Chapter 9

Memories

Phoebe ran down to the bottom of the stairs and watched the others.

Prue stood wiped out by the memories that had hit her. The pink embroidered blanket fell from her nerveless fingers as the previously untouchable memories flooded her mind.

She remembered living here, with her sisters, her mother and her grandmother, her Grams. Her sisters, my God, Piper and Phoebe, they were her sisters! She shook with the effort of trying to summon forth the blurred memories. She found herself hating whoever had kept the memories from her, as they felt dulled by time, even though it felt like she was seeing it all for the first time. She could smell the perfume that her mother had worn and could see the color of the large ring on her Grams' right middle finger, but she couldn't remember faces or voices and that truly enraged her.

Piper watched her new 'sisters', she remembered learning to cook with her Grams and her eyes clouded with tears, at the thought of the inscription in the cookbook, that she had dismissed so easily.

Phoebe thought about her house, not her home, the vibe of the pink house had already made her identify this place as home, her memories were blurred, colors and sounds mostly, and a great feeling of comfortable and safe. She had been a baby here and in spite of having spent only a tiny amount of her life here, she felt she had lived a better life here.

Paige had no memories, she had saved the pink, embroidered blanket from the dusty floor where Prue had let it fall, and was holding it at arms length, running her fingers idly over the soft fabric.

Eventually Paige broke the silence "Prue, where did you find this?"

"Upstairs, in the..Phoebe's... crib. Why?"

"Because I have one. I was left in a church, by angels, my parents told me the nun said, and the only thing that I had with me were the clothes I was wearing and a blanket, one of these blankets, and a request... that my name began with the letter P. Just like yours."

"Look" Piper said slowly "this can't be right, our parents would have known, they wouldn't have split us up. And our Mom, our Grams, I don't remember them very well but I can't think anyone in our family, our biological family would give one of us away."

"But we are a family right?"

Paige asked, her voice full of hope, at the idea of being part of a family again, even if it was a freaky ass family like this.

"Yeah... no.. honestly I don't know...I gotta go. I have to work." Piper said, her voice shaky and distant, she sounded well and truly spun out.

The others watched as she turned on her heel and left. Prue looked at the other two. "I have to go... I really need to think and talk to my Mom...And practice!"

Next Prue left, and the youngest girls listened to the rather violent sound of a car speeding away from a situation.

"My god...If this is right, I'm...we're...related to a damn cheer leader."

Paige smiled at the person she hoped was her older sister, she almost felt that she really was her sister. She glanced at her watch.

"Hell, look at the time, my foster parents are gonna kill me. I gotta blaze Pheebs'. I'll cya soon."

"Tomorrow in school."

"You'll be there?"

"I think it's the best place to sort all this out. It's where we've all gotta be."

"You believe in this, you believe we're all sisters."

"I really think I do. I really hope so too."

"Me too. Anyway I still gotta go."

She turned and jogged off.

Phoebe stood in the house, she knew somehow she should feel creeped out here alone, but she wasn't. She wandered around the parts of the house she hadn't seen yet, picking up jars in the kitchen, and examining the spirit board that Piper had found in the basement.

The inscription made more sense now.

Someone had known that the three sisters would be strong, but was aware of the fourth sister and wanted them in each others lives.

Phoebe wandered upstairs and flicked through the old book again.

"Come on talk to me. It worked before didn't it. Piper and Prue need to believe."

The pages of the book began to flip as if blown by some unfelt breeze, in Phoebe's unresisting hands.

And settled on one particular page.

A spell to summon spirits

She reached for her phone, first to call Paige, so they could start to bring the others around to their way of thinking.