Where have you been?!?

As I started heading home, I became very dizzy. I was also so tired. I could barely drag my feet along the path. This is what I get for not eating or drinking anything all day long, I thought to myself.

I had made it to the path that went straight to the house when my feet fell out from under me and I collapsed on the ground.

The next thing I remember was someone shaking me harshly. It made my head spin, making me feel worse than I already did.

"S…Sue wa…Sue why did…"

I couldn't really understand what the person was saying. I couldn't tell that was due to my poor condition or if the person talking to me just was stammering and not making any sense. I felt myself being lifted off the grown and shifted over someone's shoulder.

The person, who I could only assume was one of my brothers, walked quickly to where ever he was going. The way that they were stammering made me believe that the brother carrying me was Mikey. That, and the fact that he slung me over his shoulder like a sack of flour. I mean really! He had just found me collapsed on the ground, couldn't he have been a bit gentler. Out of my three brothers the only I could see doing that was Mikey. What I couldn't figure out was why was he out on this path in the first place. Shouldn't he be doing his chores or had he finished them all?

I heard the unmistakable sound of our front door's squeaky hinges and this let me know I was home. Home. A slipped out of my closed eye at the thought of the word.

I heard various different voices but I could not discern exactly whose the voices belong to who. I knew they belong to my family, but I couldn't tell each voice apart. I felt myself being laid down on a bed, which I assumed was my own. I felt a cup of water being pressed against my lips.

"You need to drink." I heard someone say.

"Can she really drink while she's unconscious?"

"None of this would be happening if you boys hadn't caused such a fuss this morning you not only upset me and your father but it seems you've also worried your sister sick! She's only an 11 year old girl do you really think she would be unaffected by the prospects of you three, her whole world, going off to war?! She loves you three more more than she loves herself of course this would hurt her!"

At that point I had figured out that was my mother speaking. I thought she was being rather dramatic. I love my brothers and all, but I definitely didn't love them more than myself. I would say I love them equal to myself. I knew my own value, but I also knew their value as well.

After that voice stopped, there was silence for a while. The cup was still pressed against my lips, and I started trying to take slow small sips.

"That's it honey. Take it slowly. You're all right now I will make sure these bonehead don't leave us." said a voice who I was sure was my mother at this point. "Where have you been all day?"

"Normally she would have come to one of us if she was struggling, she knows we would help her. It's really not that hard to calm her down."

"Honestly I still don't understand why she can't do it on her own, like you said it really isn't that hard."

"Mitchell! Benjamin! Just shut up!" Those words me stunned. Mother had NEVER spoken to us that way before in our lives. "She is a little different and you know that. She can help it so don't you dare complain about it Benjamin! And Mitchell don't you think she would have asked for help if she was able to. She was probably so lost in her own head that she wasn't even aware of the time of day! There's no way on Gods green Earth that she had her wit's about her to ask for help. Your her OLDER brothers, but most of the time you act like your her younger brothers!"

I stopped sipping the water and slowly croaked out, "S-stop m-o-ther p-p-please." I was just barely able to get the words out of my mouth. I did not like what she was saying one bit, not a single word of it! I felt for the first time in my life that my mother was in the wrong. Not that my brothers were in the right nor was every word she said incorrect, but she needed to stop. This was not okay.

There was quite after that for quite some time. I then heard someone taking in a long ragged breath then let out slowly. "I'm shouldn't have spoken to you three like that. No matter what you are still my sons and I love you with all my heart. I'm just so worried…" she trailed off at the end.

"Thank you mother." "Yes thank you mother I'm sorry as well." "Thanks mother."

"S-s-ssorry…(gasp)." Tho I wasn't at all sure what I was apologizing for. I just felt like I should since most of the others were.

"Shh, don't talk honey." I then felt mother cool hand on forehead, but she pulled her hand back quickly, "Ray, she seems to be down with a fever as well. Could you please go grab a cloth and wet it in the washroom. Ben could you please go get some fever reducers from the workshop you should know which ones will work best. Mike, could you please go make some tea for her."

I heard three voices all say, "Yes ma'am!" At the same time followed by the clatter of rushed footsteps. They all seemed like they had moved on for now having something else to focus on.

"Whatever does happen, honey it's going to be okay. I promise no matter where I am or where you are. I'll always be with you." Said a voice that I could've sworn with my father, but I knew it couldn't be because my dad was not on the mountain right now.

Shortly after that I felt a cool compress being placed on my head. It felt very nice. I hadn't even realized that I was hot until I felt the relief of being cooled down. I let out a sigh of relief.

"You're going to be okay Sue, just forget about this morning. How could we leave knowing you're sick." A voice that I now recognized as Ray's said and I relaxed for the first time since this morning.

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Ray looked at his sister with worry in his eyes. What he said was true, but that didn't mean he and his two brothers weren't still planning on leaving. They may all have different reasons for doing so but they're plan was the same, they were going to leave… eventually.

Earlier in the day, Ray and his other two brothers, got together and talked about what they wanted to do. By the end of the discussion, they decided if their father hadn't returned in a weeks time they were going to leave for war. They decided on this timeframe because by then it will be Late fall, and all the harvesting of their small farm on the mountain would be done so they would not be leaving their sister and mother in a bind, But if father was not back, they wouldn't have to face him.

Ray was really hoping father would not be back by then because that would be the best outcome for everyone he surmised. It was easy for Ben to get to see the logic behind this plan. It was harder for the two of them to get Mike to agree, but in the end this was what the three of them had agreed apon.

Of course that plan was not going to happen now. What had slipped their notice was the reason their mother hadn't noticed they had to stop their chores and gone into their room to talk with Ray was because she was frantically searching for Sue. None of the three brothers had even noticed she was missing because they were so busy with their chores and discussions with each other by the time they realized something was wrong it was already dusk, and they were fighting the sun.

Luckily, Mike had managed to find her on the path home. He had decided to check it one last time partly because it was the only place his mother would let check again this close to sundown. He was immensely relieved to find her, but then he realized she was in a bad way.

Both he and his brothers were so concerned about their own problems that they hadn't given her another thought after the discussion this morning. By the time they had noticed things had are already gotten out of hand.

Ben came in and handed his mother the fever reducers she had asked for. She looks through them and decided upon the one she thought would work best for her daughter. Right now she was about to open her mouth to ask for something when Ben handed her a glass of water. She smiled at him and took the glass.

She poured a few drops of the reducer into the glass and held it up to Sue's mouth.

"Sweetheart," Mother called to Sue, "I need you to drink this please. It will make you feel better." Sue answered with a grown, but complied.

Mike then came rushing in with a cup of chilled herbal tea. He may be the wild child of the bunch, but that didn't mean he couldn't be serious and helpful when the situation called for it. He placed the cup on Sue's nightstand and said, "It would probably be best to let her rest for now and have her drink this in a bit."

Mother nodded in response. After watching Sue for a few minutes she pressed her hand against Sue's cheek and sighed in relief when she found that her fever had gone down a bit. It had not gone down much yet, but it was was heading in the right direction which was a good sign.