I must clarify that English is not my native language, but nevertheless I translated this story from Spanish as best as I could... I'm open to criticism and complaints as long as they help me to improve my written English.
I hope you guys enjoy the reading.
01-. Origin
Three people were in the old family van, headed to the University of Michigan to attend a conference, which like many others, was organized exclusively for that family.
Silence hung between the three of them. Maybe if the radio was connected they could enjoy the trip a little more, although for her it didn't seem to be a problem. She had spent most of the trip tinkering with the device resting on her lap.
After months of trying everything and using all her resources, she had finally succeeded, so much uninterrupted effort had resulted in that little machine that she now held between both hands with devotion. It didn't look as impressive as the other things in her room, but she knew and had made sure everyone knew that of all her achievements, this was by far the most important.
"Please Lisa," Lincoln's voice, sitting in the copilot seat, sounded rough and full of irritation, after all, he had stayed awake for almost a whole week to help his younger sister, "leave your blessed machine alone for only one minute."
"Big brother, I can do whatever I want," exclaimed the youngest girl disdainfully.
"Oh, I know you can, but...!" For a brief moment, Lincoln's gaze fell on his blonde sister behind the wheel, a couple of beads of sweat trickling down his forehead, "but I'm asking you to stop... you know better than I do that Leni can't lose her concentration right now."
"We had already talked about it Lis, no distractions as soon until we get to the university," taking advantage of the fact that she had to slow down even more when taking a curve, Leni let go of the gearshift and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Do it for me, girl... you know I'm still not that comfortable driving."
"In that case, I'll stop. I'm sorry."
In obedience to her older siblings, the hand-clapping sound stopped almost instantly, but within the first few seconds, the interior of the van was filled with the incessant sound of happy murmuring; unable to help herself, and against any recommendation for the people behind the wheel, Leni closed her eyes, waiting for her brother's reaction.
"Lisa, I don't think this counts as 'stopping!'" Lincoln's voice sounded even harsher than last time. There was none of his legendary good humor left.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry," Lisa's expression fleetingly went from full satisfaction to nervousness to finally back to full satisfaction, "I still can't believe I did it. This is going to revolutionize the world!"
"I think, like, you're going to end up breaking it down by looking at it so much," Leni commented in a friendly way, trying to lighten the mood. "Besides, you have many other achievements you can be proud of... like that lie detector, or the robot that always soaks Lori in sauce..."
"Besides, from what little my physics classes at school have taught me, your little invention seems impossible, are you sure you took the data correctly?"
A smirk formed under the chestnut's glasses.
"Lincoln, I'm absolutely sure that this works... besides, the one who recorded the data was you... and you did it three times, didn't you?" Smiling teasingly like a normal child, Lisa continued scrubbing the 'dirty' spot that had caught her attention, "I am certain that I have just violated the second law of thermodynamics, you know what that means, right?"
"That... you did something absolutely horrible to someone named 'thermodynamics' and you're in really serious legal trouble?" commented the blonde with her eyes fixed on the road.
"WH-WHAT?! ABSOLUTELY NOT, LENI!" avoiding feeling nauseated by the mental image that she thought her sister was beginning to form, Lisa took a breath to try to explain to the blonde the basic idea of what she had just said. "Listen Leni... the rules of thermody..."
"I know, Lis!" Leni smiled with satisfaction at her own joke. "I did understand you, sometimes I did do my homework, you know, even without your help."
The joke managed to relax the mood, now Lisa was smiling, with red cheeks, as much as her older sister, even the boy in the passenger seat recovered some of his characteristic good humor.
"Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal now, but... what do you say after this I buy you both an ice cream? You know, to celebrate that Lisa broke the limits of science once again," said the white-haired young man looking at his sisters. "What do you say, Leni, Lisa?"
"I will gladly accede to the generous offer, major fraternal male unit. A frozen cream of Fragaria Ananassa flavor would be invigorating given the increase in the local temperature..."
On Lincoln's tired face there was a small smile and Leni knew immediately why; Lisa no longer said ostentatious and complicated words since she was five years old, that small and simple gesture told anyone who knew her well that the little girl had been quite excited with the idea. «Child genius but a child after all» thought the blonde.
But Leni's good mood was lost when looking in the rearview mirror, she saw Lisa's face turn red from scrubbing harder and harder at the casing of her machine in an attempt to clean the imperfection in the cover... her hand moved closer and closer to the power button.
Then, just before she could say anything, the inevitable happened; one of the girl's chubby fingers slipped across the polished, flat surface of the machine, triggering the power button; a small bolt of lightning shot out from the coil at one end and impacted directly on the van's turned-off radio, turning it on at maximum volume for an instant, startling Lincoln and Leni and causing the blonde to briefly lose control of the vehicle.
"OH DANG IT!" Swerving sharply and causing the tires to screech on the asphalt, Leni managed to control the van again. Feeling her whole body shaking as well as her hands, the blonde laughed nervously. "Nice way to test my driving skills Lisa... but it would be totes amazing if you didn't do it again."
"Lisa, for the love of... Ace's supreme cards! TURN THAT THING OFF!" Lincoln shouted after finally turning off the radio and only one step away from having a heart attack... out of fear and/or out of courage.
Surprised at the hysterical way her brother clung tooth and nail to his seat and the way his face refused to abandon the reddish hue to return to normal, Leni tried her best to relax him...luckily she had a secret method for relaxing even Lori on her worst day.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry Linky," puffing out her cheeks a little and pouting, Leni turned to look at her brother, "I guess there's no more free ice cream..."
And as expected, her sad puppy dog eyes made the stress leave Lincoln in an instant and he slowly pulled his nails out of the padding of his seat.
Through the window, they could already make out the university tower in the distance, they would be arriving on campus any minute. Letting out a single sigh, Lincoln regained his soft, gentle tone of voice.
"The offer still stands Leni, Lisa, are you okay?"
"Yes, I don't think the prototype was damaged," replied Lisa with relief, causing the albino to roll his eyes in annoyance and Leni to smile again.
Seeing that everyone was well, Lincoln relaxed completely. He remembered that it should be a happy day; his little sister's name would be in the papers, she would be on television, she would shake hands with the first blackpresident and... his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of what sounded like the engine of a large vehicle just to his left, to the side of Leni.
-o-
How do you break news like this gently? Surely that's one of the ugly parts of being a cop.
This family name was one of the most recognized in the police station. They never went unnoticed for more than a week; one day a noise complaint, another day a vehicle violation, a neighbor complaining about broken glass, constant noise or, deliberately caused power outages.
Despite being the family with the most complaints in the entire town, anyone at the station could assure that the Louds weren't bad people, anyone would say they didn't deserve this, but it was Officer Highsmith's duty to inform them of the inevitable reality.
He never liked to drag out the wait in these cases, in the end, there is never an 'opportune moment' to give such news. So he calmly got out of the patrol car after signaling his partner, a policewoman, to stay inside the vehicle, and he walked towards the front door of the home, noticing the pleasant noise that surrounded the old house. He could feel the joy of all the inhabitants of the place through the noise they made, and he would be in charge of replacing that vitality with sadness.
Arriving in front of the red door, the man took a couple of deep breaths to gather his courage.
He tapped exactly four times, in a rhythm that at this stage would surely sound familiar to any of the people inside.
Not even half a minute passed when the knock was answered, the door opened revealing a young girl with short hair, of all the daughters of the couple he knew her the best. The rebellious girl put on an unpleasant expression when she saw the policeman.
"Oh, excellent. Listen PK, if you're here about the think in the mall let me tell you that root beer was non-alcoholic, okay? It was just soda."
"Good afternoon Luna, I'm afraid I'm here for other business... this... may I come in?"
The rocker rolled her eyes without bothering to pretend.
"I guess I can't say no, can I, man?" The rocker turned with a frown to face her sisters. "All of you, little monsters, to your rooms, now!"
None of the girls in the room said anything, not out of respect for the authority of the oldest in the house but because every time a policeman visited them it meant "problems", so they just silently went up to the second floor.
"Very good. Now tell me PK, who did what this time?"
The young woman's tone didn't even bother the uniformed man, it wasn't the first time they had met; and in fact, this time he was grateful to her for taking her sisters out of the equation, it made his job easier.
"Luna, trust me the matter I came here for is best discussed only with your parents."
"Well, excuse me 'sir' but my folks are not home yet, and to be frank I don't think I can be of much help when it comes to reprimanding for bad behavior, so just tell me what happened and I'll see that the girl responsible for the damage gets what she deserves..."
The officer interrupted her by taking her hand, the gesture surprised Luna but made her look him straight in the eye.
"That's what I'm getting at," he gave a big sigh before continuing. "There was a car accident and your brothers... they... were involved."
Those last three words chilled the blood of Luna and all her sisters who were eavesdropping on the conversation from the stairs.
-o-
Lisa came to her senses little by little. Her whole body ached. She was lying on the ground, next to the family van and a trailer, both vehicles completely destroyed. Seeing the scene, her eyes opened completely, or in this case her eye, as she could only see out of her right eye since the left one refused to open, the only thing she felt was a very strange itching on that side of her face. She wanted to sit up, but her attempts to move greatly aggravated the pain she felt throughout her body.
The inability to move her body and not being able to see anyone gave her the feeling of being alone, trapped in a very small box so she started crying like any little girl, as loud as she could.
"B... bro... bi-ig brother," her voice came out in a quiet whisper. Ignoring the pain she raised one of her hands as much as she could, she wanted him to appear and hold her hand. She wanted him to comfort her, just like when she was younger and had nightmares.
The face of his older brother appeared in his range of vision. The boy's face was swollen and bathed in blood.
"I'm here Lis, I'm here. It's all right."
"I didn't…" the little girl sobbed, "I didn't mean for this to happen, Lincoln. Where's Leni?"
The young man's face twisted into a grimace that, because of the blood and swelling, Lisa did not know how to interpret. Lincoln had imagined that her first question would be another one, so taken by surprise, he wiped away a tear that was just peeking out of one of his eyes and used all his "big brother" tricks to show her strength.
"Leni is fine, she's just a little scared. Don't worry about her. Our sister is... fine."
The pain in her face began to grow, more specifically in her left eye, until it became unbearable for Lisa. All her thoughts were jumbled in her mind so she could only say one coherent sentence.
"Linky... I just wanted to help the world...I want to tell Leni that I just wanted to help...let me see her, please let me tell her."
"You'll see her later," Lincoln exclaimed as a pair of paramedics who had just arrived set up a stretcher next to the little scientist. "This wasn't your fault, Lis. Please don't be mortified."
One of the paramedics moved Lisa's head slightly so he could do a quick inspection of her pupils with a very bright light before lifting her onto the gurney. The change of position hurt.
"Ow! Li... Lincoln!"
"It's okay, it's okay Lis. Everything will be all right"
When the paramedics finished whit the inspection, both paramedics moved away from her a few steps, taking Lincoln with them. Lisa heard them talking but she couldn't understand anything that was said, it seemed that they were trying to convince her brother to do something, but the white-haired man was adamant about not abandoning his sister yet. After a short discussion, the paramedics returned accompanied by Lincoln to where she was and almost without moving her the carried her to the stretcher. They then began to move toward an ambulance waiting nearby. But to the little girl's horror, Lincoln was not following.
"Where are you taking me? Lincoln? Lincoln!" Using the last of her strength, she raised her voice. "Lincoln, where are you?!"
No matter how much her whole body ached, Lisa tried again to sit up, to stand up, to escape with her older brother.
"Calm down Lisa!" Her brother's face filled her field of vision again, having him so close, the little girl could notice that the boy's nose was severely broken. "Calm down little sis, you'll be fine."
"Don't leave me alone, big brother."
Lincoln let out a sigh, allowing the little girl to discover that he was also missing a few teeth, including his trademark front teeth.
"I have to do it."
"But I'm..."
"I have to go calm Leni down, okay? You're the smartest person I know and I know you'll know how to do everything the doctors tell you to do so you'll be cured soon and you can come back to us, she's not like that."
With a lump in his throat, Lincoln walked away from his little sister, and Lisa didn't grope or try to get up again. Although the little girl was still crying she let herself be carried to the ambulance.
As soon as he lost sight of his little sister behind the doors of the emergency vehicle, Lincoln had to give in to the insistence of the paramedics who had already been attending to him since before Lisa woke up and entered the last of the three ambulances that had arrived at the scene of the accident. He wanted to ask again about his older sister's condition but he felt limp as he remembered what the blonde's looked like at the moment she was taken away.
How had what was supposed to be a happy day turned into a horrible nightmare?
-o-
Dr. Enriquez Marin, who had just finished his professional training a couple of months ago, was the youngest surgeon at Royal Woods Regional Hospital. Anyone seeing him in the hallways would mistake him for just another intern, not knowing that the man in front of him was actually the chief surgeon of the emergency department. Dr. Marin usually just operated, but when he learned of the circumstances surrounding the injured siblings, he wanted to be the one to inform the family as well.
As soon as he walked out the door of the emergency room, his attention was attracted by a group of people; four people who looked very worried, which is not strange in a hospital where everyone is waiting for some news of their hospitalized relatives, what caught his attention and allowed him to identify them as the Loud family was that among the three adults gathered there was a young boy with white hair, with a cast on one arm and several bandages on his face and body. Because of his thin build, it would be very difficult to guess his age, but according to the file, the boy was thirteen years old. He had been the one who, after the crash, pulled his sisters out of the deformed wreckage of what was left of the family van, and even tried to help the driver of the trailer that hit them, however, for that poor guy it was too late.
Seeing a doctor approaching them, the Louds stood up and walked a short distance to intercept him.
"I have news of your daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Loud."
"Is the surgery over? How are my babies?" Rita's eyes were bloodshot and her makeup was smeared.
"Both are out of the operating room", the doctor struggled to find a tone to give the news without affecting the parents even more "but first let's talk about the youngest; Lisa Loud came out of the accident mostly unscathed, the little one only suffered a contusion and some minor cuts, but her left eye... suffered a lot of damage... and even though we did everything we could to try to save the organ, we didn't manage to do it. I'm sorry"
The parents hugged each other, trying to stay centered and calm in the middle of that hell. A tense silence, interrupted only by the crying of the parents, dominated for a few moments, and just when it seemed that the girl disguised as Joan Jett would say something, she was interrupted by the boy with the bandages.
"Thank you for trying doctor, but... how is my other sister? What happened with Leni?"
That was the lurid subject that the doctor wished to avoid as long as possible.
"Leni Loud, that's a different story... she..."
"Different? So she's okay?" The father's eyes sparkled as he felt hope for an instant.
The doctor bit his tongue, now he was regretting his decision 'What was I thinking! I've never had an easy time talking to people! FUCK THIS SHIT' screamed his mind. Feeling very nervous, Dr. Marin began to stammer out an excuse and walk away, he could send a nurse to deal with the family, until the albino spoke again, stopping him mid-escape.
"Is her condition so serious then?" his voice reflected the loss of all consolation.
The question was the trigger the doctor's mind needed to get back to functioning logically.
"There were some unforeseen inconveniences. But her condition is now stable although... I... I'm sorry..."
"'I'm sorry'? Do you just say 'I'm sorry'? You're sorry to what?!" Finally, Luna spoke, annoyed by the doctor's evasive attitude. "Listen 'doc', don't play games with us, I want to see my sister."
There was no escape.
"Despite our best efforts to remedy it... we were not able to help her much... young Leni Loud is in a coma."
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