Trapped in the Afterlife

Chapter 6- Last Sight, First Love: Yohan (P. 2)

''The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.'' mother sang to Laila who giggled along trying to immitate the finger movements our mother was making.

''Are you anxious to see grandpa, Laila?'' I turned around in my seat and looked at my baby sister.

Mom turned to look at her, anxious for her answer. Dad glanced at her through the child-safe mirror. ''Yes! G-pa!'' she wailed which caused our dad to smile to his ears and mom to clap her hands, encouraging her to talk more.

Laila was almost four years old but since she had spent nearly the entire first year of her life in the hospital. Although she was a little late on her basic skills, the doctors said that she was catching up quickly. Her simply being here was a miracle in itself.

Our family had never been lucky. Mother lost her first child before it was born.Two years later I was born and nearly took my mother's life. Three years later she managed to have another son without any complications but a car accident took his life before he turned a month old. Finally, another three years later Laila was born prematurely and with a few minor health issues and a mutation - she had four arms. The doctors said something about siamese twins not developping well. However, lucky as we are, Laila nearly died during the surgery. Obviously, she survived but it resulted in many more months of treatment.

We finally arrived at grandpa's estate and vineyard and I was the first to jump out of the car as soon as it stopped. I ran straight into my grandmother's waiting arms and hugged her tightly before turning around and going to help my parents unload the car.

''Its good to see you home, Joey!'' exclaimed my grandfather's grating voice.

I loved my grandmother, but that love didn't extend as much to my grandfather.

''I'm giving you the agreed yearly visit.'' My father muttered under his breath.

Maybe I didn't like my grandfather that much because of my father's obvious distate for his own father. Then again, with the power coursing through me I had initially thought that it was 'evil' power that I felt within my grandfather that made me shiver this way.

''One visit per year is not enough to train the kids.'' grandpa stated, calmly.

''I train them on my own time without risking their lives!'' father shouted back at him and voila, the yearly visit had officially started.

My father walked up agressively towards grandpa and the arguing continued with their voices escalating. Grandma tried to calm her husband and intervening. Mom tried to do the same with dad but it was no use. They were father and son. They were one and the same yet so amazingly different. I knelt by Laila's side and tried to comfort her the high pitched voices were scaring her. Her eyes were wide and her lower lip trembled; she was going to start to cry soon.

Everyone was frozen in place the minute her first wail escaped freezing everyone except for me. I didn't bother trying to understand what had happened, I knew that she had done it and that I had to take this opportunity to calm her down and take her away from the screaming adults. I calmed her enough to stop her crying and walked by the adults with the sniffling four year old by my side. ''Why they no move, Ohan?'' she sniffled.

''Uh... hum...'' I paused, looking between her and the adults. ''I'll let mommy explain that to you later, alright? Lets get you to a bed. You must be so tired from the drive!''

She looked at me before nodding slowly, accompanying her nod with a huge yawn.

The garden was beautiful to look at when you saw it as a simple garden. By now however, I was used to seeing it as the spell-practice yard; it lost a lot of its shine because of that. Grandpa stood behind my father and myself, yelling out spell names that we had to cast. He didn't give us time to catch our breath between two spells. Father had once said that he was so hard on us simply because he didn't want to be alone when his past caught up to him. I didn't know what he meant.