Eilean looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. This was about as good as it was going to get. Jeans and T-shirt. Nothing special... She walked out of her room and downstairs to where her mum was setting the breakfast table. She looked up as she entered the room. “Hey Sweetie! How did you sleep?”
“Fine, thanks mum... Just the usual.”
“Nightmares again?” Her mother inquired, “Honey, I thought you said they’d stopped!”
“Hey, mum, I don’t think they’ll ever stop.”
It was true. Ever since her father’s death, scenes from the night he died haunted her in slumber. Police sirens; flashing lights; a young police officer declaring the unimaginable, her father’s lifeless body lying on the floor and Toby. Toby, most of all. Her seven-year-old brother whom to most would seem very strange. Very strange indeed... The very strange thing was, that past week he seemed unnaturally concerned about dad’s health and well-being. Was it coincidence that he died that week or was it meant to happen? Once he prised the truth out of us, he ran around the house screaming his head off. His only friend, his best friend. No. More than that, his dad. Gone. She shivered at the very memory of that horrific night. The night she was yet to find out would change her life forever.
On her way to school, Eilean (with her brother picked up Jamie from the house next-door. He was her best and closest friend. He was the only one outside her family who knew about her nightmares. This was for two plain, simple reasons.Firstly, she was too nervous to tell anyone else (she didn’t really interact with the other kids in the class apart from Jamie) and furthermore, Jamie had had the same sort of thing that happen to him. However, it was his mum that died. She died at the same time as her dad, on the 12th of June. She’d skipped the last two weeks of school because of that. So had Jamie. They were at the funeral together, that’s were they really got to know each other.
As they walked down the steep hill leading to Edge Gate Glory Secondary they talked about school; Jamie’s Pet dog, Buster; which upgrades they would get on their skateboards.... What you would expect any pair of twelve year old kids to talk about, basically.
After two excruciatingly boring lessons, Jamie and Eilean met up in the corner of the playground for a chat. Or in their way of saying it, good old chin wag. “Do you ever wonder if we were told the whole truth about how our parents died? I mean, isn’t it a bit coincidental that they died on the same day, both supposedly car crashes, at supposedly the same junction, at the same time with the same cops telling us the news?” Jamie looked at Eilean in a quizzical expression, wondering what to reply, “Well, sort of...”
“I know, Jamie, but then, what have they got to hide from us? We are their kids, aren’t we?”
“Maybe we aren’t.”
“Jamie! How could you say such a thing?” Eilean was horrified, “Of course they’re our parents! How many times have you heard people compare you to your mother? They say you look like a male version of her! Really, Jamie, you should know better.”
“Okay, okay, no need to bite my ear off for it! I was just saying....” She gave him ‘the look’, “Okay, maybe you’re right, I was being a bit stupid.”
“A bit?”
“Okay, very stupid”
She grunted and replied, “Yeah you were...”
“Hey, look. Forget it! This is a useless conversation, anyway. What difference will it make?”
Jamie saw a twinkle in Eileen's eye.
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