TIFITY

My real family

It had been a couple of weeks since I moved into Evangeline's apartment. I was warmly welcomed from the beginning though. Katherine and Richard, her parents, offered themselves to deal with all the paperwork and everything else that had to be done. Both Evangeline and them were the nicest to me and helped me out as much as they could have. They taught me so many life lessons in a short time, and I'll forever be grateful for it. I learned what a real family is and how being loved by your parents feels like. Although I wasn't her daughter, they made me feel so special that I almost believed we were a family. But thinking about it twice, I think we really were one because non-biologically related people can also be your family, right?

After all, they were the only people I had in the world, especially Evangeline. She had always been my family friend and that says a lot about her. She was so warm-hearted, the sweetest friend. I doubt I'd have been able to get through everything without having her by my side and her unconditional support. She always thanked me for helping her out with food and stuff, but I still believe she did much more for me than I did for her, and I'll never be able to thank her enough for it. She made me feel so comfortable sharing her room with me for three whole weeks. We organized many pyjama parties featuring our favourite film, Monsters Inc, and our best-loved board game, Monopoly. We played hide and seek (for real this time), did puzzles and had so many deep late-night conversations. I had no concerns really, that's the effect Evangeline had on me. The same effect that Tifity had on both of us.

It had been a month and a half since I told Evangeline about the black hole in the door to Tifity waning. I suppose we were lamented by the chance of the next trip being the last. As said, I calculated we'd still be able to go three more times before the hole got closed, but I was almost totally uncertain. The only way to know if it actually was the very last time, was travelling there, but we decided to postpone the voyage just in case we had an emergency.

*****

I had already moved back to my house when I realized there still were police tapes forming a cross at the front door. I came across a piece of paper on the way to the hall. It was from a newspaper, and it had the sentence "Young man kills his mother for six hundred pounds" as a headline. I guess some policeman dropped it while they were inspecting the place looking for things that proved I wasn't lying when I claimed both my mum and I had been constantly abused. I didn't give it much importance, being aware I'd break down if I did. I kept walking towards the door and removed the tapes. It sensed like entering an old haunted house. Everything was in its place, just as the policewoman promised it'd be after they had finished the work. I went to the backyard directly, leaving the door open and my bag on the floor. I wanted to check if Boo's door was in one piece. What a relief I felt when I saw it was just as I left it. I opened it to verify the black hole was still open, and it was a great surprise to see it didn't get much smaller in all the time I was gone. I took my phone and called Evangeline straight away to tell her everything was alright, but that we should wait a bit more before going back to Tifity, just in case we found ourselves in a crisis. 

The first night at my house (it still feels strange to say my instead of our) was far from pleasant. I recall I cried myself to sleep just as I had done the night before because I felt so sad and desperate. It's still hard to face my mind sometimes, due to it overthinking to such an extent, that I end up hopelessly crying. That was one of those nights. I remember I had a nightmare that marked me insanely much. It featured me and my dad and a scene from the movie Aladdin. I was near the edge of a canyon standing next to my dad. He put handcuffs on my toes, tied to a lead ball. He wouldn't stop repeating the phrase "I love you darling" while doing that and pushing me towards the ravine. I begged him to have some mercy on me, but he played deaf and ended up throwing me down to the sea. I tried to swim into the surface, but the ball of lead was pulling me down rapidly. I was drowning with no remedy until I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. My heart raced so fast and it took it almost half an hour to calm down. It definitely was the worst night I've ever had. 

When I woke up in the morning, I barely had the energy to move, but I made a huge effort and left my bed. I texted Evangeline after having had breakfast to ask her how things were going now that I wasn't there to cheer her up. She instantly responded saying that things went back to being difficult, as nobody else than me understood her struggle with food and exercise that much. She told me she was too overwhelmed by the situation and that she needed to escape. I considered this as the emergency case we talked about many times, so I invited her to join me on a trip to Tifity. 

We met at the entrance of my living place. I, of course, welcomed her with the tightest and warmest hug I was able to give. I could tell from the tone in her voice that she was having a very troublesome time. I was fucking ready to do everything that was in my hands to help her out because happiness was what she deserved instead of having to deal with that much suffering and pain. So, I held Evangeline's hand and led her to the backyard. It was time for us to step in one more time, perhaps the last one.