It was Saturday and John was enjoying his morning coffee before driving out to the center; he’d once dreamed that if he ever became project administrator that he could sit back and rest on his laurels, but the truth was that there was no rest for the wicked.
Anne was about to leave for her rounds at the hospital and she’d offered to drive the girls to the school for Kim’s cheerleading try-outs; everybody was busy today, be it a weekend or not.
“Girls! Breakfast!” Kim was the first downstairs, her red pigtails flapping all over the place. She was now an energetic twelve years old and was showing signs that she was eventually going to blossom into as beautiful a young woman as her mother was, much to John’s dismay. Kim had more energy than two girls her age, and some days it seemed as if she could do anything.
Already dressed in her junior varsity cheerleader’s outfit, the redhead chewed her toast with her mouth half open, crumbs falling back on her plate; these served to absorb the orange juice that ran down her chin from the mouthful she’d taken from her glass.
“Nice, Princess. Slob much?” Shego ambled into the kitchen, stopping to kiss each parent and accept the science and technology section from the paper, which her father handed to her. The baby fat having long since been lost over time, the raven-haired, pale skinned child had grown into a tall and lean sixteen-year-old young woman of exotic appearance and unearthly beauty. It was this more than anything else that added a few more gray hairs to John temples.
Kim stuck out a food-encrusted tongue at her older sister, who promptly stuck out her own tongue, then reached over to undo one of Kim’s pigtails.
“MOM!”
“Oh, Kimmie-cub, relax. That was cute!”
Anne was used to how the girls would fight and also knew that most of the time Shego was run ragged by Kim’s high-strung antics; if the older girl could get a lick in once or twice, more power to her.
As his wife repaired Kim’s hair, John smiled to himself about his girls. At first glance, they seemed as different as night and day, but he knew better. He’d seen how Shego had watched out for and protected her little sister all these years, and how she’d stood up to school yard bullies when Kim would get into a scuffle. He’d also seen Kim step up and get right in the face of anyone foolish enough to call Shego ‘spooky chick’ or ‘ghost’.
Shego was the calm to Kim’s storm; the pale girl was wearing one of her favorite outfits, a midriff-bearing shirt and loose fitting cargo pants, both in a green and black harlequin pattern that Shego favored. She had long since gotten over the childhood stigma of the color of her skin and hair, and didn’t mind showing a little more of it than John was comfortable with now that she was older and attending high school.
Shego read her paper and sipped her cocoa, mirroring her father with his coffee, and her long black hair fell almost to the floor.
“Shego…” It didn’t hurt to reinforce a little parental reminder now and then.
“Sorry, Dad.”
“And what are your plans for today?”
“I thought that I’d go to the library while Kimber-dweeb,” Shego cocked a thumb at her scowling sister, “tried out for a spot on the ‘fat girls’ squad…”
“I AM NOT FAT!”
“… and looked into a few colleges. Somewhere with a strong science and math curriculum.” John sighed; time went by so fast.
“Not going out for sports?”
“No, they just don’t interest me as much anymore.” Shego looked slightly downfallen and John could sympathize.
Both of their girls had gotten plenty of exercise growing up, and they always played well in whatever athletic events that they’d joined. They were very healthy and strong young women, but Kim’s social nature had led her towards group activities and eventually cheerleading, while Shego’s natural tendencies to be a loaner kept her from making many friends. Her inner circle consisted mostly of her family.
“Maybe she wants to find a school with lots of BOYS!” Kim snorted and finished her juice. Shego made a scowl of her own but didn’t react otherwise.
“Kimmie-cub…”
“Sorry, Dad.”
Anne returned with her satchel of paperwork and shooed the girls out of the house before things could deteriorate into a real fight. Before she left, John got her attention.
“Anne, hang on a moment, would you? I want to have a word in private.” Seeing that the girls walked right out to the car, Anne stayed behind.
“I can guess what it is that you want to talk about.”
“She is sixteen, after all; we can’t just never tell her.”
“Well, doy!” Anne smiled and took his hands. “We always planned to tell her the truth, it just always seemed years away, didn’t it?”
“When should we do it? Tonight?”
“How about during or after dinner? Let’s wait until we’re all sitting down and then we tell them both.” Anne felt confident about this and John agreed. She kissed him goodbye and got to the car just before the name calling turned into actual blows.
Arriving at the main entrance at the school, Kim hardly waited for the car to stop before she was out the door and running towards the athletic field. She waved goodbye to her mother and didn’t notice the tiny wave that Shego gave her, or the sotto voce ‘Good luck’. Anne turned to look at Shego before the older girl got out of the car.
“So you really are going to the library, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Why?”
“Not really sneaking off to see some boy, right?” Shego’s look of shock was more due to her mother’s insight than anything else.
“Well, NO, if you have to ask.” There was a darker shade of green under her eyes; it was how she blushed.
“Hey, don’t sell your old Mom short, Pumpkin. I used to be your age once upon a time, and I had many a gentleman caller in my day, let me tell you.” Anne grinned mischievously at her older daughter’s discomfort.
“I am finding a happy place right now!” Shego covered her ears with her hands and shut her eyes tight. “LA LA LA LA LA!”
Anne waited patiently until Shego stopped.
“My point is, your Father and I see you alone most of the time and we want you to be happy. For us old timers, happy usually included friends. And that also means boys.”
“Yeah, I know, Mom.”
“You are a very beautiful young lady and it worries your Father to no end that he can’t always be there to watch out for you. I can’t either, but it’s only that we care so much about you.”
“Ok, do you remember when we had ‘The Talk’? I was paying attention, you know.” Anne signed, realizing that she was forgetting how mature and intelligent Shego was for her age.
“Ok, you’re right, enough preaching. Just promise me that if you do have any special friends you won’t keep them a secret from us, Ok?” Shego loved her parents deeply but sometimes they could be so square!
“I promise.”
“Good. Now, here’s enough money to buy you and your sister some lunch at Bueno Nacho. Meet her here after her practice and take the bus home after lunch.” Anne kissed her oldest daughter and left her to walk the short distance to the library before driving off to the hospital.
Upon reaching the library, Shego used one of the computers to do some cursory research of colleges all over the country. She really was more interested in math and science than anything else and had thoughts about following in her parents footsteps. She was more than a little hesitant to leave Kim behind, but while the old memory of the fire was just slightly faded in her mind, her little sister was becoming more than capable of taking care of herself.
She was also concerned about money, specifically college expenses. Schools cost so much these days, it was difficult for her mind to envision how she would pay for it. Being the child of two professionals, Shego knew that her family was very well off, but they were by no means rich. Her father had never expressed a concern over the cost of tuition, but Shego didn’t know how their family could afford it. So she’d been looking into scholarships.
One phenomenon of the Internet is how one link on one website can lead you down a path that takes you far away from your intended destination. Since Shego had done some summer intern work at her Dad’s job, she looked into their scholarship program. From there, she selected a link of former scholarship recipients and from there she found herself scrolling down a column of images. She smiled at an old picture of her father standing arm in arm with Drew Lipsky.
Wondering how Uncle Drew was these days, Shego opened another Browser and ‘Googled’ her Dad’s best friend from college. She hadn’t seen Uncle Drew in over five years and was shocked to see that her Internet search turned up page after page of sites that mentioned his name.
She was even more shocked to see that none of them were for anything good. She noted comments claiming ‘flawed research’ and ‘falsified data’ and ‘unsafe practices’. It also became apparent that he’d long since been fired from her Dad’s center and that his credentials had been revoked.
The real kicker was when she found a recent image file. The man she’d first met when she was three years old hadn’t changed too much in the intervening years; not quite as skinny, the glasses were gone, the hair a little longer and the ponytail a little fuller.
The only drastic change was that he was blue. The image was of Lipsky apparently recovering from some sort of industrial accident; there was a deep laceration beneath his left eye and the text read that the man had apparently been experimenting on himself when the accident occurred.
Shego had never seen anyone with blue skin before. She chided herself that, of course, no one had ever seen anyone with REAL blue skin before, just makeup or special effects. Glancing around the library, Shego could spot several folks, each and every one with skin that ranged from pink to tan to brown to black, each one natural and normal.
She looked at her own fingers on the keyboard and wondered if Uncle Drew would have a better understanding of how she felt sometimes; of how different and alone she sometimes felt.
The most recent news report said that Drew Lipsky had attempted to start his own independent research laboratory, but that it’s prospects were dubious. There was very little research done on schools that morning.
At a few minutes to Noon, a quiet and thoughtful Shego was almost bowled over by her younger sister when they met in from of the deserted school.
“I’m in, I’m in! They had me do some routines and I got in!” Kim was bouncing up and down with joy, and had impressed Shego with no less than five cartwheels.
“Way to go, Kimmie.” Although to admit it would make Kim laugh at her, Shego was very proud of her little sister’s accomplishments.
“I can do anything, because anything is possible for a Possible!”
“Calm down, Kimber-dweeb, before you have a stroke.” Shego draped her arm casually around Kim’s shoulder as they started walking the few blocks to Bueno Nacho. When neither of them remembered to be sisters, they were best friends.
“Uh, Sheeg, why didn’t you ever try out for cheerleader?”
“Who says I didn’t?”
“Doy! Just everybody!”
“Maybe I didn’t like how the uniforms clashed with my skin.”
“Maybe you still had too much baby fat!”
“Ghaa! You are a turd!”
“Poopie-head!” Their parents didn’t allow harsh language in the house so the two reveled in minor name calling until Kim’s limited experience caused her to expend her meager repertoire. When they arrived at Bueno Nacho, Shego was disappointed to see that one of Kim’s friends was already there and apparently wanted to sit with them.
“Hey, KP! Hey, Shego.”
“Hi, Ron!”
“Whatever.”
Kim and Ron talked incessantly of school events and shared friends and other things that just didn’t hold Shego’s interest; she was feeling especially alienated today, not just because of her appearance, but because she just wasn’t seeing the world through he eyes of a child anymore. Her own sister might have come from another planet, for all she knew. Looking down at her own hands again, she admitted that maybe she was the alien.
Lunch was tasty but excruciating with Ron there; the boy kept a hairless rat in his pants, for crying out loud! What’s up with that?
The bus ride home was equally rough because there were always folks on the bus that weren’t local people, folks that didn’t know about Shego and who would stare and point. Kim actually caught one man looking at her older sister with obvious disgust, and she stood up in the aisle and demanded that he “Stop that right NOW or I’ll have my Daddy shoot you into a black hole!” Kim got a big hug from an embarrassed Shego when she sat back down.
“Thanks.”
“No big! You’d think he’d never seen a FAT girl before.”
The tickle attack was so ferocious that Kim almost wet her pants. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Kim doing homework in their shared bedroom and Shego out in the backyard reading an old science fiction novel of her mothers; many of the characters had unusual skin tones.
Before dinner, the older sister made a few diary entries of what she’d learned on the Internet about Drew Lipsky, including the location of his private company.
When their parents arrived home and the family began to interact, the sisters could tell that something was on the minds of their folks; the girls exchanged puzzled looks and shrugs and neither had any idea what it could be about. But, since no one seemed to be actually angry or upset, they figured that they should either ignore it or that it would eventually be explained.
When dinner was served, the tension became more pronounced when John and Anne kept looking at each other and nodding.
“Mom, Dad, is anything wrong?” The two adults suddenly looked as if they’d been caught red-handed in the middle of a crime.
“Um, no, Princess, nothing’s wrong!”
Kim had an awful thought.
“You’re not getting a divorce are you?”
Anne coughed around a lungful of food and Shego helped her to take a sip of water.
“Heavens, no, Kimmie-cub. Whatever gave you that idea?” As she returned to her seat, Shego supported her younger sister’s curiosity.
“You two have been acting awk-weird all through dinner. What’s up?”
Anne looked to John and they held each other’s hand for strength; John then left the table and walked towards his study while Anne turned to better face both girls. Kim unconsciously reached under the table to take Shego’s hand; she found it waiting for hers halfway.
“Your father and I have something to tell you. Now, don’t look so worried; it’s not a bad thing. Nothing is changing and everything is going to be the same, but…” Anne looked up to John as he returned, wanting some moral support of her own. He held an old manila folder from his file cabinet and he continued for his wife.
“Kimberly, this mostly affects your sister, but we want you to hear this as well.” He looked to his oldest daughter. “What is your name?”
“Huh?”
“Please, Princess, humor your old man.”
“Shego Possible.”
“Your full name, Pumpkin.”
“Sheila Gordon Possible.” John nodded and opened the folder to reveal several pieces of paper, including one very yellowed scrap of a newspaper article. He handed her a document, which Shego noticed was a copy of her own birth certificate.
“Wait… this just says ‘Sheila Gordon’ on it. And I’ve never heard of that hospital; that’s not the one here in Middleton.”
Next, John handed her the scrap of newsprint.
“Please read this very carefully.” She did, and reread several paragraphs over and over. Before she could raise her eyes to the adults for an explanation, one final piece of paper was gently set before her. The words ‘Petition For Adoption’ were in large and fancy script.
“You were born ‘Sheila Gordon’ almost three years before we met you. Your father and I had been praying for a child ever since we were married but couldn’t have one. Then we heard about a little girl who was suddenly alone in the world and we both wanted to make her ours.”
Kim sat there stunned and Shego absorbed all of this.
“Did… did you know them? The Gordons?”
No, but I was able to collect a lot of information that’s ready for you anytime you want to see it.”
“It says that a meteor hit their house. Is that true? Is that why I’m…” she couldn’t finish the question, instead displaying her open hand.
“That seems to be the case, yes. You were very fortunate to have survived; you are our very special girl.” John felt his voice breaking.
“The bestest little girl in the world.” Anne also felt a lump in her throat.
Shego though about this some more, her brain staying oddly focused considering how much news she’d been given to digest. Then she felt an old, old anxiety rise to the surface.
“Is that why there are no baby pictures of me? I mean, nothing from before I was three or so?” Her parents nodded in affirmation.
“Your mother and I never did have a good answer for you on that one, did we; especially since there are so many of Kim.”
“I thought it was, well, because…” Again, she offered her open palm as if to explain.
“No, baby, no!” Anne quickly moved around the table to hold her oldest daughter. “There was nothing about you that we didn’t love from the moment we first saw you. After we brought you home, you just seemed to slowly forget your previous life and we wanted nothing more than for you to be our child, so we kind of let you forget.”
“That’s the truth, Princess. It wasn’t until you were almost Kim’s age now that we realized that you had no memory of your origins; so we talked about it and your mother and I decided to tell you everything… someday.”
Most of the meal was left cold and untouched on the table during the conversation; Shego looked down at what was probably a delicious dinner but didn’t feel the least bit hungry any more. She felt sorry for this, because her mother was an excellent cook.
Her mother. Her mother was dead, as was her father and four boys that were her brothers that she would never know. Had she originally had memories of them? Stupid question, really. If I did, she mused, would I even be asking that question? Many other questions presented themselves to her, answers for which she would have needed to get from her parents… from the Possibles… that she would never ask because in her heart she was terrified of how they might answer.
“May I please be excused?” Having absolutely no experience with this, Anne nodded and Shego left the table.
Kim watched her go, the same stunned expression on her face; she started to follow her older sister but her father motioned her to remain.
“Let her go, Kimmie-cub. We’ve just dropped a bombshell that no one can be fully prepared for.”
“But, Dad, she’s still…”
“We know, dear. She always was and always will be your sister; just as she’ll always be our oldest child.”
“Does it bother you to know that I didn’t give birth to her myself?”
“Huh? No!”
“Shego just needs to be alone for a time to sort things out.” Anne dried her eyes and moved to Shego’s chair, sitting down beside their younger daughter.
“Right now Shego is trying to reevaluate her entire life story; if you’ll pardon the expression, to sort the truth from the lies. The thing is, there are no lies. Everything that ever happened to her, everyone she knows and our lives together as a family, are all exactly what she knows them to be. But for a little while she’s going to feel as if her world has been turned upside down.”
“But I want to talk to her, tell her that I still love her!”
“We understand, just be patient, and then you can go to her.”
The bedroom loft at the back of the house now seemed like a façade. The question was: what truth was hiding behind the lies? Was any of this really hers, or was she not serving a purpose now that the Possibles had a daughter of their own. Shego lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, watching the evening shadows grow longer as the sun set over the low hills outside.
Alien, different, freak, ugly; all of these words ran through her head, all words that she’d thought about herself at one time or another. They were like Pandora’s Furies, all released from the box of poorly healed wounds dating back to the night of fire and noise that killed her original family. Nothing is yours, you don’t belong, never did, never will.
For as intelligent a young woman as Shego was, she never realized that the reason these words were being ‘spoken’ by her own inner ‘voice’, was because they had never been said, or thought of, by anyone else. Her wounds ran too deep and she’d carried them for far too long.
It was full dark before she heard someone climb the steps and enter the room. No lights were turned on, but she heard someone expertly navigating the room, apparently changing clothes. There was movement by the bed and it shifted as someone climbed on and Shego suddenly found Kim pressed firmly against her, practically laying on top of her. Without thought, Shego draped her arm around the shoulder of her sibling, pulling her close.
The redhead didn’t say a word, snuggling against her older sister just as she used to do when they were both much younger. This act, of all others, might have caused the balance to swing in Shego’s favor.
Then Shego’s fingers touched the old scar across Kim’s back; so old and healed that it was barely a ripple in the otherwise perfect skin. With the memories of a terrified five year old superimposed on the present, it felt like a gaping hole. She could also feel the melted fur of Panda-Roo on her chest, apparently brought into the bed by Kim; the synthetic material long since purged of the burnt smell but still carrying his own scars.
Some scars are beneath the skin; those run the deepest and take longer to heal.
They suspect, or they already know; they’ve always known.
I damaged their perfect little girl. How can they ever forgive me for that?
They won’t.
When Kim awoke the next morning, Shego was gone.