It was raining that night in Reinfield city. Laura Calvin could not sleep because she was having a lot on her mind as she was having an algebra test the next day and on top of that she also had an assignment to complete by the end of the week and she was also having trouble with her ex boyfriend Brandon MacDonald. She shifted under her blankets and hugged the sheets tighter to add extra warmth. She lied awake for a few moments before her mind took her into the darkness of sleep.

The next Day…12 March 2020

Laura awoke with an exhausted moan at the sound of her alarm clock beeping from the lampstand bedside her bed. Her hand lazily reached for the snooze button but the darn thing fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

“Perfect,” she muttered as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She slipped her feet into her flippers. She stood and stretched a little bit. Her room was nothing spiffy but it was her room. On one end there was a wardrobe that contained all of her clothing, there was also a dressing table where things like her makeup, brushes et cetera, et cetera resided. There was also a door right next to the dressing table that led into her small bathrobe.

Laura was now energized after her stretching. She stripped out of her blue silky night dress and made her way to the shower. Her body welcomed the warm water as it washed down her body. Thirty minutes later she came out if the bathroom with a white bathing towel wrapped around her body and she sat at her dressing table. She applied some lotion and dried her hair before walking to her wardrobe where she took out her uniform. It comprised of a crimson red skirt, a white blouse with the logo of Crimson Academy High school and a red sweater.

After dressing up she put on long white socks and her black Converse All stars. She carried her bag and unplugged her smartphone from the charger. It’s power was at 100%.

She smiled in satisfaction and walked out of her room. She walked down a small flight of stairs and walked into the kitchen where she expected to find her aunt Caroline Calvin making breakfast but instead when she went in she found aunt Carol sobbing, tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was holding the landline to her ear.

“Aunt Carol?” Laura asked. She was worried for her aunt because there were a lot of things that aunt Carol had gone through but she rarely cried the way she did today. The only other time she cried like that was when Laura’s father-aunt Carol’s twin brother, Martin Calvin, Laura’s mother, Loretta, and Laura’s little brother, Tyler Calvin, were pronounced dead in a plane crash off the coast of the Caribbean ten years ago.

Aunt Carol placed the landline on the wall before she looked back at her. Only that her eyes weren’t filled with sadness, they seemed to be over filled with happiness and the tears were tears of joy.

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“Sweetie...,” aunt Carol sniffed, “…they found him”

Laura looked at her with a puzzled expression. She asked, “Found who?”

“Your brother,” her aunt sobbed.

Emotions started swirling around in her head. Sorrow especially. Laura had been believing that they were alive the first two years that followed up the incident but as time passed she had given up on that hope and had accepted the death of her parents and brother but now her aunt receives a call and she tells her that her brother was still alive?

“No…,” Laura denied it, “aunt Carol we have been through this before”

Tears were beginning to swell up in her eyes.

“I know honey…but_”

“But what! But nothing!” the tears now started flowing out of her eyes. “We have suffered for years believing in that bull crap aunt Carol…please let’s not go down that path again,” Laura cried and hurried out of the front door, she closed it shut and leaned onto it. She felt like her knees would give out from under her.

Why? Why did this have to happen again after so many years?

She felt like someone had just ripped open a fresh wound deep inside her soul and she had to close it up soon. She wiped her tears off with the back of her hand right before the school bus pulled up next to her house and she went onboard.

*

“Laura…,” Aunt Carol whispered sadly as she watched her distressed niece walk out of the door.

Yes it was true that they had gone through a lot of pain after the plane crashed and they had held onto hope that their loved might still be alive somewhere but it was that same hope that made the pain even more pronounced and to some degree Caroline Calvin understood the way Laura felt.

Hell she probably shouldn’t even be so happy about it because if it turned out wrong then the pain would be so much worse that before. Yet why did something feel different this time?

The immigration office had said that they were certain that they had found Tyler Calvin and that she should head to the immigration office immediately. Caroline Calvin put on brown boots, blue jeans and a red checked shirt. She was currently on the highway in her gray Camaro and it would only take her an hour to reach the immigration office that is if the traffic continued to be in her favour.

And alas, the traffic did stay in her favour. She parked the car in the underground parking lot of the immigration office. She killed the engine and stepped out of the vehicle. More than a dozen cars were parked in the parking lot. Caroline walked past all of them and stepped into the warm air outside it. The entrance to the immigration office was a few yards away. The building was an impressive eight story building with lavished windows from each office it housed and two rotating glass doors at the bottom right after the terrace. Carol stepped over the terrace and pushed through the rotating door, she was chilled with the air conditioned air of the interior. The brown tiled floor sparkled and chairs were placed strategically to avoid turmoil if people got tied of waiting in the three rows of people that wanted to either get in the country of get out. There were two reception desks that helped in coordinating the people and directing them where the had to stand or wait.

Carol did not waste any time but simply went to one on the receptions. The one behind the desk was a white man who seemed to be in his late thirties. He had white hair and a bald patch on the back of his head, a short goatee, blue tired eyes and he wore a white golf shirt.

“Welcome ma’am how may I be of assistance?” the man tried to sound enthusiastic but he wasn’t fooling anyone especially not Carol.

“My name is Caroline Calvin and I was called to come by urgently about someone,” Carol replied.

“And who might that be?” the white haired man asked.

“Tyler Calvin”