Part 3: The Family?
I said a little while ago that the morning of the interview were when thing started, right? I'm debating on changing that because now that i'm talking about it, I think it really wasn't. It was the morning after that when I woke up, bleary eyed and yawning despite it being 10 am on a Saturday, to find two new members sitting at the table along with my family. Mum and Dad were sitting at the table, already finished with their own meal and checking the news on their tablets as per usual. Liz on the other hand was looking right at me, very nervous.
She was twirling a lock of her own shoulder-length auburn hair as she watched me with shaky blue eyes like mine through a... Damn, I remember exactly what I thought then. That's surprising. Why the fuck is my sister wearing a monocle? I figured it was to do with our new guests, seeing as they too wore monocles. Anyway, the hair and eyes were, are, pretty much where our similarities stop. Mainly because she was, y'know, female. Rather than looking like me, an ever-so handsome man, she had softer looks, a button nose, rosy cheeks, yada-yada, typical 14 year old little sister. At that time she tended to lock herself away in her room. I decided it was studying. Of curse today she was down here. And staring at me. Intensely.
"Uh, morning. Anyone wanna clue me in?" I asked to the room as I went around the room looking for a bowl and some cereal. It was Dad who responded first, giving me a strange look. "Into what?" I love when people respond that way. Ever so helpful.
"Why we have two new guests. And why Liz has a new accessory." My last words had a fairly big effect on the room. My parents gave me the queerest look I'd ever gotten, the two new visitors beamed at me and then Liz downright squealed. She shot out of her seat, knocking it over and scaring the shit out of my parents, and tackled me with a hug. Unfortunately I couldn't juggle the surprise and my food at once so I dropped the bowl of Coco snaps I had prepared onto the floor. (Didn't matter much, stupid knock off brands taste like shit anyway)
My dad then laughed at me heartily, my mother giggling slightly next to him. "Did that scare you Jerry?" He asked.
I suppose he thought I had dropped it in my shock at the chair. Despite my rational mind knowing why I had really dropped my food and that he was being weirder than me, I still blushed. I grabbed some kitchen roll and started clearing up my mess. When I had done so and gathered the shards of the bowl, I walked out and around the house. Liz followed me, waiting until we were actually outside to talk. "What the f- hell is going on?" She asked me in a rush like I had as much a clue as her. I gave her a blank stare, noting absent-mindedly how she had almost cursed whilst I tried to figure out the situation. I sighed and sat down in one of our old plastic chairs, enjoying the summer morning and the breeze.
"Tell me everything you remember first" I told her. I had every reason to assume something had happened to her. Best I got the whole story then and there. She shuffled a bit, unsure of something. I'd like to say that I knew everything going on her head, the competent big brother who knew his little sister as one would expect of a responsible sibling. Truth was I knew as much about her as I did about the average woman. Jack shit. So I was sat there, trying my damndest to appear like a responsible elder until she finally came out with it.