Sign Language

It was Isabel who pulled back first, "this is disorienting a little, huh?" She sat back on her seat, "I dunno where to start," she shook her head, "you know I made up this speech and had it ready in my head for decades...then I gave up and see, now that you're here, I have no idea what it exactly was in that speech. I dunno how much it still matters after all these years either, but I'm gonna try to say it anyway. Where was I?" She ranted, intense emotions evident in her intonation, "oh yes, I took your dog in after you were taken away. Agapito was my most close companion till he died in my arms of old age ten years later. And I always wanted to tell you that I begged my mom to go to the residential home and take you home to us, but she told me she was afraid you would turn out like your father and wake up one day and kill us all. I tried to find out where they took you years later on, but they didn't wanna tell me. It's just...they just came and took you and we never got the chance to say good bye. I saw the car pulling away that night and I ran after it and I stopped by the tree. You couldn't see me..."

"But I did see you Isabel," he touched his chest, then crossed his hands over it using sign language and then poined at her, "that gesture you made towards me by the side of the road, I love you, was what made me able to get through the next ten years Isabel!"

"But you'd told me you'd come back, no mattter where they took you. And I waited for you, peeking out the window night by night for years, but you never did..."

"I couldn't Isabel. I couldn't face that place. I've never put my foot into that town since and I don't think I ever will."

"But you have to Christian! Do you know your sister didn't die in vain? Do you even know there's a home for broken families running from household violence in your house's place? The Alexandra Paz Trust Fund. Has homes in all Virginia state. Have you heard about it?"

Christian shook his head, his eyes glazy and looking away into the void, "she didn't have to die...if I took her with me that night like I always did...I knew he was coming home and you never knew with him...why did I leave her there sleeping in her bed ready to get raped and killed? I ask myself every day," he rubbed his face nervously.

"You're not responsible for your father's actions."

"But I'm responsible for not making a bigger effort carrying her out the house!"

"Christian, don't you remember? You knocked on my window and climbed in the same way as ever that night..."

"The same way? Without Alexandra!"

"Exactly, and I asked her where she was and you told me you couldn't get her cause she was asleep already and you couldn't carry her. Can you think back how you looked like? So thin, smaller than what you should've been. Alexandra was a typical Spanish girl. She was so rounded and only one year younger than you. There was no way you could've got her out, Christian...Christian? Are you okay?"

"You think it was so?"

"I was there. I know so."

"It's the reason I'm a plastic surgeon...faking it you know. Faking that everything's perfect, like a perfect little house in a perfect little sleepy neighbourhood. Well," he collected himself, "you can fake being younger too. For free. I owe you that much for being able to hide and sleep under your bed for years."

The End.