Intermission Yuliya & Sofiya

It had been a week since we left Belle Reve, and Skylar still hadn't spoken. She hadn't even sat up in the wagon. Everyone was worried, but we didn't know what we could do.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Yuliya swore up and down that she knew exactly what to do, but the timing was what mattered. For the first time, we learned a bit about the sisters that we didn't know.

According to Yuliya, they were both daughters to a very wealthy Russian politician. However, he was also a dirty politician, with ties to the underworld. These ties had caused attacks on his family back when they lived in Russia. In fact, it was the reason they moved to America. When they were seven and six, they had an older brother named Yuri. Yuliya absolutely adored her brother. He doted on both of them equally, but he always did the things Yuliya wanted to do even though he didn't like them. With Sofiya they both enjoyed learning about the world and how things worked. It was easy to get along with her. Yuliya recognized how much effort he put into his relationship with her.

One day, she decided she wanted to learn to skateboard, but her parents refused to buy her one. Crying to her brother was her next course of action.

"Don't worry little Yuli. I will get you a skateboard, no problem." He said with a wink.

Part of her already knew he'd say that. He spoiled them both rotten. He convinced his parents to let him get a job saying it would be a good experience for him, and with the money he made from it he bought her a skateboard.

It wasn't long after that their mother caught on, but seeing the effort her oldest son put in, she let Yuliya keep it. Yuri promised he'd look after her and teach her how to use it properly. This included going to the local skatepark.

This is where the trouble with their father came in.

After a few months of practice, Yuliya and Yuri became very proficient in skateboarding. But spending so much time at the same place regularly gave their father's enemies something to use against him. One day while they were skating, two men came up to them and told them to come with them, or they would hurt their mother. Yuri pleaded with them to just take him, but when they wouldn't listen, he tossed the skateboard to Yuliya and told her to run. 

She did as she was told, but later she learned that her brother and mother were taken from her. Gone forever. It threw her into the depths of despair.

Sofiya struggled too, but using her brother's various guide books, history books, and other such materials, she felt closer to him and pulled through.

Yuliya only had the skateboard, and it was because she took it herself that he was gone. One day, Sofiya was carrying some of his books around when she dropped one. Yuliya followed behind her and picked it up. When she opened it to inspect it, it was blank.

"Why is this one not full of words?" Yuliya asked.

Sofiya looked at it then remembered. "Brother Yuri wrote his feelings in those ones. He said he feels better."

That night, Yuliya took the book and a pen, and wrote her heart out. As she wrote she cried and cried. But with each tear, she felt lighter. She cried herself to sleep, but when she woke the next morning, she felt like her brother was right there with her.

After she told us the story, we didn't have anything left to say. She was so sure that Skylar needed it, but she needed time to want to move on. If anyone forced it on her, she would shut down further.

We stopped at a soon after, and while there Yuliya bought a journal and writing utensils. She stowed them in her bag, ready to hand them over when Skylar was ready.