Chronicle of the Sisters: Fire (Part 1)

“Sometime, we just need someone to lean on.  In our loneliness, in our sorrow; we trip and fall and we get lost in our way, but if there is someone there - maybe, just maybe - we can learn to stand on our own again.”

“When are you going to come see them?  You said your wife couldn’t have a baby, so I had your babies for you!  What do you mean you can’t get a divorce!?  Then why do I want these kids then!?  Listen to me, come see me now or you will be sorry!” they heard their mom screamed into the phone as they pretended to be asleep.  Rita and Mika are twins.  Cute twin girls with adorable round face and big gorgeous eyes with eyelashes that girls could only dream of.  They are 6 years old, with Rita being 5 minutes older than Mika, but even at this young age, they knew they were unwanted children.  They are two stars born to a woman that only wanted to use them to gain the affection of another.  When that failed, where does that leave the twin?  Rita held on to Mika tightly, trying to protect her from such thought as she gently whispered into her little sister’s ear, “Don’t worry Mika, I’m here.” as they fell asleep.

The day shined a brilliant jubilant in the eyes of the twins; they felt it within their tiny little bones as they smile from ear to ear for the first time in their life.  On that rare day, their mother was taking them shopping for new clothes, something that she had never done before.  Mika felt especially happy about this strange occurrence   Maybe their mother finally changed her mind about them, maybe she is finally going to love them.  “Ok girls, try these dresses on.  I think they’ll look especially cute on you.” their mother said to them.  Rita and Mika’s heart bursts with joys when they heard those words from their mother.  They quickly took the dresses, hoping to please their mother ever so much.  They rushed to the changing room; Rita turned to Mika with tears rolling down her her innocent's eyes and gave her sister a big hug.  Mika whispered to Rita as they separate into different changing room, “Rita, I know she’ll change her mind about us.”

“Oh my! You girls look so adorable, I love it!” their mother said in great excitement.  “We will buy these.  My little girls are just the cutest in the world!”  Rita and Mika beamed the brightest smiles toward each other.  Rita and Mika had never seen their mother so happy nor had they ever had so much attention paid onto them.  They could only remember the lonely night with just themselves in the dark, often time hungry, as their mother go about her business acting as if they were invisible.  The only time she looked at them was when she needed to feed them, which was a chore that she resented very much, and she lets Mika and Rita know that with a pinch here and a slap there.  To these two little girls that had been deprived all their life, this little gesture was a culmination of dreams and tears coming together; and they promised each other that they will do whatever it take to keep their mother happy like this.  “Ok girls, don’t change out of those.  We’re buying them now, and I want to take you two to a very special place.  We’re going to get your daddy to come live with us.  Won’t that be great?”

Mika and Rita stood in front of a beautiful gated house, white and splendid with a flower garden in front, and nice trim brushes along nice green lawn juxtapose to a clean cemented driveway leading up into a garage.  It was a very picturesque view.  They were told by their mother that this is their dad’s home, and if they follow her instructions, it will also be their home. The material home matter little to the girls, but the idea of finally meeting their father for the first time is very precious to them, and that this will also make their mom happy make their task that much more important to them.  “Rita, I’m scare.” Mika confined in her sister as they held each other’s hand tightly in front of the large pearly gate.

Rita presses on the buzzer next to the gate while holding on to her sister’s hand.  “Hello?” a lady responded from the intercom.  Rita and Mika did not answer.  They waited for a short moment, and then Rita presses the buzzer again.  The intercom responded, “Hello? Who is out there?” This time, Rita got up enough courage to response.  She said in a weakly shy voice, “We are here to see our dad.” “You are here to see who?” the lady asked.  The girls responded in unison this time, “Our dad.”  The lady behind the intercom seem a bit confuse, “And who is your dad?”  The girls shyly said, “We don’t know, but our mom said he live in this house.”  The intercom went silent.  There was no response for quite a time, and Rita was force to press the buzzer again, but there as still no answer.  The girls was confuse as to what they should do, but they wanted to see their father and to make their mother happy; so they took a stand, and waited.

After some times passed; the front door of the house opens up.  A lady and a man walked out together.  The lady is extremely stress it seem, unhappy and angry, but with a hint of pain and fear in her eyes.  Then, her vision glazes over the two girls standing in front of her gate.  It was unmistakable.  Just a quick look and she knew they were telling the truth.  She gave out a woeful cry and her knees buckled beneath her.  She fells on to the pavement of her walkway.  Tears ran down her eyes like a waterfall, and the girls could sense the pain in this poor lady falling apart in front of them, but they hardly knew why.  This was supposed to be a joyful occasion, a new start for their life.  They saw the man that was standing next to the lady, and from his look, they knew that he is their father.  There is so much resembling between them that is was uncanny.  When the lady fells on her knee, the man tried to comfort her, but that only made her angrier, knocking his hand away.  The man then made a b-line to the gate, right toward the girls.  Mika and Rita were both confuse, but they were also happy to see their father coming toward them.  They held hands and just smile.

“What are you smiling about you little freak!?” the man yells out.  “I don’t know who you are or who put you up to this, but get the hell out of here!  GET OUT!” the man screams out in a hysterical screech.   Mika wanted to run away, but her sister held on to her so tight that she could not; she could only turned her head to see her mother standing at a corner down the street.  The sight of her mother changed Mika.  Her mother was laughing hysterically in a villainous way around the corner of the street.  It was ugly in all sense of the word, bestial and inhuman, but when Mika look over at the so call father, the view was not any better.  There was so much hate and anger.  How can this be the man that Rita and Mika had dreamed of coming to their rescue?  A dark mood seeds itself into Mika.  She tightens her grip on Rita and pulled her as hard as she could and ran away as fast as she her strength would allows her to, pulling her sister along.

A year earlier, their mother had taken them to a bus station and told them that they were going on a trip, and she must get tickets therefore they must wait for her.  She told them that they must stay where they are, and mustn't go anywhere until she got back.  She then left.

Mika and Rita waited in vain until late into the night.  Then, a man working at the station noticed the two cute little girls standing idly alone.  He came up to them, acting concern, and asked them where their parents were.  Mika told him that her mom had gone to get them tickets because they were going on a trip.  He informed the two little girls that the ticket counter was already closed, and there was no one left buying any tickets.  Mika and Rita were more than just a little scared at this point, but the man offered to help them find their mom.  The man held their hands as he walked them around the station.  “Do you know your mom’s name?  Where do you live?” he asked.  Luckily, Mika understand what an address was.  She saw it on a TV program at a store once.  Ever since, she had remembered her own address from the mails at home.  She could not read, but she remembered how to write it, so she asked the man if she could write it down for him.  He told them, “Well girls, I could take you home in my car if you like, but you have to listen to what I tell you to do if you want to go home.  You want to go home right?”  Rita and Mika didn’t really have a choice; thus, they agreed to listen to him.

They followed the man to his car, but before they entered the car, the man told them, “Girls, uncle would like a kiss from each of you before I let you in.  It’s just a way to thank me for helping you out.”  Mika and Rita didn’t really understand.  They each gave the man a little kiss on the cheek.  “No girls, that is not a very good kiss at all.  I will have to show you how to thank uncle for helping you get home.  Come in the car, I’ll show you then we can go.”  Ever since that incident, Mika had always paid extra attention to the path leading away from home, and learning how to get back home on her own.  She never wanted to feel that way again, nor does she ever want to see the expression she was forced to see on her sister’s face that day.

Mika pulled hard on Rita’s and started to run from the “father” they had waited and yearned so long for.  They made their way down the street for several blocks until they came to a small little park.  Mika pulled Rita to a nearby bench and they sat down together, holding each other.  They just held on to each other until late into the night, not saying a word, but letting their warmth be each other’s support.

“Mika, it is getting really late, I think we should head home.” Rita said to her sister, with tears still barely drying off from her face.  “Do you know the way?”  Rita asked, and Mika nodded an uninterested nod in affirmation.  They stood up together, supporting each other’s weight, and started the long walk home.   Mika, however, did not want to go home, but there was nowhere else to go.  “Rita?” Mika pulled onto Rita’s hand, “Do we have to go back there?” They stop walking for a moment.  

Rita looked at her sister, and she could senses that Mika no long care to see their home or mother, and she could senses a certain detachment from the world as Mika look back at her.  Rita wanted so much to just hold on to her sister, and to tell her how everything will be fine because they got each other, but at her age, she just did not know how.  She just hugs her sister as tight as she could.  It was at this moment that she promises herself that she will always look over Mika.  Mika, on the other hand, just wanted all the pains to disappear.  The bad man, the father that she never knew but love, and the mother that was always hurting her; Mika just wanted them all to disappear into the abyss of nothingness, to have never existed, to never had hurt her. “We have to go home Mika, we have to.” Rita finally said to her sister, “Please leads the way Mika.”  They held each other’s small little hand, and walked home together in the dark.

It was late into the quiet miserable night when the two got home.  The moon is high in the sky, a tiny perfect pearl looking down on the girls; setting a melancholic mood to the tumultuous existence of two precious baby girls.  The silent night reaches out to the girls in a sense of divine sympathy as it wrap them in her embrace, protecting them from the danger of the darkness.  The girls stepped out of the dark street they been walking down, and stepped into the moonlight as they made their way toward the door leading into the house.

The door cricked open as the girls made their way into the house using the key that was hidden under a rock on the porch.  The house radiated with an ominous greyness as the moon shines an emotionless light through the windows.  All the lights in the house were off with no sound or sign of life anywhere in sight as the girls made their way into the living room. 

When they got into the living room, on the floor, still and motionless, laid their mother.  She did not move when the girls walked closer to her.  Looking down at her mother on the floor, Mika could see that there was no life, and nearby were some pills spilled over.  She reached out her small little foot and pushed her mother’s body a little, but there was no response.  She tried once more.  Nothing.  “Mika, stop it.” Rita said in a quiet voice. 

Mika did not knew what got into her suddenly, but she ran into the kitchen and got some matches.  She started to light everything on fire.  Rita did not know what her sister was doing, but she decided to just watch.  Rita had decided to watch over her sister, and protect her, and that is what she will do.  The house slowly light up in flames as Mika ran about here and there burning whatever she could. She then grabbed her sister’s hand and got out. 

They stood there together, looking as the flames engulf their home, their mother.  There is a pain in Rita’s eyes, but when she turned to Mika, she could see a smile on her sister as if she been unshackled from everything.  She just held on tight to Mika’s hand as they stood there in the brightening ember glow of the fire, with Mika staring bright eyes and with great exuberance. 

(To be continue...)