They Left Me Twice, I Stopped Following Chapter 01

They Left Me Twice, I Stopped Following Chapter 01

In my past life, my parents moved back to the city after New Year’s to work.

I clung to my mother’s legs, sobbing, begging them to take me with them.

I desperately wanted to live with my parents.

Even if the rental apartment was barely two hundred square feet, and even if I slept on a folding cot and walked to school alone every day, I felt happy.

Until my little sister went missing.

That day, Mom told me to hold her hand.

I only looked down for a second to tie my shoelace. When I looked up, she was gone.

From that day on, Dad never called me his girl again.

Later, they moved away in secret, without even leaving me their address.

Fourteen-year-old me searched for them for two full years.

In the end, I died on a highway to another city, still trying to find them.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before my parents left.

This time, I no longer clung to the hem of my mother’s shirt.

“I’m not going.”

“I’ll stay with Grandma Rose.”

Grandma’s house in our Upstate town was dirt poor.

Yet every day after school, there was hot soup on the stove.

When it rained, she waited for me at the edge of town with an umbrella.

I thought that in this life, I would finally never be abandoned again.

Until that day after school.

The front door stood wide open.

Grandma’s clothes, medication boxes, and all the flour and rice in the kitchen were gone.

There was no food left on the stove.

Only a piece of paper on the table.

[ We are worried about Chloe being alone in the city. ]

I stood in the empty living room.

In my past life, I chased my parents for two years.

In this life, I hadn’t gone anywhere.

They still left me behind.

***

I read the note twice, then pressed it back under the corner of the table.

I put down my backpack and headed to the kitchen to search for food.

The stove was ice cold.

Just as I lifted the lid off the pot, Mrs. Higgins’s voice came from outside.

“Sienna, you back?”

She peered over the wooden fence.

“Your grandma left pretty fast.”

I gave a quiet sigh. “Yeah.”

Mrs. Higgins added, “Your parents drove up this afternoon to pick her up. Their car even passed right by your school gate.”

My hand froze on the lid.

“I told your grandma you were about to get off class, so they could pick you up.”

“She said no need, that you knew the way and could walk back yourself.”

I lowered my head.

My canvas sneakers were caked in thick yellow mud.

It was a five-mile walk from the local public middle school to the house, taking me over an hour.

My heels were chafed raw, my socks glued to the open wounds.

Turns out they hadn’t forgotten I was at school.

They just thought I could make it back on my own.

After Mrs. Higgins left, I lifted the pot lid again.

Empty.

The bread bin had only a few crumbs left, and the eggs were gone.

The bacon, dried vegetables, and salted butter were all packed up and taken away.

Even the laying hen in the coop was gone.

Finally, behind the stove, I found half a cold, leftover potato from breakfast.

The potato skin was shriveled.

I sat on a wooden crate and peeled it slowly.

The first bite choked me, dry and heavy in my throat.

I washed it down with a gulp of cold tap water.

During those two years of chasing my parents in my past life, I had starved worse.

At my lowest, a single pack of instant ramen lasted three days.

Half a potato was more than enough.

Halfway through, my phone rang.

It was Grandma Rose.

I answered almost immediately.

“Grandma.”

“Did you get home?”

It was noisy on her end, with Chloe’s voice in the background.

“Yeah.”

“Did you eat?”

I looked down at the hardened potato in my hand.

“I ate.”

“Good.”

Grandma let out a breath of relief.

“Lock the doors tight tonight. Stray dogs have been roaming around lately.”

My nose stung slightly.

Just as I was about to speak, Chloe’s laughter burst through the speaker.

“Grandma, look! Do I look pretty in these?”

The camera shifted.

I saw the custom hand-knitted designer wool sweater on her shoulders, dyed vibrant crimson with dark floral patterns.

My hand halted.

Grandma spent half a month making that sweater.

Her eyesight was poor, and every night she had to hold the needle close to the lamp to thread it.

Two days ago, she pulled me close to measure my arms.

“We won’t let our Sienna freeze this winter.”

I picked out the crimson wool thread for those flowers myself.

Chloe stomped her feet in front of the camera.

“Sienna, isn’t it pretty?”

“Grandma said she made it by hand, it’s so warm.”

The smile on Grandma’s face faltered slightly.

“Sienna, Chloe left in a hurry and didn’t bring thick clothes.”

“It’s been raining in the city, and she kept complaining about the cold.”

“Grandma thought you still had last year’s coat, so I let her wear it first.”

I looked down under the bed.

The tip of my old, frayed hoodie poked out.

The right cuff had unraveled, and I had stitched it up twice myself when it snagged last winter.

Grandma’s voice softened.

“You’re the sensible one. Just make do for a few days.”

“When Grandma comes back, I’ll make you another one, alright?”

I stared at the crimson wool sweater for two seconds.

I bent down and pulled out my old hoodie.

“Alright.”

Grandma visibly relaxed.

“I knew our Sienna was the sweetest.”

Chloe called out to her again from nearby.

Grandma turned away quickly. “Coming, coming!”

The call disconnected.

The house fell silent again.

I sat back by the stove and finished the rest of the cold potato.

The wind howled through the window cracks all night.

I set my old sneakers by the bed and re-stitched the tear with a needle and thread.

The needle pricked my index finger, drawing a tiny bead of blood.

I sucked on it, tasting the faint metallic tang.

The next morning, I still put on those worn-out shoes.

The cold air seeped through the right sole.

I put on an extra pair of socks.

It didn’t matter. I knew the way.

And I could find my own food.