these voices won't leave me alone

“What makes you say that?” Eden asked, cocking her head to the side very slightly. 

Cordelia bit on the corner of her lip and sighed looking down. “They told me they didn’t want no crazy girl in their house, they were scared of me, I think...”

“Six is a lot,” Eden repeated with a smile. “It was almost always chaotic when we were younger. But now that we’re all… mostly adults and aren’t all crammed into the same house, it’s a lot nicer.” Eden’s eyebrows knitted together as she watched the girl’s smile fall. “Why aren’t you sure?”

“I don’t think my parents like me very much.” She responded with a puzzled frown, looking down at her hands. “They thought- well.. think I’m crazy. They didn’t want a daughter who was crazy, I don’t think-They still don’t.”

Heidi wiped away another tear, before going to hug Cordelia, in a tight embrace. While many of the patients around here did test Heidi’s patience quite a bit, it was nice to see one of those kids be, well, nice. “Cordelia’s your name, right? Anyways, thanks for looking at my photos. I’ve never really met a kid here who was so interested about the staff.”

Cordelia usually was not a big fan of contact- mainly because it disturbed the thoughts in her head and made her skin itch with discomfort but Heidi was such a nice woman and had shared something special with her- which Cordelia felt was deserve of a hug. She let the woman hug her before giving her a half smile, nodding. “Yeah, I’m surprised you remembered. No one really knows who I am.” she laughed, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Not a lot of people see the value of history like I do, and I think it is important that if the staff knows about us-we know about them.”

“This is my pillowfort! No big kids allowed! Unless you bring candy!”

“Not even me?” Cordelia asked with a playful pout. 

“Lonely was definitely a word that I wished I was able to use when I was growing up,” Eden laughed softly as she watched the girl examine the pictures. “There’s actually six of us, I used to want to be an only child so bad,” another smile formed on Eden’s face as she looked back at Cordelia. “Did you have a good relationship with your parents?”

Cordelia laughed, handing the photos back to the woman and moving her hands to push through her hair- getting it out of her face as she looked up at Eden. “Six? Wow- that’s a lot of kids!” She grinned, finding the woman interesting and enjoying hearing about her life. As soon as her relationship with her parents was mentioned, her smile kind of faltered- nearly dropping all together as she immediately looked down. “Oh uh, I guess it’s okay, I’m not sure.” 

“No problem. He comes around a lot so I’m sure you will. He likes to play with the kids here.” She smiles, tucking the photos back into her bag. 

Smiling at the woman Cordelia folded her hands in her lap, biting on her lip. “I like to read to the kids here, maybe I can read to him one day?” She offered lightly before twirling her hair around her finger. “I don’t know if I want to have my own kids in the future.” She spoke honestly, tilting her head to the side. “But I like kids- playing with them and talking to them. They think interesting things, maybe I can get a job that involves them”

“Oh thanks.” She smiled, looking down at the photos, putting her head on one side. “That makes one thing then, he’s the spitting image of his father in every other way.”

Cordelia smiled at the photos before handing them back to the woman, looking up at her with a soft smile. “Thank you for letting me look, I hope I get to meet him one day!” 

Eden giggled, almost like a young child, as her mind went back to the time when the picture was taken. “She was pissed, but she eventually got me back. I think that was when she unsuccessfully tried to shave off my eyebrows while I was sleeping. I woke up in the middle of it and lost half of my left eyebrow. She and I were ruthless.” The blonde fell silent as she thought of the many pranks that she had her sister had pulled on one another. “Do you have any siblings, honey?”

Cordelia let out a laugh, the sound sustained and carrying out as she was unable to hold it in. The story was funny, and it honestly made the brunette wish she had siblings- despite seeing how ruthless they were when it came to pranks and revenge. Ironically, the woman’s questioned surfaced, and she looked up with a smile. “Oh- uh no, I don’t- it’s just me..” She bit on her lip and looked down at the photos again. “You and your sister must have never been lonely- you always have each other, it’s like a permanent best friend.” 

As Heidi watched Cordelia look at her family photos, a tear started to fall from her eyes. She quickly wiped it away, and slowly started to smile. “Yeah, this was taken about a year before I was born.” Heidi then stepped closer to Cordelia, and started to tear up yet again. “I miss them. I..I do regret some of the last things I said to my grandparents. Thanks for listening to me speak though, I appreciate it.”

Cordelia smiled at the woman, not even needing to give her a vocal response. The staff here had pasts too- and Cordelia liked being able to know she could make one of them happy and smile like Heidi was. “It’s nothing, I like hearing about people’s pasts- it gives you an insight to who they are and..where they come from..” 

“They’re my son.” She smiled. 

“He’s very handsome..” She complimented, smiling up at the girl. “He has your eyes.” 

As Heidi looked over at Cordelia, she slowly started to smile. “Those were my parents, back in the 1940s, right around the war. So, do you like them?”

Cordelia looked over the antique printing style of the photos, running her fingers gently along the edges so she didn’t ruin the pictures. In one, her parents were smiling and leaning into each other. Cordelia noted that even though the background looked so dreary and dark..their faces were still bright and lit up the photo. “I really do, they look very happy.” She commented softly, looking up at the woman. 

“I was in sixth grade, my sister was in ninth grade; she locked me out of the house for the millionth time and I decided to give her a little haircut.” Eden laughed softly. 

Cordelia’s smile only widened and she laughed, shaking her head at the older woman as she looked up at her. “Oh my goodness.. How did your sister react?” She asked softly, though her voice was still curious and light. 

Collin couldn’t do anything but smirk and withhold his laugh as he licked the swirl of icecream off of his lips. “You mean, my ice cream?” he boy joked. “Sharing is caring!”

Cordelia gasped at him, frowning dramatically and swatting at his arm. “Yeah- but insulting and stealing is not caring!” She spoke defensively, scrunching her nose as she tried to withstand laughing at the ridiculousness of their current “argument.”

Collin chuckled, “And the more you have of it, the better, right?” he asked as he waited for her to retract her cone before quickly pulling it towards him so that he could steal a small bite.

Cordelia went to take another bite as she nodded at his comment before the cone was pulled towards the other boys mouth. With a defiant gasp and mocked a horrified expression “I cannot believe you just ate my icecream- and after insulting it too!” 

“Okay!” He grabbed her hand and led her there. “I bet you’re really good at reading. What’s your favorite?”

Cordelia grinned, holding onto the little boys hand and walking with him, nearly stumbling as she tried to keep up with his little legs. “I really like this book called Harry Potter- well, theres more of them but, they’re really cool. It’s all about wizards and magic!” She grinned.