Memory

Chapter 3

 I tried my best to keep the tears from leaving my eyes, but I was fighting a losing battle. I feel so 

hopeless. I want to be brave for Alex, but it's just so hard. After Alex gets over his shock he pulls 

me in for a hug, and I basically melt into a puddle of messy goo. Or in more normal terms "I burst 

into a violent fit if tears". Life as I knew it is over, and even though nothing will change physically, 

I will always be missing the family I never even knew I had. Once I calmed down Alex and I just 

sat looking at each other, and getting list in thought. "Now what?" Was the question in both of 

our brains. There are so many unknowns. Alex finally broke the silence. "Do our adoptive 

parents even know about what happened?". "I feel like we should let them know that we know, 

whether they already knew or not" was my reply, because no matter how hard it is, we really do 

need to get them involved. I know from my dreams that I really loved my birth family, and I 

would love to meet any other relatives we have. "Do you remember your family?" I asked 

timidly. "No, only the explosion, everything before that is still a big blur". He doesn't remember 

his family at all? I don't know whether to be sad that he lost their few memories together, or 

happy that he isn't having to deal with the trauma of missing someone he can never see again. 

Life is weird like that sometimes. "You know, of the people in my birth family the one I miss most 

is my sister. She was only just walking, we missed out on so many things we could have done 

together." Of course that thought brings me to tears again and Alex scoops me up and just 

strokes my hair while I cry "I feel like such a baby" I manage to get out between sobs. "You are 

grieving the death of your entire family, it's normal to cry. The only reason I'm not crying too is I 

remember an explosion, not the family it took from me." That was the moment our mom came 

in and told us we need to have a family meeting, I wonder what she could've heard. Once I got 

my tears under control, Alex and I headed out to the living room. There sat our dad and mom 

just waiting for us to sit down. We sat down on the couch and waited for one of our parents to 

start speaking. Neither of them did, so I took the lead. "Why would you hide the death of my 

family from me?". "What?!" My mom looked astonished, "why would we do that?". "You can stop 

pretending mom, I remember.". "No!" My mom yelled. A deathly silence fell over the room. When 

I dared to look up for a second I saw everyone turned towards her looking astonished. I didn't 

dare look up from the floor for very long though because I was already losing my fight against 

the tears rolling down my cheeks. The only thought in my mind was that my entire life has been 

a lie. She knew about my parents, and my baby sister. She could've single handedly helped my 

pain by not letting me forget. Yes, forgetting is bliss, but the remembering is worse than death 

itself. Alex has gone pale, and I know what that means. Something has triggered a memory. I get 

as close as possible to him without jarring him out of the memory. I don't want him to be alone, 

when reality sets in. My dad looks like he is about to vomit, but thankfully he holds it together. 

My mom doesn't exactly look sad, but she's definitely a far cry from happy. Finally she speaks 

"children, I understand that you're mad at me, but just remember who took you two in when 

you needed somewhere to stay". "But, you hid the fact that our families died." I knew I needed to 

be strong for Alex, which was the only thing keeping me together. Alex starts as he comes back to 

reality "Wait no!" He screamed before his eyes glazed over and he passed out.

We just sat there frozen for a minute, not sure exactly what to do, because during all of my 

remembering spells I'd never fainted, and neither had Alex. My dad finally went over to check on 

him "Alex, buddy, are you good?". There was no response of course, because Alex was still 

unconscious.