Napoleon meets the 21st century

Chapter 3: Echo's Friends

Echo's POV
I was talking to Great Grandma Suzy when I heard an explosion in the family room.

"Sigh, I'll return Grandma Suzy" I said as I slid down the banister to see the cause of me going away from Grandma Suzy. I love her. She died when father was about 5 years old. I wish I knew her, but that's never going to happen. I went downstairs to see what was happening and saw my older sister of 2 years, Hannah, on her knees and crying. Her time machine had blown up, which is what caused the explosion.

"Hannah, baby, are you ok?" asked father.

"No, I was trying to go back in time so I could say hi to Napoleon Buonaparte. But when I went back, I forgot to let go of Napoleon's hand and I inadvertently brought him here and the overstimulation caused the machine to explode" she explained.

"Hey, dad, I accidentally walked in on Mary and now she won't stop throwing things a.....wait, who's this?" asked Tucker, my older brother of 1 year.

"Oh, God. Not again" said father as he walking upstairs to take care of Mary. Hannah went upstairs too, and Napoleon soon followed, I went up also. Dad grabbed Mary, her stuffed elephant, and got her into her 'Calming Chair'.

"It's ok, Mary. It's ok, I'm here" said father.

"What's wrong with Mary?" asked Napoleon. Hannah screamed, must not of heard him come up the steps.

"She has autism" said Hannah.

"Huh?" asked Napoleon.

"You really don't know what autism is?" asked Hannah back.

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about" said Napoleon. Hannah took him to the study so she can tell him about autism.

"What's that?" asked Napoleon pointing towards the computer.

"It's called a computer, you use it to look things up, go on to websites, and talk to friends" she said.

"Websites?" he asked.

"(Sigh) you have so much to learn about this century" she responded. Hannah typed in Mayo Clinic and she told Napoleon all he needs to know about autism.

"Oh, THAT'S what autism is" said Napoleon.

"Yeah, after Mary was born, we didn't see any of the signs until she was 3-years old. We did research and we read that early intervention was the best thing, but we didn't have the funds to cover it, so we just did what we could with her" she told him.

"Yikes! I didn't even know that such a disease existed" he said.

"That's because autism wasn't a thing during your time, there was no reported case of it until 1943. And you were born in 1769" said Hannah.

"That's 174 years!" he exclaimed.

"I know right" she said.

"So, Hannah, why was Hannah born with autism?" asked Napoleon.

"No one knows. No one really knows what causes autism, some people believe it's genetics, others believe there's some environmental factors, and then there's the popular yet false myth that bad parenting causes autism. But that's simply not true" explained Hannah.

"I'm guessing there's no cure?" asked Napoleon.

"You couldn't be more right. There's no cure for autism yet. Scientists are still, to this day, trying to find a cure for autism" said Hannah.

"But how do you cure something if you don't even know what causes it?" asked Napoleon.

"I don't know" replied Hannah.

"Earlier you said that you and your family didn't have the funds to help Mary with her autism, this place looks pretty decent to me" said Napoleon.

"Ya, we used to live an a nicer apartment. But that was before Echo or Mary were born, before things started getting bad at our house, before mom left!!!!" yelled Tucker as he threw his basketball at the bookshelf, causing a few books to fall, and one to hit my shoulder.

"That's gonna leave a bruise" I said. He must've been listening to our conversation. Eavesdropper! He breathes heavily as he grabbed his ball and ran off.

"What was that about?" asked Napoleon.

"After Mary turned 3 and we found out that she had autism, mom didn't want to take care of a child with special needs. So she wanted to put Mary up for adoption...but dad wouldn't let her. They got into a fight, and then mom left" explained Hannah.

"That's terrible, no parent should abandon their kid. Special needs or not" said Napoleon.

"What was your mother like?" asked Hannah.

"My mother was great, in fact, she was my main role model in life and she got me to where I am today. Well, to where I was in 1805 during my invasion on Austerlitz" he replied.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for pulling you away from that" apologized Hannah.

"I envy you" I snarled.

"'Envy', is that a good thing or a bad thing?" asked Napoleon.

"Depends on how far you go to express it" responded Hannah.

"Why am I still here? I've got to get back to Great Grandma Suzy" I sighed as I climbed the stairs to my room.

"Nice, a great grandma, can I meet her?" I heard Napoleon ask.

"She died when my dad was a little kid, Echo thinks she can talk to her through her Ouija Board" I also heard Hannah reply.

"Weirdo" he commented.

"I heard that!" I yelled.

"She has other people she thinks she can talk to also. Including Abraham Lincoln, Billy The Kid, and our mom's childhood kitten, Sprinkles, she had to be put down due to a heart condition that couldn't be cured without surgery. But the surgery had never been done and it was a risk, so my mom went with the sad yet obvious choice" I heard Hannah tell him.

"Don't listen to them Great Grandma Suzy, they don't get us" I said to her. She better not tell him anything personal about me, or els I'm sending BTK (Billy The Kid) to give her bloody nightmares again. Oh yeah, I've done that.