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Chapter 3

Marie was coming home today. Aunt Harley was coming with her! She usually paid us monthly visits with a bunch of pastries and presents. She liked Brodie, but she was suspicious as to how he treated my sister and I. As she should... I thought. We all got ready and helped clean the house. Whenever Aunt Harley comes over, the house has to be absolutely spotless. Brodie did the dishes and gathered the empty beer cans, Mom wiped off the dust and vacuumed, and I cleaned up the stray objects scattered around the house. By the time we'd finished cleaning, the house was spotless. We'd also noticed that Brodie had taken his shirt off.

"PUT A SHIRT ON, BRODIE!" We cried.

Brodie held his arms up as if he'd gotten caught by the police and went into Mom's room to find himself a shirt. I decided to go change as well and went back into my room. I changed into a white shirt and denim overalls with merch and LGBTQ pins on the sleeve straps and pockets. Brodie had changed into a dress shirt and some jeans while Mom just put on a hoodie and loose shorts. For some odd reason, Aunt Harley expected everyone except Mom to look in tip top shape. Ridiculous, but fun! I thought to myself. I spotted my razor in the corner of my eye and froze. Shit. I have to hide it! I can't have Aunt Harley find it. Uhh... I grabbed the blade and looked around. The best place I could find was under my bed's mattress. I slipped it under there carefully and put the mattress back in place. Suddenly, Mom called my name.

"Jackie!" She said,

"Coming!" I replied and ran out to stand next to her.

Brodie smiled at me and ruffled my hair. I growled as if I were a gremlin and he jumped back, laughing. I smiled menacingly at him and turned to Mom. She opened the door and stepped out of the way. There they were. Aunt Harley and Marie. Marie had bandages around her neck from the... "Incident"... But, Aunt Harley made it look pretty. She made everything pretty. It was her job, after all. She was a clothing designer. She was usually the one everybody went to for outfit advice or what to see and what to buy. She was the one who helped me pick out my overalls. That day was one of my favorites, which made that piece of clothing my favorite. Aunt Harley had that resting face making her look like she was always up to something; most of the time, she was. It would usually just be a harmless prank or a little mistake she made. Whenever she'd make one of those, she'd tell Marie and I: "Don't tell ya Momma!" and she'd tell Brodie: "If you tell Mabel, I'll burn that ugly scarf you love so much!" She almost did it, once! Brodie had snitched on her to see if she would make good on her threat. Big mistake. She also gave Marie a tank of Japanese goldfish, too.

"Don't tell ya Momma!" She said.

Mom never noticed after that, despite the fact that those fish were huge. To this day, the tank sat on Marie's dresser. While she was gone, I'd secretly sneak past the kitchen into her room to feed them. That being said, Aunt Harley was my favorite, but no one could top my Grandma Jolene. Grandma Jolene was one of those Russian grandmas from those memes. She fought as a Colonel in WW2, she knew how to aim and fire an AK47 properly, she had impeccable aim with her slipper and always carried peppermints in her purse wherever she went. Everyone adored her. Even Brodie, and he hadn't even met her yet!

Aunt Harley hugged Mom and watched Marie run to me, jumping with joy. Her neck was healing up nicely so she could do everything she couldn't before. She glanced at Brodie and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hey, Ki-... Ah. Well, fair enough." He said.

I laughed and explained that he got nicer recently, but we'd keep watch.

"We'll be like super-spies!" I quietly exclaimed.

She giggled and nodded excitedly. We all sat around the living room coffee table and talked. Marie wanted to draw with me, so naturally I agreed. I got my sketchbook from my room and sat down on the floor. We had a little drawing competition and she asked me to teach her a few drawing techniques. She was always a fast learner so she got good pretty fast. I'd promised her I'd find new techniques for us both to learn. This is nice... I thought. Sadly, I know this is all gonna end some time soon. Marie and I went to my room and talked for a bit. I told her stories and she told me about things that happened at the hospital.

"The doctor gave me a yucky pill! It tasted like diarrhea!"

I laughed, showing a face of disgust. Soon enough, dinner came. Me, Marie, Mom, Aunt Harley and Brodie sat around the table. Tonight was spaghetti night. Marie's favorite, as well as everyone's sad food. When Mom and Aunt Harley cooked together, they always made something that was meant to be disgusting into a whole new, delicious meal. That's what we loved about those two. Since they were little, they would recreate weird dishes. They were the family's Golden Sisters. They were the heads of the family. Grandma Jolene was just that one mom that stepped in when she needed to. Everyone loved each other unconditionally, but ever since Mom and Dad split the family was broken. Nobody kept in touch or visited us. Everyone was constantly on thin ice. No conversations ended well, either. Aunt Harley was the only one oblivious to the situation. She was always bright and sunny; trying to keep everybody together and happy. Mom, Marie and I helped her with that.

Once everyone finished eating, Brodie, Mom and Aunt Harley went back to the living room to talk; Marie and I went into my room. Marie had her own, but she liked staying in mine because she still kept having nightmares about Mom and Dad's fights. I held her in my arms while reading a story book to her and after that, we watched a movie. The peace that had developed was nice, but only for a little bit. We hoped that this year, Aunt Harley wouldn't out-stay her welcome.