My Three Cousins

Chapter One

I was sixteen that summer and Fitz was fourteen.  Vivan was a precocious six.  We pulled into the driveway of Aunt Maggie's as if nothing changed but the lack of greeting showed us things clearly had.  It was typical of my cousins not to think of meeting us out front.  I wasn't really sure if it was their idea for us to come, their world seemed to extend only to the ends of the three of them.  Mom, of course, saw even twenty-one-year-old Joan as a child who needed minding, so she said this was her sisterly duty.  I wouldn't have contradicted her ideas while she was in that state, but I can't help but wonder if there had ever been a point in the girl's lives where their mother had done as much watching over them as my mom did that summer.

We knocked loudly on the front door and Ruth opened it with a smile that turned into a frown and was quickly corrected back, "Auntie Liz, Cousins," she said with a warmth that was not natural to her voice.  Then she hugged us all while her sisters stood behind her with matching uncomfortable smiles.  They stepped up and took their turn to hug us.  

Only Helen stopped and tugged on my braid, "your hair is getting so red, Addy."  She said approvingly as if I had earned red hair.

My mother then shooed Fitz and I upstairs to the room we always shared and carried her bag to hers and Vivian's room.  Once in the room, Fitz threw himself onto his bed and pulled out a Nintendo Gameboy.  "Are you gonna unpack?" I asked.

"No, they're going to be tired of us in like three hours, we're going home," Fitz said with frustration seeping into his voice, but letting his body sink into the bed as if it didn't really matter to him where he played his Gameboy as long as he could play it.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted him to be right or wrong, but I carefully unpacked my stuff and by the time I made it back downstairs my mom was scrounging through the kitchen for something to cook.  "Ruth can cook something," Joan offered, "I'm sure you're tired."

 "It's no trouble," Mom said picking through the well-stocked kitchen as if it was empty.  She was determined to see my cousins as helpless.  Then she turned to me, "Addy want to help me?"

"Umm, no?" I said, not sure if I was really being asked or if I was politely being told to help.  She shooed me out on to the porch where I found Helen and Ruth in whispers.  I caught my mom's name and an annoyed tone before they fell silent.  "If she's like driving y'all crazy I can tell her to her to chill," I offered.

They gave me sweet but distant smiles and one of them said, "No it's really sweet of her."

"Ok," I said sitting on the steps, hoping this would compel them to chat with me a bit.  Helen took the bait, but Ruth got up and walked off into the kitchen.

"So little cousin, how is life in Arizona?"  She cast her voice up a few octaves when talking to me as if I was a smile child or particularly unfriendly member of the PTA, but I was grateful she even took the moment to speak with me.

"Good," I said, "schools boring, my parents are weird, and Fitz is in some sort of teenage boy stage of stink and angst."  It was new for me including Hal in the collective of my parents, but I thought it made my life seem fuller so I tested it with Helen.

"At least Vivian's cute," she said with a little giggle.

"In small doses," I said, scratching at a spot on my leg while I spoke.

"That's how I feel about my sisters too," she lied.

"Thanks, Helen," Joan said from the doorway.

"You know I'm kidding Joannie," Helen said with a pout and a voice at a reasonable octave.

Joan plopped down next to me on the step, and it seemed like an offering when she could have sat down next to her sister.  "We're going to loosen your mom up this summer if it kills me, kiddo."