Nightmares Aren't Just For Sleep

My name is Medline Francoise Woodlock-Evslin and this is my story.

I was born on February 28, 1997 in Paris. My mother, Francoise Alexandrine Teddingson died having me. My father John-Paul Evslin raised my brother, Colby and me alone. We moved a lot, by the age of three I’d lived in Ohio, Washington, California, and Alaska in the USA. Paris, Nice, Strasbourg and Clermont-Ferrand in France. And every state and territory in Australia.

My fourth birthday was in Paris at my Auntie Roxanna, my dad’s twin sister’s house. This night will never be forgotten.

All my family that lived in or around Paris was there, sitting at the dining room table. My Favorite Uncle, Uncle Alexe was sitting next to me laughing about a time when I got lost in Melbourne. How I asked for directions back to the hotel, when I was two.

When he started gasping, the chair fell out from under him, my family were screaming. Colby called for help well my eldest cousin Gabriela was seeing to him. I backed away in to the corner never the self full of plates. My face was covered in tears and I was scried. My father and Aunt were crying hard. Everyone was crying.
“He’s dead,” Gabby whispered grabbing hold of her twin brother Christen. No one was watching me when fell in to the self knocking it. It rocked, plates falling, smashing across the floor. My father ran forward but it was too late the self fell forward knocking me out.

I open my eyes; I was lying on a cold hospital bed, people talking in French all around me. My head felt like it had split in too. I could speak very little when I was young though both were spoken at home. So I didn’t know what was being said.

My father grabbed hold of me crying, I was confused. Why was I in hospital? I wrapped my arms around him regardless of what was going on. When her let me go. I placed my hand to my head, it was bandaged.

“Nurse!” My father called in French. When the nurse came in he asked for pain medicine.

I found out later after I’d woken that Uncle Alexe was dead and I’d been asleep for 31 hours after the self fell.

When I got out of hospital, my father took me to Auntie’s Roxanna’s. Being in the house gave my flash back to my birthday the one I wanted to forget. My Aunt was packing, she was moving back to Australia to get away from the nightmare of her husband death and we were going with her. Not all her kids were coming just her three youngest. The other weren’t hers but Uncle Alexe’s sister kids. She’d died before I was born and Uncle Alexe and Auntie Roxanna took her four kids in. Gabby & Christen (19) their little brother Audric (16) and little sister Aimee (14) were stay in house were they watched our Uncle die. The three that were coming with us were Cerise (13), Rachael (9) and Bernard (7).

We moved to Shepparton were Cerise went to Shepp high school and Rachael, Colby and Bernard went to Gowrie Street primary. Cerise spoke French and English as well as each other. Rachael and Bernard hadn’t lived in Seymour as long as Cerise so their English wasn’t very good. They were all born there in Seymour and spent a little while living in the house I’m in now. Bernard being the youngest only spent a couple of month there.

After a while living in Shepp My father but me in to a day-care ran by someone called Jan. I made friend quickly. The day-care was small and had red fence and a green monkey bar thing that wasn’t really one.

But this part of my life was quite, Rachael was having play dates with a 6 yr old named Ashton.

My Father loved having her around my auntie didn’t. She’d go on and on about how Rachael could be working on her Ballet with my brother. My family have been doing Ballet since the late 1800s early 1900s. I couldn’t dance so I was never part of it. But Colby stayed with Auntie Roxanna to dance which was his life.

This was the longest I’d ever stayed in one town. I never went to Gowrie Street; I went to St. Breden (sp?) a privet school. We stayed in Shepparton for three years.

All of us moved back to Paris were we all attended a privet schools. Colby started snicking out at night and I lied to cover him. He never told me were her went but he came back bloody most nights. He and Rachael were getting ready for a show when and tall, scary looking guy came in to the dressing room where I was helping Rachael and Colby in to their costume.

He told Colby, “When you’re finished here you know were to meet us.” He handed Colby and envelope and left without another word.

I never thought much of it then but after this year ever thing was uncovered.

I watched them dance wishing I could, I sat with Bernard who now went by just B. and my father.

Life was good, I was attending balls and party with Rachael. With always made me feel like a princess.

I started getting phone calls from a guy named Chase but my father had them blocked almost start away.

Rachael met a guy at one of our ball early last year while still in France. He was sweet kind and a guy Auntie Roxanna approved of. His name was Hank

It was at a Christmas tea that reminds me of my fourth birthday.

I was having Rachael help me in to my dress when I saw Colby side stepping across the balcony wearing not his suite but jeans and shirt. I sighed shaking my head a little. Why is he snicking out on Christmas night?

I pushed the thought from my mind as I turned to look at myself in the mirror. I liked beautiful and not eleven. I could have passed for a fifthteen sixteen year old. My dress was a dark blue that clange to my body like nothing. It was made of light material. It along with my pale skin and dark hair made me look older.

This night was beautiful the best Christmas party I’d ever been too. We left early as my father and Aunt Roxanna wanted us home for a family Christmas tea. We were sitting at the table waiting for Colby. I didn’t say I’d seen him snick out.

Auntie Roxanna said we weren’t waiting any longer. We ate without Colby but stayed sited will my pig of a cousin B. Continued to eat.

We heard him before we saw him. Colby came stumbling in coved in blood and bruise the worst I’d seen him come home with.

“D...Da...Dad” He spat blood across me and my dress and feel to his knee holding on to our father, gasping. Again I didn’t get what my father was telling Colby till this year. He took Colby to the hospital came home three hours later without Colby and told us to pack. I begged to stay here everything was great but my begging did no good.

We moved back to Australia... to Seymour.