Rising Secrets

Chapter 4- Where The Trouble Starts

      School ended at two. Rosette had stayed with Aidan through lunch, Band, and Sketch class. His new and improved mood ( he supposed it was some form of lovestruck elation...) also accompanying them as they played the saxophone and flute and drew slightly lopsided apples together. He hadn't been bothered by apologies in the afternoon, either, which had been a heavenly improvement.

      Driving home with a wide smile, he realized that he actually hoped to rush the coming of tomorrow. He wanted to enjoy every moment spent with Rosette, and everything else was trivial. She was his lovely distraction.

      At the house, however, he noticed curiously that an unfamiliar, bright red BMW sat in the driveway. Who do we know who would drive such a conspicuous car around casually? He puzzled, suspicious.

     After locking his own car, he opened the door, about to greet his sister, when he heard a voice that didn't belong in his house.

      "Emma Frosz, you are much like your father, aren't you? So stubborn..." The woman laughed coldly.

      "I'll ask you one more time, Ma'am, who are you and how did you get in our house?" Emma demanded. Having heard enough to understand what was going on, he dashed to the kitchen.

     About to protect his older sister from the intruder, Aidan opened his mouth to speak, but no sounds came out. Standing there in his family's kitchen looking extremely self- righteous and somewhat ticked off stood... Rosette?!?

      No, he realized, then, it's not Rosette. The woman agitating Emma was definitely not a high schooler, as there were some barely visible wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Furthermore, there were no honey blond streaks running through her hair, which he now saw to be a shade or two lighter than Rosette's, too. Then who is this woman??

      He asked as much aloud, but the woman seemed to be in shock from seeing him, too.

      "Greg....? No, you're not Greg. Sorry, Aidan, was it? You really do look like your father." She seemed to say to herself. He thought for a second about the dark, walnut locks he and his father shared before correcting her.

      "I looked a lot like my father. He passed away." Aidan corrected, his voice almost catching.

      "No, that's what I came to tell you two about. I've been asked by your father to inform you that he's, in fact, not dead." She smiled a little, as if humored by some secret that only she was aware of.

      When he checked, Aidan thought with amusement that the look on Emma's face was priceless; she was totally dumbstruck. And he really would have laughed, but he was quite sure that he was making the same face.

     "This is not something to joke about. If you are toying with us, you will sincerely regret it." Aidan threatened, feeling furious after he fully digested what she was suggesting. Almost murderous, even. How could this woman say something so preposterous, yet so wishful they couldn't help but want to believe it?

     "I'm not lying. My name is Marilyn Lois, and I've known your father since he was a teenager. I have also recently seen him." He couldn't tell if she was lying, but her name couldn't be fake seeing as she did indeed look like Rosette.

     "Are you, by chance, Rosette's mom? The one who moved with her a lot because of her job?" He asked hesitantly. He really wished she'd say no, so that he could believe that Rosette's mother was a kind, un- mysterious woman who didn't spend her afternoons breaking and entering, but to his vast disappointment, she nodded.

     Yet when he turned around to see how Emma was taking this, he saw she had gone stark white and was trembling violently, as if in fear.

     "Y-You should be dead. You can't be here. It's impossible!" She accused, then turned to him, a raging fire in her eyes.

     "And you. How do you know her? What connections do you have with this dangerous woman?" Through this, Marilyn had kept quiet, but suddenly, she spoke up.

     "Judging by your reaction, Greg has spoken to you about me, yes? However, Aidan does not know me personally. I believe my daughter is attending his school." Emma had stopped fuming, and seemed to consider this.

     "I do have a question for you, Mrs. Lois. Aside from our father's questionable state of existence, aren't you supposed to be dead? In fact, Father mentioned that his old colleague should have been six feet underground for fifteen years already. So how are you so obviously alive, and what evidence do you have that Father is alive, too?" With her composure back, my sister is truly a force to be reckoned with, he couldn't help but observe.

      "So Greg told you that much about me, hmm? I'm honored. Yet, what can I say. I'm obviously alive, no? So why can't Greg be too? And before you ask, the messed up body in the closed coffin was a cadaver that we managed to find and dress like Greg. He was something of a John Doe that no one would miss." She casually explained, as if talking about real dead people and faked crime scenes was like commenting on a friend's new purse. Blasé.

     "So, Dad's alive, huh?" Emma's voice weakened in a way that Aidan understood very well, for he was feeling exactly the same way. No matter the situation, if their father was alive, everything was okay.

     "Well, then, having delivered the message, I'll now be taking my leave now. Bye-bye, kiddies!" Marilyn announced with a sudden volume of gayness. She didn't even wait for a reply, or questions, for that matter. She just skipped right out the door and drove away. Emma and Aidan could only stare, quietly as a million questions buzzed through their heads.