She was a twin and born second after her brother, Dean, on a cold and snowy late day in late November, 1922. It was the curse of her family, her mother mentioned in their childhood, the continuing line of twins that lost one in tragedy later in life and left the other alive and to breed the curse to future generations. However, even without this imagined curse over their heads, there was much worse to think about After all, her parents had been together then, since after the First World War, and had several children from previous marriages that gave them g reat comfort and security. Both of their spouses were dead and they wished to start another family line, a greater one than their previous ones.
She and Dean never saw these other siblings together in the same room, she recalled, even though they were supposed to be a great family. They didn't want to, as they all wanted to fight and attempt to kill the others. Their parents had been older when they were born, in their late thirties, and did not think it odd that their twins had been years younger than the families started before the last war.
Their father, the infamous Colonel "Heartless" Patrick Morrison, was a military man through and through, famous within his own ranks for his brutal and often brazen acts during his time in battle. He was more devoted to his work rather than his own family, especially concerning the twins. He always drank, especially after the First World War and the death of his first wife, causing him to stay at their first home, finishing paperwork more often than commanding and being on the field with the men, drilling for the next war. He especially drank more when the company was suddenly shipped overseas without him.
To the colonel, it didn't matter what occasion it was when a bottle was nearby. Drinking was a heavy hobby and it was his favorite one. He always had the bottle in his hands. Even in the family's Holy Bible, something his family had passed on from generation to generation, his drinking had not spared the most sacred of things. He had the pages carved out into an intricate design, the same pages their mother, Rebeccah, used to read to them before he took it away, so that a bottle could fit inside, ready to be emptied and thrown out as they passed their parish priest on the way out the door.
Otherwise, she remembered that her father wasn't exactly warm, even when he was at his rare sober moments, and would always wander. He always had the glare of a man who had seen too many battles that fatigued him, too many battles that could have claimed his life, but left him within an empty shell of a mind that did not think. He had too many losses and could not deal with them by himself, hiding behind a strong wall that could not be destroyed.
It was said that the colonel himself was tired of war, but usually did his duty when he was called up, even in civilian unrest, save for when his company went overseas without him. The twins' mother would describe him as a man ready for death at any time because he had stared at it for long that he ached for tea with the Grim Reaper. If he had to commit suicide, he would do so within a heartbeat. If had to run into battle, even when he knew that all was lost and he wouldn't be spared, he would do so. And his family feared it, even his sons from his first marriage.
However, his overall attitude, especially to her without the alcohol, was less than welcoming. Much like their mother, he had had the pleasure of having all sons as children and was so surprised that she had dared to slip into the world only a few minutes after Dean had. The colonel had no use for women except for his wives and complained about his daughter anytime he could.
"What can we do with a little girl in the family?" he would boom, sober or drunk, at their religious and overly Catholic mother.
Rebeccah, her mother, in turn, shuddered and went to cower in a corner, despite not acting the mother and protecting her children. It was especially when the colonel picked a fight with anyone. If she dared to fight back, however, it was when she only lectured him unconscious, dead in a sleep that would later render him bitterer. From there, she would be in search of something better, blaming the drunk on the floor for the falseness and lies he gave her. Afterward, it was a matter of time before another man came into her life and she would disappear.
Without any other children around to take care of (because her older sons were with their grandmother overseas, in Holland), save for the twins, she felt no more responsibility to her family and was more interested in other men anyway. When she found another man that suited her needs and she suited his, she left to her future husband's home, coming back only when it was convenient for her. Usually, it wasn't for her children. It was to pick up some things and to start her move towards a newer life.
At the time of the separations, the family lived in the small home of Toluca, Illinois, the same place the twins had been born. Rebeccah, at the time of her rendezvous with her extramarital affairs, thought the twins, by the time they were not even out of their toddler years, could take care of themselves. They were already perfect in camouflaging like she was because they were smaller and could hide better. So, for longer periods of time, she left the house and them, going to the home of Clarence Lowes with her things.
In turn, by the time the twins were four years old, these absences and their father's drinking was a common occurrence and a norm in their lives. Every other day, their lives were measured by how quickly they left the house for school or to the park, what time they came home and if they could manage to make dinner for their father, who was usually drunk on the kitchen floor or roaring for food at the dining room table. If nothing went the colonel's way, the twins were beaten, by either parent, if their mother was even home.
Finally, within the year and after Rebeccah's affair had been discovered, their parents had insinuated a formal separation and, in a dramatic scene that summer between both parents, both she and Dean were taken by their mother and soon-to-be new stepfather, Clarence Lowes. They then moved to their new home in Peoria, Illinois, a faraway city that ensured the colonel wouldn't dare come to see his youngest children. He didn't seem to have an interest in them anyway, so Rebeccah took them away for the money she would receive in return, daring to move farther and farther away.
Afterward, whether it was a month or even a year, the foursome would move from town to town in Illinois. By then, Rebeccah and Clarence had been married (trying not to cause a scandal within their church circles) and treating the family as if they were bandits on the run from the law enforcement. By the time she and Dean were ten years old, they had lived in over thirty towns and cities in Illinois and once, they had lived in a small town in Ohio, for only two months. They never made any friends because they never settled in one place for a long period of time. There wasn't any point in it.
By that time the Depression was in full swing, the family had finally settled down in the town of Bloomington, Illinois (a final destination, they had been promised), where their father had caught up with them, arguing that it was his right to see the children. This angered Rebeccah and her new husband, who openly fought with the colonel anytime of the day and when it was convenient for them. The new neighbors, on the other hand, were baffled by the inter-family arguments that always happened to occur at night, usually with someone breaking a bottle someplace or someone waking up the neighborhood children in the early hours of the morning.
Although all of their neighbors had been too scared to deal with one parent or another, there was one person who was brave enough to try and be there. She would stick her head out often and offered a hand in taking care of the children as both parents and stepfather stepped up the level of violence that took place in each bout of fighting. She only knew this neighbor as Mildred Lorraine (called by her middle name of Lorraine more often), who always had that in-training medical student in her house, Henry Blake. At the beginning of their relationship and up to their marriage in 1939, the pair would take turns watching the twins as they had playtime in the backyard, hiding in the trees and watching secretly as their family battled drunkenly, their mother and stepfather even drinking as much as their father
Soon, autumn came and those days of hiding had ended. Lorraine was given permission to put the children in school with Rebeccah only signing the paperwork because she was their mother and not quite paying attention to what she was signing. She and Dean were only relieved at this small interference on their mother's part, especially when the neighbor offered to take care of them more often. As school took over their lives, their books replaced the comforts of the backyard and the carefree days of hiding from Rebeccah, Clarence and Patrick were gone.
The days afterward, as the years passed, promised more trouble for the both of the twins, even if their lives seemed to be normal from the outside. The worst had been the custody battle, which took a turn for the worse as the courts became involved and saw how much they had been running. The judge decreed that they split their time between both parties. The third one involved, Lorraine and Henry (petitioning for a place in their lives, since they had been wishing to be guardians), were ignored, even though they were the ones taking care of the children and telling everyone that they had been the parental unit, unmarried as they were.
This meant that both of the twins had to spend some of their time with the drunken colonel, who, at times, left the children alone in his house (now across town in Bloomington) and went to the bar. Rebeccah and Clarence had been married for a few years by then and were pretending to be the better party, trying to even win full custody before they turned eighteen. They tried to form a family with the twins without their older half-brothers, pretending to be concerned about their welfare, but always found a way to make the two feel bad about what happened with their father. They were blamed for anything that was done in the past and were punished for future events. Even being defiant from what seemed like a tyranny had been a crime.
The two children knew better and ignored them mostly and as much as they could, but it was soon affecting their lives heavily. Hiding at their father's and escaping their mother's, they seemed to have a double life, only showing their true selves with Lorraine and Henry Blake. It was only next door that they could be themselves, to grow up and be like normal children. They could be childish, drink as often as they wanted to when they were teenagers and relax without the added sigma of being perfect.
Clarence alone, on the other hand, who was known to be a very devout Catholic and looked like he idealistically idolized their mother, harassed the twins, her most of all, especially when he was drunk. He loved younger girls, especially the beautiful, petite girl that suddenly grew into a woman. Without her cooperation, he threatened to take away everything in her life that made her happy, including taking Dean to the local military recruiters when he was sixteen. It was not long afterward that he began to sexually harass her and it became obvious to Dean. When he threatened to expose the situation, Clarence carried out his own threat and took him away.
Dean was taken to a "specialized school" (as Rebeccah called it, thinking it would correct her son's behavior), one for the military, and stayed there until he was ready for basic training at age eighteen. He even accepted his deployment notice after he turned eighteen (war on the horizon soon enough) and went off to Nazi Germany for all the years of the war, narrowly escaping injury and capture by the enemy. He came back as a war hero by the war's end in 1945.
Her life, however, had also taken a turn for the worse too, as the stress took a toll on her. She was sick more often than before and it caused her to miss more and more of school. Before she turned eighteen, Lorraine offered to home school her. It had taken a while to persuade her mother that it was the best, but Rebeccah held out until she had no choice, knowing that her daughter needed an education. When this was accepted, at a time with the colonel disappearing once more permanently and dropping out of sight, she stayed more with Lorraine and Henry, until their children were born. However, after some time passed, she escaped them as well and ran for nursing school and the military without turning back. Occasionally coming back to live with them had been her only other comfort.