The Eraser In My Brain Moved And My Sister Disappeared Chapter 01
On New Year’s Eve, Sunny kept begging me to play hide-and-seek with her.
The moment I covered my eyes and counted to thirty, the eraser inside my head moved again.
I stood there blankly for a few seconds, then turned around, went back inside, and started watching TV.
An hour later, Mom crouched down in front of me.
“Sweetheart, where did Sunny go?”
Sunny?
I blinked. “I don’t have a sister, do I?”
Mom’s expression changed instantly.
No one ate the New Year’s Eve dinner. Everyone rushed out into the heavy snow.
But no matter how hard they searched, they could not find Sunny.
Mom raised her hand and swung hard at my face, her eyes red.
“Didn’t I tell you to play with Sunny properly? Didn’t I tell you to keep your eyes on her every second?”
“Where is she now? Which way did she go? Tell me!”
I was shoved to the ground and fell into the snow.
“Why couldn’t you have been the one who got lost, you stupid little idiot? You can’t remember anything anyway!”
“You forgot Sunny this time. What about next time? Are you going to forget me and your dad too?”
Mom tried to rush at me again, but Dad stopped her.
They kept crying.
I felt awful too.
She was right. Why hadn’t I been the one who got lost?
Dad caught Mom’s wrist just inches from my face.
“Enough!” Dad’s voice was hoarse. “She’s sick. She’s sick, do you understand that?”
“That’s exactly why I told her not to take Sunny even one step out of the house!”
Mom yanked her hand free from Dad’s grip, but she did not come closer again.
She only stared at me with those bloodshot eyes.
“She’s only four. Where could she possibly go in snow like this?”
She was four?
I wanted to speak, but no sound came out.
Was the sister she meant only four?
But my mind was completely blank.
The only things left were the rerun of a comedy sketch on the New Year’s Eve countdown special and the snow swirling all around us.
The neighbors came over when they heard the commotion.
“Keep looking. She can’t have gone far. Maybe she went to a friend’s house?”
Dad grabbed Mom and pulled her to her feet.
“Why are you still sitting here? Get up and help us look! It’s no use talking to Sienna right now!”
For one moment, Mom seemed to snap back to herself. “Right. I have to find my Sunny.”
Mom stopped looking at me. She picked up a flashlight and walked out.
Everyone called Sunny’s name.
I stood there alone, my mind completely blank.
“Sunny? Wasn’t Sunny my name?”
My memory had slipped back to when I was three years old.
Back then, Mom and Dad called me Sunny too.
“Sienna Miller! Why are you standing there? Come help us find Sunny!”
Sienna.
Why did my name change again?
Forget it. If I could not understand it, I would stop trying.
I had just gotten to my feet when I heard someone shouting in the distance.
“We found her! Sunny is over here!”
Everyone rushed toward the old oak at the edge of town. Beside it was a shallow hollow almost buried under the snow.
Sunny was inside.
Her face was bluish-purple, and her hair was crusted with ice.
Mom let out a wail and threw herself toward her.
“Sunny! My Sunny!”
As if Sunny sensed something, she opened her eyes, but she looked straight at me.
“Sienna, why didn’t you come find me?”
She started crying.
“You promised you would come find me after you counted to thirty. I was already hiding. I kept waiting for you.”
Mom whipped her head around to look at me. Then she gently set Sunny down and walked toward me.
The slap landed after all.
My left ear started ringing at once.
“Are you happy now?”
Mom’s voice trembled with rage. “Are you satisfied after seeing her almost freeze to death?”
“How did I ever give birth to a child like you?”
“This illness, this damn illness, made you forget Sunny and us. Will you finally be satisfied when one day you even forget who you are?”
Her tears finally spilled over.
“Or were you doing it on purpose? Were you pretending not to remember so she would stay out here alone in the freezing snow and die?”
“Enough.”
Dad finally spoke, but all he did was pull Sunny closer into his arms.
“We need to take Sunny home and warm her up. The doctor is on his way.”
No one said a word for me.
I did not know how to defend myself either, because this was my fault.
Mom gave me one last hate-filled look.
“Then you stay here. Feel for yourself how cold and scared Sunny was.”
They turned and left.
The neighbors saw what was happening, but no one knew what to say. One by one, they went home.