Discovering Rowan [on hold]

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I opened the gate to our house, it was an old wooden gate entwined with ivy with brass hinges that squeaked when you opened them. We only had a garden out the front of our house but it was a great garden, with tall trees and small flowerbeds cast around hosting a range of rainbow coloured flowers. There was an old red shed with rusty gardening tools near the flower beds. You could hear the trickle of the stream which separated the garden from the patio and led on into the woods. There was a red swing down the bottom of the garden hanging of off one of the higher branches of the tree. I remember when I was younger and I had wanted to get away from the house I used to come down and swing on that swing with Willow our old cat and my teddy. I'd try and forget what was going on in the house. I used to hear my mothers shrieks and my fathers protests until they stopped and I would just hear my mother sobbing and my father trying to comfort her. It wasn't her fault and neither was it dads. It was always the drink. It started off with one glass a night if her job was stressing her out. It then got progressively worse. If I went into the cupboard to get myself a bar of chocolate there would be a bottle of wine or two stashed behind the tins and the jars. I once took a bottle down to the stream and poured it away. I watched the red liquid infect the clear waters just like it had my mothers brain. I remember my mother sneaking up on me to see what i was doing and smashing my head with a bottle. She cried the whole way through the night. I couldn't sleep so I crept downstairs to her bedroom. She kept whispering 'I'm sorry' over and over again. My father was furious in the morning when he discovered what my mother had done. He kept me off school and took me to the hospital. They started asking him questions and mentioning social services. I was lying on my hospital bed when he came up to me, kissed my head and said 'I love you lots and I'm doing this for you.'

I never saw my father again.

My mother went completely crazy with my father gone. I was only 8 at the time. I didn't know then that it was because my father was my mothers soulfinder. Without him she wasn't complete. It was so painful for her knowing he was out there and that he had run away from her, so scared of revealing her problem to anyone. But he made it so much worse. She was drinking almost three bottles a day. Occasionally her intentions would leek into my head which scared me. I just want to die. Did he die? I want to be with my Seb in heaven. I can't do this anymore without him. When this happened I didn't understand what was going on I screamed and ran down onto my swing.

Three weeks later my mum died.

My brother took me under his wing after that. A few months later, when he turned sixteen he got a job and worked all weekend earning money to pay for food. We didn't have electricity but that was okay as Luke could control energy. We had a basic diet and lived on our minimum until he finished school and got a job when he was eighteen. Until that point I would occasionally hear my fathers voice in my head, usually crying asking about my mum, about us apologizing for leaving us. I thought I was imagining it until I was twelve. Luke taught me how to shield and to control my gift. I had to imagine a switch and imagine myself 'turning off' my savant part and not using my gift. And as long as that switch saved off peoples intentions would stop leaking into my head and as long as my shields were up there would be no dad in my head. Luke registered himself as my legal guardian and we managed. I was never popular at school, the other kids always used to wonder why I didn't have a mum or a dad, why I walked home from school alone, why I never had nice pens, a nice bag, clean school uniform. Eric used to pick on me and turn a few people against me but I shrugged it off and with my gift I knew what he was aiming to do and dodged the insults easily. I acted like the average kid and got a few friends but was never invited round anybodies house for tea. I remember one girl, Issy, tried desperately to get her mum to invite me round but she took one look at me and my grubby uniform and long uncut tangled hair and said a firm no. I guess she was my best friend back then. She stuck with me and I remember riding round on the back of a bike with her my tangled hair blowing in the breeze. I remember Miss Kaldow the reception teacher used to watch us with a smile on her face. She never used to look down on me and would always give me a secret snack or two to keep me going as Luke wasn't exactly a reliable parent. She would never forget my birthday and marked 7th May on her calendar.  I would find small birthday gifts in my rucksack after lunch. She looked out for me and even when I was in the higher years. She taught me about 'girl stuff' and moving to 'big school'. She was the person who got me into music. She would look out for me like a mother and taught me what it was like to have someone who cared. To me, she was the most beautiful woman.

When Luke was 19 he found his soulfinder. His soulfinder was called Tanya. He was out one night for a meal with his friends when he heard mens voices and a scream. He rescued Tanya from the men who were hurting her and bullying her. Now they are engaged with twins, Zoe and Zed. Tanya really helped Luke keep on top of everything, his job, looking after me, paying the bills, all the jobs that were seriously threatening to break him. Tanya's gift was projecting waves of power. Zoe and Zed we think can control ice and fire. We've all got our gifts under control (Zoe and Zed not completely) but soon they will learn to lock away their gifts and become detached from the savant world.