Adrift in Silence

Chapter 1 Goodbye Home Sweet Home

Time had passed slowly and surely yet that special place remained untouched and unseen for many years. Until one late dusk, when the sky bloomed like lilacs and cherry blossoms, when a young blossoming Lucina made her way to the tree in the center of all the expansive vastness. She watched quietly, her arms crossed, her palms cupping her elbows, caressing her mother's graceful red shawl, waiting for something, for anything. She approached the tree, standing just at arm's length but has never felt more distant to it than in that moment. Gesturing the sign of the holy trinity, beknownst to her God, her savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, she kissed her hand and placed it firmly on the truck of the wayward tree. One more, she thought, I'll give you one more chance, just give me a sign, please. Father is trying to replace the void you left behind but I'm scared that his heart will always be broken, and that I'll have to watch him suffer the rest of his life.

Hey, God, she began to pray, holding her hand to her heart. I know I haven't talked to you in a while, she admitted, I'm not even sure if you're there but here I am praying these words reach her. I pray that you give me the strength to forgive her for leaving us. I pray you give my father the strength to move on and be happy with his new wife, even if it means I will never find happiness for myself. Her chest grew tight, and her black eye shadow started to run.

Just as she was wiping away her tears, a blue pick-up truck pulled up, bumbling through the field as it rolled over and parted the brush. An older man hopped out of the vehicle. He didn't even bother to shut the door as he ran towards the young girl. "Lucina, I've been looking everywhere for you, are you okay?" asked Charles, worried about his fragile, little girl.

Her small, supple lips trembled and quivered, unable to speak. She turned away, whipping the eye liner from her cheeks. She turned back with a cheeky smile. "I'm fine, papa," her hand twitched as she replied in sign language.

"Lucina..." he sighed; her father was left unconvinced. He wrapped his arm around his daughter and led her to the car. "This was the last place I ever expected to find you," he admitted. "I thought you weren't ever coming back here."

"I just thought I'd hope to get some closure, I guess," she replied, signing close to her chest.

"It's been years, Lucina," Charles explained, "I know it's hard, but you have to try to move on."

"I can't," she signed, "I will never forgive her."

Charles and Lucina hopped into the truck and made their way back to the dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust into the darkening sky. A few minutes went by before either of them had a word to say or gesture. Charles kept opening and closing his mouth, thinking of something, anything to break the tension. Lucina noticed his silent babbling from the corner of her eye and looked over at him with her expressive eyes and soft brow. Clearing his throat first he said, "Tomorrow's the big day, are you excited?"

"Yes," she nodded, hardly and subtly, lying to her father to not hurt his feelings.

"I know it might seem weird for us to move in before the wedding but I'm just too excited," Charles gleamed with a chuckle, ecstatic to find new love. "Our whole new life begins tomorrow, are you ready, Luci?" Lucina stared off into the sky watching the sun go down over the horizon, like a tired eye, slowly closing shut, losing herself in its tranquil, fading light. "Luci, I know you don't care much for Sarah but-

"Papa," she threw up her hands, "I have nothing against Sarah, she's really nice, I'm not ready to leave my childhood home, that's all."

"Are you and Brandon getting along alright, then?" he asked.