Chapter Six: Never Normal Again:

A few days later, I noticed that something else wasn’t right. It first started when a familiar face came back to our village. Bobby Joe Morrison. I had never expected to see his face again. Not many people talked about him in the village. There was a good reason for that.

You’ll see soon.

I had not expected to see him again. You could imagine my shock when I heard a tap on my window. I tried to go back to sleep but the tapping wouldn’t stop. I rolled over onto my side. My face dropped when I opened my eyes.

Blake?

I sat up with a confused look on my face. That big dopey face looked into my window grinning at me. I blinked several times. No, that was him. I sat up straight and crawled over to the window ledge. He pointed down at the edge. He seriously can’t mean…

I slid open the window as quietly as I could.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered.

“I just came by to see you,” Blake whispered. I drew back with a confused look on my face.

“You’re voice has changed,” I said. From what I remembered, he used to have this high-pitched squeaky child voice. You could imagine my shock when I heard a deep baritone coming out of his mouth. I thought this was someone else for a moment. But looking at his face, I realized this was the same Blake. He still looked at me with those big dopey eyes.

“Has it?” he asked. I paused before I shook my head.

“Never mind that. What are you doing here? When did you get back into the village?” I asked. Blake counted up in his head.

“About… six hours ago,” he said. I frowned in confusion.

“Have you been around long? Why did you come here?” I asked. I looked behind me for a quick second.

“What did you want?” I asked.

“I came here to see you,” Blake said. I gave him a confused look.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

“No!” I yelped. Blake frowned and pouted at me. I looked behind me again.

“You can’t stay here,” I whispered.

“What?” he asked. I had to push him back from the ledge. I closed the window in his face before he could say another word. I closed my curtains and went back to bed.

If I thought this was the end of it, I could think again.

----------

Blake didn’t disappear from my life this time. It wasn’t like he was trying to hide from his family. He just had to see me first for some reason. Once upon a time, his mother tried to push us together.

“You two would look so cute together,” she said. I didn’t know how to react to that. Since then, I kind of avoided her.

When I walked down the hall from my room, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that something wasn’t right. I thought I was going to choke. My hand flew to my chest. I pressed my lips together as I started walking.

When I made it to the living room, I saw my whole family sitting around, staring at me. They had their eyes locked on me. What was going on?

“Did somebody die?” I asked as I looked at everyone. No one said a word. My mother’s cold eyes made me shiver. I took a slow step back.

“Mama? Daddy?” I asked.

“Rose, get over here,” Mama said. When I saw the looks in their eyes, I knew. This was it. What I didn’t know at the time was that Blake was the first sign that everything I knew would come to an end and reveal the ugly truth I was blind to until that handsome stranger came into town.

I pressed my lips together as I walked into the living room.