William woke suddenly from a disturbing night mare, and looked around him at the dark room. Where was he? He sat up and stared into the darkness as his eyes adjusted to the lighting. Joy shifted slightly in the bed beside his and he remembered with an unpleasant jolt that his night mare was a sickening reality.
William bit back the tears that threatened to form and stood from the uncomfortable bed, wide awake. He made his way out of the small room and navigated the unfamiliar house until he reached the cold, country style kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and glanced at the digital clock on the microwave, the bright green lights formed the time 3:30, and he sighed deeply as he realized that he'd not slept but two hours.
William sat at his aunt's kitchen table and traced that scratches that were cut deep into the wood, he'd remembered when his cousin Ben had made those, right before he'd left his non to quiet home for God knows what. William sipped on the water as the kitchen light turned on, and he found himself blinking up at the form of his mother's sister.
"William? Hon, what are you doing up?" Carla asked as she went to get herself a glass of milk.
William shrugged and eyed his own beverage. "Couldn't sleep."
Carla nodded understanding and rubbed at her own blood shot eyes. "Yeah, me neither."
William breathed deeply and hugged his arms close as a cold chill ran up his spine, it was unnaturally cold in his Aunt Carla's house. Carla eyed his movement and sat herself across from him at the kitchen table. "You OK, William?"
William shrugged again for the second time and kept his eyes from his aunt's face. "No, not really. But I guess that it's normal to not be ok after all that's happened today."
Carla nodded in agreement and tucked a strand of her graying black hair behind her ear. "You and Joy have been through a lot in the past year or so, I wouldn't expect anything less that you "not" being OK." She said, smiling a smile that didn't reach her gray eyes. The same eyes, William realized with a jolt, that his mother had had.
"Are you going to let us stay here, Aunt Carla? Joy and I." He asked, not really caring if his question sounded slighty rude.
"You're here aren't' you?" Carla replied, confused.
"No, I mean, for good. Now that mom's. . .gone, will we stay with you? Or are we going into the system?"
Carla sighed and put one chubby hand over her nephew's. "I don't know, William. Nothings set in stone yet, but I suppose you'll be with me at least until your father can take you two. I don't know if I can afford to keep up to more kids, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. I've got five boys, and between you and me, the mailman's kid is on the way. I don't know if I can take on both of you with another child getting ready to enter the brood. I'm sorry."
William nodded, he hadn't expected much anything else. Hadn't Lucy told him that Carla would be apprehensive about taking on another child? "I just. . was wondering."
Carla patted his hand and smiled at him, this smile even less meaningful than the first. "It's perfectly natural to be concerned about your and your sister's future, in fact I'd be worried if you weren't."
William tried and failed to give his aunt a smile, and Carla, seeing William had said all he needed, wanted, and could, stood up from the table. "You need to try and get some sleep, Will. You've got a day and a half tomorrow, we'll need to go through some things, see if we can find your mother's will. Then we'll have to make funeral preparations. . .and you're going to need to be rested."
William nodded and stood from the table as well, put his glass in the sink and followed his aunt from the kitchen, she was being strong for him, and he appreciate it.
The two made their way upstairs together and Carla kissed her nephew on the head and patted his shoulder tenderly as she went back to her room, uttering a quiet "good night" as she went.
William stood, transfixed in the hall way, staring at his feet sadly, he was tired, beat, exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to sleep off everything bad that had happened to he and his sister, if only sleep would come.
He made his way back into the room he and Joy shared, and lay back down on his bed staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to come. And when it did, he welcomed it as happily as he'd ever welcomed anything in his life.
For now, sleep was his only relief, his only escape from the plagues that would torment him in his waking state, and for now, that was all he could as for.
