Lachance ↠ Ace Merrill

II

Scarlet exhales with content as she's listening to the sound of the wind brushing through the leaves of surrounding trees. Her dirty, white sneakers, grind against the hot gravel rocks, as she's captivated by the hypnotising, dancing branches of every tree in-sight. She smiles in delight as her eyes explore all of the colours of the town. From the multiple shades of brown and grey of the gravel, to the juicy, bright green of the leaves; she's truly missed beauty of her childhood home.

Earlier before, Gordie told her that him and a couple of other boys, were gonna camp over at one of his friend's house. Gordie seemed tense telling his lie, but Scarlet thought nothing of it. She kissed him and Chris on the cheek and told them to have a great time; a little chuckle passes her lips as she remembers the look on Chris' face, from when she kissed his red cheek.

They went their separate ways. Gordie and Chris were headed to "Vern's house" while Scarlet was going home.

She turns her attention from the trees and onto the houses. She narrows her eyes at the houses, trying to remember the outer appearance of her house. Her memory was quite dusty. She sighs in defeat and scratches her arm roughly in annoyance.

"Damn, mosquitoes." She hisses, ignoring the fact, that she just about clawed her skin off.

As she was cussing and swatting at bugs, she hadn't even noticed that she had been mindlessly walking in some random direction, and that she's been walking on someone's lawn for the last 30 seconds.

She looks up as her foot hits wooden plank, standing up right in the ground. She silently mumbles 'thank yous' as she's relieved that she was wearing shoes when the tip of her foot hit the plank. Her eyes trail up the plank and widen as she notices that she actually bumped into a mailbox. And not just any old mailbox. This mailbox, just so happened to have the word "Lachance" painted in cursive, bold letters, on it.

Her heartbeat quickens in excitement as she turns to see the house, she last lived in six years ago. Within a heartbeat, she starts running towards the door and almost trips over one of the steps. The strong thumping of her heart was the only thing she could hear as she was staring at the wooden door, the strap of her bag slides down her right arm. She ignores the falling strap and immediately bangs her knuckles against the hard wooden door. Her eyebrows knit in confusion as the door remains closed. She knocks two more times before walking down the steps. She walks towards the back of the house and her eyes land on two figures in the backyard. Her eyes landed on her father first. He looked exactly the same, from when she last saw him, but he was smiling 6 years ago. His lips were in a permanent frown, which made Scarlet's heart drop. Her eyes travelled to her mother removing clothes from the laundry line.. She couldn't see her mother's face, but, sadness and emptiness was clearly visible in her movements.

They were too dazed to notice that there was another person in the yard.

"M-mom, D-dad." Scarlet's voice was wavering, as tears blurred her vision. She blinks them away to see her parents reaction. Her father looks up from the garden and her mother turns around with a towel in her hand when they hear a voice. It was like everything was in slow motion. The gardening tools, clothes and tears all fall perfectly in-sync as they all stand in shock.

Both of her parents look at each other with glassy eyes. It was like they were immediately brought out of their stage of despair and tragedy. They remained silent as they both turn to look at their daughter.

Scarlet couldn't wait any longer for a response. She starts running towards her parents and finds that, they're heading towards her too. Scarlet's vision was blinded by fresh tears as she ran. Memories of her twin-brother flashed into her mind and before she knew it, her knees became weak. She fell, but her father caught her just in time. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He crashes onto his knees, holding his little princess in a tight, warm embrace as they break down. Her mother was bawling her eyes out at the sight. Her husband never cried when he was informed of Denny's passing, or at his funeral. After all these months of holding back, he finally exploded like a sheer bubble. She too, was wrapped in her husband's arms, her arms were tightly wrapped around her daughter, as her husband's arms were overlapping.

They had been in this position for 5 minutes. Her parents pull away to take a look at their now-grown daughter.

"My knees." Scarlet groans in pain as she moves her aching, stiff legs from underneath and comfortably sits on the soft grass with her legs folded.

Her parents laugh. She looks at them through puffy, bloodshot eyes as she's repetitively sniffing. Her mother places a warm, shaky hand, upon Scarlet's damp cheek.

"You are so beautiful." Her mother's voice was shaky. "I've missed you so much, my little angel." She tightly hugs her.

"I've missed you too, Ma." She inhales her mother's scent and slightly chuckles as she smells jasmine. In the past, when Scarlet was sad, her mother would always hug her and mumble reassuring words as Scarlet would savour the scent of her mother's perfume.

She pulls away from her mother and looks towards her father. His lips curl up into a warm smile. He places his big hand on her head and ruffles her hair. "Welcome home, princess."

-

"Bye, Ma! Bye, Pa!" Scarlet yells as she closes the door.

"Bye, Darlin'." She hears her mother's muffled voice.

"You got your butterfly knife?" She hears her father yell from the lounge.

She opens the door and yells back. "Of course! Later, pa!" She shuts the door close and jumps down two steps. She lifts up the falling straps of her backpack, back onto her shoulders.

She was heading for the cemetery, to visit Denny. Her eyes were planted on the plain blue sky as she was walking to her destination. There were no clouds to be seen. Beads of sweat were trailing down from her hairline as she was exposed to the hot sun. She was struggling to keep her eyes open as the light from the sun would radiate from every object she looked at, and into her puffy eyes. She removed the bag from her back and scooped her sunglasses out of her bag. She received these glasses from her aunt, just before she left. She's not one for accessories, but these glasses, were her favourite. She slides on the glasses and ignores people eyeing her attire as she passes them. People would gawk at her, mainly because she was a girl wearing "boys" clothes. She was wearing light washed jeans, rolled up at the ankles, a black shirtless top and her faded red plaid shirt was tightly wrapped around her waist and her hair was calmly swaying behind her.

She walks into the gates of the graveyard and starts searching for her brother's headstone. She walks towards a large tree with, beautiful shade. She watches the shadow of the tree wave around, with longing eyes. She immediately walks under the tree and sighs with relief. She looks down and finds that, her brother's headstone was under the shade. She walks up to the headstone and sits on her knees. She smiles as she runs her fingers along the letters on the headstone.

"Hey, Denny. It's been a while.." She looks up the sky. The wind was blowing through her hair, she sighs with satisfaction as the cool air touches her sweaty neck. "I'm really sorry that I left... I'm so sorry. I should've stayed- and spent more time with you and watch Gordie grow up. Maybe if I didn't leave..." She removes her glasses as tears well up in her eyes. "This wouldn't of happened." She covers her face with her palms, trying to muffle the upcoming sobs. She doubles over, leaning on her arms as agonising cries break through her chest. Her tears were like bullets, splashing against the stone. Her cries were raw and full pain and regret.

There she sat. Alone and mourning. Metres away from her brother's corpse.