Death of a Gardenia
Chapter 2
The light from the sun blew through the window, rudely waking me from my slumber. My body ached thanks to me sleeping right on my shoulder. I know sleeping like that makes it much harder for me to breathe, but I have an unfortunate habit of doing whatever my body feels most comfortable doing at the moment. I groaned as I pushed myself up from the bed, sitting up as I noticed that Everett slept on the ground like a corpse. I knew based on the dead silence that I was the only one awake in the mansion.
That was when I heard a calm siren from outside, making me more conscious. No, it wasn’t the siren of a firebus, but that of a singer from a nightclub. I jolted out of my bed, trying to move as fast as possible out of the mansion. Rushing down the stairs, I heard the dim shouting of ‘hello’ from upstairs. It was so hard to hear from the banging of my feet, but I could tell it was a male voice.
Anyways, when I finally arrived at the door, I pushed it open. The cold breeze blew as I opened it, causing me to shiver in my white nightgown. The sun also shined so brightly that it was like its beams hit me like a bat. The only real sound coming from the streets was the little siren that brought me to my senses. I looked around the cold morning streets to find her.
On the sidewalks was the siren in question.
“Teal,” I cried out, racing across the streets.
Teal had black curly hair, which was always carefully woven together in some braid. She always had a sense of style to her, wearing on that day a white coat that was a rare luxury in Miami. It stood in contrast to her darker complexion, which made her beauty shine even more.
“I just wanted to say happy birthday,” Teal exclaimed, embracing me. “How’s your uncle and brother?”
“Uncle Will is doing well,” I shouted. “But Blaine is still having some fits of paranoia. He thinks that because some girls at my latest golf tournament called me retarded, we both might get institutionalized.”
“Oh don’t be so gloomy about it, your brother is a lot brighter than people give him credit for, it’s just that uses his smarts to isolate himself. I would say my family is doing ok at the farm, but honestly since moving to the big apple that is Miami, I haven’t had much contact with them.”
“You’re lucky, cause I got an unwelcoming surprise coming my way.”
That was when I got pushed aside by a large overcoat, falling into Teal’s shoulders.
“Watch it kid,” the old man that pushed me screamed, barely caring to look over me.
I looked up and sighed when I recognized those cold grumpy eyes.
“Let me guess,” Teal whispered in my ear as she pushed me away from the side of the road. “It’s Uncle Dick again.”
“Yep,” I mumbled, slouching in her arms.
Uncle Dick was a dinosaur in age, his skin barely attached to the rest of his body. Outside of one white strain of hair caressing across his head, he was completely bald. Uncle Dick was wearing a black hat to cover up his shame, which I’ll admit complimented his suit. He wore prim glasses, which hid his blue eyes.
In his arms was his wife and my great aunt. Her chin was extremely elongated, stretching her face to her chest. My great aunt always wore at least ten layers of clothing, making her body extremely hard to make out. Her snow white hair was tied together in a bun so tight, that you would think that it was part of her skull. She kept her mintoned up hands on Uncle Dick’s chest, as if to keep his heart warm in the autumn.
“Come on,” an old familiar female voice called out in the distance. “We don’t want old Dick beating us to the mansion.”
I turned my head around to notice that it was my grandmother. Her hair and skin were slightly darker than you would expect from a grandma, resulting in her looking like a Spainard with dirty gray hair. My grandmother, like her brother-in-law, wore ugly thick glasses to hide her eyes from the world. She liked wearing a cheap stuffy gown, which made her look like a poor man’s Queen Victoria.
My grandmother kept a very stern face as she gripped onto her husband’s hand, my grandfather. He had terrible posture, hunching like a turtle as he aimlessly walked in the direction of his wife. My grandfather was rather short next to my grandmother, with the tip of his head barely reaching to her upper lip. Still, he greatly resembled his brother my Uncle Dick, just without the glasses. The way that I could always distinguish the two was my grandfather's overbite, his teeth always clawing at his lips.
“I love this place!” My grandfather dumply exclaimed. “It used to be my old childhood home.”
“And you could have kept it,” My grandmother screamed. “But of course your little son had to steal all of the inheritance.”
“Oh come on Missy, our son Will was a bright young man.”
“He was a maniac who should have never escaped the asylum!”
“Hey,” I screamed, motioning my fists out of Teal’s grasp. “You don’t talk about Uncle Will like that!”
As Teal tried to keep me from confronting my grandparents, another one of my relatives walked by. It was my uncle Charles, who liked his dark attire. His features were quite hard to distinguish, as he always looked towards the ground. Nonetheless, Uncle Charles had a long face that would stretch out any potential smile he had. His pale thin hand clasped onto his wife’s as he barely acknowledged me.
His wife was my aunt, who’s blonde hair was becoming more and more ashlike. Her face was covered in so much makeup, that one could dig a trench in it and still not reach skin. My aunt loved the color white, to the point that she would make herself look like a snowball just to show her appreciation for it. The creepiest part for me at least was my aunt’s eyes, which were an icy and piercing blue. She wandered with her husband, her face frozen with apathy towards her surroundings.
In the distance of the hopeless couple was their son, George. He was a short and frail guy, seemingly ready to collapse in one himself with each step he took. Despite that, George was a pretty man, bearing a strong resemblance to his father. He turned his head towards me and Teal, with a small spark in his eyes coming out of the dullness. George waved his massive hand towards Teal, his smiles revealing more attractive dimples.
“Teal,” he exclaimed, moving away from his parents. “Sorry that I haven’t been able to talk to you much. Did you figure out how we could make that jazz nightclub?”
“Well, I met up with some big guys in the apple who would be quite willing to help, but they’re interested in African American jazz.” Teal replied.
“Ha, that better not be a personal attack.”
“Keep moving George, we are late enough as is,” George’s mother exclaimed.
I looked back to see someone I wanted to see the least, my sister Hannah. I’ll admit, she had looks that I envied for, with the perfect slender figure and golden hair. Despite her rich girl looks, the richest thing about Hannah was her peacock feathered hat. She avoided eye contact with me at all cost, staring sorely at her nails. The only thing noteworthy about Hannah was her stomach, which was harboring a baby within.
With her was her husband Tom, who was insanely plain next to his wife. His skin was as pale as paper, with his sunken eyes making it more apparent. This was always made even creepier with how black both Tom’s hair and eyes were. Despite that, his facial structure had a passing resemblance to Blaine. Tom tried to engage in eye contact with Hannah, only to be met with the cold back of her head.
The only link between the loveless couple was a young boy, who was their son named Zack. He had a strong resemblance to his mother, being what she would have looked like if she never wore makeup. Zack wore a little hat and was skipping slightly away from his parents. Unlike his parents, he was smiling brightly.
“Hi,” Zack exclaimed to me, his eyes pinned on me.
“Hello Zack,” I replied. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been?”
“He’s doing great,” Hanna exclaimed. “And we best be moving. Also, don’t you know how to talk to people your own age?”
“She’s sixteen,” Teal bit back. “She’s not a child.”
“Oh please,” Hanna signed before walking over the sidewalk. “She acts like one.”
“You know what Hanna,” I exclaimed, “You’re the one who acts like a child. You never come over to visit me and Blaine except when it's either of our birthdays, and then process to name all the ways that we’re failures. Meanwhile, you can’t seem to do anything with your life outside of being some gold digger.”
“Aurora,” Teal begged as she pulled me away from punching a shocked Hanna in the face. “Ain’t a good time.”
I took a deep breath, still staying close to her.
“But you know that Hanna is a gold digger.” I tried to justify.
“Your sister is one of the whitest girls in all of Florida,” Teal responded. “But if there has been one thing I have learned from living outside of my father’s farm, it is that you have to be real delicate with your pretty little words.”
I signed as I gave her a hug, still moaning about how she had said. There was still a birthday party I had to attend, whether I liked it or not.
