Sister Wife

Arranged

"Charlotte!" My younger sister Sarah's voice is the first thing I hear that morning. It's a good thing it's my birthday or I would be really mad at her for waking me up.

"Charlotte, it snowed last night!" Sarah jumps on my bed and I groan.

"Okay, but this is Utah it snows all the time," I remind her, not pulling the covers back.

"Mother Jessica might have her baby today," Sarah whispers, laying her head on my pillow. "Are you going to watch?"

I make a face and shake my head. Jessica is my father's fifth wife and she's only a few years older than me. The idea of having a baby makes me sick to my stomach. There's no chance I'm going to watch her give birth.

"I think I want to watch," Sarah decides, sitting up. "Come on, let's get breakfast!"

"Let's go back to sleep," I suggest but I'm starving. I make a face and throw the covers back. Cold air rushes in around me and I grab for my hoodie.

My name is Charlotte Allred. I'm the oldest of my mother's 5 children which puts me right in the middle of my father's 20 - almost 21 - children. My father, Hyrum Kimball, has 5 wives. My mother, Elaine Allred, is his third wife. His other wives are Barbara, Jane, Erin, and Jessica.

My parents are polygamists - which is a very dirty word in a place like Utah. Polygamy is illegal everywhere but in Utah people are extremely sensitive about it. Which means they're really nasty to people who are open about their polygamist lifestyle.

So we keep our lives pretty private. I go to the public high school and with any luck I'll get accepted to the U (University of Utah, if you're not from around here) before I graduate this spring. And if I'm really lucky no one will ever know my family's secret before I go.

"Charlotte, did you forget we're visiting your grandparents today?" Mother Jane asks me when I get to the kitchen. I make a face but try to keep her from seeing it. Visiting my grandparents is at the absolute bottom of the list of things I want to do on my birthday but when there are as many kids in the family as we have it's impossible to do something special for everyone.

Still, it is my 18th birthday so I was at least expecting some form of acknowledgement. The cereal that's waiting for me on the table is not exactly what I had in mind. A card would have been great.

"I didn't forget," my mother says, pushing a Starbucks gift card in my hand. I know she's had to save up her allowance to buy me this so it means a lot.

"I'll treat you!" I offer. "We can have a date."

"It's only $5. Enjoy your fancy hot chocolate and tell me all about it after," she laughs.

"Thank you," I give her a hug and ignore the dirty looks I get from my brothers and sisters. They're jealous but they know better than to say anything. I do feel bad though. $5 is a lot in our family and spending it on something as unnecessary as hot chocolate instead of saving it for college makes me feel too spoiled, even if it IS my birthday.

So that morning when we stop so I can get my birthday treat, I buy a venti hot chocolate and give everyone a sip. It leaves me with just a little to enjoy for myself but the looks on my younger brothers and sisters faces make it worth it to me. Even Mother Jane, who is never in a good mood, manages to smile.

My grandparents live about an hour away in a place called Copper Creek. It's a little town and just about everyone who lives there is a polygamist too. My mothers and father all grew up there but moved away because of my father's job.

"Father is in a good mood today," my grandmother gives me a hug when I come in the house. She means my grandfather, Grant Kimball. His wives, all 7 of them, call him "father" as a sign of respect because he is the current president (also called the "Prophet") of our church but the idea of calling your husband "father" is very weird to me, even though I've grown up with them doing that.