Set in Ink

Chapter 23

My parents greet me with warm hugs when I enter their room. I sit down on the bed and make myself comfortable. They sit down on either side of me and give me a kiss on the cheek on their side.

"I'm glad to see you're in a good mood!" exclaims Mama.

"I've never been better!" I exclaim back.

"I'm glad!" exclaims Dad.

Everyone does seem to be in a good mood today.

"How has your day been so far?" asks Mama.

"My day has been great! I started off in a bad mood, but how could I stay in a bad mood on such a beautiful day?" I answer her.

"That's great!" says Dad.

"Addilyn now that you've recovered, there are some things you should know," Mama tells me, still smiling, but a little hesitant.

"Okay, what are they?" I ask.

Normally I would be scared of what would come next, but I'm ready for anything right now. I'm not going to let it ruin my good mood.

"We heard your conversation with Vander," replies Dad. "Not everything he said was completely true," he pauses.

The conversation I had with Vander wasn't very long. What could have been said that was a lie? I ask myself. I quickly review the conversation in my head. The entire conversation was basically talking about how Vander recovered a few days ago and I'm happy, that's all.

"You see sweetie," Dad continues, "You probably only remember a day or two of sickness."

"I was sick for about three or four days, wasn't I?" I ask.

"That's the thing, you think it was three or four days," replies Mama. "Vander said he recovered days ago, but he became well about two months ago. Today is June 6th. You've been sick for about four months. Most of your sickness included heavy sleeping. When you would regain consciousness the nurses would knock you out again. Your condition was so bad that they didn't want you to have to suffer."

"I thought that Vander was worse than I was though," I say.

"It started out that way, but he kept getting better, and you kept getting worse," Dad responds.

I notice that Mama and Dad are switching off speaking again. I don't comment on it.

"Okay!" I say, keeping my smile.

"You don't mind or have any questions?" asks Mama.

"What is there to know? I'm better now!" I reply.

"Still cheerful, I like it," says Dad.

"Brookie is home, too." Mama says quickly. "She knows pretty much everything. We couldn't keep it from her. She had been at the Robinson household for about a month. We decided that she had to come home and see what happened eventually. We couldn't hide anything from her anymore."

"I'm glad Brookie knows," I say.

"You seem awfully calm about this Addilyn," Dad observes.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I ask. "I can't change the past, I just have to move on so I can be happy in the present."

"My little girl has become so wise," Mama says, tearing up a little.

Mama was never one to be very emotional. I guess a lot has changed lately.

"You learn from experience," I say.

I would usually have a longer reply to what she said, it would probably contain an argument about how you can't be wise until you've been through all kinds of things, you need to experience more to be wise, but I'm not so sure anymore. What kind of knowledge do you need to be wise? And how much? I'm also greatly distracted by Brookie being home. I want to see her. Dad must be able to tell that I'm distracted.

"Get out of here," Dad says.

At first I'm confused, still deep in my thought.

"Go see your sister," he adds.

Then I understand.

"I love you guys," I say.

I turn to each of them and give them hugs and kisses, then I jump up and run to Brookie's room, only pausing for a second to smile at Vander as I pass him in the hall.

When I reach her room, Brookie is sitting on her bed, looking into the mirror, and brushing her hair. I love that long, beautiful, red hair of hers.

"Hey babe," I say as I sit down on the bed next to her.

"Addilyn!" she squeals before she wraps me up in a big hug. "You're finally better!"

I see a tear begin to roll down her cheek.

"Don't cry silly I'm fine and I'll be fine from now on." I say.

I'm not sure if this is a safe bet, but I make the promise anyway. She's too young to worry about me. She's only eleven, she shouldn't even have to worry about herself.

"Here, let me get that," I say as I take the brush from her and begin to put her hair up.

I put it in Mama's signature tight braided bun, I'm not really sure when I picked up how to do my own hair. I guess I just watched Mama very carefully for years. She would put my hair up like this almost every day for school.

"How are you?" I ask as I pin the last few hairs into place.

"I'm good," she says before diving into a long description of what happened with her and around her while I was gone.

Some people may be bored listening to something like this, but I'm not. I watch as she reacts to her story with her hands and facial expressions. I don't want to miss a second of her life. I want to hear every detail from when I was gone, which I know I will. Brookie isn't one to leave out a single thing from her tales. She'll tell you everything. She loves to tell stories, especially about herself.

"...And can you believe it, Jenny likes a boy!"

I gasp in pretend astonishment, "Ew!"

"I know it's gross."

I watch as her little nose crinkles on the word "gross," showing her disgust with boys, and I giggle a little. She's so young, someday she won't be as disgusted with males as she is now. Although, she will never understand them, along with the rest of us girls. I try not to think of Vander as I listen to the rest of her story, then I give her a piggy back ride to the kitchen where Mama, Dad, Gramps, and Vander are all gathered.

"Brookie did you do your hair by yourself?" asks Mama, sounding surprised.

"Addilyn did it," she answers.

"Oh yes, I noticed your hair that way when you first came home, I was meaning to ask you about that. How long have you been able to do you own hair?" she questions.

"A couple years," I reply with a sheepish smile.

"Then why have I been doing your hair for all this time girl?" she asks, sounding surprised and hurt, but she doesn't mean it.

"I liked our talks," I say, smiling widely again, "and I wanted you to feel useful."

"Well then thank you sweetie, but you're more than welcome to do your own hair if you would like to."

I don't know if I want to do my own hair or not, I like to talk to Mama and I like the feeling of her running her fingers through my hair. I won't think too hard about it right now.

"Hi Gramps!" I exclaim, giving him a kiss on his right cheek and a hug.

"Hey Sweetie, how are you?" he inquires.

"I'm fantastic!" I exclaim again.

Everyone giggles.

"We can tell," Dad replies.

"How is everyone else?" I ask.

They all speak at the same time, but I can hear what they say. Mama is happy, Dad is great, Gramps is super, and Brookie is fabulous.

"I'm glad that everyone is in as great of a mood as I am!" I exclaim.

"We should play a game!" says Brookie.

"Oh no," says Dad.

"Yes!" I say.