~~Young~~

Chapter Two

   She existed in her own her own world for a long time, in a bubble, aware of what was going on around her but protected by her own shell. But one late summer day that all changed.

   Like the holidays, her parents never called her home over summer break so she wasn’t one to participate in the arrival process of all the other students. She stayed in her room as she had done every year before, watching from her window as parents and daughters hugged and waved their goodbyes as she waited for her roommate to return. She envied that girl, not because of the real, loving relationship she had with her parents, but that she never had to hide who she was from them or anyone else. Chelsea could be who she wanted to be, and mistakes included, her parents never once berated her for it.

   But this time a call came through her in-house phone, one of the nuns asking her to come down to the registration offices, that there was someone waiting for her. Sera couldn’t even begin to guess who it was- no one ever came to see her- but when questioning the secretary she introduced her to a little girl.

   Sister Mary-Rose with a smile that was her trademark handed her the girl’s paper work, including her class schedule and room assignment and asked if she could get little Josephine settled. Sera had assumed it was just the sister’s giving her something to do to keep her from her brooding and isolation. But it was the next word that came out of the nun’s mouth that floored Sera.

   Little Josephine, barely five years old and twelve years younger than Sera, was Sera’s sister.

   Her parents had never mentioned being pregnant, never mind that they had been raising a child. And though it may have made the media loop in the Canada area because of her family’s affluence, it was hardly an international news story that a CA’s wife was pregnant so Sera hadn’t read it in any papers.

   But really looking at the little girl Sera realized there was nothing of her father in her. Josephine was a child born out of infidelity, just another reason for their parents to send her away before she did make it into the papers. What a scandal that would be for a senate hopeful’s wife to be having an affair. Not that it was anything new, Sera’s mother had a parade of men that came and went when her father was out for business. And her father had just as many mistresses, a handful in every province he visited. It was a marriage of convenience and nothing more. He married her for her family’s political sway, and she married him for his family’s money, there was no respect for the other never mind affection.

   But looking at that scared child’s face it gave Sera a purpose. Her bubble didn’t expand to encompass Josephine, it melted away. She was such a beautiful girl, in spirit and in body, innocence in her heart. Sera didn’t want her sister to see the world as it was, didn’t want her to live the world of distance she had. She only wanted for her to see the beauty of her life, not the darkness that tainted it all. The darkness Sera lived in everyday.

   Over the years Sera made sure Joey never knew how their parent’s resented her. Sera had heard it from another how her mother would rant that Josephine robbed what was left of her youth. And when Sera called on her sister’s behalf when she had become very ill, the pneumonia becoming more then the nun’s infirmary could manage, her father had scoffed. He called her a burden, draining their bank accounts for their prestigious boarding school and now hospital bills because she had a bad cold. But none of that ever made it Josephine’s ears. Sera made her believe that she was a wanted part of the family, not an accident or an “unplanned pregnancy” as her mother reported to the media, even if they were only a family of two.

   But the time came for Sera to graduate, to move on to college and leave her sister behind. And though she knew she had left Joey in a good place, it made Sera anxious to leave her, to not be the buffer in between her and their parents. So she applied to nearby colleges, hoping that by the time her sister graduated from the same school she would have a good career away from all the bitterness back in Canada. She wanted to make a new life for the both of them there in the States.