Uncle Matthew let me talk for what felt like hours and I knew we must have passed supper at some point but no one came up to disturb us. Not once did Uncle Matthew interrupt or try to say anything the entire time I spoke and even when I had finished, we sat in silence for a little while which I suppose was so he could process what I had told him.

Even after I finished talking and enough time had passed for me to expect a comment from him, he said nothing. I don't know if he was just struggling to process all the information or what he was doing, but the silence unnerved me. The longer it went on, the more nervous I began the more I regretted saying anything at all. All I wanted was for him to say something and alleviate my nervousness a little.

"No wonder you've been acting out, that's a lot of things to be running through that small head of yours," he said after a while.

"My head isn't small," I mumbled, not entirely sure what else to say in response to his comment, although I was glad he finally spoke.

"Yes it is, it's tiny." He bumped into my shoulder. "I'm glad you felt like you could tell me, Izzy and I will keep to my word not to tell anyone else about our conversation if you don't want me to."

"I don't."

"Alright, if you're sure. A word of advice though, Izzy, keeping everything shut away inside won't do you any good. Talking to me might help for a little while, but in the long run, it's only going to make things worse for not only you but those around you. I'm certain your mother and father would want to help if they knew what was going on."

I shook my head. "I don't want them to know. They wouldn't understand, anyway."

"You don't know that." Uncle Matthew squeezed my upper arm. "But, if you're sure you don't want them to know, then I won't say anything but you should at least think about it."

"I will."

"Good, they'd want to help, I know they will." He moved his shirt sleeve and checked his watch. "I should go or Lily will be wondering where I am. Not only that, but it's getting late and you haven't eaten anything. Is there anything you want that I can ask for?"

"I'm fine, I might just go to bed."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Sure.

"Alright. I'll see you soon."

Uncle Matthew smiled and squeezed my arm again before pushing himself off the bed and walking towards the door. He stopped briefly to offer me a second smile before I watched him turn and disappear through the door, closing it behind him.

I huffed and collapsed back against the bed, twisting my hands up in my blanket a few times or until I felt like I finally had a clear space in my head. At the time, telling Uncle Matthew everything made sense and originally made me feel better, but now that he was gone that anxiety bubble reappeared. What if he went downstairs and told Mother, Father, everything I told him? What if he thought me crazy so went to inform them both that I needed to be locked up in an Asylum?

What if?

What if...

There were so many possible outcomes for telling Uncle Matthew everything and as I stared up at the canopy above my head, I wished I could go back in time and take it all back. I never should have trusted him. For all I knew, Mother and Father already knew what I had told him and were in the middle of trying to figure out how best to handle someone who appeared to be losing their mind.

Untwisting my hand from my blankets, I stood up and ran my fingers over my face before fishing out my nightdress from under my pillow. Even though I hadn't eaten a thing since Saturday night supper with the Davidson's, I still didn't feel hungry. I didn't even eat my lunch at school, I just shredded the sandwich and threw it in a bush. My nervousness and anxiety levels were so high that I didn't think I could stomach any form of food.

I changed into my nightdress, drew the curtains and turned off the lights before climbing into bed, snuggling down against the blankets. A thousand different thoughts ran through my mind at a speed that made it impossible to filter through one and just choose one to focus on. I couldn't get them to stop.

At some point, I must have drifted off because I woke up a few hours later to a small strip of sunlight streaming in through the curtains and a quiet, almost silent knock coming from the other side of the door.

"Come in," I mumbled, although I wasn't sure if anyone heard me.

"Still in bed are we? That's unlike you," Mrs Smith said. She pushed open the door and walked in with a tray in hand.

"I seem to be hearing that phrase a lot."

"Are you feeling alright?"

"That one too." I pushed the blankets off my legs, shivering when the cold air hit me.

"I was only asking. Your father went into work early again today so you get breakfast in here." She put the tray down on my writing desk and opened the curtains to allow the night to stream in. "I expect you to eat it, you didn't yesterday and you didn't have anything for supper last night. The last thing we need is you fainting at school because you haven't eaten anything."

"I will, I promise."

"Good."

Mrs Smith smiled before backing out of the room and closing the door behind her. I sighed and stretched my arms out behind me, feeling the tension in my shoulders disappear. Since I made a promise to Mrs Smith, I walked over to my writing desk and sat on the chair in front of it, staring out of the window and starting to pick at my breakfast.

Outside, the sun sat just above the trees, a beam being cast through the window and directly onto the writing desk. Every now and then, a bird would take flight from the top of one of the trees and disappear from sight. A soft breeze floated in through the partially open window. Everything looked so peaceful and calm just outside the window but inside it still felt suffocating. At least I could put off seeing Father another day.

I picked at my breakfast, eating a small amount of it over a prolonged period of time which made it a little easier to stomach. The toast still stuck in my throat like it had done the day before, the eggs made my stomach churn and the salmon felt slimy and had a strange texture to it. If I had it my way, I wouldn't have eaten anything, but I never went back on a promise to Mrs Smith and I didn't intend on starting now.

After eating over half the breakfast, more than the day before, I changed into my school dress and ran a brush through my hair. I tied my ribbon, as usual, sighed at my reflection and grabbed my satchel from the floor. In the hallway, the house had that same weighted feeling as before, the same feeling of suffocation that wrapped around me. I needed to get out of the house.

"Isabel, wait a moment," Mother said, emerging from her room. She had dressed and through the small crack in the open door, I could see her own breakfast try on her bed.

"Yes?" I asked, eyeing up the stairs so I could make a quick getaway when the opportunity arrived.

"Will your friend be visiting after school again today?"

"I expect so. We have school work to do."

"I would appreciate a warning next time, we were not ready to entertain a guest at such short notice."

"There wasn't time." I fought back the urge to roll my eyes. "Besides, I thought since Father was at work and I didn't know where you were so I didn't think it would be a problem. That and its schoolwork and you're the one who keeps saying that school is important."

"I never said that you weren't allowed and I understand your way of thinking, but as you know we're packing up and have to be out of here in two days so the house is a little bit of a state. Just think things through a little more, that's all I'm saying."

"Right, because I never think."

"That's not what I said."

"Can I go? I'll be late for school."

Mother sighed. "Yes, you can go."

"If I'm late today it's because I decided to think things through a little more and opted to stay behind at school to work from there. Now you also know where I am."

Before Mother could say anything or respond to my somewhat rude comment, I shouldered my bag and jogged down the stairs. On the second to last step, my foot slipped and my ankle jarred to the side. A wave of my pain went up my leg from my ankle and I stumbled forward, grabbing hold of the bannister so I didn't end up falling onto my face and alerting the entire house to what had happened.

I grabbed onto the bannister and reached down, lightly touching my ankle and cringing a little from the pain. This wasn't the first time I had fallen down the stairs and hurt myself, but that was when I felt like I could tell someone about it. I knew that if I went down to the kitchen to tell Mrs Smith then Mother would find out and accuse me of being stupid or reckless in the way I went down the stairs.

After a few deep breaths, the pain dissipated somewhat and I stepped off the final step and into the hallway. Every step sent another wave of pain up my leg but I bit back any noise or cry I wanted to make. I grabbed the sandwiches that Mrs Smith had packed for me and shoved them into my bag, slowly limping through the hallway and outside. With any luck, the injury would only be minor and no one else would need to know.

"We're making a habit of this," Marsh said when I crossed the gravel to join him at the car.

"It seems we are." I smiled.

"I'm starting to feel like your personal chauffeur here." He laughed. "Come on, let's get going."

I hid my limp as best I could and climbed into the passenger side of the car, following my usual routine of placing my satchel on the floor in front of me but I had to be careful not to crush my sandwiches in the process. Even the short walk and step in the passenger seat caused my ankle to ache and I had no idea how I would last the entire day if taking just a few small steps was painful.

"Will I be collecting you and your friend this afternoon, or just you?" Marsh asked.

"I think I might stay behind a little later today, can you collect me at around half past five?"

"Of course, I can. I should be collecting your father at the same time so that will play into my hands quite nicely. Just wait for me outside the gates of the school and I'll collect you from there."

"Alright." I flexed my ankle a little and cringed from the pain that spread through my entire leg. "Ouch."

"You alright there?" Marsh glanced at me briefly.

"I think so. I tweaked my ankle coming down the stairs this morning. It should be alright by this afternoon, at least I hope it will."

"You should keep an eye on it, sprains can turn into something worse if you don't keep an eye on them."

"I will."

Marsh smiled at me and I turned to watch the world go past the car. He had a point about sprained ankles, I had been warned by Father countless times to be careful and I never did listen to him. Still, I would be spending the entire day sitting at my desk so I could hardly do too much damage to do it by sitting down. Although it would be better off telling Mother and Father about it, I knew how that one would go.

They both had made comments on the fact I hadn't been thinking and I knew that they would attribute my lack of thinking to a complete accident. No, I would have to deal with a sprained ankle on my own and hope it didn't get any worse.

I would have to add a sprained ankle to an ever-growing list of problems to tackle on my own.

~~~

A/N - Here we are! Back with Chapter Twenty-One and if you thought things might get easier for Izzy, you were very wrong xD

Questions! Do you think Matthew was right? Should Izzy tell her parents? What about that ankle of hers? Any thoughts on just how much trouble it might bring?

Comment below!

First Published - September 28th, 2021