9 9 Orphaned

What happened to John and Nenita, whom they happened to know to be "a good couple" sent a chill down the spine of the entire wolf community.

Friends were at the funeral to console the grieving Isabella and Teresa. Uncle Tom was present, too. But after the funeral, Isabella grew withdrawn. Trust was hard to give. It was too much for her to bear, barely a year after the grand parties— she wouldn't even consider herself on the teenage stage except that she had bled and thank God she had Teresa to be there on her side because she wouldn't know what to do.

Teresa told her that the bleeding was a normal part of her growing up and that it required her to be "mature".

She looked up the meaning of the word "mature" in the dictionary. It said she was to become a "fully developed" lady "physically" and mentally "I suppose" she whispered to herself.

"Your breasts grow…" Teresa explained. "You grow pubic hair under or between your legs."

Teresa continued: "Boys may start surrounding you. Some may be attracted. If they touch you, the possibility of child bearing is not remote."

Her eyes grew big with what she heard—laughing off what Aunt Teresa was telling her. She was actually preoccupied with one thing. She had remembered her conversation with Uncle Lucas about instincts and the fire that gutted the house was what she thought at that moment, what she thought every single day. She had not accepted what happened.

She could hear the voice of Aunt Teresa.

"It means you should stop behaving like a child now. You have to grow up fast because there's nobody to help us out but ourselves."

Yes. Time and circumstances forced her to grow up fast. Maybe vindicating the death of her father and mother would lighten up everything that she felt inside her.

Every time she spent quiet time, she could see and hear things clearly. It had been months that she did nothing but think and time seemed to have ground to a halt.

That was what she was going to do. Talk to Uncle Lucas. He could make her see things better.

xxxxxx

Clearly Uncle Lucas was waiting for her and Teresa because he looked happy and was excited when they came—he knew the two of them were privy to the conversation during the party.

"Would you know of somebody who was present at the party and with an axe to grind on your family?"

"Or he or she may not be present during the party but somebody was present for that person during the party," Lucas explained. "Would you have a suspect?"

Isabella's answer was a crisp, "Yes." Her innocent eyes looked straight in his eyes.

"Is that what your instinct tells you?" Lucas asked her.

Isabella nodded her head slightly. Teresa agreed.

She could hear the voices of father and her uncle arguing over those pieces of land they owned. Her uncle wouldn't agree with her father. She could see from his grimacing face that he was not content with what her father was telling him and she had suspected that her uncle had something to do with the fire.

Your theory would be as good as mine, but I do not want you to get involved because you are very young."

Isabella was confident that the case of her parents would have an early resolution.