My First Little Sister

We knock on the door and listen for any reply, we don't hear any response. I'm about to knock again when Marcia just grasps the doorknob and opens the door barging in. The room is super basic, she clearly hasn't gotten to the stage where she gets to purchase stuff to make the room her own. We scan the room walking inside looking for Madeline, she isn't in the bed and there doesn't appear to be anyone in the open closet either. Then we spot her against the back wall on the other side of the bed. I look at Marcia to see what she is going to do, but she's already gone. I look down and see she's dropped to her hands and knees and is crawling over to Madeline. I shrug and just follow her lead crawling on all fours after her.
Madeline had her head covered against her knees, but with all the sound had looked up to meet Marcia's eyes. Marcia doesn't say anything yet and keeps crawling until she's right next to Madeline, climbing up to sit against the wall next to her. I post myself up against the other wall across from Madeline since Marcia has to do all the talking anyway and I'm really just backup.
"Hello, my name is Marcia." She says with a slight smile. Madeline does not respond, but continues to stare at Marcia. "I have heard a little about you, heard a name for you but maybe there's a name you want me to call you?"
Madeline dropped her face into her knees and made sounds that were impossible to not tell were tears. "I don't remember my old name either." Marcia continued. "It was once on the tip of my tongue, like it was right there just on the other side of a dream-like veil. But I couldn't ever find the right one that fit in my mouth correctly."
Madeline continued to cry into her knees. Marcia scooted closer, "I bet they asked you if you could come up with a new name, did you pick Madeline? Or did the staff pick that pretty name for you?"
Through sniffles Madeline spoke up, "I..picked it."
"Ah! Well it's a pretty good name, any special reason?"
"My mom.. She liked music by someone with that name.." Madeline looked up from her knees, "I wanna see my mom! Why won't they let me!" More tears rivered from her young eyes. It certainly invoked the feeling of wanting to cry as well.
"Do you know why you are here? Did they tell you?" Marica said in a calming voice, moving a bit closer to Madeline again.
"They...They want me to be a girl and make me wear-" Madeline was cut off by Marcia suddenly grabbing her hand. "It's because you've been called to protect your home and all your favorite people. You've been given a gift not many people get to have, and your mom is just so proud of you that she has to stay away so you can focus on being the best Magical Girl ever."
"But I don't wanna be a Magical Girl, I want my mom! They said she..thinks I'm dead..." Madeline sniffled.
Marcia clicked her tongue in a sudden loud annoyed sound which startled me. "Whoever told you that is a total idiot! Why, they messed up the message completely!" Madeline looked up again with teary eyes. "Huh..?"
"Yeah!" Marcia continued, "See the message you were supposed to get is that your old identity is dead! See, you're like a superhero now, so you have a new identity which protects your family and all your favorite people from being targeted by super evil bad people! That's why they have to stay away until you're powerful and trained up and ready to see them again!"
Madeline wiped snot from her upper lip, “Rr-Really?”
Marcia grins the most believable promising smile I think I had ever seen in my life. Even though I knew the truth of everything I still felt like I could believe every word that smile spoke. “Madeline, your mother is out there waiting so excited to see her baby on the TV protecting everyone. You haven’t even started your training, and yet I know she’s already so proud of you I’m sure!”“So..I can see her when I’m done being a hero?” Madeline said with some whistle to her speech.
“Of course, you just keep on focusing on doing what these silly doctors ask of you and before you know it you’ll be able to head on home!”
Madeline sniffed more as she cleared her throat, calming down. “It’s very scary here. I don’t..I don’t like it.”
Marcia chuckled. “Well real soon they’re going to let you go on a shopping spree to fill this room with tons of fun stuff you can enjoy while you’re here training as a hero! Why I wouldn’t be surprised if after we’re done talking here we can’t arrange for them to let you start shopping real soon!” 
“Wha..What sort of stuff can I buy? Like..” She glanced around nervously, “Is there limits to what I can get..?”
“If there are two toys you want you can get them both! Three? You can do it! You’re gonna get tons of cool stuff if you ask for it!” 
“Woohoo!” Madeline shot upward, but she’d been curled up for so long she immediately crashed back down from her legs being asleep, toppling right onto Marcia. Madeline looked afraid for a moment, like she was expecting to get yelled at, but Marcia only laughed repositioning her on her lap.“Are you going to stay here?” Madeline asked looking up at Marcia.
Marcia shook her head, “Sorry kiddo, but we have to go back to our house to work on our training.”  Madeline’s lip began to quiver, but Marcia wasn’t finished. “But we can come to play sometimes I think. And if you end up deciding to get a flip phone and maybe a tv we could become phone pals, how does that sound?”
“Phone pals? What’s that?” She shifted.
“Well, do you like Adventures of Maxwell Powers?” Marcia asked, naming some kid’s show I had only heard of from someone else in my past I can’t picture.
“You bet I do!” Madeline cheered loudly.
“Well if we become phone pals we can call every saturday after it airs and talk about it, that sounds fun?”
“You can watch cartoons here!? I can’t believe it!” Madeline grinned rocking in Marcia’s lap.
“Totally! Just make sure you ask for a TV and cable box when the shopping time comes, oh and the flip phone of course!” 
“I will, I will! You’re the best- uh..” Madeline paused, seemingly trying to remember Marcia’s name.
“Big sis Marcia, that’s me!” Marcia smiled, petting Madeline’s head.
Madeline giggled as she tried to fight off Marcia’s petting. “Thanks big sis Marcia! I’ll make sure to get that stuff!”
“Very good, I’m glad to see you smiling more. You’re quite a cutie when you smile.”
Madeline made a sour expression, “I don’t wanna have to be cute! Can’t I be a strong muscle hero!”
“Afraid not, the scary monsters we fight called Spawn are only weak to cute Magical Girls, that’s why you and I got turned into these forms. Gotta harness those monstrous Spawn’s fear and use it against them!”
Madeline sighed, “Oh, I see, that’s too bad.” 
“Well if you want to know a secret I might know a little something to make it better.”
“A secret!?” Madeline perked up.
“Yeah a pretty secretive secret, can I trust you with it?” Marcia smirked.
“Of course! I’ve got no one to tell anyway!” She smiled.
“Well okay, here goes! Even though everyone may think you are a girl, it’s still totally fine to secretly be a boy inside. Think you’d like that?” Madeline nodded excitedly.
Marcia rubbed her chin in a thinking expression. “Then we must dub you a secret boy name. Madeline, from this moment on in your mind and in your whispers you may henceforth be called Adel. How about that?”
“Adel?” She tilted her head in confusion.
“Sure! I mean remove the “M” and then remove the “ine” and bam you get “Adel”! The perfect secret name for the undercover boy!”
“I see! I like it!” She cheered, throwing her hands upward almost hitting Marcia’s face. “But look Adel, you must remember you’re still undercover, that means you have to do your best to pretend to be Madeline and act as a girl ought to.”
“...but.” She moaned.
“No buts! If your cover is blown bad things will happen I promise you!” Marcia seemed so serious I almost felt scared as well.
“I..understand..” Madeline sighed, accepting defeat. 
“Okay then, me and my friend Soph have to leave now, I hope to see you in high spirits when we visit next time. Okay?” Marcia raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll try…” Madeline nodded. “It’s very lonely here, I hope you come back real soon!”
Marcia moved her off of her lap. “Well good news, just like how I’ve got Soph here, you should be getting some new friends coming to live across the hall from you too! Three whole new friends, all just like you figuring out their new hero identities.”
Madeline seemed in real good spirits hearing that. Following us out of her room and jumping at Doctor Tret the moment she saw him launching out demands to get to go shopping immediately. He gave us a thankful smile as we walked off towards where we hoped Miss Gretchen would be waiting for us smoking or something.
As me and Marcia walk down the hall I hold up my board to her, “THAT WAS REALLY COOL OF YOU. YOU’RE REALLY GOOD WITH KIDS.”
Marcia rubbed the back of her head, “Oh shucks, I just had some experience in my past life. Or so I think, the memories are fuzzy.”
I write again on my board. “SO DO YOU STILL IN YOUR MIND THINK OF YOURSELF AS A GUY?”I fidget a bit hoping that wasn’t too personal of a question to ask.
“Oh, ah nah I don’t. I might have done it when I first became a Magical Girl, but that trick has an unfortunate twist.”
I tilt my head confused. She sighs, “As Madeline grows over the next year she’ll slowly begin making so many memories as a girl her mind will begin having trouble remembering why exactly she was trying to cling to her old life. A Magical Girl’s pills have a way of pushing out any desire to hold onto that sort of thing.”
I drag a big “OH.” onto my board.
“Worse still, she’s going to forget her mother’s face. I gave her hope she’d see her again, but really that’s never going to happen. But I can only hope we can stay friends and she can appreciate my intent when she gets older and realizes.”
I nod in agreement. Surely she will see the love in why you told her all of that. I write again, “DO YOU REALLY PLAN TO CALL HER EVERY WEEKEND?”
Marcia smirked, “Are you kidding? I’ve been dying to have someone to talk to about kid’s cartoons. That is the best part for me, I get to watch her grow and have someone to talk about cartoons with!”
We end up finding Miss Gretchen right where we expected to find her, smoking right next to the car. She acknowledges us and puts her cigarette out climbing into the driver’s seat. We take off back home to our office, on our drive back I think about everything I got to witness on this trip. I wasn’t all that helpful, but man my respect for Marcia is at an all time high! Next time I see Madeline I wanna ask if I can be a “big sis” as well. For some reason it makes me feel a happy tingly feeling when I imagine getting called “Big Sis Sophia.”
We arrive back in Marrowsvile, and park in the building’s garage. With shaky legs I return to my room, crashing down on the side of my bed. Like what has become a bad habit at this point, I end up passed out fast asleep without changing my clothes or climbing fully into bed.