Chapter 6 Recovered

• Lyra's POV
• My door screeched as usual, and it was loud enough to wake me up from slumber. I buried my gaze at the entrance and saw Josephine, Emily, and little Jessica.
• I buried a laugh looking at how Jessica’s toe poked out of her left stockings. She wore a red dress with different shades of color rioting at the helm. Emily wore her sleeping gown, while Josephine also wore her pajamas.
• Jessica ran and hugged me on the bed. I bottled the discomfort I felt with a fake grin— my stomach still slightly hurt. Josephine went to the stool behind my bed and sat down, while Emily sat in the middle of the bed.
• I rubbed at Jessica’s smoky black hair, her melanin skin dazzling. “You had an accident, big sis?” Jessica asked innocently, her voice sweet. “So sorry. Aunt Emily told me.”
• I flashed the five-year-old girl a smile. “It’s nothing, Jessie,” I said. “I’m fine. I have not been able to see you since I returned.”
• “Yeah,” she responded. “Me too, big sis.”
• “She came looking for you when you, Abigail and Josephine left for the woods. Her mother brought her to me,” Emily said.
• “Oh, I see,” I said.
• Jessica has been a handbag to me, especially whenever I return home. Her mom would leave her for me when she’s busy with something or has somewhere to go. It helped foster a bond between Jessica and I so much that she thought I was her elder sister.
• “A—ah,” Jessica began, stuttering a bit, “was playing with Dessie, and Ellie when we came knocking yesterday, but aunt Emily said you are not around. I had lots of cake for you now it’s all gone.” Jessica smiled at me but looked a little bit embarrassed.
• “You are a sweet girl,” I said, rubbing her shoulders.
• “Josephine told me that you were attacked on the mountain, but she didn’t say exactly how it happened,” Emily said.
• “Yeah,” I answered her.
• I looked at Josephine.
• She left the truck there yesterday on the mountain and had returned home without it— she didn’t know how to drive, of course. But how exactly did she come home even before we did?
• “How’s Abigail?” I asked Emily.
• “She’s okay now,” Josephine replied instead. “She’s got minor cuts which have been taken care of by the doctor. How are you doing now?”
• “As you can see,” I said, raising both hands in the air. “I am great. That reminds me, how the hell did you get home, Josephine?”
• Josephine shot me a surprise glare. “I uh— Well, I kind of walked. It was uh—m, it was a fast walk.”
• “But I was looking for you, Josephine. I told you to wait in the cave. Did you even make any attempt to know where I was? Where were we? Did you just run away to save your own as—s?” I asked. I wanted to say ass but remembered that Jessica was still here with me.
• “I did,” Josephine rasped. “The forest was too large for me to know where to put the searchlight. I tried my best to find you.”
• I nodded. “But it wasn’t too big for you to run with your tail in between your legs?”
• Josephine’s eyes dimmed.
• Emily cleared her throat. “Girls,” she began. “The way this conversation is moving, it’s kinda going to have a sort of rough end, both parties making out issues where there should have been none. We know it’s too large up there and anyone could get missing, especially when a situation as bad as this happens. Can happen to anyone, me, no exception.”
• “You don’t understand, Emily,” I said. “I risked my life for her.”
• “I know.”
• “Bla—ke, and uh, me, went back for her.”
• “What?” Emily queried.
• “Never mind,” I said.
• I didn’t want to mention Blake’s name yet— a request he made. I wasn’t even sure if I could keep Blake a secret from my friends for that long, especially Emily, who freely talks about everything that goes on with her. Blake was the first guy who had captured my attention in a very special kind of way that I couldn’t describe, and I knew it was going to be a struggle to keep my friends aloof about him.
• We’ll see.
• “Alright,” Emily said. “Everything that has happened has got to be buried.” She paused for a moment and continued. “I have to go make some bread for the house. Get well soon.” Emily stood up and Josephine did the same. I think she didn’t want to be left in the room with me because she knew I wasn’t happy with her.
• “You’ve got to apologize to her, ma’am,” Emily harshly told Josephine as she turned and saw she was following her.
• Josephine hesitated for a few seconds. “I am sorry,” Josephine said and casually walked off.
• I nodded without saying a word. I could do a lot with my time, instead of using it to bear grudges against Josephine. If I was to be more considerate, judging how the situation was, I wouldn’t blame her at all for escaping. I may or may not have done the same. But I can’t promise myself anything. I couldn’t measure how scared she was, but I was sure as hell I had been braver up there.
• Jessica jabbed my stomach. “Didn’t you hear what I just told you, big sis?” Jessica said.
• “You said something, honey?” I asked.
• “Yes,” she replied. She dipped her hands inside her dress and brought out a photograph. “I just told you something.”
• “What is it, sweetheart?”
• “When Dessie and I were playing hide and seek, Ellie found this photograph behind the smoke house, and she brought it to us. I recognized it was grandpa’s,” Jessica said, raising the photograph. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday, so I didn't give it to him and I went to sleep. He could be looking for it.”
• I took the photograph from her and looked. It was my grandfather. Firstly, I scrunched my nose. I had never seen my grandpa’s pictures before. He had always told me that he was never a fan of cameras. So it was a big surprise to have seen this picture.
• In the photograph, Grandpa wore a winter cap and heavy clothing made of brown cotton fur. He resembled a Russian dressed for a winter hunt. He posed alongside a stout man in his sixties, who wore glasses and a suit, with an unbuttoned white lab coat over it. On the table in front of them were various laboratory tools, primarily older designs.
• I believe I inherited my grandfather’s looks. I share a pointed nose with him, although his was more pronounced. We both have brown hair and small ears. He had very thin lips resembling those of a police detective, which is quite different from my oval-shaped lips. In this photograph, Grandpa appears younger, likely in his mid-twenties or early thirties, and he was very handsome too.
• I smiled.
• I studied the photo further, but my smile soon faded. On the blackboard behind Pa and his friend, the date 1st of December 1865 was clearly written along with the subject name "Biology."
• I knitted my brows in confusion.
• Could this be wrong?
• What could make them write 1865 on the board?
• We were right now in the early days of October 1965. This clearly meant that the picture was taken a century ago in a laboratory somewhere in the country. How could this be? Does it mean grandpa was older than he appeared?
• I stood up and scrambled through my cupboard. There was a small-sized rose flower, about six inches tall, I had wanted to give him. I found it, so I put the flower inside my jacket pocket.
• “Jessie,” I said.
• “Yes, sis,” she answered.
• “I want to see grandpa.”