Oblivion

Chapter Eighteen - Rainbow Road

Third Person

"What do you mean?" Matteo sat on the bed while Riccardo grabbed a chair from the desk. Josephine played with the cap of her bottle and briefly looked out the window. At the back of the garden she saw one of the dogs, but she couldn't tell from the distance which one of them.

"Before I came here, I lived on the streets." She hesitated, she didn't want to reveal more than she had to, but if living together was going to work, she had to. "My parents died in a car accident. It was raining and Dad was probably trying to avoid a deer. They went off the road and hit a tree. By the time the paramedics arrived, they were already dead. I was nine at the time. I came to a Foster family, where I stayed until I was twelve. Then I ran away and lived on the street until Domenico found me in town three weeks ago and brought me here. But at that point I wasn't ... ready and went back to the streets. A week ago I was then taken to a hospital because I was severely hypothermic. I don't know exactly why, but Vito was informed and in the end it was decided that it would be best for me to stay here."

Both brothers were sure there had to be more, but Josephine blinked several times and drank quickly from her bottle. Clearly she wouldn't elaborate any further. For a moment no one said anything. If there was anything the brothers could understand, it was the pain of losing their parents. At least Riccardo could. Matteo was still young, barely a year old, when her mother died, and he was only able to get to know her father for the first five years, three of which he was in need of care. Riccardo didn't have many memories of his mother anymore, but he knew that she once gave and loved him. The same was true for his father. How often had he played with him in the garden? How often had Riccardo sat at his bedside and talked about his day, even though his father probably didn't understand much about it. Matteo was different and that was okay. Both may have grieved in different ways, but they had grieved and some days they still did.

"Why did you run away from your foster family?" Riccardo broke the silence in an attempt to flee from his own feelings. Josephine's hands began to shake slightly and she put the bottle aside to hide it. Matteo, however, had seen it.

"I didn't cope well with their way of life and I didn't cope well with the death of my parents," she said, which almost sounded like the truth to herself. How many days and how many nights had she wished it were the truth. The lie was so much more beautiful than the truth.

"And why did Vito and Domenico take you in? No offense, but there are a lot of homeless young people out there," Riccardo asked, asking the question that was bothering him the most. Josephine looked into his eyes for the first time without immediately lowering her gaze.

"I don't know," she replied. She sounded so honest that even Riccardo believed her.

"Why wasn't anyone looking for you? Someone had to notice, not at least your social worker!" Matteo had frowned, but Josephine couldn't give him a precise answer. The most likely scenario was that they had never reported Josephine missing and had somehow deceived the social workers to avoid unpleasant questions, but whatever it was, Josephine didn't know. Vito would probably find out once he filed for custody. Hopefully no one would get in trouble for this.

Riccardo decided to change the subject, the mood in the room was difficult to bear. He had never learned how to deal with it in an sufficient way. "How come you have to feed the dogs?"

A little embarrassed, Josephine again began to play with her hands. "I tried to run away. Domenico had ... limited understanding for this and found it pedagogically sensible to give me responsibility."

She had tried to keep her wording and tone neutral, but they both knew their brother. Matteo laughed and Riccardo also had to grin reluctantly. Josephine breathed a sigh of relief; they weren't mad or thought she was ungrateful. Matteo winked at her. "If it's any consolation, we've all had to go through this at some point. Well, we didn't have to feed them, but we had to go for a walk-"