When only a few parts had been shown to Ethan, he started spacing, forgetting the rest. As he had already admitted to himself, the house was impressive, but not fulfilling. He did find some appeal, nonetheless, and in part, he believed the that was only due to the fact he had never been in a big house before.
He returned to Earth when it came time to meet their bedrooms. Finally, my own room. It was a sizable space on the second floor, virtually large enough to consider a mini-house. All his room was missing was its own bathroom.
When adoption day had arrived, only one thing got Ethan excited: escaping foster care, which the twins had spent an additional several months in while waiting for Phoebe to acquire custody. He wouldn’t remember his foster parents’ names, and probably after a few months, he’d completely forget their faces. Nothing about them particularly upset him, save for the simple fact he was there. He didn’t want to live with Phoebe either. Forests, streets, shacks, abandoned tents, and sometimes an apartment floor got old, but it was still immensely preferable to any other option. Hobos and junkies in hardly better condition than he and his sister were preferable company. Ethan was certain: it was only a matter of time before he would live somewhere else and have to call other people his parents.
Their caseworker had remained in the living room examining papers during the tour, and she was seemingly only there to drop them off and help them unpack. As everyone moved the twins’ limited belongings into their rooms, Ethan continued to dwell on his situation. Setting down the final box, Ethan walked across the hall into his sister’s open bedroom. She was looking at her old action figure toys when Ethan silently embraced her from behind. She smiled and rubbed his arms in return. “I love you, sis.”
“And I love you.”
The moment faded quickly. Ethan looked at her and asked, “Do I really have to call you Lily now?”
“Lil-ith! And, yeah,” she replied sarcastically.
“Nobody’s called Lil…Lily… Nobody’s called that. Like, seriously, nobody. Change it back to ‘Eva.’”
“I don’t want to. Besides, Phoebe made it official already. Or… technically, she’s going to. Point is, I have a different name now, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Ethan stood. “I’m not calling you that. Mom called you Eva, and I’m going to call you that, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Would you like it better if I let you call me ‘Lily?’ That name’s just as common as yours.”
Frustration came over him. “It’s not just about how weird it sounds. Like I just said, Mom called you Eva.”
“Yeah, and she also made friends with criminals and didn’t know how to make enough money to give us good food once in a while. At least with Phoebe, we have our own rooms.”
Those were the most hurtful words Ethan ever heard. Suddenly, he didn’t want to be in proximity to his sister. He left her room with a sunken face and stinging eyes.
“Ethan! I’m sorry. Please don’t go…”
He was already gone. For the rest of that afternoon, he didn’t speak to her.
Phoebe had prepared delicious spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, all by herself. Ethan would have helped, like he always had with his mother, but he had locked himself inside his room to cry. Phoebe called the twins down to eat, and Ethan intentionally waited until he heard his sister go downstairs first. Phoebe sat at the far end of the colossal dining room table, with the twins sitting next to her on opposite sides. Their plates were full, and their garlic bread dishes smelled equally as delicious.
“Would you like to pray?” Phoebe asked them.
“I don’t pray anymore,” answered Lilith.
“Me too,” grumbled Ethan. He didn’t like saying that, or the fact it was true.
“Well, then, let’s dig in. I hope you like it…”
The first several minutes were awkward. At least the food’s good, thought Ethan. He couldn’t stop repeating his sister’s new name in his head, all for the purpose of getting used to it.
“Is Ethan allowed to call me ‘Eva,’ Mom?”
‘Mom’… That word… It struck Ethan like a train…
“No, he is not,” said Phoebe, wiping sauce from her lips. “Your name is Lilith, now; Ethan can’t call you by your old name. And neither of you can call me ‘Mom.’ No exceptions.”
Ethan was thankful to hear that. It soothed his rage, mostly.
“Why not?” cried Lilith. “You’re our mom, now.”
“I’m your guardian,” Phoebe scorned. Her ‘boss’ side came out for a split second. “I will never be your mother. You only have one mother, understand?”
“But what if –”
“No more talking about that, Lilith. Ever. Am I clear?” She painfully nodded. “You will both call me Phoebe. That’s final.”
“Good,” said Ethan under his breath. Phoebe looked at him with an offended expression, but said nothing.
The awkward silence returned at full force again. Ethan finished his dinner much faster than the others. At the swallow of his last bite, he gathered his plates. After gently setting them in the sink, he started to pass through the dining room to return upstairs, but Phoebe stopped him.
“Ethan… Come back, please. We should get to know each other.” He obeyed, returning to his seat at once. “Well, kids,” continued Phoebe, “Ask me something. Let’s open up to each other. We’re family now.”
Questions? Like what? What he wanted to say would be most accurately described as accusations. Lilith, though, reacted as if she’d been holding in her questions for years.
“How did you become a boss?”
“Alright, new rule: we don’t discuss that either. Not until you’re both older. Understand?”
Lilith reluctantly agreed. She looked to Ethan as if feeling defeated or something. “Well,” she sighed, “I guess I can’t ask you anything, then.”
“Sorry if you had a lot questions about my business. Trust me, you’ll know when you’re older. I can’t keep things from my children forever.”
“I thought you lived with other people. Where’s everybody else? I can ask that, right?”
“You just did, and it’s alright. Well, little one, today was the day you moved in. I wanted you both to myself. Later, in a couple months, you’ll see that people come over all the time. I didn’t want to overwhelm you guys right off the bat.”
“How many people live here?”
“At any given time, there’s usually five to ten people here, day and night. Even more people are on the premises. Some of my most valuable people live in the houses on this street. We moved to a dead-ended street for a reason. Michael and Phoenix will stop by soon to meet you. They live in this house, but they’re staying at a hotel until you both have adjusted more.” Phoebe’s response was followed by more silence.
Soon like tonight? thought Ethan. Meeting more strangers would make him sick to his stomach. He began to ponder ways to avoid it, such as staying in his room for the rest of the night, or hiding in the attic.
That was when someone knocked on the front door.
Phoebe asked if one of them would open it. Ethan didn’t move, so Lilith took initiative. She was greeted politely by the entrants, but no one sounded excited. “You must be Lilith,” said the woman.
A much older, deeper voice followed. “Looks like Phoebe’s gonna be raising another beautiful girl.”
Finally, Ethan turned his head. Right on cue, it was the two Phoebe expected. His new mom said to him, “Say hello, Ethan.”
Slowly straightening his legs, he dragged across the dining room and extended a hand. ‘Michael,’ he had to remind himself. “I’m Ethan…”
The man shook it, but then put the same hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Don’t be scared.”
Phoenix added, “Looks like you’re my brother, now. Don’t worry, siblings are twelve years apart sometimes.”
They seemed nice enough. Reminding himself that he was going to have to live with them for year
s to come, he forced himself to be more friendly. What can I say about what she just said? …12 years apart… “So, you were born in 1971?”
Phoenix smiled. “You figured that out really fast, Ethan. Good job!”
“When were you born?”
“March 24th. How about you?”
“February 24th. That means… you’re one month away from being twelve years older than me. So, you’re more like eleven years and eleven months… older.”
Phoenix laughed. “Mom, looks like you have a future boss here. This one’s smart.” She patted Ethan’s back, following Michael toward the other side of the dining room. She gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek before saying something to her.
Ethan’s mind drifted away after that comment. He never thought of himself as smart. He had never done anything that he thought was smart. If anything, his sister made him feel unintelligent, weak, and gullible every day. No, he decided. Phoenix was just being nice. At least she was nice enough to lie. I’m not smart. Besides, I don’t even care. I don’t want to be anyone’s boss, ever.
As far as Ethan was concerned, and capable of understanding, the rest of the night was a waste of time. Phoebe didn’t want to discuss her business so soon, which meant that Michael couldn’t tell them anything about himself. He wasn’t related by blood, he wasn’t Phoebe’s husband, but he was still more than a friend. That was the limit of what the twins could be told. With Phoenix, it was almost the same situation, except that they were allowed to know she was Phoebe’s biological daughter. She had her mother’s face, but darker skin for some reason. She didn’t share Phoebe’s red hair, either; instead, had a light-brown, almond-like color to her hair.
Once the introductions were finished, Ethan retreated to his bedroom. Fortunately, his new mom had furnished and supplied the whole space with everything a ten-year-old would need. He discovered some blank sheets of paper in the desk, which sparked an idea. He grabbed a pencil then sat in the chair. Without any planning or ideas, he started drawing something. The first bit ultimately turned into a scaly tail, then he added long, bold legs, and before he knew it, he was drawing a dragon. It turned out to be complete shit, even before he got to its head. Maybe I should start at the head next time…
His door squeaked open. Turning, he saw his sister’s head sticking in. “Hey, what’s up?” she greeted, inviting herself inside.
“I don’t know. Just drawing.”
“You draw? Since when? Let me see.” Lilith picked up the illustration and after a moment, started nodded. “Not bad. I can at least tell what it is.”
Ethan didn’t reply.
Lilith wrapped her arms around him, squeezing her head against his. “Do you still love me, Ethan?”
“Obviously. You’re the only person I love.”
“Ditto,” she said. Ethan felt a smile form. “I’m sorry about what I said,” Lilith began. “I’m doing what I can. You know that, right? If we have to live here, we should make the best of it, right? So, let’s do that. We still have each other, we can see each other all the time, and we can still do things we like to do.”
Ethan clenched his hands. Lowering his head, he started to sniffle. “I just miss Mom. I don’t want someone else…”
Lilith rested her head on his. “I miss her, too. But she’s never coming back. We have to keep each other safe. Just like we promised. I’ll always be there for you.”
Ethan’s crying worsened. “I don’t want to have different rooms.”
“You can sleep on my bed with me. Just like when we ran away. We can pretend we’re still in that warehouse, when nobody bothered us.”
He sensed she was trying to lighten the mood, but bringing up better times didn’t help. “I don’t want another family, too.” Then, his weeping got to its worst point. Tears streamed down his face onto Lilith’s embracing arms. “Sorry,” he said. “So, how do you like my dragon?”
Lilith stood, pulling Ethan by his shoulders as she rose. “Don’t try to change the subject. You can cry, Ethan. It’s okay to cry.” She guided him to his bed and they both laid on it as Lilith continued to hold him.
“Why… sniff… Why don’t you, sniff, ever cry?”
“Well… One of us has to be strong…”
–––––––
The next day, Phoebe asked them what they wanted to do as an activity for the rest of summer, and then after school. She gave the example of learning martial arts, and Lilith excitedly agreed to that. When Ethan heard ‘martial arts,’ he thought, ‘kung fu,’ and that never interested Ethan, but since his sister was going to learn it, he agreed to learn as well. A couple days later, Phoebe drove the twins to a taekwondo teacher and asked the twins to pay attention while she talked to the instructor about all the different varieties of martial arts available in Gresham.
Ethan spoke up, saying something that seemed to alarm the adults: “What can I learn that teaches me how to beat up people bigger than me?”
Phoebe rephrased his question to mean something sounding less disturbing. The instructor, rather reluctantly, listed several kinds, describing each in full. Ethan found his pick when the man described an art called Wing Chun, which sounded perfect. Lilith had been undecided until that moment, and she agreed with Ethan’s choice.
Weeks of training passed. Initially, the experience was exciting to Ethan, but he increasingly struggled to commit. Multiple problems arose, namely his impatience. He wanted to be an expert immediately, and wouldn’t buy being told that reaching an advanced level took many years of training. He also hated being instructed at all. Following a violent outburst one day, he was consequently banned from the class.
Phoebe was perturbed by Ethan’s expulsion, but forgave it. While Lilith continued to attend, Ethan occupied himself that summer by remaining in his room, drawing. Months passed, eagerly waiting every day for Lilith to come home so they could practice what she had learned that day. Practice was bonding time, and Lilith was a preferable teacher above anyone else. One late August day, she took a long time to get home. Phoebe was absent, too. That marked the first day Ethan was in that giant house all alone. Having heard nothing from anyone about where they’d be was troubling, but he simply continued his drawing. When evening arrived, though, he began to fear the worst. He walked downstairs to the front door, proceeding to wait there for nearly thirty minutes. Nothing.
Then, an idea came to mind: hiding. He’d ease his anxiousness with a little game.
They’ll never find me.
Ethan ran upstairs and ran around to the attic door. Those stairs were especially steep, and by the time he ran to the top, he was out of breath. He remembered from his first day at the house: the attic had two rooms, each opposite of each other right after the stairs. Directly ahead from the stairs, however, was a bathroom and a storage closet. Ethan chose the closet, despite it being crammed with miscellaneous items. He nearly couldn’t fit, despite his small size.
Just after he closed the door, he finally heard the front door open downstairs. Very faintly, he could hear Phoebe’s voice calling to him. Perfect, he thought, smiling. A few minutes later, he noticed something metallic gently touching his face. Grabbing it reflexively, he noticed it was a light string, then pulled it down. The light revealed everything. Among other expensive items, there was a heavy guitar case. Quietly, he extracted it from the back. Setting it in his lap, unzipping it open, he saw a highly polished, signed guitar. He didn’t recognize who signed it, but the instrument looked beautiful. While Phoebe and Lilith continued calling for him, he strummed a few strings. It relaxed him a great deal. Eventually, he completely forgot he was hiding.
Loud footsteps approached. Ethan heard his sister call, “Found him!” before opening the closet door. He simply looked up and smiled as Lilith angrily asked, “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Found a cool thing!”
“Put that away. Phoebe wants to talk to you.”
Ethan thought about it. “Think I’ll bring this with me
.”
“Whatever. Go!”
Downstairs in the kitchen, Phoebe organized and stocked groceries. Already, Ethan realized where they had been, or at least one place. “You scared me there, Ethan,” the woman said to him, halting her task for a moment. She saw what he held. “My guitar. That’s thing’s priceless, you know; be careful with it. Don’t keep your fingers on the strings.”
“You trust me with it?”
“I trust you’re responsible with things that don’t belong to you, yes. Until you prove you can’t be trusted…”
He was happy to hear that.
“You want to learn to play guitar too?”
“…Too?” he had to ask.
“Well, I thought you were working on your drawing skills.”
“I am. Me and Lily are practicing Wing Chun, too! I like learning things! I want to be good at everything!” His smile brought Phoebe’s.
Lilith surprisingly backed him up on that. “Yeah, he just wants to get good at as many things as possible.”
Ethan asked, “Can I play it a little bit?”
Phoebe took a second. “In the living room…”
He excitedly, yet carefully, took the instrument to the living room. After gently resting it on the floor, Lilith asked him, “Why do you want to learn guitar?”
“Welllll… I don’t exactly want to learn. I just wanna play. I like the way it sounds. Makes me feel good.”
Lilith studied him for a moment. “Makes you happy, doesn’t it?”
Ethan smiled. “Yeah…”
–––––––
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