Chapter 323: 1-1

Chapter 37.1 – Ben POV Things had improved greatly since coming on the island here, with uncle Grant, aunt Julia and especially Oakley. It wasn’t that life back home had been particularly difficult for me personally, but watching Oakley live back home was painful. I hadn’t known as much as I knew now, but I was at ease here myself and I could tell that she was also. It wasn’t like Oakley changed over night or became someone new; it was like, here on the island, she could be her self and still not be an outcast or on the outside looking in. She smiled more, even though she cried and was moody sometimes, she smiled more. Then there was Chelsea, Gabriel and Lux. I always thought Oakley was the coolest person I knew, the smartest as well. I always remember thinking about all the things I’d get to do with her, because she was older, even though half the time I didn’t truly understand. The easiest way to explain would be to say that she spoke like a grownup to me, but she was my size and it was fun. All the things I couldn’t reach, she could. All the things I couldn’t do, she could. Up until kindergarten I had never thought that my family was truly different from other children. We had so much help from everyone – but when those people left at night, I still had Oakley. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t normal for a six year old to be the one taking care of me, making us food – granted it was things like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – and using stools to do it. It wasn’t that our father wasn’t around – he was. And it wasn’t like he checked out physically, because he didn’t. We weren’t abused, we were fed and clothed and between Dad, Oakley, aunts, uncles and grandparents nothing appeared wrong or broken to me. Dad didn’t ignore just Oakley, he seemed to be that way with me at times but as long as I had Oakley, that was okay. Oakley fulfilled that attention of wanting someone to be happy when you do things right, or at all; she cheered me on. And even though she wasn’t into soccer, she read a book and tried to teach me how to play when I got a ball for Christmas when I was three. Yet when things changed, it seemed that Oakley was the extra, like the very rare occurrence in those 200 piece puzzles. You finish the whole thing and in the end there’s this one that is just left over even though the puzzle is complete. I think that I had seen that had happened twice in my opinion, once when we had a left over puzzle piece and then with Oakley. And even young, I knew we did the same thing for both occasions. We didn’t throw the extra piece away, but it was put away from the others, just a part of the puzzle, while still not really being a part of the puzzle. For a tiny second I was afraid that now that Oakley had Chelsea, she would love me less, but I shouldn’t have worried. Then I thought that since the reason we had to come here was because of Oakley – sort of – that Chelsea wouldn’t… well she wouldn’t really see me as her brother. Just as someone that came as part of Oakley. I shouldn’t have worried about that either. I would it would be hard to get to know Chelsea as well, but it was just wild how much Chelsea and Oakley behaved so alike. They weren’t touchy feely people, they didn’t hug lots but once you had their attention, it was yours. Very… unfiltered and literal, in a way that back home made others regard Oakley as weird. Even though I knew that’s how her brain just worked. They were both special, ‘Davey said that his family leaves cookies and milk out for Santa, maybe we should do that too,’ I remembered telling Oakley when I was four years old. ‘Santa isn’t real Ben,’ she said bluntly, never lying to me before, I surely trusted her word over some boy my age. Yet like always I wanted to know why? And she told me, ‘well…  it’s just not possible, how does Santa get to all the houses? There are too many houses to get all in one night…’ I nodded agreeing with her and letting it drop. But going back, things have been great here, Oakley made friends and I did as well, then I gained Chelsea and Gabriel, and trained with them as well as with Lux. Oakley had already shown signs of what her gift was, but I either didn’t have one or as Lux hypothesized, I hadn’t had the emotional trigger yet, one strong enough to kick start it. Either way it didn’t bother me, learning all these new things and even seeing things the way Oakley had for such a long time, suffering in silence. I had never blamed her when she hurt herself, I didn’t think it was her point, especially when I could see just how unlike the Oakley I knew she had become. But hearing her explain that she was able to listen to conversations about her and our family from a distance was slightly unbelievable. I shifted – painfully – and suddenly, I understood the pain and confusion she had faced and worse, she faced it alone. My hearing had greatly improved, as had my sight and sense of smell. So many new things to adjust about myself – with help – that I knew she did not have was still weird to me. My strength was one thing I had to adjust too, especially when I wasn’t concentrating. I could rip a door from its hinges, easily with one hand, break glass when reaching for it with hasty action, kicking a ball with what may be the same effort now had very different results. So now as I played – well I wasn’t really playing soccer more like kicking the ball back-and-forth – with Kayla I knew I had to be extra careful especially since she seemed to be afraid of me. I watched Kayla’s blue eyes shine as she played with her family, she was amazing, her hands were making flowers grow, but the act drew my attention to her hands and wrists. Healed cuts, shinny new skin, jagged red lifted marks. There was not a particular pattern that I could find but with so many I couldn’t help but wonder how she got them. I glanced at the hands of her sisters and couldn’t find a single scrape on them. Was she in a car accident? A horrible one that it was only a miracle that she survived? Because she had scars on her feet and even three on her face. Were there more that was hidden by her clothes?