The Ripple Effect

"Sweetie... Honey, please. You have to get up. It's not your time, Sophie. Please get up, baby girl."

I looked all around me, but this empty white space surrounded me. This voice... From where did it come? It sounded familiar and yet it sounded so far away. My feet carried me without hesitance despite the fact that I knew not where I was even going.

"No! Do not come toward us! La mia bambina... You must go back!"

The thick Italian accent filled me with warmth, and suddenly the world around me began to regain its colour. Plush beige carpet tickled the bottoms of my bare feet, and my fingers trailed over a section of sponged eggshell walls. There was a blue paisley couch in the corner with a modest television set. I Love Lucy filled the room, and tears filled my eyes.

"Mama? Papa?" I whispered, collapsing to my knees.

"Si," Papa whimpered.

My eyes scanned over him hungrily. He had not aged a day! He was exactly as I remembered him... He even wore the checkered blue sweater and khakis that he had been wearing on the night I was officially kicked out of the family.

"Oh, Papa... Is that really you? I... But Clarice and Nate said that you and Mama had passed on!"

I could not stop myself—nor could I find a reason to really try—as I sailed through the room and buried my face in his chest with my arms wrapped tightly around him. His arms wrapped tightly around me, and all of the world's troubles gently slipped into the background. My papa could always make me feel so small, so protected. So safe.

I had not felt so safe since I had left home, since I left the warm embrace of his arms. Tears slid down my cheeks.

"Papa, I thought I would never see you again," I choked, gripping his sweater in tight fists.

"I wish your thoughts were true..."

"Papa..."

"Sophie, you need to leave now, before it's too late."

I pulled myself from my father and looked to my mother as tears welled up in my eyes. My mother was a beautiful woman, so kind and sweet. She had been the perfect mother.

"I met my brother, Brian," I told her. "We both know the truth."

"I wish I could have protected you from it forever. But I failed both of you, and I can't protect you like this..."

She became translucent for a fraction of a second, and I had to look away.

"Baby, it's not your time. Please, you must leave this place."

"But I've missed you both so much! Even if you both hate me for what I've done..."

"We know the truth now. We know that..." My mother looked down as tears welled up in her blue eyes. "Why didn't you tell us? We didn't know!"

"I didn't want anyone to know. But Rein is a beautiful little boy."

She nodded. "And that is why you must go, for Rein."

"But I miss you!"

My father then took my mother's hand, and he smiled.

"You will be with us one day, but that day has not yet come. Rein, Jonathan, and our little Brian need you. You have to wake up. Wake now. For your Papa?"

Tears welled up in my eyes once more, and I slammed them shut. But I didn't want to go! Not yet! I opened my eyes quickly to deny them this request. Just a few moments more!

"Sophie, you have to wake up! Oh, God! Please wake up!"

"Papa," I whimpered, clutching the shaking hand that held mine so desperately. "Mama, please don't make me go."

"Sophie!"

I forced myself to open my eyes, but the watery gaze above me was not what I expected.

"Luca?"

"Sophie!"

I winced when he pulled me into his arms, and then I realized the horrible pain radiating throughout my left leg. This, in addition to the pain in my left arm, nearly killed me. I gritted my teeth.

"I think it's broken. You broke your left leg, and your left arm was already broken, I guess?"

I nodded.

"Well, you're going to be all right now."

I groaned, and it wasn't from the pain.

He grinned, but it was short-lived before he apologised.

"Regina is awake again, so she's going to help you. But we need to get going."

He helped me stand, and I leaned carefully against him.

"Luca... I owe you an apology."

"No, you don't."

"But I need to beg your forgiveness, even if you choose to never give it to me!"

Luca shook his head, and then he wrapped his arm tightly around me to secure my body against his more stable one.

"There is nothing you could do that could keep me from forgiving you, so there is nothing to apologise for, Sophie." His voice was so soft, so fragile.

He sounded as if he would break at any minute, as if he was the one with the broken soul to match my broken body. But why?

"But there is! I know that... All this time, I was cursing your name. But it was Daniel. I should have been damning him to hell! And he did the same thing to Lorena, didn't he? He said he had a crush on her."

Luca sighed as we started walking. This was surely going to be quite the story.