking all the drawings down from the wall. They all seemed to have the same theme. James could see her chest heaving as she took down the last of the drawings. She stiffened like a board when James wrapped his arms around her waist.