told me that she didn’t really know; however, she had always known—even as a little girl—that she had wanted eight kids, and that her wanting to have that many kids had never changed. I’m not certain about this, but I think that the attraction that the birds and animals have for my siblings and me is accumulative. As more of us are gathered, the more birds and animals are attracted to us. So I’m guessing that my five older siblings were attracting a large number of birds at the time of the psychic’s warning. Still, my dad should’ve known better than to have listened to that psychic.”
Dr. Pendell nodded before making a notation in his notes. “Out of curiosity, how many kids do you want?”
Ellen amusingly grinned before saying, “More than one, but less than six.”
Dr. Pendell grinned before asking, “So what did your mom do for a living?”
“Before she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she was a manager for a travel agency. She quit her job after being diagnosed.”
Dr. Pendell nodded before saying, “So tell me about your mom’s parents and brother.”
“I don’t know enough about them to tell you much.”
“Tell me what you do know about them,” Dr. Pendell urged.
“Okay,” Ellen began before taking a breath. “My grandparents are from Kansas City, Missouri like me, but when my grandpa… my mom’s dad graduated from high school, he went straight into the army. My grandma married my grandpa soon after he got out of boot camp. They lived on several army bases during my grandpa’s time in the army and the last base that they lived on before my grandpa was given his medical discharge was in Germany. My mom had just turned seventeen when they moved back to Kansas City, Missouri… from Germany. My mom had met my dad within twenty-four hours of her moving to Kansas City. Thirteen months after that, my mom’s parents and brother were killed.”
“How were they killed?”
“Auto accident,” Ellen said jadedly. “But in their case the accident had involved toxic chemicals and the authorities had to destroy the bodies involved. At least, that was what the authorities had told my mom anyway.”
“Your mom didn’t believe the police?” Dr. Pendell asked curiously.
“According to what my mom had told me, it wasn’t the police who had come to the door with the news,” Ellen began. “She couldn’t remember which branch of the authorities that the person was from, but what she did remember was that there were no reports of any major or fatal accidents that day within the city limits. My mom tried for months to learn more about the so-called accident, but she kept getting the runaround. Eventually she gave up and accepted what she was told.”
“What are your feelings about that?”
Ellen gave Dr. Pendell a curious look before saying, “Asking me about my feelings on that makes as much sense as asking me about my feelings on December 7th, 1941. In fact, my feelings would be the same. They’re both history events that took place before I was born.”
“And yet you have feelings about what had happened to your siblings,” Dr. Pendell pointed out.
“My siblings were killed seven and a half months before I was born,” Ellen began. “And my mom’s parents and brother were killed sixteen years before I was born. So my siblings being killed were less of a history event to me. Plus I saw the effects that my siblings’ deaths had on my mom.”
“Okay,” Dr. Pendell said while making a notation in his notes. As he looked up, he asked, “Was your mom’s brother an older brother or a younger brother?”
“A younger brother,” Ellen said. “He was fifteen.”
“What was his name?” Dr. Pendell questioned.
“Tucker Wiley,” Ellen said. “My mom told me that his nickname was Coyote—as in Wiley Coyote.”
Dr. Pendell grinned before asking, “What else can you tell me about your mom’s parents or brother?”
Ellen shrugged before saying, “That’s all I can think to say about them.”
“Okay. So—to change topics—how are you adjusting to a life in Savannah, Georgia?”
“I’m adjusting,” Ellen said.
“I know that you made at least three friends.”
“I made several friends since I’d moved here,” Ellen began. “In fact, making friends isn’t difficult for me. I even Email my friends in Kansas City. So I have friends in both places.”
“Good,” Dr. Pendell said while making a notation in his notes. “So is there anything that you would like to talk about?”
Ellen thought for a second before saying, “When I was ten, my mom told me that my brother Mike and I were what had kept her sane after the deaths of my four siblings. She put all her focus on properly caring for Mike and me during the day, and then cried herself to sleep at night over the lost of my siblings. I’m like my mom in that way. My only thoughts after Mike’s and Tanya’s deaths were on being with and caring for Sonya. However, being that Sonya was a premature newborn she had to stay in the hospital for about eight days, so I couldn’t care for her as I wanted to during those eight days.”
“So what did you do during those eight days?”
Ellen chose her words before saying, “After Mike and Tanya’s accident, I learned that my ancestors and Tanya’s ancestors had shared a common history. Tanya’s family kept diaries that sporadically spanned hundreds of years, and Harry had given me permission to read those diaries. So that’s what I had done, and by learning about Harris’s ancestors, I felt more connected to mine.”
Dr. Pendell nodded before asking, “And like your mom, did you cry yourself to sleep at night?”
Ellen nodded before saying, “For the first three nights.”
Dr. Pendell made another notation in his notes before asking his next question.
Ellen and Dr. Pendell talked for thirty more minutes before ending the session. Dr. Pendell then spoke to Ellen and Lance together for five minutes before Ellen, Everett and Lance left Dr. Pendell’s office.
As Ellen, Everett and Lance were walking into the hall, Lance told Ellen, “Kristen had called while you were talking to Dr. Pendell. Megan fell and scraped her knee, and there’s no peroxide at the house. So before I take you home, Ellen, I’m going to stop off and get some peroxide.”
“That’s fine,” Ellen assured him. “In fact, I need to get something anyway. And I do have money.”
“What do you need?” Everett quickly asked.
“A box of tampons if you must know,” Ellen told him. “I have one left and I need more before I start up again, which will be in a couple of days.”
“Okay, that was more information than I had wanted to know,” Everett told her.
“Well you asked,” Ellen said with a grin.
“And you couldn’t have said
