"It's Jahleel, by the way, not Jayden."
✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ༺༄ؘ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 9 ༄ؘ༻ₓ˚ .୧ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୭˚▹ₓ˚.✧˖°.✧
"Dad."
Mr. Edmenson stared at his daughter in annoyance before sighing. "What do you want, Ramona?"
"I want my mother. I know you know where she is!"
Mr. Edmenson's nostrils flared in anger as his eyebrows furrowed. "I do NOT know where she is! Now leave me alone!"
"No! Not until you tell me what happened to my mother."
Mr. Edmenson sighed. "Well, um, give me a minute."
He got up from the couch and walked to the bathroom as Ramona sighed and sat down next to the seat her father was sitting on before he got up and left.
𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, Ramona thought. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.
After a few minutes, Mr. Edmenson was seen walking back to the living room... in tears!
"Dad?!" Ramona ran to her father and hugged him tightly. "What happened?"
"I'm so sorry," Mr. Edmenson cried. "It's just that this story is hard for me to talk about."
"It's okay, Dad, I'm so sorry for asking."
"No, it's okay," Mr. Edmenson replied. "You deserve to know where your mother has been."
Ramona sat her father down and sat down next to him. She looked into her father's glassy eyes, indicating that she was listening.
"Well," Mr. Edmenson started, "it all started about twenty years ago. Your mother was pregnant, and we couldn't be happier. We were discussing names to give to you, and I suggested Ramona would be the perfect name for you, 'cause it means 'wise protector.'"
Ramona wiped her father's tears and nodded.
"You turned out very wise and protective of your loved ones." Mr. Edmenson smiled at his daughter. "One day, your mother was close to being in labor. Her stomach was hurting a lot more than usual, so much that she started to cry, and your mother 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 cried."
𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯, Ramona thought.
"So we decided to drive to the hospital to see what was going on but on the way, your mother asked if we could stop at a restaurant so she could grab a bite to eat," Mr. Edmenson explained. "She told me to pay, and I agreed. Unfortunately for me, the restaurant was very expensive. It was Giovanni's. We decided to go there and originally, everything was fine, except your mother's stomach pain. Unfortunately for the employees, your mother was yelling at all of them to hurry up with her order 'cause she was in pain. I think she was, like, PMS-ing."
"Um, Dad, women only PMS on their 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥."
"Oh. Anyway, unfortunately for us, her water decided to break 𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘪𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪'𝘴," Mr. Edmenson said. "I quickly drove her to the hospital and the next day, she gave birth to you. Unfortunately though, she ain't... she ain't make it."
Ramona's eyelids widened in shock. She frowned as her father rested his head on her chest and began to cry. She had never seen her father crying before; she had never seen her father this vulnerable. Ramona felt terrible for her father because he never cried like this. Mr. Edmenson never let anything bother him so much so that he would start balling like he was doing so now-- he even rested his head on Ramona's chest! That fact alone made Ramona realize how close her parents were, how much her father loved her mother. Ramona started to tear up herself, and they both sat there, sad and crying.
"I miss her so much," Mr. Edmenson cried.
Yuri ran back into the living room to see a shocking sight of his aunt and his grandfather crying together.
He looked at them both worriedly. "Ramona? Grampa? What happened?"
"Nothing, nothing, Yuri," Mr. Edmenson replied. He checked his watch. "Oh, Ramona, look at the time! We have to go."
Ramona nodded. "Bye, Yuri. Tell your mother that we said bye and that we're leaving."
"Okay, bye, Ramona, bye, Grampa!"
Ramona waved while her father stood up to walk out the door. They both walked out of the apartment and into Mr. Edmenson's car. Though Ramona's heart held many questions while Mr. Edmenson's held even more answers, the drive back home was silent with nothing being audible except the car engine. Ramona loved quiet car rides but not this one. This car ride was silent only because Ramona did not want to disturb her father with more questions about her mother.
✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚
Ramona sighed and took her shoes off. She placed them on her shoe rack and walked to her room in silence.
𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, Ramona thought. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩! 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮.
Ramona walked out of her room and into the attic and started looking everywhere. In every box, in every corner, in every area she looked. Ramona was determined to find something about her mother, even if it was just...
𝘈 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, Ramona thought. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘵.
She picked up the letter and right when her fingers touched it, she knew that it was very, very old. Instead of being white, the letter was a cream color, indicating that the paper might've gone through oxidation, a word here which means "something that makes old white papers turn yellow."
The letter read,
"𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒂,
𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅! 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒍! 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝑰 𝒅𝒐. 𝑨𝒆𝒔𝒂 𝑬𝒅𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚. 𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅. 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘? 𝑹𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒂, 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚; 𝑷𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬, 𝑷𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬, 𝑷𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓. 𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆! 𝑰'𝒎 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌, 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚! 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚, 𝒊𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏. 𝑨𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔, 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏,... 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏. 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏. 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌, 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖.
𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚,
𝓨𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓜𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻"
Ramona gasped in shock. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she thought about her long gone twin sister and mother.
𝘚𝘰 𝘋𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦! 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘱 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘣 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺? 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺!
She grabbed the letter and stuffed it into her pocket. She ran out of the attic and up the stairs to her father's room door. Ramona almost broke it while opening it.
"Dad!"
There Mr. Edmenson was, dressed in all black. He looked like a tall, slim sleep paralysis demon. Ramona gasped in shock but then ignored her father's clothing choice.
"Dad, we need to talk. 𝘕𝘰𝘸."
"Excuse me? First you bust into my room like you's the SWAT team and now you order me like I'm some type of butler?! I ain't taking that from you! Go apologize!"
"No, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 apologize to 𝘔𝘌! Don't think I wouldn't find out about your past!"
Mr. Edmenson almost gasped like a baby lizard but controlled himself. "What're you even talking about?"
Ramona took the letter out of her pocket and shoved it in her father's face. "What is this?!"
"Err, I'm off to work."
"You're off to work looking like a ninja? You're a lawyer! That's another question I have, how come you're a lawyer yet you go to work like it's Halloween? Are you lying about being a lawyer, too?"
"Ramona, do not block my way. Get that old, nasty paper out my face."
"But that's your wife's letter! Don't you want to read it since you miss her so-"
Mr. Edmenson banged his fist on a nearby wall, almost making a dent in it. "GET OUTTA MY FACE!"
Ramona jumped back at his lion-like roar.
"Like I said, I'm off to work. The matter about your mother is solved. 𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 disturb me about it 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯."
Mr. Edmenson walked out of his room, leaving Ramona feeling hopeless.