“We can finally go back home, father,” Georgia…Nay, Virginia said.
Is my father in that chair? I tried to stretch to look, and then was caught, it seemed, as my sister looked down, nearly directly at me.
“Brother!”
All the air was startled from me. I prepared to spring forth, to bolt like a rabbit when startled. But it wasn’t me she’d called to. She was speaking to the other male, as she went back inside.
“Brother!”
Her voice was shrill as she called for him again.
“Bring sister,” she hollered from somewhere in the cabin. “Won’t Pennsylvania be surprised to find us all reunited?”
I certainly was. Only hours ago, I’d found out I even had an older brother—any brother. Within minutes, I had reconciled myself to the fact that he was most likely dead. Now, it appeared he was not. And Auntie Virginia here as well, and my father, whom I could not even recall as a vision from a photograph. Yes. Surprise was fitting verbiage. Though dumbfounded might be far more accurate.