8 - Past

Clara, Max, and Jeremy all grew up in the orphanage. That’s where they adopted one another as siblings. As young adults, this ragtag crew changed their last names to Johnson, in homage to the wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

They left Max at the orphanage when he was around 5 years old. Jeremy was only 2 during that time, so they had no recollection of their parents. Because the orphanage was very poor, they forced the older kids to care for the younger ones. This was to ensure that everyone would have someone to care for them and minimize the cost of hiring additional personnel.

Max got assigned to Jeremy, and because of this, grew to love him as a younger brother. Occasionally, the boys gave into sibling rivalry, but the longing to have a family always kept them together. Clara was eventually added to the mix later when she got left outside the orphanage.

She was severely dehydrated and badly bruised when Max found her lying on the ground. He had snuck out to go forage for fruit and came back screaming, fearing she was dead.

When she awoke, she had no recollection of who she was and what happened to her. She couldn’t even speak. The experience had traumatized her so much that her brain repressed most of her memories before the accident. Later, they diagnosed her with traumatic dissociative amnesia when examined by a doctor.

Most of the kids avoided her, thinking she was weird. But Max had been intuitive for his age, and since he was the one who found her, he naturally became her protector. The boys tried everything to help her come out of her shell and help her speak again, but nothing really worked.

The adults did not think she would get any better, so they left her alone most days. 

When her wounds started healing, and she was strong enough to walk around, the duo showed her how to sneak into the nearby forest to pick berries or catch fish in the river. But they were never lucky, so they just played in the water. She was quiet and shy in the beginning, but when she opened up, the trio developed their own sign language just in case she never learned to speak again. 

At a very young age, Max had a penchant for entertaining people. So he occupied most of their days with tales of his dreams and adventures. 

Jeremy, on the other hand, was very taciturn. He figured since Max was so boisterous, he chose to be quiet most of the time. Only opening up when he was with Clara and Max. This was one reason he never got adopted.

He was happy being held and hugged all the time, and it was why he loved Clara the most because she would always sit with him and cradle him until he fell asleep.

Before Clara regained her voice, she would frequently disrupt everyone’s sleep by screaming and crying into the wee hours of the morning. This didn’t make her very popular, but it gave all of them a strong idea that she knew how to speak, or at least, vocalize her feelings.

The nightmares made the caretakers at the orphanage miserable, so they left her in a room far from everybody so she wouldn’t disturb the other kids. Unfortunately, this measure backfired and pushed her deeper into neurosis.

Even though they were young, Max and Jeremy had the wisdom of kids beyond their age. They knew Clara needed to be with people and should not be isolated. So the brothers would sneak out at night to be with her, hoping to ease her fears. Being with them had eventually lessened her nightmares, especially when they held hands or embraced one another as they slept. But this eased not only Clara’s fear and loneliness, but in a way, it also helped relieve Max and Jeremy’s need for company and affection.

To help her forget her nightmares, Max would tell stories before bedtime. It was like they were kindred spirits who had always been fated to find and care for one another. As they grew older, she just took on the role of their older sister, caring for them as much as she could. 

They never got adopted, so the trio just took it upon themselves to be each other’s family. And for a long time, it was just them until their lives changed when Clara met Mr. Wong in High School. He was a self-defense instructor, training people to work as security guards for different companies and famous celebrities.

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Clara had this innate desire to learn how to defend herself, so she begged Mr. Wong to teach her, but without the money to pay him, she volunteered to help him with chores instead. Cleaning around the dojo, the bathrooms, and throughout the building. After she got done with her classes and part-time jobs. 

When business began to slow down, Clara volunteered to help him with the flyers and advertising. Encouraging him to place some ads on the radio and the newspaper so people would know where he was. This revived his business enough to survive a few more years until she went to college.

Max hated Mr. Wong only because he kept making him clean the toilet and beating him on the mat. Aside from that, he was alright. Max recognized Mr. Wong was helping their little family survive. So in his books, he was a good man. 

Mr. Wong had assigned himself to be their guardian. He had kids, but Clara had become dearer and dearer to him, so he had adopted Max and Jeremy as a package deal. He taught the boys self-defense so they could defeat their own bullies.

They would always hang out with Mr. Wong after school and perform odd jobs in his building. To pay him back for all the lessons and the help he gave them. Like Clara, they helped with cleaning the dojo and distributing the flyers.

But there was one instructor they really liked. Mr. Wong had told them he had a dark past, something the trio did not care about. They judged people by their character and not by their previous deeds. Probably because they felt they had no right to judge anyone by their past, not having one themselves.

The instructor used to be a security guard for one of the most prominent families in the country. But he messed up, and they had him banned from the industry, and now he can’t work anywhere. But since it seemed that Mr. Wong was a refuge for rejects, orphans, and blacklisted individuals, he took the guy in and gave him a training position. 

He was the best instructor they have, always stepping up and making sure the students lived up to their potential. He stayed late and came in early like the dojo was the only life he knew. 

Mr. Wong helped the siblings with their other bills and school supplies while they worked for him part-time, so they could concentrate on studying instead of working too many odd jobs that always left them too tired to do their schoolwork.