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“Jessica!” Mrs. Hanson called up the stairs. “Come down here!” Jessica sighed and shut off her loud music and hurried down the stairs. She plopped down in one of the chairs across from Avery. She noted with curiosity that the whole family was there. Ike, Tay, Avie and Zoë. She looked up at her parents questioningly. What was going on? Mrs. Hanson took a deep breath.
“Well,” she said
softly. “Your father and I have made a decision.” Another deep breath.
“We’ve decided
we’re going to move.” She looked around, trying to take in the feelings of her
children. The feelings were not good.
“What?!?!?!?”
and “Where?!?!?!?” were the initial replies.
“Hush, be quiet
a minute,” she said. The children quieted and looked at their mother while she
explained the details. Jessica didn’t listen. It made her sick. They were
moving to some little town on the other side of the state, about 300 hundred
miles away. Great, just great. She thought to herself. She had to leave
Angie and all her friends… Start all over again… She wished her parents would
just be quiet so she could go talk to Angie. She blocked out her parents’
voices and waited. Finally, they were done. But she heard the last sentence.
“We leave next
week.”
« « «
While all her
brothers and sisters went to pack and get ready to leave, she slipped out of
the house unnoticed. She felt tears start to slip out of her eyes as she
walked, almost ran, the distance to Angie’s house. By the time she got there,
she was crying hard. First Zac and
Mack, she thought, now this. She
rang the doorbell and tried to dry her tears. Angie came to the door, smiling,
but she stopped smiling when she saw Jessica. She closed the door behind her
and stepped out.
“Jessica?
Jessie? What’s wrong?”
“To-today, my
parents they-they said…” she trailed off.
“We’re moving,” she got out finally but it was a whisper, hardly
audible. Angie’s eyes got big.
“You’re moving?
Where?” Jessica rubbed her eyes and sighed.
“I dunno, I
didn’t listen. Some little town on the other side of Oklahoma, 300 hundred
something miles.” They were silent for
a minute.
“Maybe it’s for
the best,” Angie said softly, touching Jess’s elbow.
“I dunno,”
Jessica said. “I’ve lived here pretty much my whole life.”
“Yeah,” Angie
agreed. After a few more minutes of silence, Angie asked:
“When are you
leaving?”
“Next week.”
Angie nodded. More silence.
“I better go,”
Jessica said suddenly.
“Okay,” Angie
said. The two stood up and looked at each other.
“Bye Ange,”
Jessica said.
“Bye.” And
Jessica hurried down the street while Angie went back into her house.
« « «
Jessica hurried through the rain to Angie’s house. She had to say goodbye before they left in twenty minutes. She huddled into her jacket and rang the doorbell. Angie had been anticipating this and hurried outside in her rain jacket.
“Hi,” Angie said
through the rain.
“Hi. Listen, I
have to get back so we can leave, but I had to say goodbye.” Angie nodded.
“I’ll miss you,”
Angie said.
“Me too.” Tears
and rain blurred on their faces.
“This is
goodbye,” Jessica said over the rain.
“Yeah,” Angie
said.
“I’ll write you
as soon as I can. I promise!”
“Okay, and I’ll
write back!” The two leaned forward and hugged tears and rain running together.
“I gotta go!”
“Bye!”
“Bye Angie!”
“Bye Jessica!”
“Good luck!”
Angie called after Jessica. Jessica turned around once more to face Angie.
“Bye,” she
called, waving forlornly.
“Bye!” And
Jessica ran through the rain back to her home.
« « «
In the few weeks the Hanson family had been in their new home, Jessica had made many new friends. Her best new friend was Chris Andrews, her next-door neighbor. The reason he was such a good friend was that he was just like Zac. Witty, nice, and yet weird in his own little way. One day they were on Jessica’s front lawn, with nothing to do. Suddenly, a voice called, “Hey Chris!” The two heads turned and Jessica’s heart skipped a beat. She would’ve sworn that Zac was there, running towards them.
“Hey Blake!” Chris called as the boy ran over. As he got closer, Jessica was almost sure that it was her brother.
“Oh my God,” she muttered almost inaudibly.
“Hey Blake,” Chris said again, giving him a high five. Jessica smiled, her smile that could make anyone think everything was perfect. If this was her brother standing here, he would recognize the smile. He did.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Jessica. Hanson,” she said, emphasizing Hanson. “I just moved in a few weeks ago.”
“Hey, I’m Blake. I was on vacation and I just got back. Nice to meet ya.”
“Blake!” a voice whined from behind them. Blake turned around. Jessica gasped. It was Mackenzie.
“What Alan?” Blake asked impatiently.
“C’mon, Dad wants you.” Blake rolled his eyes.
“I gotta go. I’ll see you guys later.” And he hurried off down the street. Jessica dropped down onto the lawn.
“Oh my God,” she said.
“What?” Chris asked, sitting down next to her. Jessica sighed.
“Well, I have four brothers and sisters, right?”
“Yeah,” Chris said slowly, “Ike and Tay and Avery and Zoë.”
“Right. But there’s something I didn’t tell you. I actually have six brothers and sisters.” She looked at him.
“Ike and Tay and Zac and Avery and Mackenzie and Zoë. Well when we used to live in Tulsa, we were all going to dinner and we had a wreck. We all woke up in the hospital and there was no sign of Zac or Mackenzie.”
“Oh my gosh,” Chris said.
“They searched for about three weeks, but they didn’t find anything.” Jess took a deep breath.
“Well either what they say about everyone having a twin is true or I just found my brothers.”