Forlot: Silver Woods - Book Fifteen

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The boy was sitting on the couch and had an arm wrapped around the baby girl. The infant was in his lap and cooing. He was holding a book that taught babies and toddlers their ABC's and trying to get her to pronounce each letter. They were on the last letter.

"This letter is the last in line," he spoke softly to the infant. "Should we check him out, Tamara?"

The baby named Tamara clapped her hands. "Yes!"

"This is the letter Z. Words that begin with Z are zebra, zoo, and zero."

"Why?"

"I am going to be honest with you, Tamara. I do not know. Whoever came up with the English language was a nutjob. 'I' before 'e' except after 'c.' Did not one person consider how stupid that rule is?"

The boy was having so much fun with Tamara that he did not notice us. I coughed loud enough for him to hear, and he jumped a little and faced us. His face turned pale, and he slowly closed and set the book on the table and hugged on Tamara.

"Uh, Cindy? There are some robbers."

Cindy giggled as she stepped into the living room and scooted past us. She sat next to him and patted his shoulder. She called him by the name of Caleb and reassured him that we were alright.

"These are some of Margie's friends, Caleb."

"Oh. Sorry. I have anxiety issues if that makes this awkwardness any better.

"Caleb, I am standing in front of them," Margie commented. "Did you think that I was robbing you and Cindy too?"

He shook his head. "I am not that stupid. I assumed that they were holding you hostage or something."

Cindy planted a kiss on his cheek and looked at us. "Could you tell me and my boyfriend who you are?"

"Oh, yes," I said. "I am Sam." I motioned to my sister and best friends. "This is my sister, Silver - long story there - and my friends Joan and Lorraine. I think that we are here..." I glanced at Margie, and then at Caleb. "...because of you."

Caleb handed Tamara to his girlfriend and let out a heavy sigh. "If you are here to make fun of me or fight me or try to kick me out of this mansion, you have another thing coming to you."

"No, no, no," Silver said. "We are actually here because Margie believes that you might be the one."

He squinted at her, and then at Margie. "The one for what?"

Margie turned to Joan. "Show him the necklace."

Joan nodded and pulled her necklace from her pocket. She held it up so that Caleb and Cindy could see.

"It looks like...a half of a sun," Cindy guessed correctly.

"It is a half of a sun," Joan said. "The other half is missing. I..." Her eyes fell on Caleb. "...I wonder if you have the other half."

Caleb looked at Cindy, and then back at her and pointed at himself. "What makes you think that I have the other half?"

"Well, for one thing...you are that boy." She sat on the other side of him and played with the necklace. "You have brown hair. You wear glasses like me."

He started feeling uncomfortable. "Um...should I know you?"

"Probably not. The only reason that I know that it is you is because of the picture of you that I found."

"You found a picture...of me?" His body shuddered. "That is creepy."

"It is not creepy at all. You have a connection to me and my family."

The boy's eyes moved all around as if he were pondering. And he was. He told us that he would be right back and got up and dashed out of the room. Cindy scooted until she was in her boyfriend's spot and asked Joan to see the necklace again. Joan handed it to her, and Cindy took it and examined it carefully.

"Hmm...I have seen a necklace similar to this one," Cindy remarked. "But it is not a sun. It is a moon."

Caleb returned with a necklace in his hand. The pendant was a half of a blue moon and tied to a blue chain. He asked his girlfriend to give him Joan's necklace, and she did so.

Both the sun and the moon were the same size, and when Caleb put them together, they fit perfectly.

"Both of the pendants have magnets on where they cut off," he explained. "Joan...what is your last name?"

"Morning. Joan Morning."

"I am Night. Caleb Night." He uttered a gasp. "Oh my gosh."

"What?" I asked with fear in my voice.

"She is my sister. Joan, you are my sister. And I am your big brother."

Joan did not believe him at first. She assumed that he was jumping to conclusions like that he did when he convinced himself that we were robbers.

"We are not brother and sister. We do not even share the same last name."

"That is because our parents changed the last name from Night to Morning. They did it because they want nothing to do with me."

Joan crossed her arms over her chest. "That sounds crazy because it is crazy."

"It is true, Joan. I wish that it was not, but it is."

"That is your anxiety talking. We are not siblings. If we were, then I would know."

"Our parents—"

She cut me off. "Do not say that they are our parents. They are my parents, not yours."

He took off his glasses. "We are wearing the same kind of glasses."

"There are more than two of the same type of glasses."

"I am an inventor."

"So am I, Caleb. But that still does not prove that we are siblings."

He put his glasses back on and gave her back her necklace. "What can I do to prove to you that we are lost siblings? There has to be a way."