This is a request fic for Hannah Louise16x, who asked that I write a Jess and Adam fic. I couldn't really remember the whole storyline so I've had to read a recap or two, so if I get a few things wrong just tell me and I'll change it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy :) x
My name is Lucas Anderson, and I'm ten years old. I didn't want to come and see you but Mum made me. She said that it would help stop my nightmares. I didn't believe her, and I don't think Linda did either from the look on her face, but she said that if we wanted to enjoy America, we had to deal with all the bad things that had happened before.
We're all seeing a psychiatrist, me, Mum and Amelia. Linda's not; she doesn't need to. She hasn't been through all the things we have. She's just Mum's friend who came to America with us, and she's paying for us to see you. Well, I'm seeing you. Mum and Milly are seeing different people. They're with them now, while I'm with you.
I didn't want to come, but as Linda's paying, I don't want to waste her money. So I might as well talk to you anyway, because otherwise there'll be an hour sitting in your room in silence, and I think I might just die of boredom if I do that. So here's my story.
When we went to Saudi Arabia, it was just Dad, Amelia and me. Mum couldn't fly because of the baby, but she would come out and visit us soon. That's what we were told on the first day. After a few days there, though, things changed. Dad started spending a lot of time on the phone, while Milly and I played in the pool. We had such a nice house; it had it's own pool and a massive garden and loads of places to play hide and seek in.
Whenever we asked when Mum would come out and join us, Dad told us she'd been bad and there were problems. I didn't think Mum would do bad things, she always told Milly and I off when we were naughty and I've never seen her be bad, but I believed Dad. Why would he lie? It explained why he was always on the phone, as well.
Days turned into weeks, and Dad took a job in a Saudi hospital. We had a nanny, Isra, who would take us out to places and buy us things. When we went out, Milly had to wear a scarf on her head. She took it off once and Isra shouted at her. I didn't really understand what she said, but apparently it's really bad if you don't do as you're told in Saudi Arabia. It's worse than in England. I guess it made sense why Mum couldn't join us.
We spoke to her only a couple of times on the phone. She seemed upset, but that was probably because she couldn't come out and see us. I wanted to ask her what she'd done that was so bad, but Dad had warned us that if we did he'd end the phone call immediately. It seemed that we weren't allowed to know anything.
In all honesty, we didn't care. We liked Saudi, we liked the freedom we had and the fact that we didn't have to go to school. Sure, we didn't have many friends but it didn't matter. I had Milly and she had me. We didn't really argue; we couldn't afford to. If we fell out we'd be on our own.
We were going to go to school but the only one that we could go to and speak English at was too far away. Isra taught us Arabic so we could talk to people and eventually go to a Saudi school, while Dad taught us things in the evening so we didn't get too behind.
Sometimes he took us to work with him, where there were a couple more English doctors who had children of their own we played with. Bobby and Kate and Sarah and Taylor and Jaysen. They were the only friends we had, but we had fun. Sometimes Isra took all of us out together, with their nannies as well. We'd go to the park or to the shops and though we couldn't understand the signs, we'd just talk to each other and ask Isra what things were if we needed to.
Things were different, but a nice kind of different. At least I didn't have to worry about getting into trouble for not doing homework, but I missed my friends. I missed Mum as well, but I didn't tell Dad that. He shouted at us every time her name was mentioned. Soon we learnt not to talk about her at all.
Soon, we began to forget she even existed.