Carnations for Emily

Chapter 16: His Identity

*Ring*
*Ring*
"Mom, your phones ringing!" Jill shouted from kitchen.
Hellen had ran into her bedroom to grab something and left her phone on the kitchen counter.
"Can you answer it for me?" Hellen shouted back.

"Hello?" Jill answered the phone only to be caught by surprise as the voice on the phone was none other Emily.
A few months had past since the autumn festival and both Jill's brother Jack and his friend Emily had went back to their own homes far away from Hellen and Jill.
"Hey Jill, is Hellen home?" Emily asked.
"Yeah.
Why?
You need to talk to her?
Something about big brother?
...Okay I'll go get her."
Jill ran off and brought Hellen her phone.
"It's Emily...
She seems worried about Jack." Jill said.
"Thank you sweetheart.
Hello?
Emily?"
"Ah!
Hi Hellen-
No, I'm okay.
Yeah I'm eating just fine.
No I'm sleeping like a baby."
Hellen was firing question after question at Emily over the phone.
She'd do this to Jack too.
Probably a little more rapidly, it's just her motherly ways.
Hellen worries about not just her kids but Emily too.
"Right, then what did you need hun?" Hellen asked Emily.
"It's Jack-
No, no, no, he's fine as far as I know.
There's just something that I've been wondering about him." Emily said.

"About Jackie's past Huh?
Well Emily if you must know...
He isn't my biological son for starters." Hellen said nonchalantly.
"Really?" Emily pondered this.
Jack never told her that, and she never figured it out on her own, but when she thought on it it did make sense.
After all Hellen had light brown hair and Jill had platinum blonde hair.
Emily met Jacks father, or she guessed his adopted father, only once and remembered that he had dirty blonde hair.
So Jacks jet black hair didn't really add up.
"We found him at an orphanage at the age of seven, but something was kind of off about him.
He had an eyepatch over his right eye which was strange.
And his left eye was a bright crimson red...
A extremely rare genetic trait in humans.
Along with that, his hair was black, obviously, but long too.
Like he hadn't been taken care of in years." Hellen finished.

"So how'd he become the way he is now?" Emily asked.
"I'm not really sure myself hun.
Just one day he changed.
When we adopted him the people running the orphanage said his name was (- - - - -), but we gave him a new name and welcomed him to our family.
Jack became his name, and over time he became accustomed to it.
Like his whole identity changed."
Hellen paused.
"Before he started going by Jack, he just sat and stared blankly ahead at anything.
Barely reacted to much.
I was worried about him.
We Took him to a psychiatrist and the man said he was suffering from a "broken soul".
That to just give him love and attention and he may come back from wherever his mind is currently."
Hellen said.
"He clearly came back though.
Even started going by the name you gave him." Emily spoke.
"Yes, his red eye became blue and he finally removed the eyepatch over his right eye.
Underneath that was another blue eye.
He was and still is a handsome boy."
"Can you tell me about the physical changes he's gone through throughout the years?" Emily asked.
"That I'm not sure about Em.
He went through physical and mental changes when he was young and you saw him change again throughout your high school life.
I can only chalk it up as an extraordinary boy..." Hellen said.

Feeling like the info she got from Hellen was all she was going to get, Emily said good bye and hung up.
"So his real name is (- - - - -), maybe he needs to remember who he is.
I don't know.
He just seems so lost.
Like he's not himself...
But what if...." Emily paused.

"What if he remembers and...
It changes him forever?" - Emily

Chapter 16: End