The Girl Who Was Adopted

Chapter 13 - Mum and Dad Aren't Here at the Moment

Distantly, I could hear a repeated banging, but I forced my brain to ignore it – I was dreaming happily about my best friend, Abbey, and me ice skating at the Olympics. Another round of banging. I squished my eyes tightly, there was no way that I was going to get up, not in the middle of this dream.

"Ada!" Alex's hands gripped my shoulders tightly, his tiny, bony fingers digging roughly into my skin. "Please, wake up!" The urgency in the almost-nine year old boy's voice sent alarms to my brain and I sat up, wide awake. I had never seen Alex this shaken up from a bad dream, but lately they'd been getting worse. I scooted over in my bed, making space for him to climb in beside me. He stared at me, his big brown eyes glossy.

I let out a sigh, couldn't he just use his words? "What do you want?" My eye caught the time on the clock on my wall. "It's just after four, Alex, go back to sleep. The sun will rise-"

"There's someone at the door," he interrupted, his voice was only less than a plea.

I huffed, "Why can't mum and dad get it?" I rolled my eyes. "Go wake them up."

"They're not home," he half wailed, on the verge of tears. I closed my eyes and drew in a breath, summoning my courage.

I pushed back the covers and shoved my feet into my cat slippers. I looked at him, trying to stand as tall as I could. "Go back to bed, Alex. I'll sort this out." Whether I sounded as authoritative as I was trying, or Alex just wanted the visitors to go away, he turned around without another word and headed towards his bedroom.

I drew in a breath; big, brave me. I didn't want to deal with the visitors who arrived at such an awful hour, but it was the responsible thing to do; besides, I'd been trying to convince mum and dad that I was getting more responsible, this was just evidence for my case. I grabbed the kitchen knife from beneath my mattress and walked out of my bedroom.

I trotted down the passage carefully stopping at the small window which looked out at the apartment entrance. If the screen door had been closed, I would have been able to see the visitors; although it was dark out there and I wasn't sure that I would have been able to see who it was, anyway.

My heart was beating fast as I walked towards the door, my brain was screaming for me to run and let them figure out that nobody was going to answer the door on their own. My hands were shaking and I could feel the tears threatening, but I had to be the big sister; if I cried, then Alex would think that I was a cry baby and I wasn't as brave as I'd promised I'd be.

I nervously walked towards the front door. I was clinging to the knife so desperately that my knuckles were turning white, but I forced myself towards the front door and I unlocked it with a shaking hand.

Outside the door stood Aunt Linda and Uncle Henry, they were mum and dad's best friends. I was surprised to see them at the entrance, but it was 4 o'clock in the morning and I didn't want them to come into the house.

"I'm sorry, mum and dad aren't here at the moment–" I began to explain, I was preparing to shut the door, I was cut off by a loud sob from Aunt Linda. Uncle Henry looked at me sternly, as though I'd gone out of my way to make Aunt Linda cry. Uncle Henry hated children; Alex and I hated him. I hesitated, "Do you want to come in..?"

Uncle Henry didn't even bother to answer me, he roughly pushed me aside as he propped the door open further, leading his wife into the house, his arms around her carefully as though she could fall apart at any second. There was only one thing in the world that Uncle Henry loved, and that was Aunt Linda.

I switched on the living room light, Alex popped his head into the living room, looked around for a second and spotted Uncle Henry, a second later he disappeared back down the passage towards the bedrooms.