Chapter 1 Part 2 (Text)

As soon as I stepped off the train, my ears were filled with a high pitch noise. It took me a minute to actually hear it. “ADDDDDELINE! ADELINE! I AM SOOOOOOO EXCITED TO SEE YOU! OVER HERE! I’M OVER HERE!!! Oh, Ruth-Anne, grab Tommy will you!?? Don’t let him run away! ADELINE, DARLING!” I rolled my eyes, I hadn’t seen Aunt Claire since my father’s funeral but she had not changed at all. I started taking one step forward when I felt someone grab my arm, “You didn’t tell me your Aunt was Crazy Claire! I love your aunt! I babysit for her! So glad to know YOU’RE the one that is causing me to not have a job this summer; you’re nice. Good luck with Ruth-Anne, though! Bye!” Marilyn said before she ran off towards Shaun and two other guys. Before I had a chance to comprehend what she had just said, I had a three year old attached to my leg and my aunt smothering me with a hug, still screaming. This was going to be a long summer.

Aunt Claire’s house wasn’t far from the train station but from the woods surrounding her house, you would think it was miles away from civilization. She told me it was actually within walking distance of everything while still being hidden from everyone. “It makes for a peaceful life of people staying out of my business!” Aunt Claire had explained to me as she had huffed and puffed up the front porch steps. “You look ready to pop, Aunt Claire! Are you due this month?!” I asked her, I hadn’t even known she was pregnant again. “No. I’m having twins. I’m not due for another two months! Luckily it is the beginning of August that the babies will be due; you’ll still be here!” She excitedly explained to me. I didn’t think she should be carrying the bags for me but figured it was her 3^rd pregnancy, she should know her lifting limits by now.

I had never been to Aunt Claire’s house so I was surprised when I saw just how huge it was. On the first floor, you would walk in and there was a huge foyer. Straight ahead was the kitchen and if you turned left after entering the kitchen, you would go into the dining room. From the dining room, there were two doors. One door led into the library which Aunt Claire used as a play room and the other went into the living room. The living room and library also had doors leading to one another and the living room also led back out into the foyer, to the left of the front door. To the right of the front door was the staircase and under that, a small half bathroom. Upstairs there were 5 bedrooms and 2 and a half bathrooms. One of the bedrooms was in front of the main bedroom with its only entrance from that room. It is smaller than all the rest; it looks like it used to be a large closet or sitting room that has been turned into a bed room. Aunt Claire has it set up like a nursery from when Tommy was a little younger and for her twins when they are born. The main bedroom has a door into a little nook that has the entrance to a bathroom and another bedroom in it. Next to the nursery is also another bathroom. Next to the bedroom that exits into a nook are another 2 bedrooms and another half bathroom under the staircase leading into the attic. In her attic are two rooms and another bathroom. I couldn’t stop thinking about how many bathrooms were in that house and Aunt Claire interrupted my thoughts by telling me that she made the two half bathrooms under the staircases because they used to be unused closets and bathrooms are more useful; especially a downstairs bathroom. She also told me that there really aren’t that many bathrooms; there are 3 full bathrooms (2 on the 2^nd floor and one on the 3^rd floor) and 2 half bathrooms (one under each staircase). After she explained that, it really didn’t seem like there were that many bathrooms, after all. The attic was just one big huge storage space. The one bathroom was even disconnected. She told me she would only reconnect it when the twins were old enough to use it.

The room I was to be staying in was the one that had the entrance directly across from Aunt Claire’s bedroom door in the little nook which was nice since it was also very close to a bathroom but also kind of awkward because she would know just how often I would not be leaving the house. It was a beautifully painted room, though. She told me she painted all the rooms herself; I never knew anyone in our family was artistic so it was an interesting thing to learn. As I started unpacking my things, I heard Aunt Claire’s house phone go off. Someone is stuck in the 90’s. I thought to myself as I heard her answer it; not even two seconds later, she was pounding at my door saying it was for me. I got excited until I realized it couldn’t be anyone I knew as mom wouldn’t call me, Katie doesn’t have the number and even if she did, she would text me first. Who could it be? I took the phone from a huffing aunt and told her I would have gone down to get it from her only to be brushed off.

“Hello? Oh my god… I didn’t think you’d take the phone from her. You seemed a little shy. But I wanted to welcome you and, like, apologize? For weirding you out, like, on the train? Ya know?!” I didn’t need to ask who it was; I could already tell by the length of her side of the conversation as well as the lack of breaths being taken, “Oh, it’s Marilyn, BTW! Ya know, from the train. I hope you didn’t forget about me already! So listen, there’s like this ginormous party tonight. Are you interested? I can come get you! It’ll be great, unless Crazy Claire wants you to watch the kiddos or spend a family night or something? I’d totally understand. Like, does it offend you that I call her Crazy Claire? I call her that to her face and she doesn’t care. But if it offends you or something, I can stop for sure!” I thought the girl would never stop talking! I liked her and she seemed nice but how was she ever going to get to know me if she left no spaces for me to talk? I didn’t really want to go out, I wasn’t in the mood. But I wasn’t sure if she or Aunt Claire would even let me say no. It didn’t seem like it.

 “Uhmm… Well, let me ask her really quick…. Aunt Claire?” I said as I covered the phone and turned to Aunt Claire. She looked at me, waiting for my question. “Uh, can I go to a party with that Marilyn girl that babysits for you? Do you care? I can stay here if you want. I’ll watch the kids or we can have a family night! I don’t mind! I really will not be upset if you say n…” She cut me off midway through my rambling and told me, “Hun. You’re going. Go make friends. You cannot sit around this house for 3 months and not make any friends to be with! Go out and be social; have fun. I really do not mind. You’re almost an adult. Go, it is okay! I know you don’t do much given your mothers condition.” I gave her a weird look and she continued, “What? It’s not as if the whole family is stupid, Ad. We all know she has a problem. We would have intervened if we had thought you were not surviving well. But you are. You have been doing a great job. It stinks to have her be an alcoholic but you’ve tolerated it and I think you would prefer us allowing you to deal with it on your own rather than pull you out of the house and make you unhappy to leave your home town and have your mother in a rehabilitation center?! Right? I’m sorry if us not intervening has made it worse or upsets you!”

I thought I had done a good job covering it up all these years, to find out that I hadn’t been covering it up well enough upset me a little. Especially since they KNEW what was going on and decided not to act on it but at the same time, I knew had they had acted on it, I would have been more angry than I was now. Plus, if I really felt like I had needed a large amount of help, I would have and could have asked them myself. I smiled at her to let her know I understood and that it was okay. I turned back to the phone. “Marilyn? Hi. Sorry for the wait. I guess I can go with you! I’ve never really drank before and I have never really gone to a party. So this is new to me. And, to be honest, I really do not want to go to a party. It isn’t really ‘my thing’ but for the sake of not being friendless all summer, I’ll go and try something new! Thank you so much for the invite!” I told her, half excited. Kate would be so excited and proud; she had been trying to get me to go to a party with her for years. “Great! What’re you going to wear!? I know some singletons that will be there that were eyeing you up earlier when you got off the train!” She replied, sounding extremely excited. Great, just what I wanted to do for the night; be set up with a guy. How did I know it would probably end up this way? “I have nothing to wear that someone like you would deem okay to wear to a party.” Shit. That sounded horrible! What if she thought I meant that in a horrible way! I tried to change what I said but she cut me off. “Ha. People like me? You mean people who love to party and wear sextastic clothes? I know you meant no harm by that, stop stuttering. I got what you meant. You have no dressy clothes for a party. No problem. I’ll bring some clothes by your house at about 8 tonight? Sound good!? I’ll see you then. Bye!!” I didn’t even have time to thank her, say goodbye or apologize before she hung up. I was a little stunned. I turned around to go find Aunt Claire to find her standing behind me with Tommy in her arms. She looked so excited, she grabbed the phone from me and all but skipped away saying something about going to cook dinner. Not only was this summer going to be long, but it was going to be very interesting.