Chapter Two - Snow Storm Normal E. Halloran 2 22 2001-11-05T01:13:00Z 2001-11-05T01:13:00Z 1 SE Halloran Designs 1 1 9.2720 0 0 Chapter Two - Snow Storm

          As the years passed the memories got no more vivid. But still a slithering snake of suspicion still remained. Who were these people? Why did I remember them? I was afraid these questions would drive me insane, yet fear told me not to delve deeper into the subject. David made it ever more difficult, his insistence that I was making something out of nothing and that these so called 'memories' were but things that only happened recently or in a movie I had forgotten were infuriating sometimes, and I often was awoken at night with fear that what David was saying was true ... or worse that my own theory was true.

          My mother wasn't particularly beautiful, like the woman in my vision, instead she had sort of an average dowdy look to her, she was at least ten pounds overweight with a heavily freckled complexion and dishwater blonde hair, really her only attractive quality was her eyes, which, like David's were a beautiful warm brown with green and gold flecks. Mom as we called her wasn't a predominantly kind and loving 'mommy dearest' sort of woman either; she had a scientific view on everything, which made sense since she was a science teacher at the junior high school here in our shoddy little West Virginian town. I often realized that I looked nothing like her, and if my father had not have had eyes in a similar shade of blue I would have been convinced that I was merely an adopted child. Now I'm not imposing that my parents are unkind, no they were exactly the opposite, there was never anything I needed or wanted that I didn't have, and that includes love. I was the favorite of my mother I suppose, she always looked at me in a warm reflective sort of way that gave me the feeling I reminded her of someone else she once knew. Someone she once loved. Maybe she had had me with a secret lover that died in a shipwreck or something.

          "Hello Belinda," my mother smiled at me. I sat up; I had been daydreaming for quite a while.

          "Hello mom." From the window seat I was sitting at I could see that it was snowing like I had never seen it snow before. The whole world seemed shrouded in various shades of white, grey, and blue. A wave of comfort settled over me since I was sitting inside with my flowered down comforter over me instead of out in the snowstorm.

          "You look thoughtful. Remember, it's only Saturday, no time for that until Monday," she waved her finger at me playfully and sat down beside me. I sighed, this was mom's sense of humor, sometimes it made me smile, only because she was so serious usually, however now it had no affect. I looked at a dark piece of hair that had fallen out of my head, then looked at my mother's dark blonde hair, I considered asking the question, but stopped myself when a mental picture of mom laughing and promising that I didn't fall out of the sky. If she did that, that would prove David right once again. So I just smiled at her.

          "Nothing much, the snow. How beautiful it is."

          "Oh, I was just coming to tell you that someone just called for you." she paused "I offered to get you, but she said not to."

          "Oh, who was it?"

          "Jeanine Phillip." It was as if some of the snow from outside had somehow reached my stomach, as if the storm was furiously raging in the pit of my stomach. But why? Why would I get a chilling feeling about a girl I had known for years? Maybe …

          "Belinda, are you okay?"

          "What? Oh … Oh yes, I'm alright." I answered

          David walked in I looked at David. "Hi David."

          "Hi Lindy." David looked at me hard, it made my heart pound, I felt my cheeks grow red as that ashamed feeling came back; a sister wasn't supposed to feel this way in front of her brother, was she? David looked at mom. "Were you in the middle of something Mom?"

          "No, not at all, what did you want David?" mother asked.

          "Some help with my chemistry …"

          Mom looked at me, "Okay, David." She left the room, and shut the door behind her. I let out a long drawn-out sigh and looked back out the window toward the snowstorm, I put my head against the cold glass, and wondered if one day I would go to hell for having these feelings for David.

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A/N Look for Chapter 3 – Dark As Night