Irene, My dead best friend [Wattys 2015]

Chapter 21: Family

“I’ve heard them singing before. I can’t remember precisely when but it was a while back. Usually the singing is followed by violent screaming...” she went silent for a second as though contemplating if she should tell me the next part or not ,”I believe they do this singing ritual before they eat,” her voice had become barely audible by the end of it. It took me a second to fully comprehend the extent of what she was saying. Trying furiously to calm the supersonic beating of my heart, again the irony of it is not lost on me, I looked at Irene but all she did was nod at me.

“What are we going to do, Jason?” her voice was soft, almost childlike and laced with fear.

 It made me want to hold her, hug her in my arms till she felt better. I wanted to pick up where I had left off earlier, before the centaurs had so rudely interrupted me. On an elemental level I marveled at how much I had grown in the past couple of days. Trying to…wanting to protect someone else. Feeling the things that I was feeling? I couldn’t believe if I was the same person from few days ago. What was going on with me? Was I evolving? Nah, that can’t be it. It had to be Irene. She had this odd maturing effect on me. She made me want to forget what a wuss I used to be and step up to the plate and take action, if not for me…then for her. I was growing and turning into a man. MAN …wow. Never thought I would be so aware of such a change.

“I’m not perfectly sure, Irene, but we’ll be okay,” I tried to sound confident but I don’t think I fooled her.

“How do you know we’ll be okay? Where are we going to go now? How will I find my family? I’m so tired of running all the time, Jason….I miss my family… You know I have a little sister?” she looked at me with bright hopeful eyes. I saw happiness in them for the first time in 2 days.

“No, I didn’t know that. What’s her name?” I asked her as we continued walking deeper into the woods. We couldn’t stay stagnant for too long lest we left a trail; we had to keep moving.

“Her name is Rosalyn but I’ve always ever called her Rose. She really is very pretty, I can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s so sweet and kind and oh she tells the funniest stories! My goodness, papa loves having Rose around him, she keeps him laughing and mama enjoys her company too. They spend quite a while in the kitchen together. You should just see them all together. It really is beautiful!” Irene was talking so animatedly, only love in her voice for Rosalyn. I could see it in her face, she really did love her sister. She was still talking at length about Rose but all I could seem to focus on was her tense. She spoke about them in present tense, as though she could see them…right there. I noticed how she was looking into the distance, deeper into the woods as she exclaimed out loudly, telling me about the time Rose let a couple of frogs loose in the house. Her eyes were animated at the thought, full of happiness and laughter but her mouth… the expression around her mouth gave a different story.

Every incidence she talked about was between Rose and her parents. She seemed to be lost out of the equation. Mama and papa enjoyed time with Rose. Mama and papa loved Rose. The three of them went out of town together this one time but, where was Irene in all this?

“She sound lovely Irene although I can’t imagine her being prettier than you,” I was pretty sure I saw a faint blush cross her face, “but what about you and Rose? Tell me of a time you and her had together? Are you two close?”

Irene went quite then, as though anticipating the consequence of what she might tell me. “Things between me and Rose…they were…are different,” she went quite again, looking into the distance, chewing on her bottom lip.

“What do you mean?” but I got no response from her. She seemed to have zoned out, yet still walking and staring into the distance. A lone tear escaped her left eye and gently travelled down her left cheeks. It left a wet trail behind and freaked me out. Why was she crying?! What was worse was that it reminded me of the time we had in my house where she had transported me into one of her visions, a time when she had similarly zoned out.

“Irene,” I called out to her but got no response, “Irene…are you okay?” nothing. I tried my best to not have to shake her out of her reverie but no matter how much I called out to her, I got no response.

“Darn it, Irene!” frustrated, I knew what I had to do as I took my last step closing the distance between Irene and I. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder, unable to feel if I had placed it there at all, but before I could call out to her, I was zooming out of the woods and twirling away into a faraway abyss.

©Hafsa T.M (aka HTMwrites)