Stolen Child

Chapter Six

"Jaysis, Mary, and Joseph, ye must be freezing!" Aunt Maggie wrapped me up in an embrace then grabbed me by the arm, drawing me inside the house. "Call the Guards, Mary." Aunt Maggie welcomed and led me to the den where she insisted I sit in front of the fire and offered me a flannel blanket. She had painted the walls. They were cream the day before but now they were pale yellow. The pink-cushioned rocking chair was still here, though and I curled up on it, even though I barely fit. Sive was standing several feet away from me, invisible to any other human, I assumed. Between us was an end table with a plate of cranberry scones and a jar of raspberry jam. The house was not much warmer than outside and the clothes rack was full of hanging t shirts. They still didn't have a clothes dryer.

Aunt Maggie pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. At least, I assumed it was a cell phone since she held it up to her ear, but it was more like a flat rectangle and she touched the screen to dial the number.

"Please, pick up. Please, pick up," she said as she paced anxiously, "Oh, Wendy! We've found Isaac. He is here in my house and the Guards are on their way. . .yes, yes I am serious! He is right here in front of me," she held out the phone and I took it.

"Hello?"

"Isaac?" It was her voice, but it was heavy and dismal.

"Mom?"

"Is it really you, Sweet Pea?"

Tears stung in my eyes but I tried to keep them back because I'm no crybaby.

"Yes," I replied.

"Where have you been the past fifteen years?"

"W - what do you mean?" I stumbled over my words.

"You have been gone for fifteen years, almost to the day," she said, voice shaking. She was obviously stricken with grief. And her speaking those words was the last piece that I needed to know that this was real, and it was serious business.

"But I don't understand." Tears started to fall no matter how hard I tried to toughen up. I just couldn't shake the sound of Lucy's screams. "I thought ... I thought that maybe Lucy would be here."

"You don't know where Lucy is? The bedroom window was broken and we thought that both of you were taken...together."

"No, I ..." I pushed my palm into my eye until stars swirled, "I don't know where she is, are you sure she's not here somewhere?"

"What do you mean, sweetheart?"

My blood started to run hot with anger. She really was gone. I threw the phone across the room where it clattered on the tile floor and split across the screen. Covering my face with my hands I started to cry and couldn't care less who saw it. Aunt Maggie touched my shoulder and when I looked up, Sive's impossibly beautiful face contorted pensively. Mary's face was peering out from the doorway, but she ducked out of sight.

"Hold on 'til the Guards come, darlin' we'll get this sorted out now don't worry," Aunt Maggie reassured.

"I thought Lucy would be here."

Aunt Maggie sighed deeply. "I don't want ye to go on in guilt. There's no sense in re living the pain." But the tears streaking her cheeks told a different story. "I thought ye were your father," she laughed heartily against the sadness. "Hold on, I'm goin' to go get the cure." She then got up and left the room. Her words only reminded me that Dad was long dead by now. Fifteen years had passed, but to me, the cancer diagnosis, his fatal decline, was only a few months old. It must have still been raw for Aunt Maggie, too. She returned and held a wooden tray in front of me.

"How about a cuppa?" she smiled tenderly. "That's piping hot now and I remembered the way ye like it: milk an' two." I'm not sure what it was she was remembering, but I hated tea. Especially with milk and sugar because that's not how we drink it in America. I turned away from her with refusal so she set the tray on the end table.