Runs in the Family

Occasionally Malachi remembered the story the oddly-colored haired girl told him upon their meeting in the Owlrey. He found himself saddened every time he remembered, feeling sympathy towards the girl. Though Ruby, as he learned her name to be, never appeared distressed about it, he knew she must've felt disorientated by it. To think she grew up all those years not knowing and then suddenly her parents decided to tell her. He wondered why? She could've gone on the rest of her life being none the wiser and that would've been just as well. But by telling her, she no doubt found herself curious as to know just who were the people who brought her into life and why they decided to give her up. Malachi knew it was none of his business, but yet often found himself pondering it. Sometimes he even wondered if the same had happened to him but he didn't know about it yet. The red haired German shook his head. What a ridiculous idea! He looked just like Mama, after all. How could he be adopted?

Malachi had buried such ponderings during the day, finding his mind preoccupied with less trivial topics, but around lunch time he was once again brought to that strange topic. Mail arrived and was delivered by owl, as always, and Malachi was pleased to see Sven, his family's great horned owl, soaring amongst the others and swooping down in front of him to hand over a letter. He stroked the bird's feathery head and handed him a piece of ham from his plate as a reward before untying the letter. It was from Mama and Papa, but Kai failed to read who it was addressed to, for he was more interested as to why they used their full names rather than just 'Mama' and 'Papa.' He opened the letter and once his eyes landed on some of the first words written in German, he understood.

Standing up, Malachi sheepishly made his way over towards where the all-familiar older girl was sitting. She looked busy, so he waited a moment before coughing for her attention. "My apologies, but I accidentally received a letter intended for you," He started and handed the obviously opened letter over to her. "Please forgive me, Schwesterschiff."

Schwesterschiff=sister

Ever since she had sent a letter to her birth parents, Ruby waited day after day for a reply. Maybe they didn't care like she thought they would, she didn't expect them to write back. But she secretly hoped they would and answer all of her questions. Weeks went by without an answer, so she gave up on that silly dream and went back to the real world. Her birth parents couldn't ruin her summer or her life, she couldn't think about them constantly. She had plenty of other things to do.

She had just began to hang out with her best friend again and things were falling back into place. It was like she had never found out about her parents, that things were normal again. Noah had began to sit with her again in the Grand Hall even though he was in the opposite house from her.

She was chatting off Noah's ear when the younger boy she had met came up to her table. How did a letter addressed to her end up in his hands? "Pardon?" Had she heard him right? He had called her 'sister'. She pulled the letter out of its envelope and read over it.

Dear Ruby,

Wow, you're older than we thought you would be. Our names are Gertrude and Cornelius St. Holmes. We're well, thank you for asking. It is a very long story behind our decision to put you up for adoption. We'll cut the story short however. We were very young when you were birth and we didn't think we'd be fit parents. It wasn't an easy decision,but we believe we did the right thing.

Of course we would like to know more about you. Just tell us whatever you'd like, we'd like to know anything.

Sincerely,
Gertrude and Cornelius St. Holmes

How did someone react to something like this? Did she write back? Did she tell them anything and everything about her? "Sit," she said to the younger boy. "Tell me everything about them."

Malachi didn't know how to feel about this. He had always wanted a sister, but had assumed that if his wish were to come true, she would be younger than him, not older. He was alright with that fact that she was older, but he was concerned as to why his parents had opted to give her up. She couldn't be that much older than him and he couldn't help but wonder if they considered giving him up as well, at one point. Malachi swallowed hard. He was so in the dark about all of this and he felt like crying. Why didn't his parents tell him he had a sister?

He obeyed his sister's command without a word of protest and sat at the table in the seat across from her. She wanted to know about her birth parents, naturally, but at that moment, Malachi didn't feel like singing praise of them like he usually did. He truly loved his parents, but he felt like this bit of information was souring their good taste in their son's eyes.

"Well, ummmm," Malachi paused. He didn't know what to say. "They're both artists. Mama does sculptures and plays piano, Papa paints and plays guitar. Papa is ginger and I have his eyes, though everyone says I look more like Mama," Malachi started. "Ummm, we live in Berlin in an apartment and we have two pets. Sven, the great horned owl, and Elmo, the German Shepherd. Ummm, any questions?"

Ruby was used to awkward sonce she was awkward herself but this was a whole new awkward. Who else could say they met their long lost brother but didn't know that it was brother until suddenly finding out after getting a letter? Not many people, Ruby knew that. Was it just the crazy stuff that happened to her? Maybe if she wished hard enough, it would start raining cats and dogs. Did he feel weird about this too? She was sure he was, he was going through the same thing she was.

"I come from artists?" This was great, she knew where her talent came from. With the help of her papa, she knew how to paint. She couldn't get excited, she wouldn't let herself. They gave up on her after all, they were missing out. She was missing out. Though she loved her mama and papa, she was stilling missing out on what her real parents were like. Did they make blueberry pancakes on Christmas Day? Did they make costumes for Halloween? "Do they do anything special on Halloween? It's my birthday." Maybe there was some hope that they missed her, that they still cared. That they hadn't forgot about her. She didn't really care about anything else besides the things that had to do with her. "Who do I look like? Which one, Gertrude or Cornelius?" She played with the ends of her now black hair.

"Mama used to help me make a costume, but other than that, nothing special. We're not big on Halloween. Mama and Papa were always so sad around October. I guess that makes sense now, that Halloween is your birthday and it makes them sad," He frowned, recalling the information. He never knew why they were so melancholic around Halloween. During his earlier years of life, he hardly noticed, enchanted with the costumes his mama made him and the candy he received. However, as he grew older and had to pass out candy on Halloween rather than receive any, he noticed the gloom that encased the household on the holiday. He assumed that they just didn't like the fall season or perhaps that October meant a financial strain, but now it all made sense.

"Actually, you look like Oma," Malachi answered. He never noticed it before, but now that he knew the relation, it was nearly obvious to him. "Though without white hair and wrinkles. But I've seen pictures of her when she was young and you resemble her a lot, now that I think about it."

They got sad on Halllween? So they might miss her. There was no denying that they did remember her. But if they were too young for her, why was he an expection? Why did he get to stay with their parents? Why didn't they love her as much as they did him? He wasn't much younger than her! Why did he get to stay and she got the boot? She crumbled the letter with both her hands and let out an angry groan. It was no fair! She dropped the crumpled ball so it was under the table then stepped on it with her shoe. "If they're so freaking sad then they shouldn't have given up on me."

"At least I now know i look like someone," she said softly, all of her anger seemed to fade away just like that. "I want to write her, not our stupid parents. At least I look like her." She wondered if any of the other family memebers had a say in what they did with Ruby. "I wonder how old they were..." she wondered out loud. Did it even matter? They gave up on her and that was it. "If they loved me, they would have kept me." She couldn't help the tears that formed in her eyes, she didn't like the feeling of being unwanted. But yet the feeling was too familiar to her.

Malachi's mood had sympathetically dropped when relaying the information, as to be kind to the feelings he was sure Ruby was feeling. He couldn't imagine what Ruby was feeling and didn't even want to try to pretend he did. However, when she started to get upset at their parents, he started to feel something else. He felt like she was attacking the parents he loved so much, and though it was perhaps correct that they had wronged Ruby, he still believed with all his heart that they were good parents.

"They're really nice people, though! Please don't hate Mama and Papa!" Kai's voice cracked. He felt so bad at that moment. He wanted everyone to be happy, but his sister was upset at his parents and he was starting to wonder if it was right to defend his parents. He loved them, dearly, but perhaps they kept all the bad things like this from him.

He felt overwhelmed and suddenly he found himself crying. The red haired boy moved in closer towards his sister and wrapped her in an embrace. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He wailed, not sure exactly what he was apologizing for, but feeling overwhelmingly guilty about the whole situation.

Ruby couldn't believe that her birth parents were 'nice' after they gave up on her. She couldn't call anyone nice after they've hurt her so deeply. She woshed that time would rewind so she could go back to thinking her parents were dead. Car crash. Ha. "I don't hate anyone, hate is a very strong word." She didn't like that word much, it was so bitter and mean.

She blinked at the sudden embrace and apologies. She wasn't sure how to feel or how to react. He had nothing to feel sorry for yet he kept saying he was. His cry made the tears that had been forming in her eyes fall. "Shush now," she said softly. "No more tears for you." She wiped his tears with her thumb before giving him a kiss on the forehead. "I don't want to see my little brother cry."

She wiped her own tears and sniffed. "I want to visit, over the summer or something. I want to meet them. Can you make that happen?" She was hopful that he could and would. "Oh! I want to know everything about you." She grabbed his hands in hers and smiled eagerly. "Go ahead," she erged.