6

Bridget's last minute submission to the contest had intrigued and fascinated novelist William Collins; he wished he had thought of it first. Casey Burnette thought the Gothic little tale was reminiscent of Hitchcock and Stephen King as it told the tale of terror between two sisters - one raised in a foundling home and the attractive and beautiful blonde one who lived with a horrible secret in the family home. It read as a dark and atmospheric ghost story and then changed plots into another sort of tale about the war between beauty and power against innocence and wisdom. The thinly veiled character compared to Kerry in the story won in the end, but the blonde one in the piece of fiction was obviously Bridget describing herself as a powerful force in the universe. Upon meeting the young writer, Collins had expected a gifted brunette loner, not the vivacious and extroverted blonde bombshell he was allowed to meet. Angry, livid and cheated, Kerry cut off any last relationship she had with this person she was related to and tried to forget she had an older sister.

"Hey, Care bear!!" Paul heard his middle daughter storming into the house. Pushing and rolling his chair out from the family computer, he turned his smiling face to his favorite daughter. He then saw her face and read the heartbreak in it. "You didn't win the contest?"

"No, but guess who did!!!" She roared from the bottom of her broken heart.

"Kerry," Bridget entered into the house a few steps behind. "I am so sorry!! I said you could have the internship and intuition!!!"

"Bridget!!!" Paul reacted with surprise. From the kitchen, Rory lifted his head in surprised shock!

"Dad," He sidled up to his dad. "I'm scared."

"I don't want it anymore!!!" Kerry yelled at Bridget. "I mean…" Her voice calmed a bit. "Who are you? You can't be my sister. You're… someone else."

"Kerry…" Bridget looked at her. "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Bridget," Paul had eased over his initial surprise and astonishment. "You? You won??"

"I sent in this little story I created a long time ago." Bridget reacted quietly amiss and demure for the moment. "I never would have guessed it would have won." Her father hugged her proudly in this moment.

"I never would have guessed you could write a book." Rory stood near Kerry and mumbled under breath. "I never would have guessed you could even read a book."

"Dad, come on…" Kerry's voice slowly rose again. "We all know something has been wrong with Bridget for the last three weeks! She's been coming home early. She hasn't even been doing any shopping! She hasn't been sneaking out… or has she just gotten better at it. " Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at her older sister.

"Yeah…" Rory knew where this was going.

"I have no idea where she's going with this." Bridget paused by the staircase and looked sideways to her father.

"Kerry…" Paul tried to intercede.

"Her idiot friends have been coming up to me and asking where Bridget has been." Kerry continued becoming confrontational. "She hasn't been going out with them for a while. Where have been, Bridget? Do I have to ask? We all know where she's been, don't we?"

"She's an advance scout for an alien invasion!!!" Rory screamed out loud. "They took Bridget, but they don't know how to act like Bridget!!!" He noticed Kerry looking at him with disgusted confusion. Bridget lowered her head and crossed her arms across the front of her sweater; her lower lip dropping speechless and her left eyebrow rising in uncertainty. Paul turned and looked to his son as if he had caught him wearing a dress.

"Don't help me." Kerry spoke down to her brother, then turned back to her father and gazed back to Bridget. "Where's your flying costume, Bridget? The one with the big red "S" stretched across your boobs." She confronted her sister and stepped toward her.

"Is that what this is about?" Bridget made a face. "That girl's not me!!" She looked to her father for support. "Daddy?"

"Well, Beej…"

"You think it's me too??" Bridget couldn't believe this was happening. "She doesn't look a thing like me!!!"

"Well, of course she doesn't!" Paul tried being a dad again to secure the peace.

"Dad!!!" Kerry screamed in disgust at his lack of support.

"Well, maybe a little bit…" Paul refused to have a part in this. He'd had this similar debate with Cate in the subdued silence of their bedroom the night of the Sterling Heights fire and the TV footage of the Supergirl on the news. They had decided in the end that it could not be Bridget, but still, that nagging little feeling that it could be still festered. He kind of wondered if his eldest daughter could be the superhuman presence invading the news, but he also hoped she wasn't.

"Look…" Paul took a deep breath and took his usual place between his feuding daughters. "Kerry, I know you're hurt about not winning the contest…"

"I don't care about that contest!" Kerry screeched. "What about it, Bridget? You going to fly away crying now?!"

"I wish I was that girl so I could pound you into the next neighborhood!" Bridget stepped up against her sister. Rory stepped back grinning and munching on popcorn.

"Bridget!!!"

"Let her do it, dad! Let her do it."

"Rory!!!" Paul stopped and composed himself. "Why is your mother never here for these things?"

"Forget it!" Bridget turned and grabbed her purse. "I'm going shopping!!!" She pulled on the front door and marched out in disgust. Slamming the door behind her, she tramped down the front walk of her house and back to the family mini-van. Her father rushed out to stop her, but instead paused and held his hand to his chest wanting to get her to confide in him. He thought he was a good father, but there were times like this that he had nothing to call up for experience. How do you ask a child if she's been imbued with otherworldly gifts?

"Thank god, she's driving instead of flying." He mumbled under breath and stepped back into the house. Kerry and Rory were huddled for a minute comparing secret notes but broke up on his approach.

"Kerry…"

"Dad, you know as well as I do that Bridget has not been Bridget since…" She paused a moment. "Whenever."

"Don't you think your mother and I have debated this?" Paul glanced briefly to his computer work but turned instead to the kitchen to get a drink. "We don't have enough evidence."

"Not enough evidence?" Kerry reacted to his indifference. "But the girl on the news…"

"Only resembled Bridget…" Paul poured himself some tea from a pitcher. "For years people thought I looked like that guy in the TV show living with two girls." He sipped his drink.

"I love that show." Rory confessed out of turn as he and his father bonded with a manly knock of fists to each other.

"But you can't force Bridget to confess to something without proof." Paul paused with cup in hand. "Your mother and I have had a lot of experience in that."

"Dad," Kerry looked to him for faith. "She wrote a short story."

"Small steps, Care bear." Paul looked to Kerry. They stared to each other and realized on a non-verbal level that they already knew the truth. Yes, it was entirely possible that Bridget was that girl, but they would not get her to admit it by confronting her about it.

"Why couldn't I have been bitten by a radioactive spider?" Rory grieved his chance to be something special.