Mind and Lily

When the Past Hits You

"Higher Danny!!" I shouted. A beautiful April day with the sun out and the sky blue. Danny was pushing me on the swing and so far it had been a regular day. But of course when you' re six, all the days start to blend together over time. I would've liked to stay in that moment forever, with Danny, everything being perfect, and everone I cared about safe.

As I laughed on the swing, I noticed my teacher, Miss Sera, walk over to me. Taking a closer look I saw she looked sad.

"Danny, would you stop her please," said Miss Sera. Danny and I weren't smiling and laughing anymore.

"Are we in trouble," I asked. looking back at Danny.

She gave a weak smile and shook her head slowly, "No, Lily. I just need you to come with me for a few minutes."

She had started to scare me a little so I held Danny's hand for comfort. "Well," I said, "can Danny come?"

"I'm afraid not Sweetie. Come on," she said sticking out her hand.

I looked to Danny again. He nodded and I let go of his hand and took Miss Sera's.

She walked me to the principle's office and when I got inside, I saw that Scarlet and Dad were both there. Dad looked like he hadn't gotten sleep for weeks and Scarlet looked just as confused as I felt.

Dad gave a weak smile and came over to me. "Hey there Sweetheart," he said.

"Ame I in trouble," I asked again.

"No no no," he replied. "We're just gonna go home for the rest of the day. Daddy needs to talk to you and Scarlet about something."

"What about Mommy?"

When I ased that question Dad looked as if somone had slapped him in the face. Saying nothing, he kissed my head and led us out of the school.

Dad sat us down on the couch after a very sillent car ride home. He sat across from us and looked at us both with a very serious face.

"Girls," he said.

"Girls", the first word of the sentence that brought two little girls's world crashing down in a whirlwind.

"Your mom," he continued, "there was an accident."

I had never cried so much in my life until that night. The big news story that evening told of a woman on her way home for lunch and the gasoline truck that hit her car, sending them both into a firey inferno with no survivors; no bodies even found. No comments were given by the grieving husband and two daughters of the woman that died in the explodsion.

"Hello Lily," she said. I was still frozen where I stood, not moving an inch, barely able to breathe.

"How," Logan asked, "That's impossible."

She turned to Logan with a disgusted look on her face. "If it were impossible, I wouldn't be here, would I Logan?"

Finally able to evenly breathe and move, I took a step forward and repeated what Logan had asked, "How?"

As if this were something that happened every day, she smiled and turned back to me. "Oh I'm so glad you asked Lilian. You see you remember that whole accident a few years back right?" The fact that she put air quotes around accident made me take a step back. "Well," she continued, "that wasn't really me. I mean it was my car but I definitely wasn't the one in the driver's seat. Of course there's also the man that was unlucky enough to be the driver of the truck we targeted. Oh well," she shrugged.

"Then," I said, "w-who were they?" Horror had started coarsing through my entire body.

She waved her hand away and shook her head smiling. "No one important, Honey."

"Who were they," I screamed. I don't know where the outburst came from but I wasn't about to let this sosiopath who showed no remorse at killing innocent people or letting people that loved her think she was dead for nine years, know how scared I was. No. Scared wasn't a good enough word. I was completely terrified. But I stood my ground with only anger showing on my face.

"All my life I thought I remembered the woman my mother was. Loving, caring, smart," I said. "That wasn't you. That was someone I just made up. Someone I wished for."

Her face went from smiling to a look of seriousness, almost anger. "Well done," she said. "No, I guess I'm not that woman am I? In fact, if I remember correctly." She paused. I could see the look of disgust and disappointment in her eyes. "I've always hated your very existence."

I felt as though I had been slapped several times then kicked in the stomach. "Why?" I asked. "What did I ever do to you?" I could feel it but I wouldn't do it; I wouldn't. I was'nt going to let her see me cry and show her how weak and scared I was or how small and helpless she was making me feel.

I kept looking straight at her, anger clear on my face, as she smiled and shook her head. "What did you do." she said, as if she were just now trying to come up with an answer. "Tell me, Lilian. Would you find it fair if when you had a child, they didn't make it through birth? Or, your loving sister died but her disgusting child got to live? Then," she laughed, "just to rub salt in the wound," she turned to Logan and pointed at him, not at all trying to hide her obvious pure hatred. "You asked me to take care of that little brat! Of course I was going to tell you no, but then I came up with an idea to get revenge. It was because of monsters like you that my sister is dead and it's gonna be because of me that she is avenged. I faked my death so I could work here in secret on this."

Behind her a wall opened up to reveal what looked like a huge computer. "Did you know that there are approximately two thousand, four hundred sixty-five satellites presently in orbit? How about the fact that it's almost possible to shoot a beam into space that would connect them all. Almost," she said smiling, "If you position it perfectly, you can do just that with a massive satellite dish. All I have to do is insert this little concoction." Nellie held up a large vial of orange liquid. "Inside this serum are millions of mechanic microbes. Once I insert this into the satellite dish I'll shoot it into space where it will connect to every one of those satellites. After the serum connects to all the satellites, another beam will shoot from all of them with the microbes inside. Every microbe has specific instruction with only one function: find mutants and hit the kill switch on every one.