The Wishbornes And The Fallen Star

Chapter 5

Last nights dinner kept playing through my mind as I was walking through the book isles packing away the last remaining books that came in with the new stock.
I asked Helena and Theo what would happen to our jobs when we get adopted and they said we can keep them if we want to but we don't have to keep them as we will each get an allowance. Of course my brother didn't even think twice about quitting, but I told them I would like to keep my job. I love working in the book shop and getting paid to do it was just a bonus. It wasn't just my job anymore, it was a place were I could escape everything. My little piece of happiness during the day.
I walked over to the counter and took out my sketch book. I didn't really feel like reading today so I decided to channel my creative side a bit.
As I just started doodling when the front door opened and Raynard walked in.
"Bell where's that book with all the main businesses in the UK?", he said as he went straight to the business section.
"Why?", I asked as I put my pencil down.
"I'm going to see if I can find their business", he said as he stopped in front of a section of books.
"Who's business?"
"The Wishbornes, Bell. Now are you just going to sit there on your throne like a princess or are you going to help me find it?".
My eyes narrowed at him as I got up to help the idiot.
"Here", I said as I took a book from the top shelve. I held it to him, but as he wanted to take it I yanked it away and said,"Don't call me princess". He smiled at me and grabbed the book out of my hands. He flipped though a few pages mumbling to himself. He then stopped at page and sighed.
"What did you find?", I said as I looked over to read the page.
At the top of the page it said 'Wishborne Fabrics' and beneath it was a slogan saying 'will make you feel like royalty', and a picture of their main shop in London. He slammed the book shut and put it back on to the top shelf.
"This is great news isn't it? It means that they're not lying about it", I said.
He just stared at the book while chewing on the inside of his month.
"Something about them is just off to me. Like they keeping something from us. I can feel it."
"Okay well Sherlock Holmes, have you ever thought that you might be overthinking? They really do seem nice. And this might be our only chance of getting out of the orphanage and live a kinda normal life like normal children do".
"Don't you think I also want that Bell?", he snapped at me as his eyes grew sad and he looked away. When he looked back at me a very small fire was lit inside my tummy. "But no matter what I do or try telling myself, there's this thing that keeps on telling me that a piece of the puzzle is missing and for some reason they are keeping it from us".
The front door flung open and Irene stormed in out of breath. Raynard and I instantly ran to her. "Irene what's wrong?!", I asked as I reached her. She held up her finger to show us to just give her a minute to catch her breath. After about ten seconds, still a bit out of breath she said, "The papers... The papers are being finalized. Peppa just told me. They coming to fetch us in two days time". That little light started to glow again.
"Damn it Rena, I thought something bad had happened", I yelled at her. "How the hell did it get processed so fast?", yelled Raynard," they usually take weeks, sometimes months to finalize papers. Not two days!".
"I thought you would be happy about it?", said Irene, "Last night went so well then?".
"Irene these people are not who they say they are. How can you be so naive not to see or feel it!", yelled Raynard and the fire started to spread. "Don't call me naive", said Irene and the wind outside started to pick up a bit.
"Then start to open your eyes to the real world Irene! There are no such things as happy endings and nice rich people who want to adopt a bunch of teenagers. These people are hiding something!". The wind outside picked up so much I thought the stores doors might rip off.
"Can you stop yelling at me?!", Irene said in a raised voice but you could hear she was fighting her tears.
"Raynard please calm down", I said as I tired to touch his arm but he yanked it away and stormed out of the book store.
I looked at Irene who now started to cry. I pulled her closer and gave her a hug. "Sometimes I just don't understand him", she said through her tears as her face was pressed against my shoulder. I stroked her hair and whispered," Me too, Rena, me too". I looked through the shops door and saw Raynard heading for the park. The wind died down.

***
After I closed the shop I headed to the park to see if Raynard was there. I almost turned back home when I saw him sitting under a tree, leaning his head against the stump and staring into nothing. I walked over to him and just stood in front of him with crossed arms.
He didn't look at me as he said with sadness in his voice, "I'm sorry". I sat next to him and said,"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to".
He rolled his head towards me, looked at me and said, "I didn't mean to yell at her. It's just.... Just that I can already do so little against bullies like Chad. So what if my feeling about these people are right? What if they turn out to be these psychopaths who end up hurting one of you? I would never be able to live with myself if something happened to you or Irene and I didn't do everything possible to stop it". He rolled his head away and stared into nothing again.
    I looked at him for a while, wandering if the way he looked and felt right now resembles anything from our excuse for parents? This constant need to protect us. Surely he didn't get it from either of them?
    I put my head on his shoulders and said," I know". And that's all I needed to say to him to let him know I understand that to be the protector, of the ones you love, is both a blessing and a curse.

***
    When we got home Peppa and the other children were already eating supper. Raynard looked at Irene as whispered,"I'm sorry". She smiled at him like she knew exactly what he said under the tree and understood everything.
    With our bellies full again, we went to our rooms to change out of our clothes and take a shower. When I came out of the shower and entered the room Irene and Raynard was already asleep. I grabbed my sketch book as quietly as possible and headed out to my favorite spot under the night sky.
I continued with the image that I was busy with earlier that day, thinking about what Raynard mentioned about the adoption papers. It is rather strange and unusual that the papers where being finalized this quick.
I looked up at the starry night but something caught my eye. About a few feet away a pair of animal eyes where staring at me. I stood up fast, never taking my eyes of them, when I heard something behind me. I quickly turned around, point my pencil in the direction of the noise - like that would do anything against a wild animal - and saw my brother walking towards me. I quickly turned back to where the eyes were and yet again they have disappeared.
    "You okay?", said Raynard as he came closure.
    "Yeah", I said, but didn't take my eyes of the place where I saw the eyes," it was just a squirrel" I lied. Raynard gave me a forced smile, that told me he knew I was lying. "Come to join to me?" I asked him as I sat back down on the grass. He then sat next to me and we watched the night sky.
In silence.
As time slowed down.