Sorry it's taking so long to update my story to all my readers. The winter semester started, and I've been swamped. However, have no fear; I've taken a sort of oath, as seen on my profile; I'll never leave a story unfinished. Every story I start will be finished, even if it takes some time.
Days passed, and naturally, some were better than others. Sometimes I would awaken and everything would be as close to as normal as possible, and other times, I'd wake up and not be able to rouse my bones for all my effort. Time crawled by, and the house would groan and creak when I was alone. Mother and Father spent most their time at the hospital, as per usual, and if Ed and Eddy were busy, the whimpers of the wood floors and the hiss of the beams would keep me company.
One day, I bundled up against the frigid and bitter wind and ventured outside. The snow had melted a little, and it crunched angrily under my shoes as I made my way to Eddy's. The snow that was falling was very little, but the wind whipped it into my face, stinging nettles and sharp on my soft cheeks. I knocked on the door, and when no one answered, I knocked much more insistently, thinking my request for an audience was being swept away with the howling wind.
The door swung open, and Eddy's father stood towering in the warm light beyond. I smiled up at the tall man, inquiring if Eddy was home. "Sorry, Edward," he rumbled, shaking his head. "He can't really hang out right now." His father checked over his shoulder before leaning down to me and whispering, "His mother saw the state of his bedroom, and well, he won't be coming out to see the light of day for some time." He smiled farewell, and I quickly left to visit Ed's. Sarah informed me that her father had discovered Ed's sponge collection hidden behind a flap of drywall, and also wasn't allowed to have visitors that day.
I trudged along sadly, keeping my eyes on the brown snow beneath my feet, putting one boot before the other. My mind swirled with various things, some melancholy, others simply distracting. I didn't realize I had left the surroundings of suburbia and had entered the shelter of the forest. The thick trees broke the screeching wind's path, acting as a shelter. Here, the air was mostly still, only the slightest hint of a breeze stroking my chin.
Marie and I hadn't talked or seen each other in several days. The day when we all went sledding was a little over half a week ago. I bit my lip nervously; I didn't think we were quite close enough to be called friends, but we most certainly trusted each other more than others. I texted her, asking if I could drop by for a visit. I strolled through the trees, and waited impatiently for a reply. When none came, I began making my way to the Park-N-Flush trailer park on my own. It was rude to drop by uninvited, but I didn't want to return to an empty shell of a home.
I broke the tree line and was almost knocked clear off my feet by the sudden buffet of the wind. I scurried to the Kanker's front door and knocked with force that, in any other set of conditions, would've been taken as threatening. May yanked the door open, and her sunshine colored hair instantly licked my face in the current. She yanked it back, a quick apology given as she pulled her locks into a bun. Even in this cold weather, she was wearing the same white shirt and red basketball shorts. She gripped my coat's front, yanked me in, and slammed the door shut behind me.
Inside, it was barely warmer. The space heater in the corner wheezed with effort, and Shay was whimpering on Lee's hip. She sang a sweet lullaby that must've been a family original, as I didn't recognize it. Marie was lying face down on the crusty green couch, her hair a mess. I stared at her, and the worry must have been apparent on my face, as May smiled comfortingly at me and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry, Double D. She's fine," she grinned, her two unproportioned front teeth sticking out a little. "She was just on baby duty last night. She's just tired." I sighed with relief and nodded. Lee strode over, a friendly smile on her face.
"What brought you over to our side of town, Sugar Lips?" she asked, bouncing the child as it gurgled.
"I was just seeking Marie's companionship," I replied, brightening Lee's smile considerably.
"Sorry, Dreamboat, but as you can see, she ain't really up for hanging out," Lee said, glancing over at her sister. There weren't any words, but from the deep sigh and small curve of her mouth, I could see an inexpressible amount of gratitude. Lee looked relatively well rested and put together; Marie must've volunteered to watch over Shay throughout the night.
May returned to what she was doing, which was gathering soda cans, liquor bottles, and hamburger wrappings off of the floor and throwing them into a black trash bag. When I asked where their mother was, Lee snorted, rolling her eyes. "She's out to the store," she snorted, her face souring. May's eyes hardened, and when she noticed I was assessing her, she pulled her long tresses from its bindings, allowing a bright sunshine curtain to hide the shadowed expression beyond. I began picking up the litter as well, and Lee told me I didn't have to help with anything, that she and May could handle it.
"I'm certain you can," I huffed, bent at the waist as I picked up another drained whiskey bottle. "But sometimes, help can be lovely, even if it's unsought." Lee smiled with appreciation and turned back to her infant, talking to him with more tender care than I've ever seen from a Kanker. May and I picked up the living room quickly, the work going two times as fast with a second pair of hands helping. I grew heated with the effort and peeled off my orange winter coat, the cooler air of the trailer relieving.
When we finished in the living room, May said she could handle the rest. When I stubbornly insisted in continuing, she handed me a rag and asked me to dust. As I went around the living room, dusting the TV set, the shelves, the lamps, I tried not to breathe. It was clear that the house hadn't been tended to in some time. Dusty, dusty, dusty… I told Lee that some of the lightbulbs needed replacing, and she sighed sadly, nodding. "Me and Marie get paid next week, we can try to get them then," she muttered. I wondered how dire the situation was financially here that a seven dollar lightbulb couldn't be bought at a moment's notice. Their mother was out at the store; couldn't they call her or text her and ask her to pick some up?
May returned from mopping the tiny linoleum floor of the kitchen with a chipped mug for me. I drank the water greedily and thanked her, returning it when it was empty. Shay giggled happily, a toothless grin spreading as he yanked on one of Lee's tight curls brutally.
"Yow!" Lee yelped. Ever so gently, she grabbed his pudgy hand and chastised him, no real force behind her words. "No, no, no, Shay. Gently, we play gently with others." Shay pulled on another curl, softer this time, and Lee kissed him all over his sweet face quickly, eliciting another a fit of laughter from the little tub of baby fat. I didn't realize I was grinning until Lee smiled back at me. "Wanna' hold him?" Lee asked. I instantly panicked; I didn't have the slightest experience with children. I was a single child, no younger siblings, and I only had experience being held, not cradling others. I tried to tell Lee I was fine, that I didn't want to hold the baby, but she insisted with a smile, holding the child out to me. I held my hands up, trying to push the flabby human away but somehow, Lee got Shay into my hands, and I was holding it, by which I mean the baby, with as much gentleness as one might support a sack of potatoes.
"Set him on your hip, Double D!" May laughed as she returned from the kitchen, perching on the armrest of the couch by Marie's feet. I stuck out my hip, awkward with the position, and rested the baby on my hip. Shay stared at me, his huge eyes questioning and confused.
"Umm, he-hello, Shay," I stuttered, trying my hardest to give off an aura of confidence. The baby whimpered and turned to his mother, his dimpled fists opening and closing in her direction.
"Shay, stop it," Lee said, her stern voice tempered with a smile. "Double D is nice." Shay stared at his mother another moment before turning back to me. I stared, Shay stared, Lee and May stared, it was a good time. Finally, his small fingers grabbed the edge of my black beanie and yanked it down over one of my eyes. I spluttered in surprise, and a happy chortle creeped out of his tiny mouth. I straightened my hat, and began making what I'm sure were the most disgusting and humiliating facial expressions ever seen on planet earth. Shay shrieked with happiness with each new mask, and then he put both hands on my nostrils and pulled.
The force was hardly noticeable, but I hollered in false pain. Shay laughed harder, and yanked on my nose again. I shouted again told him to stop with false anger, and naturally, he did it again and again. "Wow, you're pretty good with him!" May smiled, her eyes watching her nephew adoringly.
"You're the first man he's ever met," Lee nodded with approval, "and you're doing a great job." I bloomed beneath the praise and tried even harder to make the baby smile. When I was finally getting him to gasp with laughter, hardly able to contain his joy, the front door slammed open. Ms. Kanker stomped in, plastering the floor with brown snow.
The smiles on the sister's faces hardened into grimaces, and the tension in the room intensified at a blinding speed. She was a huge woman, towering over me by several inches. Her fat caused the worn, black buttons of her brown wool coat to strain against their thread. In on hand, several plastic bags with boxes of canned beer, bottles of ale, and even a large bottle of gin was gripped with a white knuckled grip. In the other, a burning cigarette glowed, a cherry red stick smelling of ash.
Shay's loud giggle drew her gaze to me. She looked at me harshly, and I felt the need to run. "Who are you?" she croaked, her voice nails on a chalkboard.
"Greetings, madam," I instantly responded, my manners taking control. "My name is Edward, and it is a pleasure to meet you. I thought I would stop by and help out about the house and with the baby and what not." She stared at me, bloodshot eyes narrow and angry. I offered my free hand to shake, and she smirked with distaste. She took a long drag from her cigarette and blew the smog into my face before shoving it against the plastic bag and cardboard of the beer box, putting it out and melting a hole through the plastic. As I choked on the smoke, and instinctively covered Shay's tiny mouth and nose, she flicked the cigarette butt onto the floor May and I had just cleared.
"We don't need no man's help," she growled. May glared at the still smoking butt angrily, but not daring to move off of the armrest. Lee came across the room and took her son from me, her eyes downcast and bitter. Shay curled into his mother's chest quietly, becoming quiet as he stared at his grandmother worriedly. I bit my lip; one was so young to know fear already.
"Double D was just helpin' us keep house, Ma," Lee said, standing as far from her mother as she could, holding her child close. "No harm." Their mother sneered down at her eldest, before turning back to me.
"Well gee, thanks," she hissed. She set the bag of booze down with unearthly gentleness, and I tried not to look at it judgmentally. I was starting to understand why lightbulbs were out of the question. In juxtaposition with the gentleness she had shown the liquor, she stomped across the small room and shook Marie's sleeping shoulder so roughly she began to fall off the couch. Marie shouted in surprised fear and sat up, eyes wide with confusion. "But we wouldn't need any help if Marie would quit being lazy and help out!" Marie eyes narrowed and she rose to her feet challengingly, her mouth hardening into a pissed off line.
Her eyes found mine, from where I was mostly hidden from her view by her hulking mother, and confused embarrassment and fear replaced her fiery heat. "How about you stop laying on your ass and do something?" Her mother shouted. She swatted at Marie's head, and as the blow landed, her blue hair splayed out about. Marie scurried past her mother, and May shot across the small room to take her spot, sputtering excuses and explanations for her older sister.
"Marie was working hard last night, remember, Ma?" May said shakily, trying to smile although her eyes were unsure. "She was up taking care of Shay."
"I work hard all day, and you three monsters wreck it!" Their mother screamed. Lee shimmied along the wall, hiding her child behind her, covering his mouth so his whimpers were quieter. Marie snatched my hand, and I grabbed my coat, and she yanked open the door. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Her mom yelled.
"Double D was just taking Marie out for a few," Lee said. Her mother turned her scrutinizing gaze to Lee, and her throat tightened as she swallowed her unease. A few moments passed, before the mountainous woman lowered herself onto the couch where Marie had been seconds before.
"Fine, get out, I don't want to look at your stupid face any longer," she rumbled. She ordered May to bring her a beer as Marie closed the door behind us, Shay's cries starting to shriek from within.