The Hidden Truth

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Storm is Coming

The second I shut the door, carrying her bag in my hand, I hear Phoenix ordering her to go to her room. I lock it and turn around asking, “How is she going to know which one is hers?”

He just stares at me for a few seconds until the footsteps on the stairs die down before answering, “The placement of the furniture.”

 I nod tossing the medical file on the table and drop her bag on the floor near the entryway leading into the living room. I then take a seat at the table sliding the file to him and saying, “Read through that and translate it for me.”

He sits up opening the folder and reading through it while I get up and grab us some water. When I return he has a confused expression on his face but says nothing regarding it as he then pulls some kind of device out of his pocket. The more I watch what he's doing the more I realize that it's one of those newer phones that came out several years ago. He continues looking over the documents pausing every now and then to punch something into his phone. Finally he asks, “Do you know anything about chronic fatigue syndrome?”

“I’m not the medical expert here, you are.”

“Fair point.” he replies before grabbing his phone and continuing, “Well it's a disorder characterized by extreme fatigue or tiredness that doesn't go away with rest and can't be explained by an underlying medical condition. It can also be referred to as myalgic encephalomyelitis or as systemic exertion intolerance.”

By the time his sight returns to me I'm sitting back in my chair with my arms crossed staring at him. I’ve only heard the last part of his explanation once but the word ‘exertion’ wasn't used at that time. In fact it took us several months to figure out that animal meat was the main cause so we eliminated it from her diet and she was fine. The only thing I don't understand is that they have had her for four years and they haven't figured it out but I didn't want to jump to conclusions without some sort of verification. Instead I urged him to continue.

“It says that they just limited her activities and kept her closely watched.” 

“Nothing else?”

“Other than giving her a calcium supplement, no.”

“Did they mention how they administered it?”

He looks over the file once more while saying, “There's a lot of notes on that…” he skims more and adds, “It looks like the only way they found it to be effective is to add it to her food. He then looks at me as he continues, “That would explain the paper plate. If they have to mix it in her food then they would have to keep that separate from everyone else's.”

I continue staring at him as he flips through page after page until he stops again and says, “These charts in the back are quite confusing.” He then looks up at me as he continues. “According to them she has had several colds and the flu, all of which she was hospitalized when it turned into pneumonia.” 

I hang my head. From the moment I was told that there was nothing I could do to strengthen her immune system, I did what I could to limit her exposure to anything that might cause a premature death.

“I was going to say impossible but your reaction implies that you knew about this. Why?”

“We don't know.” It’s true, neither Kenneth nor his father could figure out why her resistance to sickness was almost nonexistent when it should be higher. His father was able to minimize the amount of viruses and bacteria that she could get with the aid of certain vaccines that he either created or knew about but he had to be cautious when dispensing them to her bloodstream.

“Is that why you homeschooled her?”

I nod, it wasn’t the only reason but I didn’t want to drag the conversation out any further than I had to. Besides we still had the girl upstairs to deal with tonight. 

“Is there anything in there that gives us a reason why they treated her like a dog?” I say wanting to change the subject and getting frustrated by all the unanswered questions still lingering in the air. I suppose it didn't help that the thought of my sister eating on the floor like some kind of animal still upsets me.

He flips the file closed and slides it back replying, “That red sticker may have something to do with it.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“The only time I've ever seen that on a file, the person had been on suicide watch.”

“That doesn't make sense, why?” I ask, confused.

“Welcome to my world. Nothing contained in that folder makes any sense.” 

I didn't have the heart to tell him that aside from the bit of information he gave me at the end everything there plus my knowledge was accurate. At that point all I can offer is, “I guess we will have to watch her ourselves and see.” before getting up and grabbing her bag to head up stairs.

He stops me and asks, “What now?”

“It’s only getting later and I still have to feed her dinner.”

By the time we arrive in the doorway of her room she's curled up on the bed asleep, shivering. I place her bag in front of the dresser as I instruct him to make sure she’s not running a temp while he covers her up and adds, “There’s no sense in bothering her now, you can feed her when she wakes up.”

The second I unzip the bag to unpack her things, I hear an ear piercing scream. I spin around in time to catch Phoenix trying to hold her down on the bed. The longer I stand there sizing up the situation, I realize that he isn't forcing her down. Insead he's keeping her from punching him in the face with her fists. Meanwhile she continues screaming and crying for him to let her go. I knew it wouldn't be a wise idea to give in to her request considering I recall him saying that she would make a run for the group home but it didn't stop me from wondering why all of a sudden she seemed to snap for no apparent reason. 

After listening and observing for about twenty minutes, I had to leave the room. I couldn't watch their struggle any longer, it was breaking my heart not being able to help her myself. In the hall just outside her room my mind whirled with thoughts. If they have been keeping up with everything I was doing before except for the intolerance issue then I can almost guarantee that is probably the reason Phoenix was guarding himself like that. By this time I’m almost positive that her bones are strong enough to withstand a good amount of damage before breaking. However that alone wouldn’t explain his protection against a fall the other day when I was at the group home with my boss. Something is telling me that this boy has some explaining to do.

When he finally emerges from the room I start to ask, “What --” but stop myself when I notice the slight tremors in his body and instead question, “Is she sleeping?”

He doesn't look at me as he replies, “Yea.” before heading down stairs and out the back door.

Clearly she released her built up energy into him and I already knew what he was going to do. I opened the door to peek in her room just to make sure she was covered up before making my way back downstairs. Despite her peacefulness all snuggled up under the blankets as if nothing happened, I still worried about her. From the way the women were talking to the constant confusion on Phoenix’s face, I feel as if something is brewing in the air.