I am currently in my last year of University and have been living away from home for about 6 months. I know it might be strange for a student to take so long to leave their home, but in my family it was the norm to stay as long as possible within the confines of the house under the close watch of Mother.
For some context, I grew up in a family of 7, Mother and Father, my older brothers (triplets), my younger sister and me. We lived in a fairly modern house designed by Father, and throughout the years as my brothers left their rooms were torne down, almost as if they were erased from the family once they moved out. My brothers are 4 years older than me and now that I think about it I haven’t seen them since they left the house. Not once. We were homeschooled for our primary and secondary education and for university we have all gone to St Bangsty, a religous university in the nearby city.
Our house is in the outskirts of a big city, although it is surrounded by neighbours. Mother never let us talk to the neighbours, she said they mean to harm us and that we should never even look out the windows. There were many house rules like this, Father even carved them to the walls of each of our rooms. I can’t remember them verbatum because they became background habits in my life but they went a bit like this:
1(a). Bedtime is always 10 pm, if you are up later than this Mother will get angry.
(b)If Mother is angry you must hide in the compartment under your bed until she tells you the cookies are ready. Keep food in compartment, it may be a while.
Do NOT talk to the neighbours or even look at them, they will harm you.
If you are in the living room and there is one lizard on the curtain, pick it up, it is lonely. If there are more call Father, he is the only one that can dispose of them.
Mother can’t read. Send father letters if you need things or if you are scared. Do NOT let Mother see you, she will get jealous.
Mother has no baby, if she is carrying one pretend to play with it and run to Father, he will find the owner of the child.
The list goes on and on with bizarre rules (of course they only seem bizarre after leaving and realizing not all families are like this). However there is a rule that even Mother learnt to write down so we would never forget: “DO NOT leave the house unless you are going to university, escorted by Father”.
This brings me to the point of this story. My sister. I broke the rule and moved out one afternoon when Mother was busy with the baby. I tried to take my sister with me but she was in the middle of a lesson with Father, I would have no other chance to leave if not then. However I left a note with father telling her I would be back for her, he seemed a bit relieved? I dont know what emotion he felt when he saw me go but I’m assuming it was a good one as he made no move to stop me. After I had found a stable place to keep my sister along with a public elementary school she can attend (she is only 8), I went back to the house. Except there was no house.
I know it sounds crazy and even I feel like im losing my mind but the neighbourhood is exactly the same, even all my neighbours houses are there. But there is a jump in the numbers from a certain house 5 to a house 7, and nothing, not even a gap remains where my house should be. I am beggining to understand why my brothers never visited.
I need reassurance I am not going insane. If you or anyone you know has heard of 6 Brindstone Hill, on Cardil street, help me find my sister. Even the neighbours don’t seem to recognise my face and insist there is no such place as my house.