Temptation [A Young Writer's Prize Submission]

A New Start

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.

Romans 13: 11

I wasn't sure what I'd expected when I left the hospital. In my wildest dreams, there was a group waiting with balloons and celebratory messages on banners as I left the hospital.

Thankfully, no such fanfare waited for me. Lorraine and a nurse accompanied me down from the ward. They each held an arm, as my balance wasn't entirely restored. I wobbled a little, but we somehow managed to get down to the car park and into Lorraine's car without disaster.

"I'm not an invalid," I complained, as Lorraine moved to help me into the passenger seat.

My counsellor simply raised an eyebrow at me, practically slapping at my hands as I tried to fasten my seatbelt myself. Giving up, I held them out of the way for her.

"Where's Debra?" I asked her, just before she shut the car door on me, moving round the bonnet to get in the driver's side.

"She's gone shopping," Lorraine said offhandedly, inserting her keys into the ignition and preparing to drive off.

I wasn't entirely sure how to react. Okay, Debra was going through a tough time... and retail therapy did tend to help the stress levels of the Isaac women... but really? She went shopping on the day I came out of hospital?

Lorraine must have seen the perplexed expression on my face, because she laughed primly: "You have to have clothes for school, don't you?" she teased.

"Oh." Of course, all my clothes would have been destroyed in the fire. That was a sobering thought. I took a moment to mourn the loss of my favourite shirts, before realising how incredibly insensitive I was. If the worst I was mourning were a few personal items, I was unspeakably lucky. Susana and Debra had lost everything; their home, their business, Philip... and now they counted each of the seconds they still had with Thomas.

I guessed I couldn't really relate; I'd never had the kind of familial relationship with anyone to understand what they were going through. A sudden thought struck me, leaving my lips before I could rethink it.

"What happened to my parents?" I blurted out. "Why did I have to come to Greenwich?"

Lorraine pursed her lips as she drove out of the car park. "That was a bit before my time, Mercy," she replied, her tone evasive. "I only started working there when you were five."

"Surely, somebody must have told you about it," I pressed. They were all gossips in that place. "I don't know anything about my parents," I added after she said nothing, hoping to guilt her into revealing something.

"That's how it should stay," she said sharply. "Greenwich had to sign a confidentiality agreement. It means you can't track your parents until you're eighteen."

I had just under a year before I could track them. The thought thrilled me, a spark of hope entering my very dark horizon.

"I don't want to know anything personal about them," I conceded. "I just want to know what happened when I was dropped off."

Lorraine sighed. "I'm getting this second hand," she divulged, "so I'm not sure how much of this is actually accurate."

"I'll hear anything you have," I prompted. My fingers were clasped tight in my lap; my stomach was performing anxious little flips.