An Extraordinary Life

Long Away

When Isabella entered her aunt and uncle's bedroom and her aunt shut the door immediately behind them, she knew something was up.

It didn't help that her uncle was perched at the edge of the bed either, looking oddly... hopeful. It was an expression she hadn't ever seen on his face in relation to her.

"Come here sweetheart, sit down," Gina guided Isabella towards the Queen-sized bed that was only draped with a folded tan sheet. "We wanted to talk to you about something."

"Is everything okay?" Isabella's brows knit together as she gingerly sat between the two.

"More than!" Gina reassured, and grabbed Isabella's hand in hers. Her aunt's eyes glistened a bit in the lamplight, as if she had been or was crying.

What is happening? Isabella thought to herself.

Tom cleared his throat. "It's been a tough eight months, to say the least."

"To say the least," Isabella replied, looking down at her lap.

She didn't feel the need to cry at the reminder of what had been of 1982 for her. She already got enough tears out in her shower, and was now completely emotionally exhausted.

Or so she thought.

"Which is why your uncle and I have been trying to think of ways to help you," Gina started again. "We're very worried that you seem to be going backwards. Staying the same is one thing, forwards is another. But backwards? Isabella, we're very worried."

Isabella clenched her free hand into a fist, and dug her thumbnail into the skin of her palm. It had served as an effective enough way for her to counteract the pain in her chest so it didn't ache asmuch.

"I'm trying," Isabella's lip quivered. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry for anything," Gina put her arms around Isabella's slightly trembling shoulders. "We only want to help you. Can we ask you something?"

Isabella nodded.

"Do you think being here," Tom cleared his throat. "And not just here as in inside this house, but just this town generally, is making it harder for you to feel better?"

"I'm not sure. I don't know where else I could be that would change things," Isabella shrugged suspiciously.

"If we... had a plan for you, moving forward, would you trust us to go ahead with it?" Gina asked quietly.

"Like what?" The eleven-year-old asked quickly, the words coming out a million miles a second.

"Do you remember your mother's friend, Mary Austin? She was at the—"

"Yes," Isabella interrupted confusedly. "She's on the other side of the world. You've been talking?"

"A few times a week for the past month," Gina breathed.

Isabella detected... a sense of relief in her aunt's tone. As if Mary was some kind of savior.

"We think..." Tom paused for a moment. "We think that it might do you some good to spend time away from here."

Isabella completely froze. She felt like someone had sucker punched her in the throat, pulling all of the air from her lungs. Rain began to fall outside, pattering against the roof of the house. The sound of it pulled her back into reality.

"What your uncle is trying to say is that you can't heal in the environment that hurt you. Those were Mary's words, actually."

A rumble of thunder shook the house. There was no sign of blue sky that was there earlier when Isabella was making waves in the pool with her cousin, unaware of her aunt and uncle on the phone in the house as they made a decision that would ultimately change her life once again. Isabella knew then why Kate kept her outside the house with her for hours. The realization stung her momentarily.