Elain Charlotte Ortiz felt compact like a can of sardines. Her family had been driving for what felt like ages, which was true. They had been on the road for at least seven hours now. And her legs were seriously cramping at this point.
But given that the back of her parent’s van was loaded with a whole bunch of their things, it was no real surprise; moving to a new place could do that. Hell moving out of the States and into Canada could do that.
With her mismatched eyes, Elain glanced over to the front of the van, where her sister and brother were situated in the middle, fully engrossed in their game
Her older brother Nathan, who would always go by Nate, was one year older than her and played on the Switch with their little sister Kaya, who just turned seven. Seeing who could win the current race for Rainbow Road, Nate suggested that when Kaya had been sullen for the past hour at the start of their trip. He did so to try and get her mind off the move, she could still contact her friends that she was close to, but it didn’t change the hurt she felt.
Not that Elain minded, being sixteen, she felt okay in moving to a new place after her father’s job transfer; she desperately wished to remain away from those who hurt her for the rest of her life even if it meant never seeing her friends again. That would be the only thing she would greatly miss.
And with her Mom, Zuri White-Ortiz had finally finished her nursing degree; it played out even better for the whole family.
The drive to the new place wasn’t that bad either, minus her legs and traffic congestion after crossing the border. A whole twelve-hour car drive from the States to the Canadian provinces could have been worse than it was, as they had already been on the road for three hours so far. Elian dozed in the backseat with her music on low if her parents or siblings needed anything from her.
A good thing, too, her mother spoke up to her as the car came to a stop.
“Ellie,” her mother gently called out to get Elain’s attention. “We’re pulling into a pitstop for a bit to get something to eat and stretch our legs. Do you need the restroom?”
“I do!” Kaya proclaimed as she quickly raised her hand like she would for a teacher.
“She’s not asking you, you goof.” Nate laughed as Kaya pouted.
“But I do, I gotta go!” she emphasized by wiggling in her seat, acting younger than she was, as her mother opened the child safety lock on Kaya’s side.
“Then come on, let’s go be for you bust. Thankfully the place isn’t too busy right now, so we’re in luck. Nate, could you watch the van?”
“Yeah, will do.” He said as he remained in the van while Elian got out from the back to sit in Kaya’s seat and stare out to the endless void that was the highway. He glanced at his sister. “You doing okay, El?”
She glanced at him with a knowing look that gave him his answer.
“Right, got it. But hey, new place, right? It should be better, don’t you think?”
“You don’t think this will wreck your chances for your final year?” that was one of the things she felt terrible about concerning this move.
“Hell, no,” he scoffed. “Especially with what they did to you, and I don’t just mean the students either. If I had it my way, those gilipollas would be through a wall.”
Elian chuckled faintly as their father came over with a large tray of four coffees and a small hot chocolate in the center. “Don’t let your mother hear you say that.” Their father, Jair Ortiz, said while placing the drinks in the front for the time being. “You know she doesn’t like it when any of us swear in Spanish.”
“But we are Spanish!” looks from the two made Nate correct himself. “Okay, we’re half Cuban, but so what? It’s not like Kaya’s here anyway. She’s with Mom.”
Jair leaned against the car’s door, looking at Nate with an arched dark brow. Mustache wiggled as if saying: “It’s not a ‘so what’ matter.” As his blue eyes stared down at his son and he sheepishly looked away.
“Okay, Dad, I get it. Geez.”
Her Dad then turned to her. “You should probably head to the bathroom while you still can; we have a way to go before reaching our destination.”
“Way ahead of you, Dad.” She said as she hopped out of the car, only to stop when her father called out.
“El, catch!” She caught what he threw with little to no effort with her left hand and looked at his wallet, and when she looked at him with an arched brow, he said. “Your pick for food. Buy whatever you want for us to eat!”
“No onions!” Nate added.
“You sure?” she asked.
Her father simply nodded, and her brother called out again. “No onions!”
Elain merely responded with a wave of her right hand as she walked towards the pitstop where many fast-food chains were inside, including a coffee shop called Tim Hortons. A place she had heard of but had never been to, for obvious reasons. It was where her Dad got the coffee and some doughnuts.
But she first made her way over to the women’s restroom, bumping into her Mom and little sister.
“El, how are you doing?”
“I’m good. Dad’s back at the van with a round of extra-large coffees for the four of us and a small hot chocolate for you-know-who.” She said, indicating to her little sister, who grinned from ear to ear when hearing that. “He’s letting me buy dinner. You’re okay with anything in particular?”
Her mother pointed to a Wendy’s. “Anything from there, I have no issue with, minus the fries. They never seem to put enough salt for my taste.”
“I’ll be sure to grab some extra salt after I use the facilities.” She looked at her sister. “What are you in for, Kaya?”
“Burgers!” she proclaimed.
“Anything on said patty? Like with hot sauce? Black olives? Hot peppers?” her sister shook her head for each one and then said.
“I’m not Daddy; my tummy isn’t fireproof. I just want pickles and ketchup!”
“Kaya,” their mother gave a correcting tone.
“Please,” she quickly added. “Pickles and ketchup, please!”
She ruffled her sister’s hair which Kaya gave a sound of annoyance and puffed her cheeks. “I’ll be sure to do that.” Then she turned her attention back to her mother. “I might also grab some other drinks and snacks too while I’m at it since we have a way to go.”
“We’ll see you back at the car. I’ll send Nate over to help carry the food.”
“Uh, sure,” she said before heading into the restroom and glancing back to see her Mom take Kaya’s hand and walked back to the car. Their mother had such a tall, graceful figure in practically anything she wore. Many would assume Elain’s mother was a model and not a nurse. Which often surprised many. Her mother would always just laugh it off and take the compliment.
Entering the restroom, Elain went about her business and then went to wash her hands, pausing when seeing her reflection in the mirror. She placed her hands along with the damp countertop and stared heavily into her reflection. When was the last time she ever looked at herself in the mirror and didn’t dislike what she saw back?
It wasn’t like she was ugly; at least she didn’t see herself that way. She was evenly mixed from both of her parents. While she took a bit more after her father than her mother. Her raven black hair was just a tad wavy, stopping at her shoulders that were left loose. Her average height of five foot four and a thin build as she wore a long-sleeved t-shirt were dark red and light red horizontal striped and black capris. But what always held her attention was her somewhat tanned complexion somewhere between tan and black, which leaned more to the former than the latter. She’d often get assumed to be middle eastern, Asian or Spanish, or a whole bunch of others and though they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, she just always hated being pegged for one thing or another like her ethnicity was a damn quiz show. Especially with her eyes, with one eye being a bright blue and the other a dark brown that looked almost black.
Her eyes always threw people for a loop.
She gently touched the scar that formed along the brow just above her blue eye before glancing at her forearm, a dull sense of pain that reverberated through the entirety of her healing right arm. She didn’t even want to look at what was underneath. Even now, she could still see herself on the ground, trying to keep the girl that hated her from putting a knife in her eye as she and her cohorts cheered.
Elain looked back to her arms in her reflection, she needed to bulk up, maybe join Nate for his morning run, or apply to a gym, so this would never happen again. She felt too thin, even though it was her natural build.
It was a different case for her older and younger siblings, taking after one parent more than the other. Unlike Elain, Kaya looked more like their mother, with darker skin, matching dark eyes, and reddish-brown curly frizzy hair. While her brother looked more like their Dad, albeit with more muscle than their father and dark eyes rather than blue. And no mustache, Nathan refused to grow one, not wanting to be a carbon copy of their Dad. She recalled how at one point, Nate outright wished he was more physically like Elain even after all that had happened recently in their lives.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
She was surprised by it, but couldn’t help but wonder, what others who were mixed, regardless of one’s race, thought about it. Did they hate themselves? Because they felt like they couldn’t belong anywhere, that they didn’t fit the narrative mould, or did they just not give a damn, choosing to live for themselves as who they were, regardless of whatever that was.
Elain used to feel that she was the latter. That she didn’t care what people thought of her in how she looked, but now, after what happened, she wasn’t too sure.
“Okay,” she muttered to herself as she lightly squished her face. “Enough dreading. Today is a good day. And tomorrow will be even better.” She said as she made a smile in the mirror but faltered when seeing herself; it didn’t look natural at all. With a shake of her head, she headed out of the restroom to order food.
While she waited, she found herself peering over to a newspaper stand, seeing the front page in big, bold letters. STILL MISSING!! With the images of several people that were taken at different times.
The hell?
Wasn’t Canada supposed to be safe?
Then again, Canada was like any other country, minus being in a constant war for oil under the guise of fighting terrorism and was more English than America. It didn’t change the fact that this country had its own kind of crazy people running around that no one knew about. And considering the number of crazy people that originated from the States, it really shouldn’t surprise her.
Nate came over to help carry some of the food when it was ready, as Elain went to another store and bought pop, juice and several bags of chips before heading back out to the car and climbing into the back seat with her brother followed suit. As they drove off, continuing the long journey ahead, Elian pulled out her phone and switched on her data for a moment since she couldn’t look anything up with no possible internet for her laptop. She looked up some recent events in the great white north and came across a few articles, several months apart, describing the events of some of the people who had gone missing. But nothing much coming off it.
What am I doing? She thought to herself with a frown as she turned off her data. It’s not like it’s going to affect my life. She leaned back into her seat as her mismatched gaze looked out the nearest window and watched as trees and cars zoomed on by. I’m probably just overthinking things because of everything else that’s happened. Yeah… that’s got to be it…
Her mind shortly drifted off to sleep for nearly the rest of the ride.
When she woke, she saw that her parents had switched who drove, with her father dozing in the front passenger seat, as were the rest of her siblings the music softly played from the radio as the sound of blues came to Elain’s ears. It was her mother’s favourite kind of music to listen to when driving. Her mother glanced in the rear-view mirror and smiled, speaking in a soft voice to not wake anyone else. “Afternoon, sweetie, have a nice nap?”
“Yeah,” she said as she starched her arms only to wince as she rolled her shoulders and starched her arms. “Though I can’t believe I fell asleep back here.” She said with a stifled yawn. “Any idea how much longer we have to be on the road before we arrive?”
“Not long now, when your father and I switched at a gas station, he received a call. The movers are already there and asked if they could start unpacking some of our things. That was over an hour ago, so it looks like much of our stuff will be unpacked. At least when it comes to the heavy appliances.”
“Oh, cool. What about our other stuff?”
“Some of it will have to be between all of us; the company is willing to assist with the setup. Not a lot of places would be willing given how far we had to drive.”
Elain didn’t comment on it.
“How’s your arm?”
“It’s fine,” she said.
“And your shoulder?” her mother gave a knowing tone.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she lied, making an internal blessing for painkillers and not going further into it. Instead, she changed the topic. “Is the new place nice?”
Her mother wanted to continue the last conversation but wouldn’t press on it, for now at least. “It’s in a good neighbourhood. Near both a high school and a grade school, so you three don’t have to worry about distance for travel. It’s also close to a grocery store to boot and a few parks in the area. I think you’ll like it.”
Elian was quiet for a moment. “It won’t be too difficult for you to find work, will it?”
“So many places need nurses. Once we get settled, I’ll be job hunting like everyone else. There are a few hospitals, old folks’ homes, and centers that I can apply to. No need to worry.”
Elian gripped her arm where she briefly remembered how bloody it was. But it was gone within a second.
Even now, it still hurt, as if it had just happened. The people who did this… she hoped never to see them ever again.
* * *
They arrived at their new home close to six PM; the movers were still there, currently on a short break, when they arrived. The person in charge flagged down Elian’s father and mother as Kaya was still asleep while Nate and Elain hopped out of the van to stretch their legs and help.
“Mr. and Mrs. Ortiz, good to finally meet you. Have any trouble finding the place?”
“No, not at all,” said Elain’s father.
“But there was that one issue close to the border that caused a traffic jam,” said Elian’s mother. “But it didn’t look to be a traffic accident.”
“I heard about that. The news says a body was found and might have been killed, but the authorities are still trying to determine what happened.”
“Killed? We didn’t hear that on the news.” Elain glanced at her mother as she listened in. Her mother’s concern was clear in her voice.
“Well, no name or information has been released, but from the looks of things, the police are having a hard time determining how the person died given the state of the remains since someone saw scavengers take parts of them across the highway. I just feel bad for the guy or gal and the poor people who found that mess.”
Elain’s mother turned away quickly. “Pardon me; I think I’ll go and get some things out of the van.”
The man nodded and looked at Elain’s father. “Sorry, that got so grim there, but since you’re here, could you come and see how things look? You did give us a detailed layout of where you’d like things placed in the rooms.”
“Sure,” he then turned to Nathan. “Nate, come help the movers.” Then to Elain. “El, could you go and help your mother get some things out of the van?”
Elain nodded and went to her mother but slowed to a stop when she heard her mother softly crying. “Mom? Are you okay?”
Hearing her daughter’s voice seemed to draw her out of whatever she was in. “Oh, Elain, yes, I’m fine.” She said with a smile. But Elain knew that her mother was lying; she wasn’t okay. She could understand why since her mother had lost a family member at the hands of a murderer when her mother was the same age as Kaya.
Elain didn’t know who this family member was. She never asked, never would because of how it affected her mother. She did think about looking it up online once but chose not to out of respect for her mother’s privacy.
“What do you want to move first?”
Her mother looked at her, a look Elain was slowly growing used to. One of regret. “It’s okay Ellie, you shouldn’t have to worry about any of the heavy stuff. Just focus on letting your arm heal.”
“But…”
“Elain, please.” Her mother almost sounded like she was begging. “Don’t push yourself so soon.” Zuri stopped the moment she saw Elain’s expression, one that she had seen after it happened. So she wanted to kick herself for that, so did quick damage control. “Besides, you’ll be too busy putting your stuff in your own room.”
Hearing that snapped Elain out of her dark thoughts. “We all have our own rooms?”
Seeing Elain’s face full of joy and genuine curiosity made her mother smile. “Yes, you have your own room. It’s our surprise to you three. I can show it to you after I get Kaya into her’s.” she then went over to the side of the van, unbuckled her youngest daughter from the car and lifted the still-sleeping Kaya in her arms. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, I’ll be careful,” I swear, an earthquake could come through here, and it still wouldn’t wake Kaya up. Elain thought as she watched her mother entire their new house, only to pause when she heard someone approach. When she turned around, Elain came face to face with a little girl.
She looked no older than Kaya, with pale white skin, and light chestnut-coloured hair that stopped just past her thin shoulders. And rather striking silver-grey eyes.
Whoa. It was the first thought that came into Elain’s head. The girl was pretty, in an adorable kind of way. Given her young age, she looked like a doll. Even more so with how she was dressed in a quarter-sleeved black dress with red flowers, her hair had been partly pulled back with a matching red clip and red flats. It then occurred to Elain that this girl was out here alone. “Hey, uh, where are your parents?”
“Across the street,” she said, even her voice sounded lovely; seriously, what god blessed this kid? “Will you be moving into Mrs. Jackson’s place?”
Mrs. Jackson? “Uh, yeah, we just moved in. Sorry if there’s so much noise; the big stuff should be done by the end of the day, so it shouldn’t be too long, hopefully.”
The little girl looked at the house, almost with a worried expression. Then looked back to Elain and asked. “Do you have a big family?”
Elain couldn’t help but feel a little confused but answered her honestly. “Yeah, there’s my Mom, Dad, older brother and my little sister. She’s probably your age.” Elain then went and knelt to be at the girl’s level. “That means we’ll be neighbours, my name is Elain Ortiz, but you can just call me El or Ellie.”
To Elain’s surprise, the little girl did a curtsy. A freaking curtsy like someone would to nobility or royalty. “My name is Amalie Míranda Hilmarsson, but I don’t have a nickname you could use, so Amalie is fine.”
“How old are you, Amalie?”
“I’m seven. How old are you, Elain?”
“I’m sixteen, so just nine years older than you.” then added. “You know, you’re very polite. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who’s your age that’s like that.” My sister especially. Elain thought sarcastically, recalling all the times Kaya could be rather brash and loud. It was something that they were working on with her, and she was slowly getting better.
The girl named Amalie broke eye contact then, glancing off to the side. “My Dad said I should never be rude. That rudeness could lead to something bad if a person can’t understand what you might mean.”
That surprised Elain; what kind of parenting was that? Then again, all families were different, both good and bad.
“Really? Well, I’ll do my best not to be rude to you or your Dad.”
Amalie then looked back at her; her silver-grey eyes were so intense. “I like your eyes,” she said suddenly. “They’re beautiful. It’s like one eye is of total darkness in the deepest parts of space, while the other is like the brightness of the blue sky itself. They look pretty.”
That was an interesting way to compliment someone.
“Oh yeah? You don’t think that it looks weird?”
Amalie shook her head. “No, I don’t think they look weird at all. And those who say that aren’t nice people who should keep such things to themselves. Mrs. Jackson was like that.”
“A lot of people can be like that, but you should never let that get to you.” Yeah right. Like you’re the best person to give that kind of advice. “Have you lived in this neighbourhood for long, Amalie?”
“Since I was born, my Dad likes it, and the amount of space each house has. He says it’s better than being in the heart of the city, where so many houses and buildings are all pushed together. But he says the city also has its good things too.”
“Your Dad sounds like a smart man,”
“Hey, El!” Nathan called. “Can you help? The couch is stuck in the doorframe.”
“Coming!” she said before looking back to Amalie. “It was nice meeting you Amalie, hope to get to know you and your family more.” She said with a grin as she then turned to leave.
“You need to be careful.”
Elain stopped in her tracks, looking back at the seven-year-old girl with confusion, while the child in question looked at her, not as a kid at that moment, but as someone who has seen things that one usually wouldn’t.
“There are bad things around here, so you should be careful.”
“Huh? Are you talking about the disappearances?”
“Elain!” her brother called again. “Now would be great!”
“Okay!” she said, only to look back to see that the little girl was already heading back home before she could get another word in. What was that about?
“Elain! Before we all turn into fossils, please!”
“Would you stop! I said I’m coming…” she said as she hurried to the house, undenounced to her that the little girl was now watching from the front door of her home, as she opened the door, giving one last glance across the street before she slipped inside.