Return

A day later, the new version of the Pop family sat down for dinner again.

Their daughters were still nowhere to be seen as Hugo and Suzy started to eat. Cheryl and Saint took the sister’s usual spots, not even totally sure where the two had gone.

Cheryl couldn’t taste her pasta. Of all the things to happen to her, happy and sad… what good times she did find always seemed to be tempered by this inexplicably bad luck of hers. It was always something. She’d almost thought Frankie the exception to that rule… once upon a time.

But when she heard the knock on the door, hope rushed back into her.

Hugo was the one to open it, hurrying to see who it was before he could start worrying about his daughters still being gone. Thankfully, when the apartment’s entrance swung back, it revealed them- Katie, his first, and Frankie, his second. He was so happy to see them he didn’t even notice the looks on their disturbed faces.

Hugging them tight, he spoke in both their ears.

“I knew you’d be back.”

Wordlessly, Frankie was brought to the table, asked to pull up a chair. Cheryl wouldn’t look at her. Katie just went straight to her room- the parents thought to change, but, as they’d soon find, she wouldn’t be coming out of there for some time.

“You two have fun? Geez, don’t go running off like that!” Suzy jokingly derided, an effort to calm her quiveringly afraid heart. The syllables all but bounced off Frankie as she obediently ate. A nod was enough of a reply for her mother to be satisfied.

In time, the parents did begin to see it. The shivering fingers of the girl as she lifted her fork each time. The perfectly-affixed eyes, never looking away from the space just in front of her plate. They wanted to ask what was wrong, even if they basically knew. The end wouldn’t be sparing anyone, after all, and neither would the despair it brought with it.

By the time they finished eating, nobody had spoken beyond that. Cleanup was quick, the lot of them were tired, if not physically then certainly emotionally, and… above all else, nobody really wanted to hear what they already knew was going on.

All but one of them.