Scissors

III

The first time I met Jason's sister, she kissed me.

It was a Friday and we were supposed to go swimming. Jason's mother had agreed to drop us off at the pool, though she had only met me once. The only catch to it was that his younger sister comes with us.

After school, we took the bus to Jason's place. Jason lived in this really neat neighborhood. Every neighbor's lawn was lush and green, white picket fences on a few houses on the street, bright red mail boxes and clean street. It looked straight out of those real estate brochures.

I was amazed, something had made me expect the worst of Jason's living conditions, but I found myself walking into a cozily furnished house, doc. I guess it made me a bad person, but then, most people from outside the country, that I knew of, were not so well to do.

Jason's house smelt weird. He said it was food but I doubted it. It smelt odd like spices and a thick smell of yuck. Yes , doc, that's the only way I can explain what the house smelt like.

"mom forgets to shut the kitchen door and turn on the fans" Jason smiled at me when he noticed my sniffling. The air was spicy, but the spice was foreign and I sure as hell didn't like it. "take off your jacket.......you brought your swimming trunks, right?"

"sure" I nodded.

"Good, I'll go get mine" he said and began up the stairs before us. "go into the living room, sit down. Mom will be out in a minute" He pointed to the door to my left.

"Right" I nodded.

He gave me an odd look before walking up the stairs.

I walked into the living room. There were flowers everywhere and pictures in funny frames. The house told a story that did not begin in this country. I stared at the big picture high above a shelf. A big happy family beamed back at me, eyes glowing. They were caught right in the middle of a Joke I could tell, doc, because an older boy, who looked a lot like Jason had his mouth half way open. He had this kind of expression on his face, the kind Jason has on when he has thought of something clever. It was good natured yet infuriating. An old woman sat in the mist of twelve other people, all kids and young adults.

"oh! Hello" Jason's mother startled me out of my thoughts.

You know, I could tell a lot about Jason's mother from looking at her just once.

I could tell she was a busy woman and that she had just finished doing something she did not like or was not very good at. It had to be cooking; else the house wouldn't be filled with that smell that Jason insisted was food.

I could tell she valued her appearance a lot, because before she continued any further talk with me, she stopped in front of a big mirror hung over a decorative table.

"so you are Jason's friend?" she asked.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

Have I ever told you about Jason's accent?

It was as close to normal as a person who had spent six years in America's could. Hardly. He sounded mostly normal, but when he got too exited, his words would get thick and silly and then jumble all into each other and Voila! He was speaking another language, which he insisted was English.

His mother, was different. She spoke her English with a heavy accent. Her words had a stupid twist to them, but I understood her because she spoke slowly.

"you and my son are friends?" she asked

"yes"I nodded.

"that's great" she grinned, flashing her startlingly white teeth and a gap between her two front ones. "any time I ask him, he will say he has no friends. I don't belive him though."