The Whimsical World of Wanda

Chapter six

Try as Wanda might, she could not keep her affections solely devoted to Vasily. Their lack of common interests was finally catching up with them but what was even more detrimental to this potential courtship, was Vasily's friend, Carter. Through paying such careful attention to Vasily, Wanda found herself getting to know his friends as well. Carter was not as handsome as Vasily, he was shorter and did not have as many striking features. However, what attracted Wanda to him was what was inside. He had exceptional musical taste and was much more intellectual than his friend. The tricky part with Carter came in choreographing opportunities for the two of them to interact. Vasily sat right beside her in Science class, the "when will I get to talk to him?" part of the equation had already been taken care of. Carter, on the other hand, while he was in that science class with them, he sat in the back row. Their interactions did not happen organically, if Wanda wanted to speak to him, she had to plan things. It didn't help that Carter was an extremely shy and awkward boy which meant that he never initiated their conversations.

As the months went by, Wanda and Carter's interactions all seemed to follow a certain routine: Wanda would speak to him briefly after science class, Carter would follow with a quick response and then that was it for the day. However, by the time December came around, Wanda was growing tired of this routine. She wanted to amp things up. She went about this by messaging Carter more and more but little did she know, Carter was not prepared for this quickened pace. The more effort she made, the more Carter pulled away. One weekend a person at a museum's welcome desk wrote down on a piece of paper a list of amazing retro songs to listen to so she decided to pass along the list to Carter. Alas, when she gave it to Carter, the act of giving him the list combined with the fact that he had to awkwardly stand in front of her while she searched through her whole backpack to find it, resulted in an awful scene. The list also happened to smell and had developed a layer of stickiness because her hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works had spilt all over it. Wanda tried harder and harder to show Carter just how much she cared about him but this just caused him to pull away even more.

It was the morning of December 15 and that night Wanda was set to fly off to England. Her father had left earlier in the week so he could spend some time with his best friend, Pete. Tonight her mother would leave with her to meet her father and see the rest of her family who she had so sorely missed. "Wanda! Don't forget your Pilsbury Christmas cookies," her mom said. Wanda's final step in trying to get Carter's attention was bringing him Pillsbury cookies that had snowmen and Christmas trees on them. Unfortunately for Wanda, this seemingly innocent act of kindness was met with extreme disdain. "Hi Carter, I made these cookies. There's way too many for me to eat them all on my own so I thought I would leave you a few," Wanda said in the most confident voice she could muster despite the circumstance she was in as she placed the cookies on his desk. Carter stared at her blankly with a look of disgust, it was as though she had left her dog, Bowie's poop in front of him. Wanda tried to remain calm as she walked back to her seat but deep inside she could feel the tears starting.

Wanda disliked flying, she suffered from claustrophobia so the feeling of being stuck in a "tin can" for several hours made her uncomfortable. "It'll be okay, just try and sleep and before you know it, we'll have landed," her mother said as they were waiting to board the plane. "I just hate that we have to fly across the ocean whenever I want to see my aunt, it feels so unfair," Wanda complained. Only her father had moved to Canada from his side of the family which caused her a lot of pain, especially due to her close relationship with her aunt. "You're doing great, sweetie!" her mother reassured her as the plane began to take off then squeezed her hand. Wanda could never fall asleep on planes so she read a bit of War and Peace (her mother was quite upset with her for bringing such a heavy book) and then watched Forrest Gump on her Ipad.

Try as Wanda might, her enjoyment of this trip was hindered by a growing concern she had about her relationship (or lack thereof) with Carter. She would visit all these exciting places or go on amazing tours like the history of rock n roll in Camden Town then message him about it but a response never came. "Maybe it's time to let go," her mother suggested but this always angered Wanda. The worst part for Wanda came when they left London for Margate (her aunt had moved there because she had had six kids and could not afford the house she needed to support them in all in such an expensive city). London at least provided some distraction for her pain but once she was in Margate pain was brought to the forefront. Her aunt was in the midst of a messy divorce from her husband who was also the father of all six of her children and who she had married in her early twenties (she was now in her forties). Wanda was relieved when she first heard that her aunt was divorcing this man, she had found him absolutely abhorrent. He was as if misery was perfectly encapsulated in a person. He refused to accept Christmas gifts from people, he couldn't go five seconds without saying something that would make someone cringe or cry, and he drank in hopes it would make him happier but it only made him further depressed, when he entered a room he sucked up all the happiness and turned it into melancholy. Despite her aunt's infidelity being the reason for the end of the marriage, Wanda could forgive her seeing as the man she was unfaithful to was such a monster of a human. However, despite the impending divorce, her aunt's estranged husband found himself with an invite for Christmas dinner.

The spirit in her aunt's house was anything but merry and bright. Between Wanda's sorrow over her troubles with Carter and the awkward air due to her aunt's soon-to-be ex-husband's presence, there was no room for joy. The cousin Wanda found herself most attached to, Maggie, refused to sit beside her father as he had told her two months earlier that he wished she had never been born. Her aunt's ex was given the task of pouring the wine for everyone and gave overly generous servings considering half the table consisted of minors. "Is he trying to get us drunk?" Wanda pondered, she was a control freak and had a deep fear of being inebriated. She decided not to sip any of it to be extra safe.

The lowest point of Wanda's trip came when she was in Barcelona. Her parents decided to take one of her cousins with them for their trip to Barcelona. Oftentimes, Wanda and her parents would add on a European city to the end of their trip as moving from country to country in Europe was quite easy. However this time, they thought it would be nice to bring along for the ride one of Wanda's cousins. Alas, the cousin they chose was the least agreeable one. The cousin they chose was Matt, her aunt's youngest son. Matt was a highly impatient, angry and egocentric boy at the best of times and now with his parents' divorce thrown on top of that, he was simply unbearable. First, there was the moment he lost his Tripod which he used for his Youtube vlog and accused both Wanda and her parents of stealing it only to remember he last saw it at the La Sagrada Familia. Luckily Wanda's father was able to retrieve the Tripod from the lost and found but the whole dilemma had led to a tense air. The air only intensified while the four of them were visiting the Montserrat mountain. They were told not to throw any rocks while walking around the various paths but Matt had decided to do so anyway which deeply angered Wanda as she had always been a stickler for rules.