As Perceived by Crystellen Treasure 4

In the kitchen I searched for our boxes of instant tea.  I didn’t drink the stuff, but Mom and Grandma drank enough of it that we ought to have some in here.  In the cabinet over the sink, I found a box of chai tea, grabbed several packets, and ran back to where Losten laid.

I turned to Mom.  “What if he eats the dried tea leaves?  Maybe that’ll help?”

Before she could answer, Grandma walked into the room.  My thoughts raced too much for me to hear everything she said, but she instructed Em to pour the tea packets in Losten’s mouth.  Before she left the room, she and Mom had another spat about how she had poisoned Dad years ago.  Somehow I knew this wouldn’t be their last.  I loved Grandma, but I wish she lived with our cousins instead of us.  But, she would probably say we lived with her, since she had lived in this house long before I was ever born.

A while later, Mom turned to me and asked why I poisoned Losten.  Do we really have to go through this again, I thought.  Didn’t I already explain this once to you?

Emerys and I had an exchange before I blurted out my thoughts.  “I was trying to protect us!”  “You just brought him here, with no idea who he was.  He could still be Manicotti for all you know.  Someone has to protect us.  Didn’t you think it a little coincidental that you saved the same guy twice?  That the guy you pull out of a car just happens to offer to tutor you in math?  How many other guys at school offered to tutor you?  And, he just happens to see your tail?  You think all of this is coincidence?”

Emerys glared back at me.  Why didn’t anyone appreciate what I had done?  Losten just happened to be saved by my sister and just happened to learn our secret.  Why was I the only one who had found that too coincidental?