0 comments

Mystery

 Everyone knew her as the girl with no parents. Then she became known as the girl who tried to run away from her foster homes. As time went on, new stories came about; the girl who kidnapped her brother, the girl who got married at 16, the girl with her first kid at 18. Little did everyone know, she was not living the life everyone assumed she was, and it all started with miscommunication.

When Adeline was seven years old, her immigrant parents were taken from her directly. Of course, young Adeline was devastated. She hadn’t known much English at the time and did not know who to ask for help with her current situation. So she told her other Arabic speaking friend at school; this friend typically works with her as a translator, regardless of her Arabic being rusty. 

After Adeline told her friend, things didn't go well from there. From the understanding of Adeline’s friend, the government didn’t want Adeline to have parents because she was not born in Syria like her parents. Poor little Adeline didn’t know that her name was around the whole school now. She didn’t know that people were talking about her. But oh, she will know.

As time went on and Adeline became better and better at English, she began to understand what she was known as around her school. No matter how many times she tried to explain herself, the rumor never went away and stayed to haunt her.

Eventually, Adeline got put in a foster home. She stayed with her aunts for a few years, but then they got really sick and were unable to care for her. Evidently, Adeline was not impressed with her living situation. The only thing she was grateful for was the fact that she was able to stay with her brother. As time went on, Addy started to like her life with her foster parents less and less. Slowly, but surely, her parents began to neglect her and her brother. Sometimes, they would forget to feed them. The kids would go days without food and water. Their clothes were all run down and ripped.

Addy tried to stick up for herself at one point. She tried to speak up and tell them what they're doing wrong and get protection for her and her brother, only to get yelled at and moved to the basement. She was stuck in the basement for days without human contact until she was able to escape. She had found a window that was covered and was able to get out. Of course, her foster parents did not approve of her actions so they ratted her out to CPS.

When word reached her school, everyone began to stare at Adeline. They saw her as the girl who lost her parents and then ran away from her new ones for fun. They had no idea what actually happened. They don’t know the real story. All that was known to a majority of the school, was that Adeline's parents came searching for her because she ran away. Her pictures were posted all over the school, and they were in search of her. Due to Adeline’s absence, all that can be made as an explanation was speculation. Even when she came back, this speculation was already set in stone and everyone had their minds in the speculation. No one really bothered to ask Adeline what actually happened. Then she became known as the girl with no parents, who did not want parents. 

Of course, with every bold rumor, comes along. Of time where that old rumor sticks. Adeline was known as the girl who did not want parents, and did not have them. Then the story got a lot worse. After her little runaway incident, Adeline so as if she could not stay in that home any longer. Adeline herself went to child protective services and reported her parents, but did not achieve much of it. Child protective services moved her 

 to a new house and left her brother didn't there. Adeline, knowing how bad he was treated in that house, thought to get her brother moved with her. Online was so much more appreciative of her new parents, but she could not appreciate them enough without her brother being there. She did not want her brother to be without her, she did not want her brother to be with those parents. 

With that being said, Adeline filed many complaints. She talked to her own agent, she talked to her brother's agent, she talked to everybody. Then at one point, she was able to get in contact with her brother to find out that he was not being treated well at all. He was being treated even worse than he was when Adeline was still around. So Adeline, being the older sister, busted a whole mission to get her brother into a safer place. With every action, comes a consequence, whether it's good or bad. In this instance, although she was able to get those foster parents on certified and she was able to live with her brother, she became known as the girl in school who kidnapped her own brother. The issue with these rumors, is that nobody ever asks for the real story. Neighbors hear what goes on in adeline's house, friends see how she's been acting, and everything forms are on speculation.

In the modern world, Rumor spreading is just one big game of telephone. a person hears something and passes it to another person who passes it to someone else and passes it on and on and on. Within this passing of rumors, some stories get twisted. And then those stories continued to get twisted and twisted until they're made into the perfect fit. Until all the speculation comes together and fits like a puzzle. The story keeps twisting and twisting and twisting. In adeline's case, although everyone had some sort of clue what goes on, no one really knew the full story. No One Ever Knows the full story. One person may have witnessed her kidnapping her brother, told someone else, the word spread around, but nobody ever knew why she did it. Nobody ever knew why she ran away from home. Nobody ever knew why her parents got taken away. Since we were young, we usually spread what we here, within this, our memory may not be intact, meaning that, we may twist words up. When we twist words up. It is never our fault that words get twisted up, excuses always use out of all that's what I remember, but sometimes what you remember isn't enough for you to actually spread it. In modern society, we spread what we know but not what we're sure of. And modern society, we accept what we hear but we never asked and get confirmation from the person we hear it about. 


April 16, 2020 21:32

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

0 comments

Reedsy | Default — Editors with Marker | 2024-05

Bring your publishing dreams to life

The world's best editors, designers, and marketers are on Reedsy. Come meet them.