Chapter Eight: Family Reunion

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Lydia led Chris by the hand through the manor to the grand staircase, where she invited him up to the second floor with the promise of giving him another piece of his past, one that illustrated a grieving parent's love for a lost child. She gave him no hints as to what he  was about to discover. Instead, she informed him as he trailed behind her during their climb up, that the second floor housed all of the private bedrooms in the manor, five in all.

    When they reached the top of the stairs, two opposing hallways presented a choice that Lydia made by guiding Chris down the one to their left. It was a long hallway with two evenly spaced doors on each side.  She brought him to the last door on the left, where he swallowed hard at the name painted near eye level on the wooden door. In regal strokes similar to a medieval calligraphy, black letters spelled out 'Corbin', giving the door a hallowed rank among the other unmarked doors in the hallway.

   Releasing his hand, Lydia opened the door in a respectful manner and followed it inward, spinning around to put her back against the door so she could stay clear of Chris' path while catching his expression when he entered. A rose window at the far end of the room allowed more than enough daylight in through its stained glass to assure Chris that what he saw on the walls when he stepped past Lydia into the room were not tricks played by shadows. His head turned to his neck's limit on his right and left, giving his eyes a sweeping chance to discern the life size images that lived on the walls with striking degrees of painted realism.

    All around him, in ages that ranged from very young  to adult, were boys and men who could never leave the surface of the walls, no matter how real they seemed at first glance. There was not a space on any wall in the room where they did not meet Chris with the same happy eyes and smile. Lydia spoke from behind Chris, who listened, but kept his focus on the assembly of phantoms all around him.

    "In addition to being a great architect, Pappa was also a very talented painter. This was how he dealt with his grief after the tragedy at Aunt Sylvia's house. He would come here to your room, and paint how he thought you would look as you grew up."

    An assortment of small, child-size pieces of furniture in the room bore witness that at one time a child lived in the room. Chris wandered over to the tiny bed, looked at the brightly colored comforter on top and the small pillows that waited for innocent dreams; then he strolled over to a small desk and traced it's edge with his fingers. He'd hoped its feel would jar a memory or two. Glancing up at the closest painted figure, one that appeared to be near his age, he suddenly realized that Pappa must've stood very near to where he now stood when he painted his son grown and happy. The smiling figure, with all his clones of varying ages spreading out around him on the walls of the room, reflected onto Chris a father's love.

    Chris turned with a pile of scrambled emotions to Lydia, looking to her for the right response to the room. She hastily left the door and went to him, taking both his hands in hers to soothe the emotional unrest she saw overtaking him.

    "You don't have to say anything, you just have to know that you have always been loved," she confirmed. 

    Chris drooped his head to hide his feelings, and his hands went limp in Lydia's, but she squeezed comfort into them as she respected his moment by bowing her head too. They remained like that until a certain bold voice interrupted them with a question.

    "So, can we call ya Corbin now?"

    Chris raised his head as Lydia swung around to his side while still holding onto his hand. They saw Shade leaning with folded arms against the door jamb, waiting with a raised brow for an answer. Chris consulted Lydia's expression, which could not contain the eagerness for the answer she wanted, then he scanned the painted phantoms on the walls as he directed his eyes back to Shade. Squeezing Lydia's hand in his, he swallowed then declared earnestly with all of the belief that the proof within the manor gave him,"Why shouldn't you, that is my name."

    Shade started toward him deliberately with a happy smirk, then a big squeeze from Lydia's hand brought Corbin's attention to Lydia's upwards grin beside him. He returned a wholesome smile that quickly disappeared into a look of pleasant surprise when Shade engulfed him in a tight hug that left him helpless in her arms. He retrieved his only free hand from Lydia and pressed it against Shade's back to answer the welcoming intentions of her embrace. Shade peeled herself away from Corbin after the hug, then started back toward the door after sharing a brief, heartfelt gaze with him. She turned at the door and informed Corbin and Lydia that Gale had prepared brunch for everyone in the dining hall, then she slipped out of the room.

    Corbin was overcome with a soothing joy that encompassed him like the warmth of a blanket on a cold day. The yearning to belong which he'd suffered all his life was being choked away with each hug from his newly discovered sisters, and the manor itself seemed to welcome him with an eerie sense of familiarity. He turned with a glowing smile to Lydia and noticed a lightly astonished expression on her face that not only amused him, but proved that no matter her expression she was so very pretty.

    "What is it?" he wondered.

     "Oh, nothing. It's just that, Shade doesn't give out hugs very often, and certainly not like that."

    "Well, with the way you girls hug, it doesn't take long for nineteen years of separation to fade away," he admitted gratefully.

    Lydia beamed a smile at Corbin's comment, then grabbed his hand. With the swing of their joined hands she started them off toward the door and down the stairs. A spirit of gaiety overtook them both at the stairs and they skipped down the wide steps while keeping the bond of their hands between them intact. The playful descent made them both eager to be the first to set a foot on the floor below. Racing across the middle landing with mutual laughter, their feet pounded the steps as they set their eyes on the finish line below. A spirited dash took them to the bottom where a small shoe squeaked by Corbin's to steal the win, landing firmly on the hardwood floor with an excited gasp from Lydia. Corbin conceded defeat with a  grumble of disappointment that the huge grin on his face exposed as false. They strolled off to the dining hall knowing that they both had won something priceless.

     Gale was setting the last serving platter down on the table in the dining hall, completing a generous spread of foods that decorated the table nicely, when Lydia came in with Corbin as her shadow. Gale acknowledged them both with her warm smile, then she focused on Corbin as she straightened her posture and clasped her hands down low in front of her. She attached a doting gaze to him that pulled him around Lydia and brought him humbly before her. A bashful smile swept his face before a more somber look overcame him.

    "I know my name now, and if you'll have me, I'd like to know my family again," he sincerely petitioned.

    Gale's soft blue eyes were polished with tears at his words. She opened her arms to offer  herself with an embrace and he gratefully slid into her hug with tears of his own. They fell into rejoicing sobs as Gale covered the back of Corbin's head lovingly with her hand, cradling it against her flowing blond locks and comforting the little boy inside him that had always yearned for someone to love him. The little brother she had adored and watched over from the day he was born until the day he was thought to be lost forever was finally back in her arms.

    Shade sauntered into the dining hall and went to stand beside Lydia who was watching the emotional union of Corbin and Gale with a glossy smile herself. Lydia glanced up at Shade, who was viewing the scene with a genuinely happy grin, then she slid over to her older sister with an arm around her waist. Shade's grin broadened into an all-out smile as she placed an arm across Lydia's shoulders and tugged her close with it. For the first time in nineteen years for Gale and Shade, and for the first time ever in Lydia's life, the children of the White Raven were together as one.

   Knowing that their hug was an adequate expression of the rapidly growing affection between them,  Corbin and Gale finally parted. They wiped at the tears on their cheeks and around their eyes, composing themselves with snivels and minor adjustments to their clothing. Gale noticed her other two siblings observing them from behind Corbin, then she directed a revealing statement at him.

    "So Lydia was able to convince you."

    "Yeah, she um...showed me some things that really helped to put the pieces together," he responded.

    "Well, we still have much to show you, but I think now we could all use a little nourishment," Gale implied, motioning to the table full of food.

    Corbin agreed with a nod that was accompanied by a low grumble from his hungry stomach which only he noticed. The light snacks from his bus ride had long ago worn off, so he was ready for a good meal. Everyone gathered around the table and Gale passed out plates so they could prepare their meals before taking their seats. Corbin politely waited for the girls to make their round through the table's offerings first, but he was forced to fall in behind Shade and Lydia when Gale insisted. Away from the platters of food, at the opposite end of the table, four cups waited beside napkins and silverware that was neatly arranged in front of four chairs; two on each side. Corbin trailed behind Lydia to the chairs where he was  instructed by Lydia's playfully raised brow and a firm nod to take a seat beside her.

    Once everyone was settled in around the table, the random clinking of silverware against plates ensued as appetites began to be satisfied. Corbin could feel Lydia's fond stare on him constantly, and in between bites questions surfaced from Gale and Shade about his life in Torrell. He kept nothing from them, but answered as honestly and openly as he could, presenting his own questions to them afterwards. The sisters were as hungry for his life's story as he was for each of theirs', and they all wanted an answer for his supposed death as a child which his current presence now indicated must have been some kind of sinister abduction. The insight gathered between them could shed no light on the matter. 

    Gale suggested contacting Gideon with an invitation to join them in order to inform him of Corbin's return as well as to seek his counsel on the matter. Shade and Lydia both jumped at the idea, so Corbin dared not refuse, even though he wouldn't have anyway. Despite the turmoil that had recently invaded his life, the sudden discovery and acceptance of his roots along with the lingering mystery of how it all came to be, Corbin was happily immersed in the realization that at the table with him were his sisters. Finally he could be both a little brother and a big brother, he had big sisters and a little sister. He was a part of what he always wanted, family.   

    

    

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