Lost Future

|December 22nd, 2009|

Aurelia Neve 'Elia' Black was still dressed in light-grey joggers and a dark-purple t-shirt, but she was no longer sat at the desk writing in her new journal. The sun had risen to bring about a new day and the young newly-nine-year-old was making her way down the stairs to greet her family.

Her mother, Elena, a beautiful woman with mahogany curls quite a bit tamer than hers had previously been and soft eyes that matched her own. She was a healthy weight for her respectable height of five-six and her skin held a nice tan that lingered even in the middle of winter. The woman was in her late twenties and dressed in a pair of casual jeans with an AC/DC t-shirt and heeled combat boots. Her hair was tied into a cute loose bun and her face was nearly bare of makeup giving her a natural look.

She looked much different from the woman she had become in the future. It was only fifteen years, but time hadn't passed easily for the woman. Years of drugs and alcohol had changed her, but the woman was strong. She'd gotten clean to see her daughter become a woman she was proud of and had her own flourishing greenhouse before Elia had died.

It was the man standing next to her that really looked different. Stephen was her stepfather, a handsome man in his mid-thirties with blonde curls and blue eyes. He'd been going grey and beginning to wrinkle at the turn of fifty years, with heart problems from years of substance and alcohol abuse. Before her was a strong man that hadn't take a beating from life and peacefully separated from the love of his life. He stood tall and strong with muscles from honest work and was dressed very similar to his wife.

"Morning." Elia greeted softly as she padded into the kitchen wearing her new black-and-white converse shoes. The two adults turned their attention from making breakfast to the child that entered the room. They were unsure of how to interact with her, even after nearly a year of discussing and preparing for her to live full time with them.

"Hey, Darling." Elena greeted as she poured a glass of orange juice and handed it to her daughter. She noticed her hair was in a sleek ponytail and silently wondered when her kid had learned to do that when just a month earlier, at their last weekend sleepover, she'd been unable to tame it into anything more than a loose braid.

"Morning, Neve." Stephen greeted softly as he made her a plate of bacon and eggs, sliding it across the counter to where she'd taken a seat on a bar stool. "Anything you want to do for winter break?"

Elia tilted her head in consideration as she shoved a bite of cheesy scrambled eggs into her mouth. She finished the bite before coming to a decision. "Can I get a library card?" She asked curiously. At nine, the only thing she'd messed up was her future as a competitive gymnast.

"You want to check out books?" Elena asked wondering if her child was serious. Previously the only time she'd actually sit down and read a book was when she had to for school.

"Yup." Elia stated wrinkling her nose as she took a sip of orange juice. She loved orange juice, just not with scrambled eggs.

Elia figured since she was back in school, she could do it right and put in some effort. With any luck she could check out some workbooks for various subjects and do them in a notebook. It would give her something to do when she got bored.

"Okay." Stephen stated after sharing a look with his wife who could only shrug in response. Who were they to discourage the expansion of her education. "We can head over there in a few hours. Anything else besides read a book or two?"

"Uh... Can we go ice skating?" Elia asked after a minute trying to think of something she wished she had done when she was younger. "Oh, and rent a movie?"

"Sure." Elena said hesitantly, confused. Elia hadn't been very excited about the move and spent her entire birthday subdued.

"Did you still want to spend Christmas Eve with your grandparents?" Stephen asked the girl he thought of as his own. "The twins will be there along with Isaac and Iris."

Elia immediately thought of the cousins she'd left in the future.

Maya, the eldest of her cousins and one of the twins, was a dance teacher and had been a teenage mother to a beautiful little girl named Maria. Mara, the youngest of the twins and second oldest of her cousins, was a kindergarten teacher and married with a beautiful baby boy named Michael. Iris, the third oldest, was an author for children's books and had three of her own: Evan, Emma, and Ethan. Isaac, the youngest, was a college football player and future doctor.

The rest haven't even been born yet so she pushed them and their futures from her mind. She'd always been closer to these four, the younger ones yet to come had always thought of her as their aunt rather than first cousin.

"Yeah." Elia agreed with a soft smile while trying to picture them as they are in the present, young four-and-five-year-olds with innocence and young personalities. It was difficult and she could only conjure a vague image in her head.

"Then we'll rent the movie tomorrow and go ice skating the day after Christmas." Elena decided taking the empty plates and glasses over to the sink.

"There is another conversation we need to have." Stephen announced causing Elia to look between the two curiously. She didn't know what they wanted to talk about as this hadn't happened before which just proved to her that she was changing things for better or worse.

"Right." Elena said leaving the dishes in the sink to stand with Stephen. "We talked about it and if you want an allowance then you need to do chores."

"Okay?" She said not meaning for it to come off as question. She had expected this, she had grown up with very little allowance due to her reluctance to even keep her bedroom clean as a child. Then she remembered that at this age her chores had been very minimal and had physical rewards like a candy bar or trip to the park.

"This is the chore chart; we're going to put it in the entertainment center of the living room." Stephen said holding up a laminated poster. "Each chore done will get a sticker and at the end of the week, the number of the stickers will be counted for each chore before we give you the money."

"There's like twenty chores on here." Elia told them while observing the chores. "Sweeping and mopping my bedroom? Doing my own laundry?" She looked up at them in disbelief.

"You get money for picking up after yourself." Elena said giving her daughter an amused smile. "Things like keeping your room clean and doing your own dishes and laundry are important life skills that'll help you become more responsible."

"I get a dollar for every piece of homework that comes back with an 'A' and five dollars for every 'A' on my report card?" Elia asked curiously. That's easily five dollars a week and possible fifty dollars every twelve weeks.

"It's incentives to do well in school." Stephen explained. "We talked to the guidance counselor at your new school when we were enrolling you and she gave us the idea of positive incentives to get you to do chores and keep your grades up."

"This is like thirty bucks a week." Elia said estimating as there were more than thirty chores on that chart.

"We're hoping you'll learn to save your money for big stuff like a new bedding set, new shoes, clothes, or even a tablet." Elena said with a grin seeing that their worry was for nothing. She was taking this very well, she even seemed excited.

"Cool." Elia said grinning as plans began to form in her head. She'd long learned that nothing came for free and didn't like owing anyone anything. She was too young at the moment to get a job, but now she had a way to earn her own money to pay for the things she wanted and to build a savings.

"On another note, we do have some rules." Stephen started while sharing a proud look with his wife. They'd worried how their wild child would take all the changes, but she was surpassing all of their expectations.

"Of course." Elia said looking like she'd expected this, and she did. Even at twenty-four she wasn't exempt from the rules of the house... her grandmother didn't let people eat or drink or wear shoes in her living room.

"Rule one, no cussing under any circumstances. We know that you've heard plenty of cussing, but we don't want to hear one word of it out of your mouth." Elena said with resignation. Lord knew everyone in her family cussed often, even herself and her husband were guilty of cussing often.

"Rule two, if we're not with you then you best be back inside before the sun sets." Stephen said knowing she'd play outside well past dark if there were lights. "Rule three, never go anywhere without one of us knowing where you're going and when you'll be back."

"That means going to the park around the corner. Until you're older, one of us will have to be with you for you to go any further than we can see from the porch." Elena said with a stern expression knowing that eventually she'd break that rule or give some pushback. "Rule four, your homework is finished and your room in clean before you go outside."

"Rule five, if you want a friend over, we need an hour warning and if you want more than one friend over, we need to know a day ahead." Stephen said having been the one to suggest this rule. He knew that Elia would make friends, but he didn't want them to practically live there.

"Sounds fair." Elia said after nearly a minute where nothing was said. She didn't have any problems with those rules. They were perfectly understandable.

"Great." Elena said with a wide grin. "Let's go get you a library card."

The family of three walked outside and climbed into the dark-green 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was nearly five years old but was well cared for and a good car. Their light-blue pickup truck was left in the driveway as they pulled onto the road and headed through town.

The library was relatively empty with only a few people scattered about and the librarian sat behind the counter. "How can I help you?" The woman asked, her nameplate announced her as Mrs. Greene.

"Our daughter would like to get a library card and maybe check out a few books." Elena said giving the woman a smile.

"That's wonderful." Mrs. Greene said kindly, giving Elia a smile. "If you could fill this form out, I'll process a card for her while you look for any books you'd like to check out."

Elia spent the time her parents took to fill out the form looking at the layout of the library to figure out where she would need to look for the workbooks she wanted to check out. Then she led her parents to the children's section and quickly found the ones she wanted to start with. It was a collection with twelve workbooks per subject and a total of eight subjects. She grabbed the first of each and carried them to the counter with the help of her parents.

"Studying for school?" Mrs. Greene asked as she scanned a card and then handed it to Elia. It had the library name and address along with her full name and nickname, the date of her birth, the date it was issued, and the date it will expire.

"I'm doing a project." Elia told the kind aging woman with a wide smile.

"It's a good series." Mrs. Greene said scanning another book. "It's supposed to cover all the most important information of each subject for each school year."

"I moved schools a lot." Elia admitted not ashamed of her failings in certain areas of knowledge. She'd never realized how much she missed until she became an adult.

"Then this is the perfect set of books for you to start with." Mrs. Greene said handing the stack over the Stephen. "Those are due exactly one month from today."

"Thank you." Elia said as they walked out and climbed into the car. The drive home was silent and contemplative. Stephen and Elena were wondering if their daughter was struggling in school and what they could do to help her while Elia was contemplating which subject to start with and which color to use for which subject.