Lost And Found

secrets

No one says anything, it's quiet, the only sound is the tv playing. Then all of a sudden, a ring rips through the silence, my dad brings his phone to his ear "hello...yeah she's right here.... Yeah, we saw it.... Okay I'll bring her home... Alright see you, bye," he hangs up. "that was Sam, he thinks it would be best if you went home."

I nod slowly "yeah, okay" my voice comes out quiet, and I'm not even sure if he heard me but he gets up and heads to the door anyways. I follow him out and neither one of us talks on the way to my house. When he drops me off, he walks me to the door and he looks like he's about to saying something but decides against it.

When I come in both Sam and Clare are standing there looking frantic. "you're not going to school tomorrow" she says hugging me.

"Relax Clare, your acting like I'm the one who got abducted" I tell her tying to lighten the mood but she just gives me this look, the kind that tells me nothing I say will change her mind, and I decide maybe it's best to stop.

My father steps in side and closes the door behind him, "Clare's right you shouldn't go to school tomorrow," he pauses like he's not sure if he should continue, "there's something I need to tell you."

"What?" what else could he seriously be hiding from me.

He avoids my eyes "the day you were born, my son came into this world a still born." I'm sure that I'm following what he's saying.

"What are you talking about?" He's not making any sense, Archers his only son and he looks pretty healthy to me, and there is definitely no way he was born the same day I was.

"Your mother never made it to the hospital before she gave birth in the back seat of our car. She was so tired she never even noticed I swapped the babies" he continues, not making any eye contact.

"Dad, you're not making sense" what does he mean by "swapped the babies." Is he trying to say that I'm not his? My brain is panicking trying to figure out where he's going with this.

"After your mother gave birth, I realized something was wrong, I realized he wasn't breathing, I tried to save him, but I couldn't," he sounds like he's holding back tears. "Then there was this flash of light, and there I was, standing there, holding my dead son in front of three tall figures. I couldn't make out much of their features because of the light, except for their eyes, dark blue, almost purple with gold flecks exploding from the center, and one other thing. I could see that they were holding something small, and bundled in a pink blanket. They made me a deal. They said they would swap the children, as long as I followed their rules. I was desperate, this was the third still born your mother had delivered, she wouldn't be able to handle another loss, so I made the deal." He finishes and I notice the tears running down his face.

"What were the rules?" Sam says and I startle remembering that he was here.

"The first one, I had to keep the name we had planned to use," He tells us.

"That's why you were so stubborn about me having a boy name" I whisper, at first, I don't think he heard me, but then he answers.

"It was hard to convince your mother, since she wanted to name you Josephine after her mother" He explains with a small smile. "The second, no doctors, they said that they didn't want you to ever see a doctor, that if I broke this rule, they would take you away" he pauses.

"And the third?" Clare demands.

He looks down, almost ashamed "that they would come back, and when they did, I had to let it happen. They came back two weeks after your fifth birthday, they checked you out and said you were healthy, and they left. I thought that was it, but then they came again two weeks after your tenth, they said you were healthy and left, just like the time before. But then then two weeks after your fifteenth birthday came, and you had just ran out of the house. I ran out to follow you when there was a bright flash. The next thing I remember is waking up and finding your mother in the living room talking to a police officer, you had been gone for the last eight hours. I figured they would bring you back, but then a day passed, and then a week and then a month. ," he pauses " when archer was born, I broke, I couldn't take it so I told everyone that they were the ones who took you, the aliens with the same colored eyes as yours."

"You're crazy" I say not wanting to believe him but knowing that his aliens match the people from my nightmares.

"That's what everyone said, that I was having a mental break down," he says quietly. "I was in the hospital for about a year, and by the time I got out your mother had left. It took me about another three years to get my business to be what it was and then I finally accepted that you weren't coming back around the time Archer was nine, so I sold the house and we moved."

"No, you're making it up, it's not true. Your nothing but a liar!" I scream before turning and running out of the house.

"Kaison!" I can hear both Sam and Clare shout my name, but I just keep running. I run to the park, and I wait there for about an hour before deciding on what to do.

~o~

I climb up the tree, hoping that who's ever in the living room doesn't notice me. Once I get to the right window, I knock on it, I know it's this one because I remember when Mikey told me that this was going to be his baby brother's new room, in fact I even helped paint it. I smile at the memory of Clare, Mikey and me all painting the room together, and how by the time we were finished there was more paint on us than the walls. My thoughts are interrupted when the window slides open. "How'd you get up here?" Noah asks.

"I climbed the tree, whenever Mikey was told to clean his room instead of playing, he would come to this room and climb down the tree, before running over to my house to play with me in my backyard." I told him and he smiles at the thought of his brother.

He steps back from the window "come in before you get hurt."

I roll my eyes before climbing through the window "where's Archer?" I say looking around his room, half expecting Archer to jump out and say something stupid.

"Down stairs on the couch, he says I snore" Noah rolls his eyes at how ridiculous he is and then lay's back down on his bed.

I lay down on his bed next to him, "so what's up?" Noah says, while throwing a foam ball, designed to look like a soccer ball, up in the air, and then catching it.

"I went to the park, I guess your office is closed, you should really fire that secretary, there wasn't even a sign up," I say causing him to laugh "seriously I waited there for like an hour. "

He catches the ball and then sets it on the night stand next to his bed, before turning his head to look at me "you did?" he looks at me differently than usual.

"Yeah well, it's not that big a deal" but he knows I was waiting for him, I roll over on top of him and reach for the wall.

"What are you doing?" I look at him and we stare at each other for a second, I hadn't even thought about the way it looked to him, when I did it.

"Peeling the paint off your wall," I tell him, ignoring the potential moment we just had. I pick at it with my finger nails and finally a chunk of paint comes off, I pick at it some more and another chunk comes off, enough to reveal the writing underneath.

"What is that?" he says tapping on my shoulder, and I take the hint and roll off of him, back to my side of the bed.

He looks at it more closely before reading it out loud "Clare, Mikey, and Kaison, the best of friends forever," Noah looks at me. "how'd you know this was here," I just point to my name and smirk "oh right."

"There's more," I say waiting for him to look at me before I continue. "He wrote you a poem on the wall next to where your crib was, and there was a lot of messages down near the base of the walls. Some are quotes, some are story's he thought were funny, and some was just stuff he couldn't wait to tell you when you were born. I even think he drew a picture in the back of your closet" I tell him.

He smiles and I get this warm fluttery feeling in my stomach "will you help me find them?"

I smile snuggling into his bed "tomorrow " I mumble before falling asleep, the last thing I remember is Noah whispering, "night" and then his lips on my forehead.