Hand in Hand

The credits filled the screen, and the romantic music faded. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Inka swiping a tear from her cheek. Hmmm. Very interesting. I’ve never seen her cry while watching a romantic movie before.

I bumped her elbow, and whispered, “What’s going on with you? The guy got the girl. Wasn’t he hot? With his black hair?”

Inka shook her head and waved me off.

We left the theater and walked to the bus station. The evening was mild. Although the sun had gone down two hours ago, it was a warm and beautiful summer night. Inka trudged next to me, brooding.

I took her hand and asked, “Sis, have you ever been in love?”

Separated at birth, my sister and I had grown up in very different worlds, and we hadn’t known each other for the first fifteen years of our lives. There was a lot we didn’t know about each other.

Inka looked down at our intertwined hands and exhaled. “Yes.”

“You never mentioned that!”

“Well, I’m telling you now…” Her voice was rough, and her gaze drifted towards the stars. Then, as if the surrounding night dissolved, I could feel her slipping into memory.

***

Two days before my fourteenth birthday, he arrives. The camp is buzzing with rumors—no one knows where he came from.

Fabio–the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen. One of his black curls constantly falls into his eyes. When he pushes it back with a grin, it makes my heart stutter. He looks like that pirate… daring, reckless. Johnny Depp! That’s the name.

Fabio is just like that—gutsy, mysterious. He gets into trouble constantly, and our evil Uncle Nick punishes him every chance he gets. We end up in detention together more than once. But I don’t mind. I want to be near him.

We spend a lot of time together, even when we are not in detention. He loves swimming, archery and horseback riding. Trying to find out more about him, I ask him all these questions—where he’s from, where he lives and if he has a tattoo or special skills like all the other kids. He just smiles and says, ‘My lips are sealed.’ That only makes me want to know more, of course.

One night, we sneak out. The air is thick with summer heat, and the river glimmers under the moonlight. We tease each other that we will get in trouble again. Then, he takes my hand—warm, steady—and we walk in silence. My heart is pounding, competing only with the low rumbling sound of the frogs croaking in the nearby pond. Fabio tells me I’m different. He says he has met no one like me. I ask again where he is from but don’t get an answer.

Then he shows me his tattoo: a wolf. He says he can hear whispers from across the forest, smell people from miles away. Genetically engineered, he says. Like we are. I show him my tattoo, the intertwined heads of an eagle and an owl, and tell him about my skills. That I can smell emotions, have the best night vision and move without sound. We talk until the stars fade about our dreams and a future we might never have.

He turns to me, brushes my cheek, and kisses me—slowly at first, then deeper. I kiss him back. He smells of pine and pecan nuts. My knees nearly give out. His hand is behind my neck, his breath on my skin, my lips melt into his—like chocolate left in the sun… I feel like I’m floating.

Then the whistle sounds. Dogs bark. They’ve noticed we’re gone.

We run. His fingers grip mine tightly as we race through the woods towards the camp. Just before we reach the gate, he stops, kisses me one last time, and whispers, ‘Go! Quick. Into your bed.’

He vanishes into the dark.

***

Inka’s voice trembled. “Two minutes later, Nick dragged me out of my bed and into the interrogation tent…”

I say nothing. I just wait for her to continue.

“Uncle Nick asked me all kinds of questions. He wanted to know what Fabio told me, what we talked about. If I saw his tattoo. I didn’t say a word, always thinking about Fabio’s motto, ‘My lips are sealed.’ Nick ordered his goons to hit me. They pushed me onto the hard, cold floor, and kicked me. I looked up and stared into Nick’s cruel eyes. Remembering Fabio’s eyes, full of affection for me, remembering his lips on mine, gave me the strength to withstand their abuse. Finally, they threw me into the dungeon–that’s what we called the isolation tent. Deep in the woods, set in a clearing, it was far away from camp. I didn’t get any food or water for days. The tent was hot during the day and freezing at night. I got sick and puked onto the ground. There was no toilet or sink, only a metal bed and a thin bare mattress… and a lot of isolation. The guard outside never talks to me, not a word. After three days and nights, Nick let me out.”

“What about Fabio?”

Now tears streamed down Inka’s face.

I pulled her onto a nearby bench. Rocking her in my arms, I spoke soothingly into her hair.

As always when she gave me a glimpse into her past life, I felt a deep sorrow for what she had gone through. The camps Inka had to go to, the treatment she had endured — I couldn’t even imagine how to survive. I was glad that she had found us, her actual family. Even when it sometimes was hard to live with ghosts from her past, I loved my twin sister dearly.

“Fabio was gone. I didn’t see him again. Either he escaped or they sent him away. No matter how often I asked, or whom, I never got an answer. I don’t even know his last name.” She sobbed. I held her tighter.

Consoling her, I knew this: she had survived. And that love, however brief, had given her something no camp could take away.

And maybe, just maybe, we’d find him one day…