Right Where We Belong

"I can't find it!" Jamie yelled, her voice sounding shrill this time. I knew why my sister was upset, but it didn't stop me from flinching a little before I leaned back towards her.

"It's going to be alright Jamie," I said trying to use a gentle tone as I stroked her back. "We'll find it." Poor Jamie was so afraid. It made me furious. I could almost forgive the insane antics that she was currently going through. As much as I understood them though, they irritated me. For a girl who was nineteen years old, she had never been able to act that and it bothered me.

Unshed tears shone in Jamie's eyes as I looked down on them. "How do you know Thea?" Jamie groaned. She was so childlike at this moment. It was moments like this when I felt guilt for being agitated with her. She wasn't this way because she wanted to be. She was this way because shew as falling apart again. It didn't happen often, but when it did...

Well I usually left that part to Annie.

"Because we're not going to stop looking until we find it," I promised her. I looked over at Annie already knowing she agreed with me. Where I had always been the diplomatic one of the family, Annie had never been one to keep from throwing a punch. Some days that was a good thing. Some days, it truly worried me.

"I have a pretty good idea where it is Jamie," Annie said gruffly. Her pretty face was adorned with her usual scowl as she tried not to show how much our little sister's pain was killing her. "I'll get it back to you, don't worry."

"Thank you Annie," Jamie whispered as she clung to me. Annie left us alone. It was quiet in our apartment as I sat with Jamie and waited for Annie's return with the lost treasure. I hated that our lives had become this. We were rather pathetic. We relied on each other and damn the world. Even work was undependable and scare. Not for lack of effort mind, but just for lack it would appear. Or maybe it was spite. Maybe it was uncaring. Maybe it was just life's typical cruelty. I do not know. All I knew was that we were desperate and near destitute again. It was an endless cycle. It was life. So ordinary that I should not have been surprised by it. But it was still painful and disappointing.

Especially when I had to watch Jamie suffer like this.

Annie was a half hour gone before she returned. She tossed Jamie's treasure to the fragile girl's waiting hands. Jamie took it and a peaceful look stole over her face. She slid the ring on her finger and stared at it. It had been our mother's wedding ring. A silver band was etched with Celtic designs. We each had one thing left from our mother. When it came to our father, we hadn't gotten so lucky, or unlucky if you asked Annie. We had no pictures of them. A few memories. It was rather pathetic really, a sad parallel to our lives. It was a near and inescapable truth. We just left it at that. Annie's gift from our mother was hidden, as always. It was simple. A silver armband that could always be found adorning her upper arm, an heirloom that had been brought over from Scotland some two hundred years before. I had a Celtic knot pendant that had once been on a simple silver chain. Now it was held around my neck by a thin strip of leather.

These things were the most precious things in the world to us. It was no wonder that it seemed to be the only thing that kept our sister...well...sane. After all that she had gone through, most people expected her to be institutionalized and forgotten. We had refused and little by little, we had tried to create a world for her that might save her from the darkness that had been forced onto her as a child when we couldn't protect her. Every time that ring was taken, and there was no doubt in my mind that it had been taken too, it was like a symbol of that powerlessness we had all felt then.

"Let's get out of the house," Jamie finally interjected into the silence.

Annie and I looked at her calmly. I was curious in truth. Annie was scowling. "Why do we want to leave the apartment again?" Annie growled.

"Because you're going to go out and kill someone if we don't go with you," Jamie said simply.

Annie's scowl deepened and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The truth was written on Annie's face. She had been considering going out and hurting someone. I knew immediately it was whoever had taken Jamie's ring. She wouldn't have taken the time to do it when she retrieved the treasure. Her utmost thoughts would have been turned towards our sister. Now there was time to think of revenge though and Annie had always enjoyed meting such things out. And Jamie knew, could read us both like books. It was always refreshing when she did it to Annie though. She had too many secrets.

"Jamie is right Annie. We can't afford to have you talk your way out of another assault charge. One of these days, the judge is going to stop fining you and actually throw you in jail," I pointed out. The scowl she gave me told me that she knew I was right which was why I pressed my luck a few moments longer. "And if it were anyone else, I would say good riddance, but you happen to be my sister and for some reason, I care about you. Silly thing isn't it?"

"You care too much Thea," Annie growled standing up. Even as she turned, I could see the hint of a smile tipping her lips. I had won yet again. That gave me a bit of pride. It wasn't easy to beat Annie, but every now and then I could get it done. "Alright, where do you want to go?"

Jamie and I exchanged glances and I inclined my head slightly. Jamie's face lit up. We all knew what she was going to say before the words slipped from her lips but we allowed them to slip out nonetheless. "The trails," she announced with a firm nod of her head.

Annie groaned causing me to laugh again as she gave into Jamie's enthusiasm. "Let's get to it then. I want to be there and back before sundown."