Chapter #17Home by: imaj   You look at your old house and drum your fingers on the dashboard of your car. What you are about to do is doubtless a foolish idea, but it seems wrong to pass through your old home town again without checking up on your family. Despite the long distance you travelled, you and Hal were the first Stellae to arrive in Saratoga Falls. Frank and Charles Brennan will drive down in a couple of days. You’ve asked for, and received, permission from Charles to visit your parents.
“Only natural to get homesick from time to time,” he had said over the phone. “You take the time to look in on your family Will.” It had felt appropriate that he’d used your given name like that, for your impulse to visit your family was far more born from being Will Prescott than Siobhan Connor. “Just be discreet son.”
That last comment explains your current situation. You can’t return home as Will Prescott, firstly because you still have that oddly mirror flipped version of your face as a result of your adventure through the Libra Personae. More importantly, you left a fake Will Prescott in your place to live your life when you left Saratoga Falls to visit Kali. Though you haven’t checked up on your impostor in a long, long time, it means you have to be someone else.
You adjust the rear view mirror. Siobhan Connor’s eyes stare back at you. The car growls into life as you turn the key in the ignition. This is you last chance to turn back, but you mind is already made up. You drive forward slowly. When the car draws directly in front of your childhood home the engine splutters and dies.
This is exactly as planned.
Though it will probably cost you the security payment you put down when renting the car, wrecking the engine is exactly what you want to do. Hal placed a simple curse on it that would activate once it passed your parents’ house. Now it’s not going any further. You pull out your cell phone from your clutch purse. The battery is dead, a little piece of attention to detail that makes what you are about to do all the more plausible.
You step out of the car, making a show of checking your useless cell phone and looking disconsolate. Your only option now, is to ask if you can use the phone inside one of the houses nearby. The nearest house is your parents. Acting nervous – in truth it isn’t entirely an act, because now that you are here, you are worried – you edge up the path before rapping on the front door of your childhood home.
After knocking at the door you hear some movement inside. A shadow passes inside the door. The door opens a fraction and your mother's face appears in the gap. Her face is a little more worn, her hair is a little greyer, but otherwise she looks almost exactly the same as when you saw her last, five years ago.
“Yes,” she asks nervously. You can almost feel the suspicion radiating off her, but there is an easy solution to that. You summon Eldibria and let it course round her, wearing away at her doubts and smoothing the path for you.
“Hi,” you say with a bright smile and playing up the accent you use as Siobhan. “My car broke down and my mobile phone battery is dead,” you explain, pointing back at the stricken vehicle. “I was wondering if I could use your phone?”
You see the distrust in her eyes, but your work with Eldibria has done the trick. “Sure,” replies your mother with a brittle smile. She opens the door fully and waves you inside.
The hallway is much the same as you remember it, the only difference being a fresh coat of paint which has been applied to the walls. You feign looking around for the phone. It hasn’t moved from its spot on a small table since you last left the house, but Siobhan doesn’t know that. Your mother points to it and you pick up the handset and dial Hal.
“Hi,” you say. “I’ve broken down on…” you put your hand over the microphone and turn to your mother. “Um, where is this,” you ask, even though you know the address by heart. She tells you and you relay it over the phone.
“Hah, you really going through with it,” says Hal at the other end of the line.
“You’ll be an hour,” you say, ignoring him. Your mother is watching you closely and to her it must seem as if you’re repeating what has been said to you.
“Oh, I get it,” laughs Hal. “You’re being watched and you have to pretend to be having this conversation with me. Brilliant!” You feel ready to strangle your colleague, but outwards you have to maintain a thankful demeanour. “Sure, I’ll take my time.”
“Thank you,” you say, almost gritting your teeth. You hang up and look up at your mother. “Thank you very much,” you tell her, turning to leave. At the same time, you hit her with a blast of Eldibria, trying to push her into feeling sympathetic for you.
“Wait,” says your mother. “Um… that accent… Where are you from?”
You turn back round and smile broadly. “Ireland,” you answer. “Belfast.”
“Would you like a cup of coffee while you are waiting,” she asks you.
“Oh, I’d love one,” you answer, your smile growing wider. You extend a hand to your mother. “I’m Siobhan, Siobhan Connor.”
“Martha,” says your mother, finally showing something approaching a smile.
*****
“And then Bea said ‘but I’m only ten and one quarter years old’,” you say to your mother , grinning wildly.
She bursts out laughing. “Oh Siobhan,” she murmurs, wiping at her eyes. “That’s too much. I sometimes wondered what it’d be like to have girls of my own.”
“Mmmm,” you nod. “They aren’t really mine, I adopted them when their parents passed away. You only have boys then,” you ask.
For a moment your mother’s expression looks pained. Before she can say anything, however, you are interrupted by a call from the front door. “Mom, I’m home,” shouts someone. You look round from your seat at the dining table as the visitor enters.
You almost don’t recognise them, for somehow your brother Robert has filled out significantly in the intervening five years. He stands well over six feet tall now, with an athlete’s build and the kind of easy natured good looks that would leave you envious if you weren’t able to claim them as your own with a touch. He wears a letterman jacket in Keyserling College colours. It almost amazes you to think of him as a jock, but it seems to be the case.
That isn’t as shocking as the idea of your bratty little brother having a girlfriend. A young woman about the same age as he is hangs onto his arm. A shock of white hair hangs down to her shoulders, framing a pallid face that is a little long and angular looking. Pale thin lips twitch into a smile. A pair of little round black glasses cover her eyes.
“Robert,” says your mother happily as she stands up. “And you brought Verity.”
“Heya Missus Prescott,” says the girl in a twanging accent, Australian maybe? Her lips curl open revealing a toothy grin. You mother moves close to the girl, stopping just in front of her before stepping forward carefully to hug her. Verity’s head twitches a little at the approach. Is she blind, you wonder.
Hi Mom,” repeats Robert after he has disentangled himself from another hug. “I didn’t know we were having visitors.”
“Oh this is Siobhan,” says your mother, half turning towards you.
“My car broke down,” you say sheepishly. “Your mother let me use her phone to call for help and offered me a coffee while I waited for the tow truck to turn up.” Verity turns to face you and frowns. Despite her apparent visual impairment, you can’t help but feel as if she is staring through you. “Robert is it,” you ask. Your brother nods. “Do you have any other sons,” you ask your mother.
That pained expression flits across your mothers face again. Robert looks angry for a few seconds and Verity’s frown deepens.
“Sorry, did I say something wrong,” you say with a faked innocence. You let Eldibria wash over the three of them, carrying away any anger on its tides. Robert and your mother’s faces soften, but Verity continues to stare at you blankly
“My brother went missing a couple of years ago,” says Robert, his eyes downcast.
Well, this is news to you. “I’m sorry,” you say abjectly. “I didn’t realise.” You are saved from further embarrassment by a knock at the door.
You look round to see who it is as Robert tracks back to open the door. Just beyond your brother, and somehow dressed in a pair of greasy looking overalls, you spot Hal Swann.
“Someone phoned about a busted car,” he asks in an atrocious attempt at an American accent. The effect is someone who sounds as if they come from the mid-west via India.
“That’s me,” you say quickly, pushing your way to the door. “It’s over here,” you tell Hal, giving him a meaningful shove. You move out to the stricken car quickly, not wanting to spend any longer in your old home. Surprisingly, Hal has managed to find a tow truck from somewhere and you lean on its flanks as he pops open the hood of your own vehicle.
“Don’t know what you did lady,” says Hal from the depths of your car. “But it’s totally busted.”
You aren’t really listening to him though. Instead you are watching Verity and Robert as they stand at the door to your old home. Verity pulls down Robert’s head and whispers something in his ear. Your brother stalks up the path towards you, his anger evident again. He stops right in front of you, towering over you and making you suddenly feel very small.
“I don’t know who you really are Siobhan,” he hisses. “But stay the hell away from my family.”
You shrink a little in front of him, suddenly feeling guilty at your deception. Despite your specific orders to the contrary, you suddenly feel the urge to apologise and reveal the truth to your brother.
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