Saturday, June 18, 2011

More about Clare



(For those just joining us, Clare is the girl living in our garden shed and we are currently trying to figure out what we should "hypothetically" do about it.)

Hey, this is Bree. I'm going to write something, and your response is going to be, "Duh, Bree!" Here goes:

There is something up with Clare.

Duh, Bree!

But I mean... something beyond the obvious fact that she's living in a stranger's garden shed as opposed to, say, living with her folks and going to school. She seems really scared, and I don't think she's very healthy. She's very pale and thin. I have no idea what food she's living on, because she hasn't taken anything from our house.

We went to see her yesterday evening, like she said we could. Clare was really specific about that: in the evening, not the day. She said she sleeps during the day so she can get stuff done at night when no one can see. I guess that's when she finds stuff to eat. We offered to bring her food, but she said she didn't need anything and she didn't want our guardian to get suspicious that there was stuff missing from the fridge. (I tried to explain that with nine girls in the house, missing food wasn't exactly treated as a major mystery, but Clare was unconvinced.) I offered to lend her some books, though, and she did accept that, so I took her a nice stack.

Mostly she asked us questions, this time. Our ages, where we went to school, what we did for fun, how long we've each been part of the family. We tried to ask questions too - because we're seriously nosy about her but also because it's more polite - but she deflected most of them. She wouldn't tell us her last name, or where she came from. All she said about her family was that none of them were looking for her.

Then she got kind of a weird look on her face. Distant. She asked, "If someone came and tried to hurt me, what would you do?"

Kirsten immediately replied - and she speaks for all of us in this - "We would kick their butts!"

This was the second time we saw Clare smile. (The first time was when I brought her the books.) This was the first time we heard her laugh. She wasn't mocking us or anything, though. I think she liked Kirsten's answer... although I'm not sure she believed it.

Once again, we got permission to come back the next evening. So we still don't know why there's a girl living in our garden shed. She made us promise to keep her a secret from our guardian. Maybe if we can get her to trust us, we'll be able to help.

Love,
Bree

4 comments:

  1. Wow, Bree, that is really interesting and crazy! I don't know what I would do if someone was living in our shed. I do think you should tell your guardian soon though. If someone is trying to hurt Clare an adult will be able to help her easier. Of course, I know you don't want to break her trust. I hope everything works out okay and Clare ends up somewhere safe. Keep us posted!

    Emily

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  2. Hey, Bree!
    Sabine said this would be the perfect thing for me to comment on because I devour young adult fiction...and what if she is...a vampire? I mean, if she does stuff at night and not in the day, she could be. She could fight the enemy vampires at night! Maybe she is being stalked by a crazed vampire lover like Edward? Ugh, sorry, but Edward kind-of creeps me out. I love Twilight, but he's just way too clingy and stalkerish for my liking.
    Or, being realistic, what if she ran away from home? What if her home life wasn't the greatest? What if she can only be out at night because somebody may see her and report her during the day? Being real isn't that much fun, but it's more plausible. *sigh* If only life was like the books I read...
    Keep is updated...I hope that Clare is OK. I wish her the best.
    Lilly <3

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  3. Emily - Yeah, we're kind of struggling to know what to do, too. We're afraid if we involve someone, she's just going to run, and then she won't get any help at all. At the same time, there's only so much we can do for her.

    Lilly - I can't say the thought of vampires didn't cross my mind. ;-)

    On the other hand, though, as you say, only going out at night makes it much less likely someone will spot her. Our house blocks the light from the streetlamp, so she'd be pretty hidden coming and going once the sun sets.

    Thanks for the well-wishes.

    Love,
    Bree

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  4. Double-commenting because I left something out and I don't want to delete what I just wrote. :-P

    Lilly, I think odds are she did run away. If living in our shed is better than home, her home was probably pretty bad. That's one reason we're treading really really carefully.

    -B

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