His Kitten

Chapter Sixteen - Feelings Unraveled

The words Sam spoke were beyond Russell's imagination. He never once picture Jane having suffered from anything as a child. Besides occasional bruises from her clumsiness.

Russell had envision Jane's childhood something rather pleasant, picturing her as the loudest kid in her kindergarten class but maintaining that same bright smile.

"Why are you telling me this?" Russell asked Sam and he soon received an answer.

  "Because I know Jane trusts you." Before Russell could ask how he knows this, Sam said his reason. "You wouldn't have gone into the flames to save her if she didn't mean a lot to you. And by the way she speaks of you it's clear that she has trust in you."

   Russell didn't interrupt Sam anymore and allowed him to continue the story.

  "When she was seven years old on November 23, she was caught in a massive fire that purged in her apartment building." Sam paused. "She said that her mother told her to go down stairs because she needed to help her neighbor, who was an older women her mother often looked after."

   Russell could envision just how bad the flames were, making the ones he witnessed at school nothing.

   "So as her mother instructed she went down the stairs alone. Jane told me that while doing so she hit a warm pipe on the side of her stomach, which I imagine must have left a scar.  But soon after a firefighter came and rescued her."

   Russell mentally noted this piece of information down to be careful since Jane might feel insecure.

"Her father and his friend were the two firefighters that found Jane. Because her father realized that his wife, being the caring women she was, wouldn't go downstairs without trying to save her neighbor, he instructed his friend to take Jane back down and wait a few minutes for him."

  Russell could feel the sadness within Sam as he was stirring up the painful story of his beloved cousin. Something Russell appreciated since Sam chose to tell him.

  "When they got down and out of the building, the flames burned brighter and hotter than before. Making it like a human oven within the building. There was no doubt in Janes mind that her parents would make the effort come back."

   Russell already knew that her parents didn't make it since she's living with her aunt, but still couldn't imagine what it must have felt like to her.

  "However, after waiting the minutes he said to with her dad's friend, Jane cried as she realized that even if they wanted to come back they wouldn't be able to. Since then Jane has been living with us, and I know at times she chooses to go out whenever we have a family activity because although we're family, she still misses her parents and occasionally feels guilty whenever she has fun without them ."

   This information that Sam relayed to Russell was a lot but was definitely needed to help him understand Jane more.

   "Thank you for this." Russell said as they both stood up. "I'll see you later."

  "Of course." Sam replied before asking Russell to do two favors from him. One of them being that he didn't want Jane to know he stopped by.

   Russell walked back into the hospital making his way over to where Jane was at. He slowly opened the door to her room.