Chapter 5 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

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Everyone looks towards Prelude in stunned silence

The words "Forrest is your brother"  leaves his lips for the second time, but they are a lot quieter this time.  "Your Mother is also his Mother."

I'm watching Pine and Parsley, their mouths open and their faces twist with confusion, I glance at Fern and she just smiles at me - Preludes bombshell doesn't seem to be affecting her at all - like she already knows.  Suddenly quite a few things about Ferns behavior are starting to make sense to me, the way she reacted to Prelude and Storm, she must have already known who they were, but how when nobody else seems to know.

I am stood there, like everyone else, also stunned - if Forrest is Storms brother, that must mean Fern is his Sister - oh fudge!!  How can any of them not have known?  My mind wanders away from my own thoughts when I'm distracted suddenly by something quite bright catching my eye behind my Uncle and Cousin.

It's unmistakable, the transparent figure that I am only ever used to seeing at home.  I am used to seeing him but still I rub my eyes to make sure that I'm not seeing things, I've never known him to  venture outside of the house before.  "The Man"  he is standing there like everyone else, but his eyes are fixed on Storm.  What is he even doing here?  Who is he anyway?!  His identity is seriously beginning to bug me.  Who is he haunting - Me?  It must be me he's following, I seem to be the only one who can see him, that is strange enough on it's own -  but why me and why would he be here right now?   This is all getting a little too much for my stupid brain to handle.  He looks up then and sees me watching him - he starts pointing frantically at Storm, then he holds his side for a second before pointing at Storm again - for a moment I feel like he's trying to tell me something, but I can't imagine what.

I'm distracted away from the ghostly figure again by Storm shouting.

"MY BROTHER!!  Now I know you'll say anything!!"  Storm broke the silence, he throws his head back and starts laughing almost hysterically  "MY BROTHER ... Don't make me laugh!!!"

"It true, Forrest, Pine, Jade and Fern are also your Mothers children."

"NO!!  I don't believe you ..... Mom would have told us ..... You would have told us!!"

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you - it was complicated, Please Storm - look at him for Berry's sake!!  His hair - his eyes - his skin colour - can't you see they are exactly the same as your Mothers - Please Storm give me the knife!!"  Prelude is now begging him, Storm has stopped laughing now and is just staring blankly down at Forrest still with the knife pinned to his throat.

Prelude grabs Parsley by the arm and shoves him forward towards Storm "Look at your brother - look at the colour of his skin!!"  I can hear the anger starting to creep back into Preludes voice again.  I am quite irritated by this, being colourblind looking for me doesn't mean a thing, I can't see colour, so I can't see what they see, all I can do is stand watching as the realization starts to set into their faces.

Storm looks from Forrest to Parsley, then back to Forrest again where his gaze rests for ages before he speaks again  "Fudge!!"  I heard him say before he pulls Forrest roughly into a sitting position.  "What is your Mothers name?!"  Storm snaps at Forrest

"Manderine"  he answers back quickly, I can hear the fear in his voice

"Your Lying!!!"  Storm yells at him  "Where is she, your Mother?"

"I don't know ........ I haven't seen her since I was little ......."  he answered nervously, Storm is shouting at him demanding to know why?  "I don't know .... she just walked out on us ..... after Jade and Fern were born .... she just vanished ..... we haven't seen her since."

Suddenly Storm turned to glare quite nastily at Fern, like the mention of her name has jogged his memory making him remember something.  The knife is now away from Forrest and I start to become nervous as he now is pointing it in Ferns direction. 


"You!!!"  he snarls at Fern as he steps towards her.  I instinctively grab her pulling her backwards towards me and away from Storm.  I didn't like the look in his eyes and the way that knife is coming closer to Fern.  He wouldn't - would he?  Storm looked at me for a moment then laughed "Don't stress Tap."  he said as he put his arm down by his side so the knife is no longer pointed at Fern.  "What were you trying to tell me earlier Fern when you said I was colourblind and damn stupid??"

"Your Dad is telling the truth Storm - you and Parsley are our brothers - all of mine and Forrest's colour comes from our Mother,  I thought you would be able to see it."  Storm didn't say anything he just blankly stared at Fern  "Unlike Forrest, I do know where she is - OUR Mother is in that prison where she has been for the past 16 years."  she pointed to the big tall building that is next to the bowling alley.  I can see Forrest and Pine both are staring at their Sister they are totally shocked and confused by what they are hearing.

"I've seen the three of you going in to visit her, I've been in to see her myself, she told me about you and Parsley, and she gave me this ......."  everyone watches as Fern reaches up for the heart shaped locket that is hanging around her neck.  She opens it up then pulls out what looks like a small square of paper at first which she starts to unfold - it's a photograph - which she held out to Storm.  He seemed to hesitate at first, before he snatches the photograph out of Ferns hand, he looks down at it and his eyes widened  "And she gave me this."  she held up her left arm, I'm confused at first but notice Storm staring at the bracelet on her wrist, a leather studded bracelet with a metal skull on it.

"Storm that's Mom's bracelet"  Parsley said.

"Give me the knife Storm."  Prelude snapped holding out his hand, Storm didn't protest, he just hands it over and looks at his Dad for a moment before he looks back to the photograph that he still has in his hand.

I can now see its a picture of a woman with her arms around Storm and Parsley, I presume its a picture of their Mother, finally I get a quick glimpse of my Aunt Manderine's face.

"Has Mom really faded people?"  Storm asks his Dad, but he doesn't look up from the photograph that he is staring at.  Prelude answers "Yes quite a few, but we will talk about that later."

As Fern throws her arms around me the relief washes over me knowing that it's over, the knife is safely in Preludes possession and Storm didn't do anything stupid and nobody got hurt.

"Tap now can we get out of here!?  I need to talk to you"  Fern starts whispering in my ear

Suddenly we are wrenched apart.

"Don't think this changes anything Orchid, I meant every word I said earlier."  Forrest pokes me hard in the chest  "She is green, you are not - keep away from my sister!!"  Forrest and Pine are standing there together scowling at me.

I can't believe they are going to carry on with this!!

"You can both stick your no colour mixing rubbish!!!!"  Fern flew at her two brothers  "Why are you doing this anyway ..... because Dad said so??!!"  she sounded really angry   "I hate him .... Mom didn't just walk out on us like Dad told us .... he lied to us!!"  Fern said  "He has known where she was all the time, he also knew about Storm and Parsley.  He refused to bring us in to see her, he told her that he would never tell us where she is."

"WHAT?!"  Pine is now looking at Fern  "He KNEW where Mom was??!!".   It is quite obvious from the conversation that is going on that Pine and Forrest, and I presume Jade too, have had no idea where their Mother has been and have thought for years that she just abandoned them.  That is what their father has always told them, he hid the truth from them.  Fern starts explaining to them that she had wanted to find her Mother, and knew their Father would be angry if he found out,  so she started to sneakily search online.   She didn't think she would be able to find her, but she tracked her down quite easily because of newspaper articles she had found from around the time that she was caught for her crimes and sent to prison  ........... I stand listening to what she's saying for a while before my mind is suddenly taken elsewhere.

The weirdest feeling suddenly passes over me, then like magic "The Man" starts to cloud my vision and is appearing right in front of my eyes, I even suspect that he has just passed straight through me to get my attention.  We are inches apart and I automatically put out my hand to try and touch him, something I've always wanted to do but have never had the guts to get close enough to try before.  I watch my hand as it just passes though the body of the ghost, I turn my hand over and I can't feel a thing.  I suddenly hear a strange laughter and look up and see that he is laughing at me - I can actually hear him laughing.

 This is not the first time I've seen him laughing at me, like when he is in my room watching me get beaten playing video games, I've seen him laughing at me, just the actions but never the sound.  Right now I can hear his laughter.  He stops laughing suddenly and points at Storm  "Do something before it's too late, he needs help!!."  then he just starts to fade away in front of my eyes until he is no longer visibly there.

I stand there for a moment in shock - "The Man" he just spoke to me - or did I just imagine that he spoke to me.  I start to question if he was even there at all. Have I finally gone totally insane.

I look around, thankfully nobody is paying any attention to me.  Prelude is talking to what looks like a captive audience, Fern, Parsley, Forrest and Pine are all stood around him listening to what he is telling them,  Storm has moved and is standing quite a distance away from them, he is still just staring down at the photograph.

That's when "The Man's" words finally connect with my brain,  "Do something before it's too late, he needs help!!.  when I notice Storm is not standing completely still, he's actually rocking, swaying, somehow he doesn't look stable and he's holding his side - there is something wrong with him.   I start to walk towards him, noticing just how much blood is on his clothes now, a lot more than there was before - fudge - I'd completely forgotten that Forrest had cut him.

I quickly glance towards Prelude who is still deep in conversation, I'm not even sure if he knows that Storm was cut or has even noticed the blood on his clothes in all the commotion.  I glance back at Storm who has now dropped the photo, I watched it leave his fingers and can see it floating down to the ground, his hands go up and are now holding his head and he's swaying like a drunk.

"STORM!!"  I shout as I start to ran towards him,   I can see him going, but am not quick enough, before I reach him I watch him crumple into a heap as he falls to the floor.  It seems for a moment like everything went into slow motion, from the moment the photograph left his hands to now as I watch his body hit the floor, I get this really horrible feeling that this is serious, something is horribly wrong.

"PRELUDE HELP!!"  My shouting alerts Prelude who can see instantly that Storm has collapsed, he ran towards us and threw himself down onto the floor by Storm grabbing his wrist I think to try and find his pulse.   "Forrest cut him before he got the knife off him."  I told him as we both lean over him.  I suddenly become very scared looking at him lay there I can not even see that he is breathing.

Prelude is frantically repeating his name and pulling Storms clothes up so he can see where the blood is coming from.  The minute he peels back his soggy Tshirt, my stomach turns, I wanted to be sick ..... I am literally looking at blood and guts.  I stay looking at the wound for a few seconds more .....  then I am sick, I can not hold it in and have to turn away, on my hands and knees I'm throwing up on the grass.  There is a really deep cut running from his chest right down to the belt of his jeans.    At first when Forrest swiped at Storm, I thought the knife had missed him, then I saw the slice in his jacket and the blood on his Tshirt, but it was only a small patch of blood at first and he didn't act like he was in any or a lot of pain other than I saw him wince once.  That cut must have and must be hurting like hell!!   How had that happened?  I only expected a small scratch, not this.

"STORM NO!!!"  I can hear Prelude behind me screaming, I can hear the crack in his voice, I can tell he's starting to cry, then I can hear he's on his phone "Mango I need help ......"  My head starts swimming as I'm listening to Prelude getting a little hysterical trying to talk to my Dad while the contents of my stomach are still emptying themselves out onto the grass.    

I hear his phone snap shut as I'm scrambling to my feet wiping my mouth.  I turn and see him scooping Storm up off the grass he shouts me and Parsley as he starts running with Storms limp body in his arms, towards the road.  We both follow him on foot in the direction of the hospital, which thankfully is not too far away.

My Dad is stood waiting outside the hospital main entrance for us when we arrive.  He has a trolley waiting inside the door which Prelude lay Storm onto.  I watch Dad's face as he lifts up Storms clothes to look at the cut, he winced at the sight of it then sprung into action, he told Prelude to help him push the trolley and they start running him down the corridor, Dad holding Storms wrist I presume looking for a pulse and is shouting passing hospital staff who take over and help push the trolley, he shouted at one nurse to page Dr Muffin to theatre three.  Me and Parsley who can do nothing but trail behind helplessly exchange a quick glance - Dr Muffin is my Grandfather who is one of the hospitals top surgeons, and they are taking Storm into theatre - is it really that bad??

"You lot need to wait here."  Dad said as he disappears through the double metal doors with Storm and the trolley.  A few minutes later my Grandfather comes streaking down the corridor and also disappears through the same doors without even looking in our direction.  I sat down on one of the chairs, Parsley sits down beside me without saying anything as we watch Prelude pacing up and down the corridor outside the door.

I am very surprised when my Dad came back out through the doors a few minutes later looking very stressed, his reappearance sent Prelude into a tizzy.  "Please No!! - What's happening - Mango why are you not in there?"  Prelude is starting to panic quite badly, I can imagine what he might be thinking, because I am thinking exactly the same.

"I can't stay in there with him, he's my nephew, I'm sorry it's the hospital rules - you know I would be in there if I could be, but don't worry ........ my Dad's in there with him."  he looks over at me and Parsley quickly as he has a hold of Preludes arm and seems to be pulling him away from us down the corridor.  One thing struck me straight away, he had said don't worry - then he had hesitated - he had not said that Storm was going to be okay.

They stop a distance away further down the corridor out of our earshot and start talking, Dad is doing most of the talking, I watch Prelude, his legs seem to buckle, he looks panicked and upset, Dad is holding onto him as I watch my Uncle breakdown.

"Storm, he's fading isn't he!!"  Parsley said suddenly  "I can feel it!!"  I turn to look at Parsley, his gaze is transfixed on the wall opposite, tears are streaming down his face.  "I can feel him fading"  I laughed thinking that was a funny thing for him to say.

I told Parsley not to be stupid and that Storm is going to be fine.  I heard myself say it but I am not so sure, I can still see the awful wound in my head, seeing the look on my Dads face and watching Prelude breaking down further along the corridor - I get the feeling Dad has given him some bad news about the condition that Storm is in.

I kept watching Dad and Prelude, after a while Prelude pulls himself together and they make their way back to where me and Parsley are sitting.  I wander why they always have to treat us like little children, they have no intention of telling us what is going on, or how bad Storms injuries are, and I know if I ask they are just going to fob us off with, he'll be fine, a little like what I've just done with Parsley.

"Who did this Prelude?"  Dad asked him suddenly

Prelude just stood there looking at him for what seemed like ages  "This is where you get to say - I told you so .... it was one of the Freeze kids."  he said finally, I watch my Dad's face switch to an angry expression as Prelude carries on talking  "Storm and Tapestry sneaked out when my back was turned even though they were told not to!!  They went off to meet Fern, when I caught up with them I thought I was going to witness a fading ...." 

Dad looked over at me then and instantly I can see him starting to stress.  I think it is the first time he's looking at me properly since we arrived at the hospital, he wouldn't have known that I was with Storm when his injuries happened.  "Oh Berry!!  What has happened to you?"  he said coming towards me quickly, pulling me up off the chair and starts fussing, in his usual manner, inspecting my neck and face.

"Why didn't you tell me you've been hurt too - This is going to need stitches - how did this happen? - are you cut anywhere else?"  he didn't even give me a chance to answer before taking me by my arm and is leading me down the corridor saying he needed to sort out the cut on my neck.

"In here."  he says and I follow him into one of the side rooms  "Jump up."  he said patting the examination couch as he walks past it on his way to washing his hands.  I watched as he starts picking things up out of tubs and ripping packets, he put everything into a metal tray and places it down on the side of the couch next to me.  He stood back just looking at me  "Tap how did this happen?  I want to know how both you and Storm got cut!!"   

I start to explain to him everything that had happened the best I could remember, he looks pretty alarmed when I tell him about Forrest holding the knife to my throat a few times before Storm distracted him away from me and how Storm had got hurt.  He asked me if I had been hurt anywhere else and even after I told him I hadn't, he started checking me over like he couldn't believe me until he had seen for himself that I am okay.

He started to clean the blood off my neck   "Look that way"  he said pointing towards the door as he picked up a needle, "This might hurt a little" he said seconds before it actually did, not once but quite a few times I felt the needle go into my neck.  He told me it would take a few minutes for my neck to go numb then  he starts cleaning my face.  I tried to stop him, but he ignored me, he is making me feel like a messy child having food cleaned off my face and I didn't understand at first why he is doing it.  "You are going to need a few stitches in you face too."  I frowned at him, then I remembered Forrest running the knife down my face but I didn't realize he had actually cut me  "Was that the knife too?"

He stood there wide eyed as I told him Forrest had run the knife down my face saying he was going to scar it as a reminder so I wouldn't forget his warning to keep away from Fern.  Dad dropped the metal tray that he had in his hand, it made me jump as it crashed onto the tiled floor, I can tell he is shocked by the look on his face.

He swore as he starts to pick everything up off the floor, putting it all back into the metal tray that he then threw into the sink, I thought a little too forcefully.  He washed his hands again and started getting more stuff out of the tubs.  He put the new tray down on the couch "I'll get your neck stitched then I'll sort out your face, we really ought to be getting back to Prelude."  He carried on doing what he was doing in silence at first, once he finished on my neck he stood looking at my face.  "You are lucky that's just a scratch, its not going to leave a scar."

"The baby?"  I ask suddenly remembering, I can't believe that she has totally slipped my mind and this is the first time I'd even thought about her since me and Storm sneaked out of the house earlier.

"Cotton is fine, she's in the baby unit, I'll take you to see her quickly on the way back."  he smiled at me before he carries on stitching my face  "She's where you spent the first 6 months of your life, but she will probably only be there for a week or two as a precaution."  he started laughing  "You know she is exactly like you!!"  I suddenly felt very sick for a moment, thinking he is saying that she is going to be stupid like me and have all of my problems, but he wasn't, he was talking about her colour and looks.  "She's all orange with colourless eyes, your Grandmother thinks she looks exactly like you did when you was a baby."

He took a step back and frowned at me for a moment  "You haven't taken your medication again today have you!!"  I shook my head,  I can't even deny it, because he can always tell when I haven't taken it.  I expected him to shout at me like he normally does, but he didn't.   "Come on jump down, we are done, I'll take you to see your sister quickly."

I followed him down a few corridors and we went up a flight of stairs, I am really surprised when we walked around one corner into a dead end corridor and we were faced with a wall of glass, inside I can see rows of cots some with babies in them.

Some of the babies look normal, but others are quite disturbing, tiny babies in glass bubbles with tubes and wires everywhere.  I guess I must have been like one of those babies once. I am too busy looking at all the sick babies that I didn't notice my Mother, at first,  in a hospital gown standing at the side of the room feeding my little sister.  I'm very relieved to see that Cotton looks perfectly normal and is not one of those sick looking ones covered with tubes and wires, which is how I expected her to be.  "Stay here Tap I need to have a quick word with your Mother."   He quickly disappears around the corner and a few seconds later he's walking through the baby room, I watch him as he takes the baby off my Mother and he hands her to the nurse then points in my directions.

The nurse brought the baby up to the window for a few minutes so that I can look at her.  She looks like a normal healthy baby to me, I am just relieved that there is nothing wrong with her.  This feels awkward staring at a baby through a glass window, I look up at the nurse who smiles at me before she turns away and takes Cotton placing her carefully into one of the cribs.

My parents are still talking and I see my Mother quickly look up at me a worried look on her face, then she looks back at Dad and falls into his arms as she starts to cry.  I am guessing he has just told her about Storm.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that Mom wouldn't stay where she is sitting up in the  maternity ward alone while she is waiting for news about Storm.   She came with me and Dad, making the journey back down to the threatre waiting area to wait with the rest of us.  I watch her as she is hugging Prelude, obviously the argument from the other night is all forgotten.  Affair and Mulberry have also arrived now and are sat talking to Parsley.  I just sit silently with my head resting against the wall behind me and just watch everyone.

I notice a nurse walking up the corridor towards us with a police officer, I cringe when I recognize him as one of the officers who had dragged me and Fern out of the dive bar, I'm relieved that he doesn't look in my direction.  The nurse points towards Prelude and Dad who have their heads together again a little way down the corridor.  The nurse wanders away after exchanging a sympathetic smile with my Dad, and the police officer stands talking to my Uncle and Dad for ages.  I watch as Prelude pulls the knife out of his pocket and drops it into a plastic bag that the officer is holding open for him, I had completely forgotten that he has the knife still.

Dad walks a little way down the corridor with the police officer and they carry on talking for a while before they shake hands then the Police officer walks off up the corridor talking on his walkie talkie.   Oh boy - this suddenly looks all too serious - I guess Forrest is going to be in some trouble now!!  I start to wander about Storms part in all of this, he might also be getting into some trouble too.

Most of us are now sitting in silence and getting impatient just waiting, me for one I don't know what to say to anyone, I'm not really in the mood to make idol conversation, so I stay silent like everyone else and watch Prelude who is pacing up and down constantly.  I haven't taken my medication so my mind keeps wandering off anyway, which passes the time away for me.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, finally the theatre doors opened and a theatre nurse sticks her head out into the corridor and calls my Dad who quickly got up and disappeared through the double doors into the theatre.  Everyone is now looking silently towards the door, waiting for my Dad to emerge with some news.

He must have been in there for a good five or ten minutes before he came out again, he just stood there in the corridor looking at all of us.

I really don't like the look on his face .................



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