Seasons of Change

18

Atira's house looked identical to the way it had the last time Krist had been there in high school, that fateful day her mother had sent her off to live with her Aunt Caroline.

Fucking cunt.

Krist gave Rocco the same lecture he'd given him at the restaurant, adding "Don't touch anything!"

"Let me use your phone then," Rocco said as if he was trying to extort his father.

"Deal," Krist told him, removing Audrey's car seat and following his wife and Gabriel up the stone path to the brick archway in the front of the home and waited in front of tall oak doors to be let in.

It had been mentioned before but Krist's parents, well his mother anyway, lived in a large home. Like, normal upper middle class big. He wasn't sure the exact square footage but it was something like 4,000 square feet, give or take. Normal people big.

Her parents' home was twice that size; like a legit fucking mansion. Mr. and Mrs. Alllen's home made Linda's home look like Marcus' in size.

"Act right," Krist told Rocco as he heard the front doors open.

Rocco rolled his eyes knowing all good and well his dad wasn't about shit so if Rocco was gonna get gangster, he was gonna get gangster and there wasn't a damn thing Krist would do about it. Except bitch and huff and puff.

Douglas answered the door, drink on hand, Louis Vuitton slippers on his feet. He glanced down at the feet of the Samson family as if debating on telling them to remove their shoes but seemed satisfied that they were clean.

Krist may have been a little ghetto and white trash at times but he was no dirty-shoe mother fucker and he sure the fuck didn't let his kids look like little section eight kids from Hazel Dell.

"Come on in," he said.

Welcome to MTV Cribs, guys!

"Nice place you got," Krist told Douglas as if he hadn't gotten caught dicking his daughter down there twelve years prior. Douglas nodded as if saying "No shit, Sherlock."

"Where's Mom?" Atira asked softly.

"She's in her bedroom," he looked at Krist, "We can go to the theater so the children can watch a movie."

"Do you mind if I show Krist around before I go in there?" She asked, curious to see what had been done to her childhood bedroom since she'd left.

"Yes, that's fine. You know where your mother's room is, right?" Douglas asked.

"On this floor still?" She asked, "Next to the kitchen?"

He nodded, leading them to the elevator. Yes. Her family had an elevator in their home. He was very impressed by the fact they had one, their old apartment complex had one but this was inside a house.

"Wow!" Rocco gushed.

"You can push the button if you'd like," he told, pointing to the down button, a small smile playing on his alcohol-flushed face.

"Cool!"

"You like that, huh?" Douglas asked, "Well, maybe once I'm gone, you can have it."

Rocco's eyes lit up, "Really?"

Douglas shrugged, "I wouldn't need it any longer."

He showed them the theater, a dimly lit, windowless room covered in black and gold leaf fabric wallpaper with a rich mahogany wood trim.