Chapter Text
It was selfish, but Rowan wanted to know what would happen to her. She knew what would happen to her father — he would be buried (somehow), but he was dead, and the dead could be buried, and she couldn’t because she was still very much alive.
She was herded away from the living room, and the paramedics kept passing her around until finally, she’d ended up sitting on the front step and staring out at the road.
It was night. The ambulance lights were flashing, stinging her eyes, but they gave her something to feel and she kept looking at them, on-and-off.
Someone approached her from behind. The female paramedic. She came and sat next to Rowan.
“Sweetie,” she said, and it was then that Rowan knew for certain, “do you have anyone we can call for you?”
Rowan blinked. “No.”
“It could be a parent,” the paramedic nudged, “Or-or a cousin. An aunt. A brother or sister, even if they don’t live in the same province. And if there’s anyone else in your life — someone you’re close to—”
She had a brother, yes.
Rowan said, “I don’t know where he is right now, but I have a brother.” A pause. “He sends cards. For my birthday, and for Christmas.”
“Good, good, that’s good. Does he write his number on those cards?”
Rowan nodded. “But it changes every year.” The most recent card was from her birthday. She’d gotten five-hundred dollars, which was what she mainly liked the cards for.
She didn’t really pay attention to the little stickers inside. The labels, rather.
She wasn’t even sure the numbers printed on the label-stickers were actually his. She’d never called them.
He’d never called her, either.
“That’s okay,” the paramedic said. “We have ways of tracking people down. Do you maybe know your brother’s name?”
She knew that much. “Klaus.”
Rowan saw the paramedic rear back, as if taken by surprise. But the only light on the front porch was from a wall sconce that kept flickering, and she really couldn’t tell.
“And,” the older woman started again, voice pointedly measured, “your brother … he’d be able to stay here with you?”
Rowan made a face, annoyed. How was she supposed to answer that? She’d never met him.