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Chapter 4

Later that week, Ruthie and Martin were in the living room playing with the twins, Rick was sitting nearby watching them, when Lucy, Kevin and Simon entered the room.

"Hey guys, did you have a good day?" Lucy asked.

They all started to talk about their day, but Ruthie noticed that Rick wasn't paying attention to the conversation, he was looking at the pictures that were on the mantle.

"Hey Rick, what are looking at?"

The boy shifted to face her and then turned his eyes back on the pictures.

"Who's that?" he asked. He was pointing at Mary on an old family picture.

"It's our sister Mary," Simon answered.

"Where is she?"

"She left a few years ago." Lucy replied.

"You never heard about her?"

"No."

"Why didn't you?"

"She left without telling us were she was going, she just wrote a letter." Lucy was getting angry. She never forgave her sister for what she had done.

"You never tried to contact her?"

Nobody answered.

"Why?" Rick asked again.

"Look, she's the one who left, if she had wanted us to stay in contact with her she should have told us." Simon finally said.

Rick stared at them for a few seconds before getting out.

"Why is he asking so much question about her?" Ruthie asked. "The only times he talked were to ask about our family."

"I don't know, but he doesn't seem to have much family so that must have something to do with it." Martin replied. "I know what it's like to miss your parents and it's kinda comforting to be in a family as united as yours. That must also be why he asked so much about Mary. In a family such as yours it must seem weird that a member is not close."

"Martin might be right." Kevin added.

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During the dinner, they were talking about a woman who had problems with her mother and who had come to Eric for counseling.

"In the end everything worked out," Eric explained.

"I'm glad." Annie said.

"It's great dad, you always help people." Lucy added proud of her father.

"That's not true." Rick mumbled.

"What?" They all asked at the same time.

"You may help others, but you don't even help your own family!" the boy hissed.

"Oh." Ruthie, Lucy, Simon, Kevin and Martin suddenly understood what he was talking about, while Annie and Eric were still confused.

"We told him about Mary this afternoon." Lucy explained.

"Oh,ok." Eric said before turning towards Rick. "You know, Mary was different, we tried to get her in the right path, but she messed up, I guess we failled."

"You didn't tried to help her." Rick cried. He got up and ran upstairs.

"We think he's reacting this way because of his own experience." Simon said.

"Yeah," Lucy added," If his parents died or abandonned him, he must think that it's similar with Mary. Or maybe not similar, but it might trigger bad memories for him."

"Tomorrow we'll have a talk with him." Eric decided. "Family meeting tomorrow night."

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