4.7 – One fateful night

We arrived in front of my house.

My house.

I’m here. I’m actually home! It feels nostalgic, and weird.

I want to rush forwards, throw open the door and yell “I’M HOME!”. I can almost see it. Anastasia, Collin, Melody, mom, dad, Aunt Clarice, grandma and grandpa, just surging forwards demanding where I’ve been. Melody, I feel so bad for the argument we had before. I want to make up with my twin. Two years is too long.

But at the same time I can’t bring myself to move forwards. The house seems rather intimidating.

“That’s funny, Roki always used to lay on those newspapers. Guess nobody cleans them, per usual.” I said, stalling a bit. But that simple thing gnawed on my insides. Where was Roki? That sly cat spends all his time outside. Maybe the rain made him go inside.

Yeah probably.

But he was old.

“Hey are you okay? You want me to ring the bell?” Irene joked while being reassuring.

“Ha no, I can do this. And it is my house after all. I don’t need to ring the bell.” But as my hand touched the door handle I felt like an intruder, and my heart twisted. I didn’t know what was waiting for me behind that door. I’d changed a whole lot in two years. They probably had too. I swallowed the feeling and turned the handle. I’m home, I told myself.

The scene I saw felt like a dream, and it made my heart break. There was grandma, ALIVE!, with grandpa, and there was mom and dad.

“I’m already picking up the dishes!” Dad complained. Funny, Collin and I usually did the dishes. Where was he?

“The door opened, Clarice shouldn’t be back yet.” Mom’s voice drifted to my ears like a sweet melody and I found myself wanting to cry. I’d missed them so much.

Grandpa saw me at that moment and dad turned around. Nothing passed through their faces and for a moment I thought they had forgotten me.

No sooner afterwards both exclaimed; “Cain!” in surprise and shock. Grandma was the first to get over it. She came over and grabbed me in a huge bear hug.

“Oh dear boy, where have you been? And what’s with your clothes?” She asked. Somewhere inside I sighed with relief. I really hadn’t been forgotten.

“I’ll explain everything, but first, Irene and I would like a change of clothes.”

“Irene?” Grandma glanced at my wife. Yes, my wife. “You better explain.” A huge smile was on my face and I couldn’t seem to wipe it away. Grandma seemed as healthy as ever. I’m happy she didn’t pass away while I was gone.

My dad said we could use his and mom’s clothes, I knew he wanted to hug me too and so did my mom but I quickly dragged Irene to their room.

“We could have gotten new clothes after your reunion.” Irene said.

“Yeah but…I just need a breather. Before everything becomes chaotic.” I opened the drawer.

“You are beautiful.” I told her after she came out of the bathroom. She’d really wanted to get rid of her long hair. It didn’t matter to me, but I’m sure it did to her.

“You’re pretty handsome yourself.”

“It feels weird not wearing bright colors.” She said, looking at my dull colored clothes. I was never going to wear bright stuff again.

“Yeah it does, but it feels so much better.” She shrugged.

“Time to go tell the story.” She said. Yep, here we go.

We’d barely come out that I was assaulted by my mother.

“Took you long enough! What happened?”

“It’s a pretty weird story.” I replied.

“Mom this is my wife Irene.” I introduced. I held my breath and so did Irene.

“Oh dear, welcome to the family!” Mom said as she pulled Irene into a hug. I smiled.

And then came up.

“Nice you have yourself a wife and you looked like you’ve changed, but would you please explain where you ran off to?”

“I missed you too dad.”

“Get over here.” He said as he grabbed me in for a hug. “God you’ve grown.”

“You’re looking pretty old too.” I said, and he laughed.

The next hour was saved for me recounting the past two years. Irene let me do all the talking, which is pretty surprising considering how much she loves to talk, and my parents didn’t say a thing till my story was finished.

I explained everything from my getting knocked out to my figuring out how to escape.

I think they really stayed silent because I hadn’t ever talked this much around them my whole life. Melody always did the talking. Right Melody! Where were my brothers and sisters?

“And then we got here,” I finished, “Now where are Melody, Anastasia and Collin?” I asked.

“Well…” Grandpa and dad looked away.

“Seems it’s our turn to tell a story.” Mom said. They weren’t smiling anymore. My heart skipped a beat, were my siblings okay?

And then mom and dad told me what happened.

Apparently a lot happened on the day I disappeared. First, Melody ran away! Someone in town saw her climb into someone’s van and they drove off! The police searched for her, until three months later, my twin sister sent a letter to my parents with no return address. It said she was fine, and not to worry. She would see them again once she’d become a t.v. star. The police couldn’t keep searching after that, and no more news of my sister was heard.

The night my twin ran away, my parents got a phone call from the police. Collin had gotten himself caught for killing someone. They had witnesses saying Collin had waited for the most opportune moment to push the victim in front of a moving car. Killing him instantly. They went to court and they fought as hard as they could, but Collin was stuck for the next 35 years in jail. But then two weeks after entering the prison, he disappeared. There was no sign of him breaking out, but he simply wasn’t there. Five months later, someone spotted his red hair in a crowd in Bridgeport. That same day an important business man was assassinated. Collin was the police’s top suspect, and he was moved to the top fugitives to find list.

And to add more to that dreadful night, Anastasia had a huge episode. She was talking with grandpa and simply freaked out. It was as if she completely changed character! She was particularly nasty to grandpa before heading out. She wasn’t seen until three days later. By then mom and dad were on the verge of depression. Hands full with Collin in jail, and Melody and I missing. That’s when she introduced her twin. I was pretty shocked at that point in the story. Apparently I had another sister. Esmeralda was a witch like dad. Apparently when Laura, Anastasia and Esmeralda’s mom, gave birth Daniel, my dad’s cousin and Uncle Christopher’s son, kept Esmeralda to himself and sold the baby witch to a talent tour.  Anastasia wasn’t a supernatural so he gave her back to dad. Apparently it was a really weird few months, Anastasia was always with the talent tour, developing a weird new power no one would’ve suspected she had. Mom and dad couldn’t give me any information on this power. Five months ago she left with her twin to go on a supernatural quest. Something about white-eyes. Let’s just say my parents didn’t have much say in the matter.

When all was said and done my parents initiated “investigate son’s wife.” They looked her up and down and asked her a ton of questions. Irene took them pretty well.

“Hey, I was wondering if Irene could stay here. She’s got no one else after all.” Mom of all people should be more than on my side.

“Yeah! Please, I’m a ton of fun and I can paint.” Irene chipped in. She’d warmed up to my parents pretty nicely.

Dad turned to me with a warm smile on his face. I’m home, god I’d missed this place.

“So what are you going to do now, Cain?” He asked. “You’re an adult, you have a wife, and a good education. You have something more than I had at your age and I recommend you don’t go work in groceries and the like.”

Right, I need to get myself a job. My dad wasn’t saying it now but he was probably going to make me pay rent. Irene doesn’t have any education, she wouldn’t be able to get herself a good job, and I don’t really want her to have to work in a fast food restaurant.

“I think…” The best job for me? I quickly examined what I’d done so far, how much I’d changed. I used to want to be a teacher, but now…

“A therapist.” I said. “I want to help people get past difficult times.” I thought back to how I’d helped the twin fairies, only a few hours ago. Yeah I think I could do that as a job.

Worst thing is, he looks like a therapist XD. Though that’s pretty stereotypical of me. Well then! A short little chapter as a transition!

I’m so happy! My game works really well now! I played around with my computer and discovered it was only going at 0,78 GHz! I played with some options and got it going up to 1,47 GHz without downloading a thing! I’m pretty happy, the game works so well!! I’d started to hate it again (its sort of what happened for my last legacy, the game lagged so badly I had to stop playing, and I was getting exasperated now too, but not anymore!)