Dreaming

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine
I had eaten a huge plate of white rice and cat fish pepper soup early in the evening, my all time favorite. I knew I was going to have a good night's rest, after all, it was my favorite food I had eaten. Full from the dinner, I decided to retire to bed early, because I was tired, so tired my eye lids shut as soon as my head hit my pillow.
  The church had organized a program for the teenagers, I had already started considering myself a youth, even though I was only eighteen years old. But no one really asked since they believed I was a youth from just looking at me, I was bigger than most kids my age, which was totally fine because I used it to my advantage at times like this.
My sister, Terra was performing a dance number with a group of people. One of her many talents actually. Tami and Tia were both in the teenage group, they called Tia a "borrowed teen" since she was still in the children's department. They also had rehearsals for the different numbers they had to perform on the teenagers day, but they had left earlier, before Terra, because she was slow in eating.
  She wore her red hoodie on top of the black top she was wearing, saying something about the cold. She waved me before leaving.
  Two hours later, Tia and Tami come back, telling us that Terra was not with them, she never attended the rehearsals. I blinked because I saw her leave the house. I locked the door after her.
My mom immediately called my aunty, in case she had gone there to rest or something. But my aunt said she was not there. My mom kept calling different people, everyone she knew that lived at a walkable distance from our house, but none of them had seen Terra. I was at the verge of freaking out, who wouldn't? I saw her leave, she left the house but did not get to her destination, where on Earth would she go? Because I know Terra more than anyone else, she loved her dance rehearsals more than anything, she wanted to be perfect on the day for the presentation, that is the teenage day.. so why would she skip practice and where did she know to go to?.
  I paced worriedly, my mom didn't have any leads on her where about, we were still very clueless.
"I am going to search around the church area for myself." My dad volunteered. I quickly shot up from my seat.
"I will come with you too, I can't sit around doing nothing other than worrying." I say, making no room for argument. My dad nodded as we walked out of the house.
My mom called my name. I looked back at her, she looked scared, no one wanted to say it, but I was sure that kidnapping had crossed all our minds, after all, kidnapping was not so rare around here.
My dad and I walked in silence as we looked everywhere for her. We could not find her, the clouds were starting to grey, and I knew it a storm coming in, but we could not leave just yet, we had not found Terra.
We talked to the church security guy, in case he had seen her, he said she reached the church gate and he looked away for a second and could not find her anymore.
By night fall we had to go home, because it was raining. I cried myself to sleep that night, but I remembered I had an all seeing father. I went on my knees, and cried to Him, for us to find her the next day.
The next day we had a full search party, everyone I knew were on this search, looking for my sister.
Soon a woman shouted from the side, I didn't know her, she was just a passer by, she was not in the search party.
"Who owns this red jacket?" She shouted.
Nobody really paid attention, we were searching, but it hit me few seconds later that my Terra had won a red jacket hoodie the day before. I ran to her, shouting.
"It is our Terra's own.!!"
My mom heard it and ran to the lady too.
"Oh, it is a person." The woman said bringing out my sister from the gutter. My heart fell, I started crying.
"We found her!" A girl in the search party shouted. And everyone came towards us. Crowding the lady, they performed CPR on her. And she opened her eyes. Everyone sighed in relief, my mom hugged her as she cried.
  We took her to the church, changing her clothes and giving her warmth. Everyone was happy that we had found her, but I was confused. I went to her, but she didn't feel like my sister, my sister and I had this relationship of dissing each other, but she seemed distant. I know she was just found, but she was too quiet, my sister was always bubbly.
"Hey T!" I greeted.
Her usual response would be,
"Hey The T before the T, before the T, before me." Since all our names were beginning with a T.
But she just smiled, it looked forced.
"I know you went through hell, but I just wanted to know, how in God's name did you end up In a gutter?"
She smiled,
"I was bathing on the gutter slab, and I fell.. I couldn't get out until now."
I frowned, what was she saying,
"You had your bath at home Terra, you should not have been taking your bath." I tell her seriously. She looked at me dead in eye, smirking, a chill ran down my spine, this was not my sister.
"Well, I wanted to." She said.
I nodded quickly, suddenly afraid of her. I stood up and walked back to my own seat far away from her, because I was very scared of her.
I woke up, feeling scared of my environment, I looked around, seeing Terra beside me, I was terrified. Then I remembered it was only a dream. I held down her forehead and prayed, canceling what ever the dream may have meant. I spoke new and better things into her life. Because my sister was not going to be found In a gutter.
The following morning, I tell her about the dream for the first time, because I wanted to know. She looked worried, I noticed i was still a bit scared of her, so I hugged her, it was my baby sister, no one else.
"Please don't dream about me anymore." She whispered into my ears.