13 Letters PART 4

Clarisse never returned. She sent money. But to our parents. They wasted it. They didn’t feed us. We starved. For weeks we were in pain. The boys ran out one day and I chased after them, weakened by my hunger, I couldn’t go as fast as I would have liked to. They got into someone’s yard and started stealing from the huge picnic spread there. Someone came out.

“HEY!” The lady screamed. I tried to pull my brothers away, but the mix of screaming (from the lady, my brothers and myself), the very hot sun, Clarisse gone and the fact I could do nothing. I couldn’t tell this lady where we came from, who we were and that my brothers didn’t understand that this belonged to her. I collapsed. I fainted in a stranger’s backyard. I’m not proud of it. I dreamed that Clarisse came back, my parents went back to normal and my brothers never existed.

“Hello, can you say something?” Light flooded into my eyes as I blinked awake. I sat up slowly. I saw my brothers in chairs, nurses trying to calm and question them. “She’s up.” The voice said. The voice was a man, and the man was a doctor. I motioned to my throat and used hand movements to try to depict my situation.

“Is she mute?” A nurse asked, coming over, signing as she spoke.

‘Yes.’ I signed back.

“She’s mute guys, let me talk to her.” The nurse said to the other doctors and nurses. She definitely was able to see the panic in my face.

‘To start, what’s your name?’ She signed.

‘My name is Alianara McCarthon. You can call me Ally. I can hear, I just can’t speak.’ I signed back.

“Ok, Ally. Who are those two boys over there?” She pointed at my brothers through the window in my hospital room.

‘They’re my brothers. They both have huge mental issues. I take care of them mostly on my own.’ My hands started to ache from signing so much. Normally Clarisse would explain things to people for me.

“How about you write down important things we should know, dear.” She said, handing me a little notebook and pen. I wrote:

I live at 13 Baraview Place in a small house with my parents. My sister Clarisse’s phone number is 542-687-3948. She used to look after us but she went to college. I am nine years old. My brothers are five.

I handed her the notebook.

“Can I let people in?” She asked. I nodded, she went and gave the book to a nurse, told the nurse my name and took my brothers by the hand. A doctor came in and asked if he could give me a quick checkup, I nodded yes. He asked if my brothers could also get a quick checkup, which I also nodded yes to.

I was put through basic exams, then was reunited with my brothers. They hugged me sweetly, the nurse said they had been wanting to see me. Me and my brothers were placed in the foster system because we had all been starving and my brothers hadn’t been cared for properly. They told me it wasn’t my fault. They said a nine-year-old shouldn’t have to take care of two mentally challenged five-year-olds. My brothers stayed at a different house, we saw each other frequently though, they just needed more help and the place where they were staying was full. I got food, was schooled and was allowed to go to the park. I didn’t really get close with anyone, not even the fosters. Mr. and Mrs. Callihagery. They were kind and let me have my own room.

There were 4 girls younger than me. Brittany and Whittney, twins who had been abandoned. Casey, who was Mr. and Mrs. Callihagery’s biological daughter. There was also Stacey, who was deaf, she was only.

Start: 9:30