Part One: Katie's Pains

Katie

“Katie! I’ve called you three times already and I won’t say it again. Get down here now.”

Katie Conklin stared at herself in the mirror. She didn’t see what everyone else said they saw when they looked at her. Her hair looked dull and flat. Lifeless. Kind of how she felt. Her caramel colored brown eyes were set just a little bit too close together. She angrily applied chapstick to her cracked lips before finally descending down the stairs to dinner.

“I don’t understand why we always have to eat dinner together,” she said and she plopped down at the table in a huff. “You act like were some kind of normal family, when you know were not.”

Katie glared angrily at her mother. Jillian Conklin looked at her daughter with a pang in her heart. Katie couldn’t see the hurt, but it was most certainly there.

“MaaMaa says we are unique,” said Maddie very slowly and deliberately.

Katie looked over at her sister. She saw the thick glasses with the purple trim, Maddie’s favorite color, surrounding her kind looking almond shaped eyes. Her face was slightly pudgy with bright pink cheeks and at the moment had a very serious look on it as she looked over at Katie. Maddie has been diagnosed with Downs Syndrome as a baby.

“Right…,” muttered Katie as she looked down and picked at her dinner with her fork.

“Katie,” said her mother in a warning tone.

Maddie spoke up again. “PaaPaa is coming to get us this weekend,” she said very matter-of-factly.

“Are you kidding me, Mom? You know he isn’t going to show. Why do you tell her this and get her hopes up. It’s not fair,” fumed Katie as she shoved her chair away from the kitchen table and stood up.

“PaaPaa is coming Katie,” insisted Maddie.

Katie looked down at her little sister. Maddie’s eyes looked innocent and trusting. She walked over to Maddie and knelt down beside her.

“Daddy is not going to come this weekend, Maddie. He’s too busy with his other family,” said Katie.

“Kathryn Conklin go upstairs right now!” cried her mother.

Maddie’s eyes were wide and glancing quickly back and forth between Katie and her mother.

“You can pretend everything is normal as much as you want Mom, but you know that’s not the case. We’re as far as normal as can be. I’m tired of pretending. And you’re wrong for pretending,” shouted Katie and she left the kitchen and stomped up the creaky old stairs to her bedroom.