2.17: Something Drastic

It’s been a few days, and I think Jade and I finally decided.

If Mari doesn’t come out and talk to us by the end of the weekend, we have to do something drastic.

I don’t think either of us even know what that ‘something’ is, but… We can’t let this go on any longer. She’s gotta grieve. I get that. But this just isn’t right. It isn’t normal. And it’s scaring the Hell out of all of us… Including her sisters.

Seeing Gabi try to make sense of it all has been the worst, I think. I mean, she’s only 10. She doesn’t really understand, you know? But she’s always asking questions.

Tonight at dinner was especially hard. She kept asking if her sister was finally going to eat with us, and wondering when Mari and Diego would be friends again. Jade and I just looked at each other, waiting for the other one to speak up.

Luckily Lina’s always been so good with her little sister. “They might never be.” I remember her saying. She stepped right in to help, without even hesitating. “Diego did a really bad thing, remember?”

Probably the understatement of the year… But I’m glad she put it that way, instead of trying to go into the details again.

We’d tried our best to explain it to Gabi as simply as we could. But having to tell a 10-year-old what Diego did has been leading to a lot of questions… Ones she’s not ready for yet. But she keeps asking them, again and again –Like how Diego put the baby in the other lady’s tummy. Or why he can’t just put a baby in Mari’s tummy too, so it’s “fair”…

What the Hell were we supposed to say to that? It would almost be funny, if this whole thing weren’t so goddamn terrible.

Anyway, I feel like I’m kind of rambling now… I’m really just trying to keep myself busy tonight anyway. Jade swears she heard the shower running about an hour ago, and the sound of a closing door too. I was downstairs when it happened, so I can’t be sure…

But since she has to work in the morning, I ended up on Mari-duty tonight. So now I’m just sitting here, listening and waiting to see if she