A Rock and Family Vacation

[28]

Clare thought that her older brothers were kind of dumb, but things were getting ridiculous. She wondered whether it was one of their regular pranks to get her attention and make her think something serious was happening, then just laugh it off.

Blair had been nicer recently and Lacy was totally wrapped up in dealing with everything that happened to them. Talking on the beach and then building their superhero headquarters, even though it got swallowed by the waves, was the best time of vacation so far.

Going shopping with mom was easily a close second. She really liked getting her hair out of the way of the wind and just talking. It all still felt normal, despite how crazy different even the littlest things had become. Walking, wearing clothes, climbing, eating, sitting, using the restroom, and getting pummeled by the shower. So many things quietly different, but not so weird that they upset her.

She told herself she wasn’t upset by her siblings acting like weirdos over by the changing rooms. Clare was used to a certain flavor of what mom once called ‘shenanigans’. Clare liked that word because it didn’t sound at all like being a goof. It was more like someone saying “there goes Shannon Again, planning to do things with her shenanigans”. But it was strange.

Big Blair felt so mom-like, a careful momma bear. And Lacy was like a shaky block of ice wrapping itself up in something warm, so it didn’t melt. At least, that was how it had been. Now, they were snapping photos at each other and holding and stretching all sorts of clothes as if they were having the time of their lives.

The spookiest part was the volume of giggles echoing down the hallway. Blair was always reserved and careful with his laughter and Lacy laughed as though she were a cat about to strike out with claws. Again, it wasn’t bad, but it also felt like someone replaced her brothers with different people. And that was scary.

Clare did her best not to worry too much about it, as Lacy had urged her. She focused on the interesting clothes at the front of the store. There was a lot more to pick from here than at the other place. But she was distracted.

Every girly thing Clare picked felt like it carried a creepy echo of what her sisters were doing. Like her siblings had been brainwashed by the girly hive mind. Not a joke anymore. She pressed her knees together and tangled her legs down to her feet. Wiggling in place like that was an odd comfort.

She was a girl. That both didn’t matter and also changed so much. Because of those changes, the creepy old men at the country club didn’t do the bad, unspeakable word. Because of everything, she had had fun with her siblings lately. Maybe the lady at the pizza place had been nice to them because of all this too. She didn’t know, but it all seemed more like a good thing than a bad thing. But was she gonna wind up like her siblings?

Everyone kind of said that already. They said that when she grew up there would be things she would have to worry about. All the weird, mommy parts. But she wondered more immediately if she was going to be acting like them. Clare didn’t know a whole lot of girls her age because of the boys' school.

Before this whole weekend, she would simply say that girls were just weird. Clare ran into the sisters of classmates sometimes. They kinda behaved like Lacy, which was a thought that Clare always kept close to her because she knew Lacy would freak out if she said it. Elizabeth, one of the sisters of his friend Mitch from school, talked a lot to herself and would snap sharply with words like she was too good to even be around them. Mitch did tease her, but she would go screaming at the least little thing. She acted like she knew everything even though she was the same age as them.

Clare didn’t wanna be like that. She liked when people smiled. But Lacy and Blair were smiling, sort of. It was confusing, so she went back to fluttering a rainforest-decorated skirt. Eventually, mom went over to talk to Blair and Lacy. She had some windbreakers in her arms and offered them up. Clare noticed the nervousness in mom‘s eyes as the two of them tried on the clothes and stretched out with strange body language. It wasn’t long before mom put her hands around the two of them, either to feel their foreheads or look into their eyes with questions of concern. Her sisters looked back with answers of concern about their mom. Their mother dipped her hands at her side and took a long breath. She managed a calm smile and nodded her head.

“What do you think of this one?” Dad held up an outfit that reminded her of a handkerchief. Clare smiled and felt the material but didn’t do anything else. Eventually, her siblings came over and asked for advice.

Lacy had on a light skirt that made her think of fall but with a bright explosion of Easter colors. It complemented a close-fitting, sleeveless top with lots of buttons and a mottled shade of blue and white. Blair had on a medium red outfit with drape-like sleeves that settled down to her thighs. It made her shape go all over the place, even more than the swimsuit.

Blair wanted to know if her dress was too adventurous. And Lacy just wanted to know if she looked cute. Clare looked them both in the eye and asked, “Why?”

This made them each pause for a long moment as though they were wind-up dolls approaching a stiff point. Blair dipped her head and explained that perhaps the “beach boys” might like a little adventure. Lacy covered a smile and responded that she liked looking cute.

“No! You don’t care about any of those things! What is wrong with you?!” Clare burst in with sharp determination despite the woozy feeling inside her head. Before her siblings or dad could say anything else, she shoved past them and hurried up the steps along the side to the store’s second floor. Somewhere behind her, Clare could hear her name being yelled. She knew that she shouldn’t be doing this. But someone had to do something about the craziness since they left the country club.

Her head spun with uncertainty and doubt even as she cleared the steps and put as much space between her and her family. Lacy had been so nice to her after the commissary that she almost suspected Blair was jealous. But her brothers weren’t supposed to be nice and cute and snuggly. They weren’t supposed to fawn over girly clothes and act so…weird. They were supposed to be loud and messy and goofy and tough and make her want to be tougher too. And they should be more interested in games than how pretty they looked!

Clare worked her way around and up into the loft area until she was out of breath and couldn’t see or hear anyone else. She squeezed away a tickle in her throat so it wouldn’t become a cough. The floor still vibrated with her urgent steps as she squeezed behind a rack with some jeans jackets.

This was stupid. She didn’t even understand what she was mad about. Maybe that was a girl thing too, getting upset just because. With her legs folded up despite how glossy the floor was, Clare lightly sniffled. She wanted them to find her, but she wasn’t sure what she was going to say when they did. Would they be mad she ran off? It was too late to worry about that.

This part of the store was remarkably quiet. There weren’t too many other people around and most of them were near the checkout area. But it was so quiet up here that Clare started to worry that they shut down the store and she was stuck inside. That was totally ridiculous, but it felt like the only thing that made sense. Maybe she got turned around and this was a part of the store where no one else could go.

She clung to each breath and resisted the urge to sniffle. Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Words she wanted to believe. Even though it was just past noon, she felt the same confusing, isolating chill she felt when she knew the dark man was near. Clare stretched to look around, peeking through the layers of clothes. The railing and windows were visible with the flutter and flash of passing cars.

The ground was still, yet sweat collected against her neck as she felt someone just beyond what she could see, someone seeing her perfectly.

Get away, get away! Run, run! Don’t stay here, the dark man will get you!

At that moment, the floor behind her creaked and shifted. In a swoop of terror, she swung around with her arms out. Tangling limbs, someone staggered backwards onto the floor.

“…Ow.”

Clare remained on her feet as her arms pinwheeled in front of her. A girl lay sprawled out towards the wall with an odd expression somewhere between confusion and disappointment. She appeared around Lacy‘s age but with none of her distinctive attributes. She wore a purple-toned outfit with a top and a bottom speckled with bright, light bits. Her hair appeared unnaturally gray with lighter and darker parts like a storm cloud.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry.” Clare wanted to help the girl up, but she was way too big for her to really do anything. Fortunately, the nearby hallway leading to storage included a small chair. Bringing it over, Clare encouraged her to grab it so she could help her up. The young girl continued to look like she didn’t understand, but she worked together with Clare to stand. Once she was back on her feet, the mystery girl seized both of Clare’s hands in a single grip.

The move startled her to the point that she didn’t try to break free. She just looked up at the young girl with a vague resemblance to her older sister. Whatever emotion had been there slipped away from the girl’s features. She looked all over Clare in the same way as doctors she hated.

“Please. Let me go.” Clare kept her eyes on the girl as she brought a finger up and pointed it right between her eyes, hovering above her nose. Softly, the girl responded, “In just a moment. I’m not going to hurt you. I just need…”

Suddenly, the path of her finger wavered, and her head tilted to the side. “What…?” Clare gulped. “What is it?”

The girl shut her eyes and let out a breath. Gently, she said, “It’s you...”

Clare pressed her, utterly confused, “Me? What about me?” This strange girl still kept hold of her hands. That was getting annoying and kinda scary. “Can you let me go?”

”Of course, Clare. Sorry. In a minute. There’s just one more thing. Sorry…” Once again, her finger pointed right at Clare’s nose. The girl mouthed a word without saying it, as though something was caught in her throat. A pained expression showed before she squeezed her fingers into a fist and drew them back.

“How do you know my name?” Clare asked.

The girl dipped her head. ”I wish I knew more. Thank you for taking care of me. It was painfully hot on that beach until you found me.”

Clare’s eyes widened. She didn’t need Blair‘s usual cleverness to deduce what that meant. “You’re my rock, that I found. The rock.”

“Krystal. If you please.”

“You have a name?” All this was already flying way over Clare’s head, but she was rolling with it. Thinking like Blair, she had to imagine that every strange aspect of their conversation could be easily explained away. But the idea that her little rock, which had done so many crazy, scary, but interesting things, was a person? She had to imagine it was like a genie inside a lamp.

Before she could ask the weird girl for more information, she gestured with her finger over to the right. Clare immediately looked, but there was nothing there. The pressure squeezing her hands together immediately vanished and the girl let her go. Looking back, Clare was mostly annoyed but a little spooked to see that the girl was gone. That was a sibling kind of trick, doing the whole ‘look over there’ and then running away.

“CLARE! ARE YOU THERE?!”

It was mom, yelling so loud that Clare was scared that she would lose her voice. The sound echoed with other voices calling with her. Those were Lacy and Blair, they had to be. Turning around a few times, Clare finally caught sight of mom and rushed into her arms.

“Oh honey, oh sweetie. Where were you? They said there was no way to get lost up here, but I couldn’t find you. My gosh. I am going to need a moment for my heart. But I’m just glad you’re okay. What happened?” Brooke took a few careful breaths after saying all that and amended her statement to tell her youngest that she didn’t need to answer all that immediately, she was just scared. Clare understood, as a bunch of people came barreling towards her.

Lacy was the next to wrap her arms around her younger sister while Blair held her close in the kind of bear hugs that fit her nickname, only they were crushingly soft. They both apologized, even though they didn’t understand what they had done wrong. They wanted to know where she had been as well, but Brooke urged them to step back and just be glad that they were together.

Dad arrived last but had no lack of love and relief at holding his daughter again. Some clerks came around with questions but cast sour looks in Clare’s direction. She figured they would’ve been perfectly fine with handcuffing her to the cash wrap downstairs until everyone left. One guy, who looked kind of like a manager, scowled and said that there was a police station down the block if there were any further disruptions.

Brooke practically slugged him right in the face for that, fuming that her child got lost in their store and she had half a mind to declare it was an attempted kidnapping. She didn’t really have anything to base that on, but her emotions weren’t going to stop for that. It did the job of causing that jerk to take a step back and blush but also did the job of getting everyone to politely ask them to leave.

Once outside, Lacy pouted when looking through the window at all the nice clothes. Blair paused a minute, and looked around as if she had forgotten where she was before shaking her head and looking down at her phone and through window clothes with a similar sentiment of disappointment. She brushed the display circle rack on the sidewalk for comfort.

Brooke smiled and gazed over her family, “That place was too pricey anyway. There are plenty of clothing stores in this town. Come on guys, we’re together and everyone is okay. That’s the most important thing.” Blair and Lacy didn’t seem particularly convinced by the first part, but they nodded to the last note.

“Together. So long as we’re together… As family. Everything will be fine.” Clare noticed that her older sister‘s voice had a strange quality to it, more like the girl who claimed to be the rock. She knew that was crazy, but she couldn’t deny that it was there.

One more thing she didn’t understand. 

[I have a question at the end of the chapter again to help with suggestions for where the story should go. I'm a couple chapters ahead but I love seeding ideas from people as much as possible. Feel free to add an idea which doesn't show up in the options. Also, if you see any random typos or uncapitalized starts of sentences, please pass them along. I have to cut down on my editing due to release speed and my programs don't seem to be catching lowercase sentences. Thank you for reading!]

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