NOT BY SIGHT | ANNIVERSARY EDITION

𝕊ℍ𝕆ℝ𝕋 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐: 𝕁𝕦𝕝𝕚𝕦𝕤

FIVE YEARS BEFORE THE WAR

"Julius! Hurry up, you're going to be late for school!"
"I'm coming!"
Today was the day.
I have to give my oral report and written report in order to have 'C' privilege.
And I'm turning 12.

I go to a homeschool co-op/private school. AAll of us wear uniforms, dark green and khaki, we bring our own lunches, have chapel services every morning before we start school, and our head supervisor is Sister Jenny.

I rush out the door and down the stairs, fumbling with my report and backpack.
"Good morning, Mom!" I exclaim.
"Morning sweetheart," my mother says as she kisses my forehead and scurries past me.

I have three siblings. Two are older than me and one is younger.
Brian, the oldest, is the best-est big brother I could've ever asked for and is in college pretty early, Natalie, who's kinda bossy, but she babies me A LOT, and Madelyn...
The annoying one.
We don't really get along too well. But of course, I still love my little sister.

"Hey, little man! Happy birthday!"
Brian ruffles my hair and pats me on the back.
"Hey, Brian. Thank you," I chuckle.
He rushes past me, fumbling to get his school shoes on.
"Hurry up! We gotta go!" Madelyn shouts, her red pigtails neatly tied with white bows.
"Why are you in such a hurry, Little Miss?" I tease.
Madelyn pouts.
"Because then I'm not going to get the trophy this year! I have to finish all of my PACEs for testing, so I can get more stars, and then-"
"Look," I interrupted, "forget I asked."
"Hmph!" She said, and she stuck her tongue out at me.
Of course, I stuck my tongue out back.

My mother is one of the supervisors at our school, so she just drives us there in her old Suburban.
Natalie scurries up to me.
Oh boy.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COCO!"
She engulfed me in a very tight hug and peppered me with kisses all over my face.
Disgusting.
"Natalieeee.....stop it!"
She let go of me. Finally.
"Oh, hush now, is it wrong to congratulate my little brother?"
Her braces are supposed to come off later this week. I don't know why she decided to get hot pink ones.
I grabbed my jacket and all of us scurried out the door.
"Careful, kids! The ice is slippery!" my mother cried out.
It's early January, and there are a lot of kids who live out in the country. Sister Jenny called my mom early this morning to say that school will be delayed.
Hallelujah.
But we slept in too long. My mother forgot to set the alarm, so we're currently half an hour late.
Almost slipping a couple times, we scurry to the car.
My mother unlocks the suburban and we climb in.
"It's freezing in here!" Madelyn pouts.
"Maddy, stop being a baby about it," I mumble over to her.
"I'm not being a baabyy!"she whined.
"Sorry, kids! I forgot to turn it on this morning!"my mother sighed.
She turned on the car, and we drove off to school.

ONE YEAR BEFORE THE WAR

"Heads!"

Too late.

The stupid ball hit my face.

"Ouch!"

I could hear Mauricio laughing in the distance.

"¡Despierta!" He cried out.

"Oh, shut up," I cried back, rubbing my cheek.

I tried to recompose myself when Mauricio walked up to me.
"You good, man?"
"Yeah, I'll live," I groaned.
He beckons me to follow him, and we sit down on a picnic table nearby.
"What's going on with you? You've been acting strange since school got out."
I shook my head.
"Come on, Coco. Tell me. It's too nice of a church picnic for you to be like this."
He leaned back so he was resting on the edge of the table.
"The boys can see that you've been really off this past week. We're worried about you, Julius."
I just stare at the grass underneath my feet for a while before I answer.
"I've been having these weird....dreams. But it's more of like a vision of....of someone. A family."
I turn to look at Mauricio.
I was sure I would hear him scoff or tease me, but his face was sure and serious.
I continued, "It was a man, a woman, a small boy, and...a teenage girl."
"What did they look like?" Mauricio asked cautiously.
"Well.....the man was Caucasian. Bluest eyes I've ever seen. And the woman....she was short, and she looked like she was Native American. The small boy had green eyes and light brown hair, but his skin was as bronze as his sister's."
"The girl's hair was jet black. And green eyes, just like her....brother or something."
"Oh," Mauricio started, "well...have you seen them before?"
"No," I said, "never in my life."