“P-H-O-E-B-E … G-E-T…-U-P-P-P-P”
Somebody was whispering in my ears.

“Mamma, let me sleeeep,” I mumbled.

“I’m not your Mamma,” an indignant male voice rang out.

“Yikes!”

I jolted out from sleep with a scream as I saw an unfamiliar face looking down at me in the semi dark room.

“Phew! It’s you, Jamie,” I let out a sigh, catching my head. “I’m sorry. You actually scared the hell out of me. It’s an unfamiliar place to wake up in.”

I looked at the big white window with heavy purple curtains. The sunlight filtering through the blinds fell on the dust particles, forming a distinct streak of yellow light.

Jamie got down from the bed and opened the windows wide as I sat up.

The previous night still seemed like a dream and I looked at myself to ascertain that I was in one piece.

“Mom says you’ve to get up. She’s preparing her your feed,” he sat down on the edge of the bed. “So I came to wake you up.”

“Come here,” I dragged him towards myself and hugged him from the back, placing my chin on his crisp brown hair.

“You know you’re just like my sister. I bet she’d do the same if she were here,” his eyes had an unfathomable grief.

“I’m so sorry for your loss. I am your sister. I will be your big sis for as long as you want.”

“Really?"

"Really. R-E-A-L-L-Y" I affirmed.

The shine of innocent pleasure in his eyes moved me.

“Jamie,” I said, very carefully, unable to fathom how to approach him, “Could you remember when your sister passed away or like how she passed away? I know it’s too direct for me to ask but I actually am in the same position so…”

“My sister isn’t dead,” he cut me off.

“Wait, what? But your parents…”

“At least I think she isn’t dead,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands.

“What do you mean?”

“My parents left her because she was different. She was just a baby then. I never knew about her. I found out by chance. But my family refuses to acknowledge that she ever existed. She’s dead as far as they are concerned. They even don’t have a photo of her in the house,” he choked.

I was at loss for words. The parents who seemed so welcoming and good, had left their own baby? I knew many did that or the kids at the orphanage, or even I wouldn’t be in the condition we are now. But to not acknowledge her existence, especially when the younger sibling misses her, was pure cruelty.

“I’ve tried to find her. My mind says she’s out there somewhere. I tried at the hospital. They have no record of her death or of her foster parents if she was adopted or even an orphanage. So either she’s dead and the records hidden due to some reason or her foster parents doesn’t want her real family to know that she is alive." his voice grows smaller.

“Your parents never searched for her?” my voice quivered.

“No. They’ve moved past her. They even had a memorial service a few years back for her.” his voice was barely a whisper now.

I seemed to be hearing a script straight out of a movie. Parents disowning their daughter and then declaring her dead for them.

I had a mixture of emotions fleeting through my mind. I couldn’t get hold of one. Fear, surprise, shock, disgust, everything blended into a numbness.

I was abandoned too. This is what my sibling would have felt like if they knew. I had promised to mother to not search them out. But this incident flared my resolve. I was determined to hunt for them as soon as I get back home.

“I want to meet my sister. Could you help me, Phoebe?”

I looked into his begging eyes.

“I’ll help you,” there was a strange determination in my voice. “Tell me the name of the hospital she was born in. Let me see if I can use my contacts.”

“Allegheny General. She was left when she was about 3 days old. And she was born on twenty-ninth of August, nineteen ninety-nine,” he spilt out the information in one breath. “I was informed that Doctor Weston was her neonatologist. But he refused to meet me outright. I think my parents had forbidden him or something…”

The world seemed to be shaking from under my feet. I was doubting why I didn’t pass out.
I looked at Jamie’s hazel eyes. I had wondered why Mrs. Stanton’s eyes appeared so familiar. It was because they mirrored mine.

They were my eyes.

The same day.
The same date.
The same hospital.
And the same doctor.

It can't be a coincidence, could it?

“Jamie,” my voice was ice again. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you I guess. The people at that hospital are not that cooperative."

His face fell, all the light gone out from it but he just shrugged it off, scooting closer to me.

“Never mind,” he wrapped one strand of my hair around his finger and scooted closer."You being my new sister is enough.”

'Yeah, okay...' I tried my best smile but I bet it came out rather weird. The feeling in my stomach was here to stay and I was suddenly not hungry anymore.

A/N An apology for the late update.... Please help me by sharing this story...