Chapter 13: Silence of the Storm

Days has been the same for the family after what happened, the brothers are preparing for work and mother making breakfast for everyone, father reading the news in the newspaper. And as for the youngest daughter, Sodelle, who has been acting strange, the brothers noticed that she didn't look like herself lately, they sensed something changed deep inside that she hasn't been saying anything to them, whatever it is she is hiding from them, they kept quiet for now and observes her.

Breakfast was served and all of them sat down and say grace, after that Sodelle took a slice of bread, with spread strawberry jam, a sunny side egg with vegetables and started eating, she only for a few minutes and didn't go for seconds and stands as she excuses herself from the table, went to the kitchen and washes her plate and went straight to her room. The parents thought she was odd this morning but brushed it off anyway, but for the brothers, they seemed bothered about the way she's been acting today and thought that something is going on with their little sister, especially the way she looked, head in the clouds, dark eyes and so on.

Doc glances at Sleepy, as if he wanted to say something out loud, but he's worried that their sister might hear. Sleepy shakes his head and whispers to him, "just finish up and be on your way, I know what your thinking but we can't do it here, let's do it separately and carefully, we'll have a private chat with the others... Oh and, invite Jayson as well, he might know something about what's going on with Sodelle, okay?", Doc agreed and sent a message to his brothers and asked Dopey for a favor, and leaves for work.

On the other hand, Dopey did what he was asked for, he went to Jayson's chambers and speaks with him, "Hey, I was wondering... Do you have an app like this on your phone?" he asked Jayson softly, while Jayson looks at his phone, "yeah, I guess so, but I don't use it much" he responded, Dopey then hands him a small piece of paper and whispers to him an instruction, Jayson then realizes what it was about and understood him, and Dopey went to his workplace.

Back at Sodelle's room, she's sitting on top of her bed doing something on her Ipad, her expression looked concentrated on what she's doing, wearing a blank face as if she's not herself at all, then the mother knocked on her door and said, "Sweetheart, may I come in?" she asked when she calling out to her, Sodelle quickly changed her sketch on her Ipad, "sure mother, you may come in" she answered, her mother lets herself in holding a cup of hot milk and places it on the desk table and scooches her over and sits beside her, "so, what are you drawing right now?" she asked her playfully, they both giggled, Sodelle shows her the sketch, "well I am drawing a werewolf, half man half wolf, werebeast whatever you call it... since I suck at drawing a full-body, I'm pretty good at making portraits" Sodelle's mother looks at her work and said "I can see he has a suit on, where did you get this idea?" she wondered, "well I saw this on the internet and Instagram, I also plan to make a portrait out of my brothers but in werebeast form, don't tell them" she told her, they both enjoy their small talks together, but the mother looks at her and fixes her hair looking worried, she holds her hand and asked, "is everything alright love? Your brothers noticed that you didn't look like yourself this morning" she said, Sodelle sighs and reassures her and answers "I'm fine mother, I just feel tired after what happened to me and my friend Reese, we kept in touch and all, but I'm not sick, although after my brothers sent Reese home safely, I feel stressed, I don't know..." she said leaning on her mother's shoulders, "well, I guess that means you need some fresh air darling, and a haircut" Sodelle smirks "yeah I guess I need a haircut, the weight of my hair is killing me, besides, I'm on a day off and Jayson needed some rest too cause he had a video chat with his family back in the Philippines, I guess I'll go" she said, mother kisses her forehead, Sodelle prepares her clothes with the help of her mother and went to the bathroom to take a bath.

Meanwhile, a video chat has started, Jayson and the boys appeared on the screen, "okay, is everybody here? Everyone in the chat already?" Doc asked and made sure there won't be any problems with the connections, "well, let's get started then" he said, "okay don't know why we're all doing this... But I'm guessing that this is about Sodelle?" Jayson asked, "oh brother please if there's any problem with our little sister, you're mistaken, she's just stressed out these days since she didn't go out much after what happened..." Happy inclines, Bashful nods and agrees with him, but Grumpy speaks up and said "then your an idiot and fool for not noticing how she's been for the last four weeks, looking like a ghost who never left her chambers, see only does when she eats or needs the toilet. And you haven't noticed how she started like that, two weeks ago I found our sister going out of the house when I was getting to my car, you all were already at work but I was left behind at the house" Happy and Doc were surprised, "what? Well, where was she? Where on earth did she go? How come she never told us?" Doc was so baffled he leans on the back of his chair while wiping his eyes stressfully, Jayson was about to say something but Sneezy cuts in and said, "well since you brought up that question brother dearest... Based on her tracker that I implanted on Sodelle's car, she was at some sort of café, and I suspect that she went to her so-called 'Godmother' per sé. And to be sure she isn't a suspicious person to our lives especially our sister, I checked her out and she's clean, she means no harm to us or our sister, but..." he stops there and hesitates to answer, "but what? What is it? What else did you find?" Bashful asked curiously, Sleepy continues "well... Let's just say I also checked one of Miss Rosario's friends in her history and accounts that she met up with, so far, she had a few friends but...", "oh spit it out Sleepy!" Dopey demands him and grunts, but Happy guessed what Sleepy is about to say, "you have no traces of Sodelle's mother... As I thought... Even though you told us that she also knew her mother but had no history about her or a picture, even her name is a mystery, the place where she lived or work, nothing" they all felt frustrated not knowing who Sodelle's real mother is, Sleepy on the other looked like he's been waiting for thirty minutes to speak but the brothers seemed to have missed the point, he then slams the table in irritation and yells at them "OH SHUT IT YOU LOT!!!" the brothers were shocked and Jayson was terrified as he sees Sleepy's angry face and silenced themselves, he continuous "Well we got that out of the way, as Grumly said, we've been too busy with our daily lives not noticing our sister and she's been up for days or weeks and suspecting she's hiding something from us" he said, Doc asked him "what do you mean?". "For three days I noticed our sister has changed in some sort of way, now as I recall, our sister used to go out a lot and runs around at the house and eats a lot, especially breakfast, but now she's been doing something strange behind our back and on top of that, she's been stuck in her room whenever she wants to be," he said.

the brothers became worried and anxious, but then he added "and I also caught her drawing something on her Ipad, which is strange because she never draws on the iPad, she draws in papers, but for some reason that is what she's been doing for a while now."

Then Jayson finally got the chance to speak up and tell them what he wants to say, "I think what the doctor said was right, she's been hiding something from us, especially me. And I happen to take a picture of what she was drawing in her Ipad, here let me show you", Jayson sends the photo to everyone, when the boys received it, they were shocked and uncertain what they're looking at, they were speechless. Dopey exclaimed "How... I mean... What's this supposed to mean?" he asked, Grumpy takes a look at the drawing for a while and looks at Bashful "I believe this is your work of skill brother dearest" Jayson and the brothers looked at him hoping they will get answers from Bashful. He then looked flustered and dumbfounded and exclaimed, "oh please stop looking at me like that, you're making me uncomfortable, let me take a look for a minute".

He reaches for his glasses and looks at the drawing carefully and closely, he then quickly said "Rembrandt's self-portrait stage thirty-four, dated in 1640, it's in the National Gallery here in London... How odd" he replied, although her sketch was drawn in silhouette, shaded in black, and Bashful guessed it right as Happy searched it online, the same silhouette on the painting. "How did you recognize it?" Jason asked, "because I used to do that when I was in high school, even in college, I also applied this in my class since I became an art professor at the university, I use this technique for activities and tests, it wasn't easy for my students... Famous paintings in silhouettes etc."

Grumpy then asked him, "have you ever taught this to Sodelle? Or has she been to your classes before?", Bashful wondered at first, then he said "not exactly, but I vaguely remember that she used to come to my room and board some of my notes when she was in school, she must have observed my work, I'm not sure", Sneezy, therefore, cuts in and says "well thanks to your artsy guess, I think I know why she had a drawing of that painter... I found out that the self-portrait painting was in the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City. And to my surprise, the painting comes back in London with an art exhibit that'll be going on about soon" Dopey suddenly remembers something and takes out his phone to check, "oh yeah I remember a friend of mine, he posted this online, the art exhibition is starting tomorrow afternoon". The brothers wondered why would their little sister hide something so simple yet it felt personal for her as she changed after meeting up with her Godmother.

After hours, Sodelle came back home, looking new, fresh and fierce. As if the storm silenced and a new day arrives.

Yesterday ended last night, today is a brand-new day. And it's yours. – Zig Ziglar