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She motions for me to follow her. Stepping inside, I take everything in as she holds the door open for me. It’s changed so much. She leads me into the kitchen area, which is now a bright, sunny yellow and a world away from the original nicotine-stained off-white from my memories. She pours me a glass of water as I sit at the whitewashed four-seater table with a vase of sunflowers in the center.
“How long have you lived here?”
“About two years now.”
I nod, looking at the lace curtains on the window. “You’ve made it look so pretty. I can barely recognize it.”
“Thank you. It was… a bit of a mess when I first moved in, but it just needed a couple coats of paint.”
I look at the drawing on the fridge of a tall stick figure holding hands with a smaller one.
“No. It just needed love. That’s what this place was missing before.”
She opens her mouth to say something when a little girl of maybe seven or eight with inky black hair and a huge smile comes running into the room.
“Mom, can I have some Robux, please? Cause I’m the best daughter in the world, and you love me the mostest.” She bats her eyelashes, making me snort.
She spins around, just noticing me.
“Don’t mind my daughter. When she grows up, she’s either going to be a lawyer or a politician.”
“Hi, I’m Raven. You’re pretty.”
I smile. “You’re really pretty too. I like your name. I’m named after a bird too. My name is Starling.”
Her eyes go wide before she turns to her mom. “Like the ones on your wall?”
I look at Chloe, who looks uncomfortable for a second.
She notices my confusion and blushes. “It just seemed wrong to paint over them.”
I frown. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Now it’s her turn to frown. She stands up and takes Raven’s hand. “Let me show you.”
I follow behind her. Everything looks the same, yet so different. In my memories, everything seemed so much bigger.
We walk past the room that used to be mine. I look at the plaque on the door with Raven’s name on it, but I don’t stop. I have no desire to see inside. Nothing good ever happened in that room.
Chloe takes me into the main bedroom and points at the wall on the far left of the room. My hand covers my mouth as I step closer to get a better look. The whole wall is covered with starlings in flight.
I don’t realize I’m crying until Raven appears beside me with a tissue in her hand. I take it from her and whisper my thanks, and Chloe sends her off to play with the promise of Robux later if she doesn’t argue.
Once she’s gone, Chloe steps up beside me. “You’ve never seen this before?”
I shake my head.
“It was underneath the wallpaper when I scraped it off. I couldn’t believe someone covered it up.”
“My mother was an artist, but she never got to do it professionally before she got pregnant with me.”
“Speaking as a mom, I can guarantee she never blamed you for that.”
“She didn’t get the chance to. My birth was traumatic for both of us. I struggled. Failure to thrive, they called it. My mom held on long enough to know I was going to live before she passed away in her sleep.
“She named me Starling the day before she died. It means unity and community. She knew she wasn’t going to make it, and with no family left, she knew it would take a village to raise me.”
“That’s tragic and beautiful. Looking at this, though, I’d say she was always going to name you Starling. She clearly loved you before she even held you.”