no title yet ch 2

Ch 2: Anna

I was tired, so tired.

My last three nights had been completely sleepless, and I know I wasn’t the only one. Megan had tried to act normal the last three evenings, chatting away with my ever-talking sister Claire, but I could see the sleepless nights creeping their way onto her freckled face, see tiredness lining her usually bright green eyes. She couldn’t fool me: I heard her muttering in the few minutes of sleep she had managed to grab each night, and even in the day time she steered us away from cul-de-sacs. Tarah, too, was suffering, her chocolate eyes slipping closed as we sat in an isolated booth in the corner of McDonalds. We had been discussing the robot man in quiet voices for the last ten minutes, but then the manager had walked past the table and given us a dirty glance. Now Megan was up at the counter buying breakfast, Cinnamon Melts and chocolate milks all around, so this time Claire was forced to ask Tarah the question she had bombarded Megan with at least 100 times during our hushed conversation.

“What if you didn’t really see it,” asked Claire again. “What if it wasn’t there?”

“Me and Megan both saw the robot man,” answered Tarah, with the same patience Megan had given her the other ninety-nine times she had asked, ”and all four of us saw the green glow. How could in not be real?”

“I believe them, Claire,” I added again, just as I had since the first time my sister had asked her persistent question, and immediately she jumped up and squealed “Me too! Me too!” At age seven, she still adored me like back when she was four years old, back before we had even met Megan, when we were still on the run.

We hadn’t always lived in Melbrock Grove. Back when I was just six, Tarah, then nine, had helped me and Claire escape from the horrible Stone Orphanage. We were mistreated and underfed there, and we were just waiting for an escape. When Miss Miush, the horrible lady who had been foolishly given reign over us, fell sick with the flu, brave Tarah had packed our bags, grabbed Claire in her arms, and snuck away, vowing to never go back. We never have, and everyone would love to keep it that way.

Megan returned to the table with our food just then, startling me out of my flashback. She glanced nervously behind her, another reminder that the two older girls were keeping things from me. When they had described the metal robot to me, after Claire was asleep, I was pretty sure they were giving me the P.G. version, as opposed to the R version that they had really seen. If they were toning things down then it must have really been horrible, because Megan and Tarah almost always told me the whole truth. Claire hardly ever knew all of what was going on, but I usually did, which told me that Megan and Tarah were scared. Really scared.

 I was once again pulled from my thoughts, this time by a tug on my sleeve. I looked down to see Claire looking up at me.

“I have to go potty,” she whispered.

“OK,” I whispered back, then said louder “Claire has to go to the bathroom. We’ll be right back. I took her hand and led her to the bathroom. I was about to walk in with her when she let go of my hand.

“I can do it myself,” she stated. I smiled at my sister. She was growing up. I leaned against the wall between the two bathrooms, where a big cork board hung, filled with adds and junk and a poster for a lost cat. One bright pink flier caught my eye, probably because it stood out so much. It read:

Fortuna

Fortunes for the unfortunate

Explanations for the unexplainable

*She can see what you will be*

643 Pine Lane

I was so focused on the sign that I didn’t see Claire coming out of the bathroom, and her “BOO” almost made me wet my pants.

“Claire,” I scolded, “that wasn’t nice. You know how scared we all are.”

“Why would we all be scared?” she asked innocently, and I remembered that not everyone was worried, just three of us. Claire could keep living in Claireworld. She was lucky.

Claire began heading back to the booth. I was about to follow her when I remembered the flier. All the tabs along the bottom were pulled off, so I just grabbed the whole thing off the corkboard and followed Claire back to the booth…

…and right into a heated discussion between Megan and Tarah.

“We can’t leave,” screamed Tarah. “I have to know what happened!”

“But it’s not safe,” retorted Megan at the same volume. “We can’t just endanger Anna and Claire like that.”

“Megan, do you want to spend the rest of your life cowering in corners or do you want to come out and finally face your-.“ She caught sight of me and cut off. “Hi Anna. Hi Claire.” I’m sorry about that, we were just, umm, deciding to have a vote on this. Stay here and investigate versus leave and never return. Tarah’s counting this time. She turned to Tarah and mouthed “Don’t count Claire.” Of course, I thought. They wouldn’t risk putting my little sister in this vote, and I could figure out their positions on the matter. I was going to be the deciding vote. Great.

“Heads down,” Tarah directed, and we pressed our faces to the table. “All in favor of staying here to investigate, raise your hands.” A second later: “Hands down. All in favor of leaving and never coming back, raise your hands.” Her voice, for some reason, was a bit sad sounding, but a second later she just sounded confused. “Hands down and raise your heads,” she said. I pulled my head off the table and turned it toward Tarah’s baffled face.

“I voted to stay, Megan voted to go, and Anna didn’t even vote at all. What should we do?”

“I voted,” huffed Claire, indignant that she had been overlooked. “I voted to stay.”

“I have a confession to make to you,” said Megan. “We’ve never included you in the votes because you just cheat and copy your sister. I’m-”

Claire interrupted “How could I have agreed with my sister? She didn’t vote at all, you said so, so I couldn’t have cheated. I want to find out about the robot thing. This is so exciting, and it’ll be an adventure. I really wanna stay. Pleasepleaseplease?!”

Tarah looked to Megan. “As much as I hate to admit it, I have to be a good sport. That little girl is one smart cookie, and she does have a point.” Megan took a deep breath, then let it out. I already knew what she was going to say, so I decided to beat her too it.

“I guess it’s settled then,” said, smiling, “we’re staying in Maple!”