help your brother clean up after crushing his spirit? Would it have been to much to let your younger brother win?” Their mother says.
Tim’s frown immediately returns and he gets up and grabs his mother by the arm. Victoria watches as Tim drags his mother out of the room, then smiles as she cleans up the mess. By the time Tim returns the mess is already cleaned.
“You didn’t have to clean it all yourself,” Tim says, “I would have helped if Mary wasn’t here.”
“Why are you calling mom by her first name, that’s rude,” Victoria says.
“She’s rude also, to you anyway. If she can say rude things to you then why can’t I say rude things to her? She’s nothing but a slut anyway.”
“Tim!” Victoria shouts, Tim’s harsh words catching her off guard. She pauses for a bit.
“Tim…you’re only 8, you shouldn’t say things like that. And don’t worry about me, I’m your older sister you know.”
“Age is nothing but a number. Until society realizes this, and many other problems, we might remain oblivious to our own ignorance.”
Victoria stares at her younger brother until his shoulders drop and he sighs.
“Alright, I won’t call Mary…Mary anymore, but that doesn’t change facts, and that doesn’t mean I have to like her. She’s just ruining our lives.”
Tim gives his older sister a faint smile before leaving to go into his room. As he leaves Victoria begins her search for Sam. She looks in Sam’s bedroom, kitchen, backyard, front yard, in the study, back in the living room, but there were no signs of Sam. Victoria took it upon herself to give up. Someone going in her room wasn’t that big of a deal, and the mess was already cleaned up. She headed to her room, and found the door wide open, Sam sitting on the floor drawing in one of Victoria’s notebooks. Victoria rushes inside and sits beside her younger sister.
“Sam what are you doing?” Victoria asks.
Sam looks at her sister with a wide smile, “what am I doing?” she says.
Victoria sighs, “What are you doing in my room?”
Sam looks back down at her drawing, and continues to color on top of Victoria’s notes.
“What AM I doing in your room?” Sam says.
“Sam.”
“Victoria.”
“Were you in my room earlier?”
“I don’t know, WAS I?”
Victoria sighs, and looks down at the small drawings Sam was so invested in.
“Is this us?” Victoria asks, as she sees a doodle of two girls, one taller than the other.
The tallest one had a cap strapped to her shoulders, and headphones on her head, while the smallest had cute pink bows in her hair with what seemed to be a bandana tied onto a stick in her hand. Sam shook her head excitedly, and smiled.
“One day Victoria and I will leave this house and be together forever,” Sam says as she colors in the background with a dark blue crayon.
Victoria picks up a peach colored crayon and began drawing with her sister.
“What about Tim?” Victoria asks, drawing in another person next to the already two people.
“Tim can come with us,” Sam says, “as long as he’s not acting like a know it all.”
Victoria laughs, “and what about Kim?” she says drawing a smaller figure.
“If we leave Kimmy here she will be to lonely. No one to care for her. Kimmy comes to.”
Victoria smiles, as she begins drawing in two more people, “and mom and dad?” she says.
Sam leans over, and scribbles on the two peoples faces, and frowns.
“No, not them,” Sam says, “I only need Victoria.”
“Did something happen today?” Victoria asks, and Sam sighs.
“Mommy and Daddy were yelling at each other again, in Victoria’s room. Daddy was packing Victoria’s clothes but Mommy stopped him. Then Daddy pushed me when he saw me and continued to yell.”
Sam took a long pause before her face became wrinkled as she began to cry hysterically. Victoria quickly wrapped her arms around her younger sister, and rocked her back and forth. Sam smothered her face on Victoria’s chest, and grabbed tightly onto Victoria’s shirt.
“Big girls shouldn’t cry,” Sam says, “I need to hurry and become a big girl so I can leave with Victoria. I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
Victoria wipes away her sister’s tears, and cleans here nose from the dripping snot. She continues to comfort Sam until she calms down, and before the two knew it their mother was calling them for dinner.
At the dinner table the meal was growing increasingly long as silents filled the dining room. Not a single sound was uttered from anyone’s lips, everyone except Kim, who continuously made spitting noises as she ate. Victoria’s step father’s brows furrowed the more Kim made noises, until he’d finally slammed his fist on the table.
“Dammit Mary, shut that kid up!” He says.
Mother Mary scowls at her husband.
“That kid? That kid? Henry, are you seriously going to be this way?” She asks.
“Do you even have the right to speak to me that way right now? Two of them isn’t mine, this one probably isn’t either!” He says, pushing his chair from the table and getting up, “Never mind any of this, I’ll just go to bed.”
Mary chases after him in a hot pursuit.
“Don’t just walk away Henry!”
The yelling and screaming of the parents could be heard loudly, until it became faint. Victoria looks at her three younger siblings. Tim silently picked at his food, Kim who was completely oblivious as a 9 month child should be, and Sam, who slowly began to cry.
“Daddy hates me,” She says running over to Victoria, stretching out her arms for a hug.
“Daddy doesn’t hate you he hates Mary,” Tim says.
“Tim!” Victoria says.
“Mom. He hates mom,” Tim says, getting out of his seat to stand next to Sam.
Victoria holds her siblings close, and sighs. She closes her eyes and presses her lips together. As if trying to teleport her siblings, and herself somewhere else, she continues to squeeze her eyes shut.
Later in the night Victoria, with her headphones covering her ears, finishes up homework she started earlier in school. It was no difficult task for her, being someone who’s ranked number one in her school, so she finishes quickly. She shuffles through her binder until she finds the worksheet her teacher asked her to fill out. Gripping tightly onto her pencil she begins to fill in ever missing space with her answers. What college? She already knew where she wanted to go. What degree? She already knew what she wanted to do. Why?
“I have to get out of here.”
Victoria with her lips pressed together stares at her sheet, now complete, and throws it into the trash bin. Her mother pulls down her head phones and places Kim in her lap.
“Vic, I need you to watch Kim tonight. I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep her in the room with Henry and I,” she says hastily.
“Wait. Mom I can’t, I have to go to sleep early to get to school, Kim will keep me up.” Victoria says.
“Do you want me to get divorced!” Her mother says rhetorically, then leaves slamming the door behind her.
Victoria lifts Kim properly into her arms, and paces back and forth her bedroom, until Kim slowly closes her eyes.
“What a good girl,” Victoria says as she places Kim to lay on her bed.
Muffled sounds are heard outside and Victoria goes out to see what’s wrong…again. Both Henry, and Mary are in the living room yelling for the last time. Henry, dressed in a long coat, with a small suitcase in his hand pushes his wife aside to get to the front door. Mary grabs hold of his arm.
“Where do you plan on going?” She asks, but Henry jerks his hand away.
“I told you already. I can’t live in a house with you anymore. You sicken me!” Henry says.
With his final words said he pushes through the front door, and slams it shut behind him. Mary stands silently watching the door until she notices Vi
ctoria.
“Don’t ask me any questions. Just…Just go to your room.”
“Is Sam’s father not –”
“Just go to your room Victoria!”
For the rest of the night Victoria stays in her room, watching Kim as she slept soundly.
With two soft knocks at her bedroom door, Tim and Sam walk in with their hands tightly clasp onto each other’s. Sam rubbed her free hand against her watery eyes, and rushed onto the bed next to Victoria.
“Can we sleep here tonight?” Tim asks walking in.
With a closer look Tim’s eyes were slightly puffy, and red. Victoria smiled at her brother, and patted the space beside her. He immediately closed the door, and rushed onto the bed. Victoria clapped her hands twice, and the lights turned off. One at a time the three siblings Sam, Kim, and Tim, fall asleep. Victoria however stared up at the ceiling.
“Victoria are you still awake?” Tim asks.
“Yeah.”
“Do you perhaps hate me because we’re half siblings?”
“There’s no such thing as half siblings,” Victoria says, “You, Sam, and Kim are just my siblings. You’re just my brother, and will always be my brother.”
There is a long pause.
“Thank you,” Tim says, “For being my sister.”
“Thank you for being my adorable little brother.”
The two remain quiet until soft crying is heard. Soft crying and sniffled sounds
###
About the author
There has not been a single moment of Andria's life where creativity didn't cloud her mind. From a young age, Andria has always been a story teller. From creating her own spooky legends to scare her fellow classmates about what creature roamed the school halls at night, to creating her own "You