previously, on Todd the Spectacular:
I beamed at Felix as my mother used to do, when we finally made the right decision on our own and she was pleased for us.
“I must say, Felix, I’m awfully proud.”
“Oh, stop.”
I laughed.
We all did.
ChapterThree
Dreams and Stones
The paintbrush was given to me. I took it, timidly.
“You see? You can do almost anything, Annie, if you want to. Now go,” a hand that was sweeter than any hand in the world guided mine to the wall where all of my mother’s painted flowers and swirls were displayed. Why paint on a canvas when you had walls?
“Go. Make your little mark on the world.”
Some people were like that.
My mother was.
“But you have to be brave, Annie. Always be brave.”
I was nudged awake by the golden head that nodded against my shoulder. I yawned without a sound and glanced down at Claudia, and then across at Felix, who was asleep beside Henry. Like a little puppy, sighing and breathing, so peacefully, it melted my heart for a moment.
But Henry was awake.
He always was, in the dark and early hours of the morning where the night met the day. Where the darkness blossomed into a fresh dawn.
Dawn and dusk. Both so beautiful and yet so different they would never meet.
His eyes were fixed on a little stone he fingered in his hand. He handled it carefully and delicately like a piece of glass. Such a simple stone, yet it meant the world to him and more. Before Mother died, this was the last stone they skipped together.
Well, they skipped one like it.
After he finally got the hang of it, and sent a little stone sailing across the water, he went in after it. Seven years old and he was a perfect swimmer. He was talented. Even Father knew it, then.
He retrieved a stone that he claimed was the one he skipped, but, we’ll never truly know.
The stone was not unique or even distinguishable in any way, but through the eyes of that little boy, it was more precious than anything else.
“Henry?” I whispered his name.
He glanced at me and then back to the stone. “I wonder where the real stone is.”
I smiled a little smile. Later, I learned that the smile I gave him that moment meant more to him than I would ever know. But back then, in this little room, I didn’t know that. I didn’t even think he saw my smile. It was dark, anyhow.
You see, Henry bore a curse upon his heart. No matter how much or how deep he loved, he couldn’t ever let on.
At least not for most of his life. He didn’t know why he couldn’t. He just—
Couldn’t.
“At the bottom of the lake, most likely.”
Henry chuckled a humorless chuckle and clicked his tongue, slipping the stone back into the safe haven of his coat pocket, where most of his small treasures were kept. “I never really learned to skip properly. Mother could, though.”
“Me neither,” I said. “I had a—”
“Dream?” Henry’s eyes locked onto mine forcefully. “Mother wouldn’t have let Father—”
“He had no choice.”
“I don’t care. She would’ve found a way.”
I despaired for Henry. My heart sighed when he was upset, for I understood his pain even if I did not show it.
I, too, had a hurt.
But I wouldn’t let him or anyone else ever know how much it bothered me, even controlled me.
I felt some strange, undying need to be strong. I guess I was trying to prove myself because I knew, deep inside, that I was not. Strong, I mean. Or brave. And besides, truthfully, if I let myself cry, I feared I would never stop crying. I would break and wouldn’t find the time to pick the pieces of my heart back up again.
I love poetry, if you haven’t caught on to that yet.
Henry took Mother’s death bitterly and isolated himself from the rest of us, locked up inside his own world. I wanted desperately to get in. To take a look inside. Maybe I would find genius thoughts and ideas I didn’t know were real. I had a feeling I would find it magnificent.
If ever he let me in.
He wasn’t the leader Father wanted him to be, not yet. But I aimed to try and help him.
“Henry, please don’t be so mad. It might be good if you give it a chance. The world is almost the same anywhere.”
“But the people aren’t, Ingrid. And the world isn’t the same. The quicker you learn that, the better.” He sighed. “We don’t belong here.”
“I know.” I looked down at Claudia’s head lying in my lap. I stroked her hair tenderly. “I’m sorry, Henry. But it can’t be helped.”
“I know that.”
And both of us, sometime in the morning, were asleep again.
Henry opened his eyes.
He felt the train slowing.
I felt it too.
“Are we there?”
My eyes searched through the window at the sight of where we appeared to be. “We’re at a small station.”
I could almost hear Henry’s heart beating faster, or maybe, it was mine, as the train gradually chugged slower and slower.
Henry stumbled for words. “F-Felix, gather up your things. Ingrid, wake Claudia.” He looked down at his hands and his fingers trembled slightly, just like Father’s had. No one noticed it but I. He took a deep breath and nodded to me.
“This is it,” he whispered.
“This is it,” Felix and Claudia repeated, glancing every which way.
This is it, I said to myself.
Henry stood up, and once we were all ready, our suitcases clutched tightly in our hands, we made our way out from our little room, down the narrow halls, and out of the train.
Henry was the first to take a step down onto the deep earth of Mississippi. It felt the same as England. I think he was surprised but also relieved at the same time. I have to admit that I was, too.
I breathed in the air. Steam behind me and a new life before me. New trees just blooming. But a hint of winter still lingered through the spring, soon to be washed away.
“So many trees,” Felix observed thoughtfully. “The whole blasted station is populated with them.”
Claudia nibbled her fingernails. “Are we to live outside?”
Henry led us to a bench, not far from the train. The whole place was rustic, really. The bench was partly falling apart. There was some sort of pavilion structure a little ways from us.
“Who is supposed to take us to our home?” I asked, feeling fearful again. “What if they forget?”
“What if they don’t know what to look for?” Felix glanced strangely at the people around him. “These people don’t look very intelligent.”
“Stop sticking up your nose,” Claudia told him. “It’s not our fault we’re a more sophisticated breed,” and funny enough, she said this while actually sticking up her nose.
“Or simply not inbred at all,” Henry muttered.
I ignored my brothers and sister. I had a feeling this place would grow on them like a vine.
I knew then in the first second I breathed such vibrant air, that the word ‘home’ had many different meanings. Maybe one of them was Mississippi.
It’s beautiful.
“I can’t tell the horses from the people.”
“Felix!” I felt heat in my cheeks and briefly glanced around. “Watch your tongue or don’t use it.”
“Look, over there,” Claudia pointed to a faraway figure rising up over a hill in the distance and down again. “A wagon.”
I looked myself. “Do you think—”
Claudia stood on her toes. “The wagon’s coming closer. And a boy appears to be driving it.”
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