Chapter 3 - Answers, One Way or Another

Patty's POV

She does a good job of acting like she loves me. But I don't know if she really does.

"We need to talk, sweetie." She said. I sat on the edge of me bed, and she sat next to me. She tided the room. It must have taken a while, but she did it. And yes, there is a floor there.

"What about?" I asked.

"Dan. Paige told me how angry you got at Mrs. Benton."

"So?"

"So why did it upset you so much?" She asked me.

"Because he's not my father! Leo is! And she stood there saying he was my dad ... He's not! He's not, he's not, he's -"

"Shh." She whispered, wrapping her arms around me. "It's OK, I know, I know."

I started crying. I couldn't help it.

"Is there anything you want to know about him?" She asked me. I shook me head.

"Nothing you want to ask?"

Other than "how can you love me?" Nope. Nothing.

"If you ever want to talk about anything -"

"I know." I snapped. "For gods sake, I'm not a baby! And I'm not screwed up in the head either!" I pushed her away and stormed out. I'd have liked to have thrown her out of my room, but that probably wouldn't have gone down too well.

I ended up in the attic. She didn't follow me, so I walked towards the book. The pages started flipping on their own, and I smiled. Some kind of magic would cheer me up.

But the page it landed on was blank.

"What? OK, Grams, I'm not understanding this." I said aloud. That's to my great-grandmother, by the way. Yeah, she's dead, but she likes to help us out a lot. And visit. Weird, I know.

The pages started flipping again, stopping briefly on the time travel spell, then flipping back to the blank page. "You trying to say I should time-travel?" I asked confused. "But ..."

Then it hit me. If I could travel back through what happened with my mum and Dan, then I could see how she feels, right?

"Thanks Grams!" I said brightly. Now time to make up a spell ...

Great.

"OK, I think I got it." I murmured aloud. And it only took me an hour. And the spell sucks, but I think it'll get me through it OK.

"Take me through the timeline, To find what I seek, Take me through the memories, where they can't see me or hear me speak." That part was more important than you might think. I didn't want to spend the time in the past ducking behind plants and stuff.

I started spinning - or maybe it was the room that was spinning - so fast that the room blurred, and then ...

I landed hard on a shiny floor.

"Ow." I muttered, pulling myself to my feet. And then I looked around me. And then I was confused. I'm in a hospital. What's this all about?

"Hey, is that ..." Mum is sat on one of the hospital beds, holding a baby. Me. It must be. Wow, Freaky.

"Hey there you." She murmured, and I heard myself make a fussy gurgle in reply.

Then he walked in. He smelt faintly of booze, but mum didn't seem to notice. She looked so happy. "It's a girl." She told him brightly. Why wasn't he there by her side the whole time?

Dan just shrugged and sat down.

"I was thinking of calling her Patricia? After mum?"

"No." He said coldly.

"Why?" Mum murmured, clutching me a little tighter. Don't know why, he didn't look like he wanted to look at me, never mind hold me.

"I don't like it." He said. "Call her something else."

"I want to call her after my mother, Dan. I don't want anything else. I didn't know you hated the name?"

"I don't. But you're not calling her it."

"But ..." She looked so confused, but I understood. He didn't want her to be happy.

"Fine! Call her it! Call her whatever you want!" He suddenly yelled loudly, then stood up, and stormed out. A few people looked up and stared at mum - thankfully a nurse came and closed the curtain. But I still saw her cry.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to me. "I'm so sorry. I wont ever let him hurt you. I promise. I love you."

For almost a whole minute, I thought I had my answer. And then I remembered, this was just the tip of the ice-burg. So much more happened after this ...

People change. So do feelings.

Before I had anymore time to think, I was spinning again …