You Can't Break Her

Chapter thirteen: part four | July

July 2003
Bayhollow, Ontario

The phone rang for a second while Renee and I played cards at the kitchen table a few feet away from it. I heard my dad pick up in the basement. I couldn't hear what he said but his low voice was a give away. He spoke for a moment with the person and jogged up the first set of steps to the landing then up the second set and through the kitchen to our side.

"It's for you, Renee." He passed it across to her and gestured for me to leave. Before I could get up she ran past us to the bathroom.

"What's going on?" I couldn't grasp the situation. The sudden action made my head swirl. I still couldn't handle the emotional part of people. A tiny outburst made me paranoid. This confusion felt deadly.

"What happened?" I anxiously reiterated the thought. I had to know what was going on. Each second that we stagnated in each other's presence was a minute off my life. My heart slowed in my chest as I allowed my discomfort to wash away for a brief time.

Mom stood in silence for a few minutes. She broke free of her statue-esque pose, walking down the hall to the door, she knocked softly. "Is everything alright Renee?" She placed her face against the door as she spoke. The door clicked unlocked and Renee invited Mom in.

Mind boggled, I walked to the living room a few feet from where we had been static only a few second ago. Tossing my body onto the rocking loveseat My neck lurched forward and I grabbed my neck as the motion pulled my muscles in a terribly painful way. "What the hell is going on?"

"Amaris," dad hissed as he made himself comfortable on the couch on the other wall of the living room. "Don't talk like that. You'll find out if she wants you to know."

Rocking so hard in my seat, the back hit the wall. I jumped and looked at him. He gave me the eyes and I stopped what I was doing.

The bathroom door flung open. Renee bolted out and ran into my arms. Returning the hug, I looked to Mom for some sort of help. Anything, an eyebrow raise or a blatant statement. Intensity built in my mind, the minutes shaved from my life and this moment we're coming to a standoff. Heart pounding. Breath short. What's happening?

"Do you mind if I tell Ama, Renee?" Mom politely interjected. Certainly she could tell it was going to be my end soon.

Renee shook her head, remaining close to me as she did.

Mom stepped closer, looking into my eyes. "Renee's grandfather passed away."

My heart somehow pounded harder. This wasn't a person or thing that I was capable of protecting her from. That thought terrified me. An uncontrollable moment in time that we can never really be prepared for. "I'm so sorry," I whispered into her hair, huggin

"We can drive you home right now, if you want," dad offered with a tear in his eye.

I felt her head move side to side. "No thank you, I want to stay." We stopped hugging and she wiped beneath her eyes with her sweater sleeves. "I want to stay here with Ama." She put her hand on my shoulder, we made eye contact before she went to the bathroom to blow her nose.

Two months. That summer we spent every single second together. We stole snacks from the kitchen in the dark of night. Often times tumbling and barely making it up and down the stairs unharmed. My home was her home. She was and always will be my sister through and through.