An Innocent Mistake (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 25

I crawl inside the yellow dress, as it fits around my body. My arms squirm out of the arm holes and I observe myself in the mirror. Though it is small, I somehow manage to look at myself from the mirror's view.
I am amazed at how perfectly it fits my body. I come out of the bathroom, quickly taking out the sandals and slip them in my feet, pulling the back strap above the heel.
Standing with a elegant dress on, I feel a distinct pride blushing my cheeks that I can easily picture them as red blush-on without looking in the mirror. Lastly I comb my hair in a high taut ponytail and the wavy smooth tail slump against the nape of my neck.
When we come out of the house, the blazing orange sky is packing the day as the sun withers down the west. I am lucky it will not be that cold since it isn't as windy. The cold shivers in its own cocoon not moving much.
Me and Ragenite sail down the blocks fast as a nocturnal animal, darting through the black woods. And there stands the house with ordinary lights, glowing the glassed windows. I become really excited to go, but I resist myself for being shy, which I am not at all I realize. So it might be something else that stops me. Perhaps I am not used to it.
Ragenite drops me at the door as always. When I go inside, I don't see anyone beside two girls by the table, that has two gifts already. Seeing that I realize I haven't brought any gift. I feel ashamed of coming empty hand. For past three days I have been so caught up into thinking about what to wear that I barely wondered what would Hannah think and everybody else if I am asked.
Instead of joining the two girls, I stay alone by myself, being fueled up with embarrassment. My ears feel like they were unleashed in the glow of warm fire and my heart beat increases that I almost feel it coming to my mouth. But I restrain anything unusual from happening.
At around six forty-five, Lady Clara shows up in the living room, dressed up not any different. The same style long skirt, a collared top and hair neatly knotted in a bun. She generously walked in, building up a birthday attitude by bringing over the colorful disposable plates and cups. As she put it on the table, the two girls stopped chit-chatting, that sounded like babbles from across the room and drop by Lady Clara.
"Mrs.Howard, when is Hannah coming down?" The one with thick black, sleek hair asked, gleefully.
Lady Clara flipped her attention to them and said, "Oh, she must be ready by now. It wouldn't take her longer." When she acquired to see me standing alone, she called me over. "When have you come, Beth?" A slight surprise. "You look really pretty, God bless your soul."
I felt insecure as the two girls continued to stare at me like I was an alien. From their looks, they appeared bossy.
"Who is she?" The same girl who asked Lady Clara earlier, now asked the second girl.
It was funny how they thought I couldn't hear them, if they called that whispering.
The second girl didn't have any clue and she simply shrugged while adhering the eyes on me, occasionally scanning my dress. I guessed from their attitude that they envied me style. Because their weren't as fancy.
"You girl wait here while I will be back." Lady Clara was already gone to the kitchen that she came back to inform me on what Cole was doing, in case if I was getting bored or wanted him.
I went to Cole's play room downstairs, close to the kitchen. Cole was nowhere to be seen. So I walked out of his room and groped for his presence inside the other rooms. But he was not found anywhere.
"Lady Clara, I don't see Cole anywhere. Do you know where would he be?" A patch of concern blotted in my words.
"I believe he must be with Hannah upstairs. You can go check out."
I climbed up to the second flor and the flooring there was extra shinning like it was made brand new. The tiles gleamed in the white bulb light, washing the place.
Up there where few rooms, with locked doors. I was confused about which one to go. So I knocked on the one where it seemed like someone was in there.
Yes. It was it. Hannah was getting ready. She was wearing a big frock hiding her legs and even her feet.
"Hey, Bethany. Come in." I followed as she called me.
While she worked on her hair, I examined the room for Cole. But he was still nowhere.
"Hannah, do you know where Cole is?"
"He is hiding in my closet. He wants you to surprise you. Boo!" She giggled. I had seen her like that for the first time."
"Really? He is really funny." I tried to sound comfortable and friendly.
"If you don't believe me, look for yourself in my closet. But actually wait. I will show you." She dropped the brush on dressing table, which reminded me of my bedroom. Which hadn't had that many things.
She carelessly opened the closet door and among the hanging clothes, I spotted Cole.
"Now come out. You are not playing hide and seek in my closet and messing around with my things."
At first, he refused to listen because he got mad that she revealed him in front of me. But slowly dragged out like a dead animal. He produced peculiar sounds from his throat and somewhere from nasal.
"Hannah, you are not fining me. Bethany is." Cole angered. "But nobody is playing hide and seek right now. It's not always a play time." Hannah judged her little brother like an old strict sister. She rolled her eyes, picking up the brush and continuing with the hair.
"You are a mean sister. Bethany is better than you." Cole petulantly blurted. He folded his arms high across his chest and angrily gazed at Hannah, like he tired of her judging him.
"Just be quiet. You are messing with my mood. Go to your room." Hannah nearly lost her temper. She pointed Cole to leave her room and that meant I was going out with him too.
"Cole, that is not how you talk to your sister. Say sorry for what you have done." I bent down to him and instructed him. Therefore he listened to me.
"Sorry, Hannah." He sounded hesitant but popped the words.
Hannah looked about him. "It's alright." She said, rather strained to be amiable. There was not even a fake smile to prove she meant it.
Afterwards, me and Cole went down and about twenty more minutes later, Hannah showed up downstairs too. By that time, there were more girls in the living room. The noise was doubled.
Lady Clara came with a box which mostly likely had the birthday cake. As it was put in the middle, girls gathered around the table. They chit-chatted even more, but then dropped it to the low volume.
From the entrance, Hannah appeared like she was a royal princess, but without a royal crown. Instead, she had a floral band with a bow sewn titled on the side.
I thought, she is really pretty. Since we barely interacted with each other I never got look at her closely and even looking beautiful. Her milky, glowing skin resembled the beauty of a Jasmine flower.
But I was once again afraid, what I was going to do about the gift. In spite of that, I joined the party and stood behind some girls, who sung out the birthday song and clapped so loudly, earning all the attention, that I seemed invisible. I felt like I didn't even exist.
After cutting the cake, Hannah was sent aside and Lady Clara distributed the slices of cake among the girls. All the time I was staring at Hannah, who laughed, and joyfully hung out with her friends. But I was sucked in a worry. I sometimes hated myself for not bringing anything for her.
I thought I will be pointed out for such mistake. When it was time to look at the gifts by reading out who gave the gifts. I was sunk in dread, ringing an alarm throughout my body. I knew I would be insulted, when Hannah will say, Bethany I haven't seen your gift. Did you forget to bring it. And if she was nice enough, she wouldn't say anything.
While she tore through the designed wrappings, I sat by her on the carpet. On most of the gifts she was happy that she got something she liked. Unlike some of the girlish toys, she immediately put it aside and looked forward for a new surprise.
As the mound of boxes receded, I felt a ball of air forming and climbing up the throat in each while. I couldn't swallow it, no matter how much I tried to take his less strenuous.
"Hey there is your gift, Bethany. Let's see what you brought." Hannah said, joyously. She wildly holed the wrapping and tugged apart until the inside was visible.
I was thrown in a mind disturbing puzzlement. What have she said? That it was a gift from me? But how could that be possible. I hadn't had anything. It must be some other Bethany that she thought was me.
She pulled out a small size beauty box that had few makeup stuff packed tightly around with a ribbon. I was astonished at such incident. Was I dreaming, I thought. To make sure if it was the reality, I grabbed the wrapping torn randomly, and resembled the pieces to read my name. It was my name in red pen, but it wasn't my writing. I never write in cursive. I guess someone was playing trick with me.
"Oh my god. I love this. Bethany how did you know I wanted this? I used to tell mom that to buy me this." Hannah asked, cheerily. She was about to open the beauty box and spill out the lip glosses, eye shadow kit and many other cosmetics.
But I was afraid, what was I going to say. I was clueless. My lips trembled to resemble the words carefully so they don't sound skeptical, neither startling. But my throat was too constrict to voice out.
To toss away the building pressure, I looked up to Lady Clara to see if she expected the same. But I saw her smiling sweet as her personality and winked personally at me. I didn't get that at first, when after I examined more into the thought and realized she meant something.
I caught the idea. Perhaps she had something to do with the gift. And possibly she could be behind this.
"I just picked it. I liked it and I thought you might like it too." When I was done talking, I felt like I have finally returned from the journey. I was absorbing the guilty from telling the lie. But it was still good that Hannah was happy.
"You have he perfect choice. You don't know how much I love this." She was lost in looking at it.
"Thank you." I brought the smile to the front.
Then I looked at Lady Clara again and this time she gave me thumbs up. With the same smile, but making it more stronger, I exchanged the glances with her.
"Now I feel like we should clean up the mess otherwise it doesn't take you that long become lazy." Lady Clara said.

It was about seven o'clock when I had last looked up. I waited for Ragenite to come and pick me up. But thirty more minutes passed by and the promise was broken.
I didn't wait more and told Lady Clara that I should be leaving. It was getting late and Ragenite would be worried. But she insisted me on dropping by in the car because it was dark already. And I kept telling her that I could go home alone, since it was four blocks away. Wouldn't much be a problem.
So I left the place, waving everyone over the shoulder, and as the darkness fell in the way they drove back inside.
I retrieved my attention back on the path and took a turn on the right. All along I started thinking about why Lady Clara had winked at me. What exactly she meant was still a cloud of mist in my head.
I was near the house, just a block away that I saw someone outside the house on the stoop, a girl. She was solitude, with no one to look after.
"Excuse me." I went and asked, looking directly at her.
But she didn't lift her head and kept weeping with shallow breaths.
"Excuse me, are you okay?"
Then in a little while, she evinced her damp face, a mess of tears. She crawled up to my face and saw who was I. A spark of astonishment froze her.
"Who are you?" She asked, pulling out of the ocean of tears.
"Why are you crying?"
"But who are you?"
I sighed and inhaled the fresh air. "Bethany. Now will you tell me why are you crying?"
She seemed constraint to tell the reason. She looked behind at the house of whose front steps she was sitting at.
"My aunt doesn't like me. She wants to send me to orphanage because my parents died. But I don't want to go." Saying that, she started crying again. Wiping the endless flowing tears.
"Are you gonna sit like the whole night? You know it's not safe."
"Then what do I do. If I stay in this house, they will throw me away to that bad place. I don't want to go."
I wondered what could be done. I was myself not living in my own home. Then how could I help her. If she stayed like this all night, there was a danger. Somebody might kidnap her, or-.
I cleared my throat. "Why don't you come with me. I will take you to my home."
She swept her face and longingly watched me, like I was playing with her. Perhaps she couldn't simply trust me. I was a stranger, who hadn't known her no more than two minutes.
"But what about my aunt? She wouldn't let me go with anyone."
"Is she still looking at you - at this very moment?"
She spun to look at the window of the house. There was no one. Only the glowing orange light. And on the second floor, it was black.
"No. But I am afraid-if she finds out about me."
"Don't be scared. If she doesn't care about you, then don't worry."
"But you don't know how bossy and strict she is. If she doesn't see me outside the house, she will send my cousin to look for me. He is worst of all."
I wondered how terrible the people were to whom she was living with. What was the worst her cousin would do. Beat her to death or not give her food.
"Believe me I will take you to the safe place."
"How do I believe you. I don't even know you." She got up and sudden guilty pinched her skin. She barely pierced her eyes to mine and turned around toward the house. "Maybe I wouldn't have told you anything."
"But I was just helping you." I paused briefly.
Standing like this was making me cold. I tightly folded my arms to feel warm. But it wasn't helping me. "It's okay." I said so low that it sounded like a whisper in a cool wind.
I started to walk away, recklessly. Not even one time I looked back to see what was that girl doing. I crossed the street and abandoned the block. But since it was straight down, I felt the neighborhood connected.
A thin voice screamed behind me. I stopped, huddling, looked around. I saw that girl running to me waving.
"Wait!" Came a informing yelp.
That girl reached me, gasping for air. She held her knees, catching up to breathe. Then looked up.
"I thought it was useless. They were already getting rid of me."
Her tears were dried out. In the dark, with enough light from the street lamps I fought to look how she looked. But her eyes were red, and blearing. It seemed like she hasn't slept for days.
"Let's go." All I said.

When we entered through the doorway, Ragenite squinted to see another figure emerging from my back. I stood aside to let the girl inside.
"Who have you brought?" Ragenite came rounding from the dinning table and grimly gazed.
"She is-?" I realized I didn't know her name.
"Martha." She completed. To become familiar with Ragenite, Martha smiled. But Ragenite reacted opposite.