Restless
Recollections
February 25th, 2017
Paris France
Ema Skye shivered as a breeze whipped her brown hair into her face. She looked up at the tall brick building that would be her home for an undetermined amount of time. It looked cozy enough; red brick with fancy white trim and concrete stairs leading to a white door. However, as excited as she was to come to Europe, she was scared at the same time. She turned and watched the cab that dropped her off, drive away into the afternoon traffic. Too late to turn back now, she thought. Her boots crunched in the frozen snow as she climbed the steps. She took her crocheted mitten off and rapped on the door. Glancing to her right she saw a nameplate hung next to the door that read ‘Mourir’. Ema smiled to herself as she always thought it was a strange coincidence that Solanine, Lana’s friend from college, went into the profession she did, medical examiner at the morgue. Suddenly the door flew open and in a flurry of chocolate brown hair and gold bangles and lavender perfume, Solanine had Ema in a bear hug.
“Ema Skye!” Solanine exclaimed in a thick French accent as she let go of the teenager. “You look beautiful. You have blossomed into quite the young lady!”
“Thanks,” Ema blushed as her boots suddenly became interesting.
“Silly girl,” Solanine smiled a wide smile and gestured Ema inside. “Come in before you catch cold out here!”
After an hour of giving Ema the tour of the quaint 4-bedroom house and getting the young girl settled into her room, Solanine went to the kitchen to make tea as Ema wandered into the living room adjacent to the kitchen. She gazed over the books in the bookshelves on the far wall and instantly fell in love. Medical books and books on investigative techniques and everything in between were packed into the two bookshelves. Her eye fell on a couple of pictures that were on a side table that was between the couch and the bookshelves. Ema picked up one picture and recognized the happy couple instantly. It was Solanine and her investigator husband posed on a rock cliff somewhere. Ema noted the date was a year before he had died, ironically, in a rock climbing accident. That was 8 years ago. Around the same time her parents died.
She picked up the next picture and almost dropped it when a voice behind her startled her.
“That’s me and Sola a year ago.” Ema turned and saw the same handsome young man that was smiling in the second picture, standing in the living room with her. He had bright blue eyes and dark raven hair that was tied back loosely in a ponytail. He was wearing a green military issued jacket and a black t-shirt underneath, with torn blue jeans and worn out black Doc Martens. Ema was instantly attracted, and at the same time the hair on the back of her neck stood up.
“Uh, hi I’m …” Ema started but Sola interrupted.
“Ah, Core, you’re home!” Sola kissed him on the cheek as he groaned. “Ema this is my foster son, Corvin. Core, this is Ema, Lana Skye’s little sister, the one I told you about that will be staying with us. You two are going to get along famously! Now sit! Let’s get acquainted!” Sola gestured for them to sit.
Ema listened as Sola explained that her and her husband started the foster arrangements long before he died and they were approved. It was pure coincidence that Corvin arrived the day after her husbands funeral, saying that his previous foster dad had passed as well.
“So, where are you from? Your accent is definitely not French.” Ema asked as she took a sip of tea.
“I am originally from Russia.” Corvin responded, fiddling with a pen he had picked up from the coffee table that was between them and Sola. “I spent the first five years of my life in Krohnstadt, a tiny suburb of St. Petersburg, and then another five or so years in America, in and around New York, and now here in Paris.”
“Oui, I call him my little world traveler.” Sola’s smile lit up the room and Corvin returned it. Ema felt her heart flutter as she ducked her head and sipped on her tea.