1 Chapter One : The Past

She said to me, 'It is just for fun'. No kidding.

It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Sunny day and Casey plays run and hide with my older brother, Sam. Daddy went to the town nearby after he sent us home from church. Mom in her French blond braids, yellow flower pattern dress was holding a basket full with laundry. I still remember when I look at her, her smiles is the prettiest I ever have seen.

Years ago, daddy had purchased our home and a huge yard with it. He planned to have a horse stable but ended up having chickens and ducks.

Daddy works really hard to accommodate our family expenses. Every morning, except Sunday, and every evening before dusk, he and my older brother will release them out to find food themselves, but often my dad and Sam pour the fertilizers in their cage, and they call them back into the cage again. Since Sam was old enough to assists Daddy in the work, he planned to give him a chance to manage the farm someday.

As I sit down with Sam under the apple tree not far from my mom, I heard the sound of a truck coming from a distance. I shrink both eyes because of the Sun's glare. To me, I need to make sure that the sound is coming from Daddy's truck. Quite loud.

'Daddy's coming', mom said to me with her smiles. 'Run, baby'.

With Olivia in my grip, I run slowly toward the front of the house, where daddy always parks his truck. Sam followed me from behind. As daddy slowly arrived with his car, he turned off the engine and he got out from the truck. Excited, he puts me in his arms and kisses me in the cheek. He smiles and looks at Sam.

'Boy, you gotta help me with the box. It's quite heavy', said Daddy, then he put me down.

'Is it what I thought?', ask Sam. He then runs back of the truck and he seems surprised. 'You got to be kidding me, dad'.

Daddy, mom and me, follows Sam. He

then helped Sam carry the TV's box into the living room. Mom then turned to me and she asked me to tell Abby about the TV. It seems like, Abby hides quite well around the house. To them, Abby is a shy person. I still remembered when Aunt Sophia and her family come to stay at our house to celebrate Thanksgiving Day together last year, she always spent most of her day at the room and when she came out, she could be the talkative person, as she probably knew that everybody's thinks her as a shy person.

Slowly, I opened the garage door and saw Abby sitting on the ground, with witted wheat leaves everywhere, but turned back. It seems she was busy with something. I call her name but she keeps on saying to stay back. I added my steps in front of her, and again, I call her name again.

She said 'I killed a bird, again Katie'. 'I saved her lives, we saved her lives, but she could not recover from the pain, so I think it is better she went away', she then placed the bird on the box, not too small but enough to put the bird fit in, and she holds the box and turned to me. She walks slowly and then she stops, next to me. She smiles, she stares at me and said 'Don't get me wrong, Katie. She does not deserve the pain. Will, you go with me?'. This is not the first time she asks the question or behaves as such. She then continued to walk out from the garage and walk straight to the cage.

'I am going to bury her at the back of the cage', she said. Then, she started to dig using her hand. I can only just stare at Abby.

I saw Daddy and Sam still install the TV. Sam was very proud and happy. Sam really loves watching television until to the point he would rather stay a night with his classmates to watch The Six Million Dollar Man. Daddy hard work really paid off. 

1970 Zenith COLOR TV, Sam can remember the TV Model as he told his classmates during our trip back from school nearby by bus.

He has lots of friends, and he always proud of himself, saying that he received plenty of letters from girls at his school. He told that to us every time we walked back home from the bus stop, not very far from our home. Abby and I would giggles each time he told his story. Just like always, everything was perfect as I remembered, every single detailed of my past embedded on my mind as my childhood memories.

On a very day that I will remember it forever, it was Wednesday, 11th of July, Abby fell sick. She told me that she will absent from school with her head stuck under the blanket. I was kneeling when I woke her up, but it seems she has been awake before I do. I went downstairs and went to the kitchen where mom was preparing a meal for breakfast. In her blue dress and white apron, she rushes to upstairs, where most of our bedrooms are. She enters the bedroom and quickly checking on Abby. I was standing right behind mom. She seems panicked. At that moment, Daddy was not around. He leaving the town to work for couples of day. He did call mom yesterday and then told us that he will be home soon.

Sam walked past our bedroom and found mom checking on Abby before he decided to enter. With a short towel around his neck and his brown hair still wet, she asks mom what happen. It seems nobody noticed my presence since Abby was their attention. Mom pressed her hand at Abby's forehead. I walk a few steps ahead to the bed, just to make sure that she is really sick. Mom then turns to me and ask me did I knew when or did she had told me anything about her fever last night. I shook my head, that was my honest answer.

Mom seems frustrated. She speaks at high voice as she stands up. She said I should take care more of my sister. I run, to the living room downstairs. I knew Mom was upset, and I always think that she always right, up to this point. I should take care of her more. Sam take me by his arm as I cry. He always there, being a good big brother to me until now. The clock shows 7 am, and Sam and I were ready to walk to the bus stop in front. I wish she would give me a hug before I go to school, and she did. I hug and said I'm sorry. I kissed her on the cheek and noticed Mom's eyes pinkishly, I thought she cried because she was worried. Her smiles and waving back to us, as Sam and I walk slowly, was the last time I saw my mom.

I always waiting for Sam near the school gate.

Usually, I wait for Sam here with Abby, but not today. The skies are gloomy, kind of heavy, I told Sam that it is going to rain. In the bus, on the way back home, it starts to rain. Usually, Abby was sitting right next to me and I sit near the window, my favourite spot, but Sam sits next to me today. His friend is at the back, and calling his name and said that he would accompany me today. My brother seems to understand what I felt. As the bus stop at our point, he takes out his jacket and holds it high enough above his head and I walk with him slowly.

Our shoes are covered in mud and at the same time, I was thinking about, what Abby is doing, what Mom is doing, right now. Right few paces ahead, I saw several cars that I usually saw patrolling around the town. I still remember the looks at Sam's face, I really want to ask him but I just kept biting my lips. In the pouring rain, we slowly approaching one of the cars. Sam finally talked to me. He said those cars are the police and told me to remain calm.

One of the officers, one that I recognized, it is Mr Powell, in his uniform. He talk to Sam. I cannot hear anything clear but noisy rain and people commanding everywhere. I turned back to see black 1968 Ford Mustang, which daddy has it before selling it to Derek Hall, my Aunt Sophia's husband. It was daddy's favourite, he always told us a story how he buys the car, he would pronounce that as 'My 68's Black Ford Mustang', which I always mistook for Fox, but why he sold that to Uncle Derek if he loves it so much, haunted me till now.

I heard Sam's screaming loudly and he cried, I see that. In my mind, what is going on here? Aunt Sophia then grabs my hands and bring me to the car. As I look back, I saw several men in a blue raincoat, carrying something out from the home, covered in white long cloth, and then I saw another just behind it. I saw Sam running towards those people but stopped by the police.

Sam and I were sitting together in a white small room. There was packed food, probably buns but we never ate it. Sam kept me in his lap and brushing my hair. I saw his eyes, he been crying. It kept me wonder where is Abby, where is everybody. What are we doing here? He probably knew I was puzzled and he said to me that from this moment he would take care of Abby and I. He said Abby still with the police and Uncle Derek and Aunt Sophia got her back. I still want to know where are mom and daddy.

'They're gone', said Sam. 'For now, it is just three of us', he continued.

That day was very long. I still do not know what Sam means by Mom and Daddy is gone. I thought maybe they went to Grandpa's house. Gone? Not until we spent the night at Aunt Sophia's house, late at that night, I did ask Abby about Mom and Daddy. She said they were gone for good. 'Mom has been sick and crying all the time. Daddy should be punished. I did what I think I should, to protect us', she said.

Last time I ask her, we were just 9 years old. I ask her again before she admitted to the asylum in 1978, and she said 'I did it, Kate. Same with the bird and many things. It is just for fun right, Kate? Remember what I've told you? I will keep us safe from the world'. Sam and I watch Abby taken away by the nurses in the ambulance, she smiles. It is hard to say how I understand Abby, better than anybody else. That was the last time I saw her.  What she said still haunts me to this day.

Is Abigail will return to Kate's life? What is it like if her twin come back to her life 20 years later?

Find out in Chapter Two