Sunday, September 28, 2008

Far from truth

Mom, Dad, sister Kelly, brother Danny – the whole family Amuhn – began fidgeting around the room, appearing nervous; almost sickly.

It had been a strange few days leading up to Larissa’s 18th birthday; there was an absence of the normal arrangements and stupor that normally has everyone’s lid popping ala Pez. Usually, the Amuhn’s house would fill with chatter and bugaboo about who to buy a cake from, who to invite to the party, who to bring the flowers, who to give a speech, who-who-who……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Larissa, sit own my dear, we need to talk,” said Cheryl, also known as Mrs. Amuhn.

Larissa would normally have done what her mother asked of her but blatantly refused her mother’s offer and leaned against the wall awaiting word of her judgement.

“Larissa!” Cheryl said sternly.

“Mother,” Larissa mocked her mother’s tone………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

On Monday Dad, also known as Marty, began the day by rolling over on top of his wife like a tumbling rock and whispered slowly “you know what Sunday is, right?”

Cheryl did not at first pick up on Marty’s implications, having been confused by her racing desire revving up for a quick circuit. Marty notice the lack of acknowledgment as soon as she and he finished their good morning, and sat bedside to continue, “It is Larissa’s 18th.”

At the word 18th, Cheryl brushed past Marty without as much as a breath and rumbled over to the bathroom to brush her teeth……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Sitting across from her parents, Larissa made like a border guard on a power trip and stared right at her parents daring them to cross her line.

“Get the look off your face Larry,” Marty warned his angry daughter. “Or we won’t have any more discussion.”

“What discussion?” Larissa asked in a normal tone but with a dash of confrontation.

“Don’t yell,” Marty yelled.

This was not the way they had planned to tell her…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“We will not tell her that way,” said Marty.

Tuesday, and Cheryl had woke up earlier that morning resolute to tell her daughter the dark truth about how she came to be a Amuhn. But Marty had other ideas.

“On Sunday we can let her and the rest of the family know about her arrival in our family,” Marty said.

Cheryl saw the wisdom in his words and though her face looked strong, her knees were pathetically weak and her heart faint with anticipation…………………………………………………………………………………….

Calming themselves down, Cheryl got up and brought a beer over to Larissa. Cheryl and Marty had always planned on cracking open a beer with Larissa on her big 18. They had done so with their two older children with mixed results. Kelly hated the taste of beer and immediately removed any thought of drinking another sip of alcohol the rest of her life. Danny had enjoyed the beer so much that he had a few more and a few more and a few more until he had a few too many and was now regularly attending AA meetings…………………………………………………………………………………

Wednesday was a dark and cloudy day outside of the house, but inside it was sunny. At least according to Cheryl, who decided she would busy herself with a display of cleaning around the house. And was she ever busy. Top of the cabinets were attended to and so were the baseboards. If you were scum on the toilet you were gone from the bathroom after Wednesday.

Kelly was out with her boyfriend Jamie all day and was not seen, while Danny was secluded in his room apparently lost in his thoughts.

Larrissa was at school, first day of community college.

Marty went to work………………………………………………………………………………………

The beer sat untouched, Larissa’s eyes remained unmoved by the alcoholic gesture. She felt there was a lake of information held back by this dam of family unity, which she wanted to burst open at her whim. She wanted the whole thing to come crashing down.

Larissa glared at her father, he being the one she had always played for a fool, and waited for the first leak…………………………………………………………………………………

Thursday was dry and silent. Nothing was said and all was clean.

Larissa had been busy by her class work and Danny was busy with something in his bedroom and Kelly was busy getting busy with Jamie and Mom and Dad – Cheryl and Marty – were not busy but oddly quiet, and acting quite unloving.……………………………………………………………………

“It’s time you know the truth,” Marty said his voice tempered by an obvious sense of remorse.

“Truth,” Larissa said.

Cheryl moved over to Marty’s side and clasped his shoulder in the first sign of love from the two in three days……………………………

Friday Larissa got a feeling that something was amiss as normally she would have dug out the dreary present her parents had purchased for her and passed quick judgement.

Larissa had become so intrigued by the lack of anticipation in the house that she approached Danny’s bedroom door in effort to get at some information.

“Danny, can we talk,” she asked.


“Danny isn’t here,” Danny said, followed by the sound of an opening window and a cry “She can’t know!”…………

“The truth Larry is that we love you,” Marty said in last second cowardice. He retreated behind the shield of his words and then went on his full attack…….

By Saturday Larissa had bore enough. She wanted answers and in the morning sat in the family kitchen, a guarantee for Amuhn family traffic and waited and waited and waited.

By midnight no person had shown face in the room. Finding family empty, Larissa went to her friend Shauna’s house and wept…

Moment of truth.

Marty was slow to come up with the necessary words to tell his daughter what he wanted to tell her and so waited patiently for her relax.

“You are not our blood daughter,” Cheryl blurted out.

Kelly embraced her sister as soon as the daughter phrase had appeared but Larissa, completely blown away by the bursting dam could not move her arms and return the affection.

“You are our sister,” Kelly whispered in her ear.

“Ok, who is my mom?”

“We don’t know. We have no idea what or who she was,” Marty said.

“What she was? What do you mean ‘What she was’?”

“No daughter, you are not ONE of us,” said Cheryl.

“Truth is, we don’t even know when you were born. This is not your birthday, it’s the day you arrived on our doorstep,” Marty said.

Danny moved to Larissa’s side but did not hug his sister as Kelly had.

Cheryl pointed upwards to the ceiling.

“What, you want to send me to live in the crawl space?”

“No,” Marty screamed in pain. “You are from up ^^^^^^^^^^,” he began to point repetedly, “^^^^^^^ there, honey.”

Larissa could not understand.

“You’re an alien,” Danny said, his first words of the week in the house setting the room awash.

Danny didn’t wait to explain himself. He ran off with a bottle of beer in his hand.

“Well, glad we got out of that one,” Marty said and cracked open a beer himself. “Good week… goooooood-good week.”

Happy Birthday Larissa!

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