[STORY] AGE NINETEEN (Episode 01)

Episode 01.

When I was younger, I remember that there were three other girls who lived with us. They were older than me, so I never did any chores. The only responsibility I had was to sleep and wake up. The oldest of them all was fourteen. The second one was Eleven years old, while the third one was eight. I was barely four back then.

Fourteen years have passed, and none of them stay with us anymore. This afternoon, I decided to ask my mother about them. Her countenance changed instantly. “You must never talk about those girls” she cautioned. “Why is that ?” I queried her. She ignored me, and walked into the house, leaving me to my thoughts.

There’s an attic in our house, that I have never entered. Mom and Dad goes there once In a while, but not without making sure that my younger brother and I are not watching. This evening however, curiosity got the better part of me. I couldn’t help but go there.

I took cautious steps, anxiously listening for any sound. I could see rats scurry to safety, at the sound of my legs. There was nothing special about the room. It looked like an abandoned basement. There was a pile up of books here, and a fair amount of cobwebs there.

I dusted the books, and sat down on the chair, that was obviously unused for a really long time. In front of me, something caught my attention. It looked like a diary. I anxiously opened it, but the book was empty. Disappointed, I began to go through the books one after the other, hoping to find some useful information.

I did! On one of the books, I could see pictures of those girls, my parents, my younger brother and I. It was a family picture. I turned the pages carefully, inspecting the pictures on each side. Those girls all had something in common, they had the same nose and lips as the rest of us.

The last picture of them, was when they were something around my age. I dropped the book, and picked up the last one in the pile. The book looked like the oldest of them all, it also looked like the most frequently used. The book was filled with obituary pictures of a lot of ladies. Most of whom I know nothing about.

There on the fourth page, was the information I was looking for. “Rest on Anabel. Her body lies resting behind the orange tree. Happy birthday queen” The next page bore another picture, that read “Nothing can be done to prevent destiny. Rest on Louella. Happy birthday.” I wasn’t surprised when the next page had the picture of the third girl, and read “Suffer not the young ones to come to me. Happy birthday Sophia.”

I dropped the book and tiptioed out. It was obvious the empty space was for me, and I’m not ready to die. Another notable observation was that they all died at the age of nineteen.

The following day, my mother called me. “Where do you want to go for your nineteenth birthday ?”
To Be Continued… . . .

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