I've tried very hard to research all I could about the 1950s, and so I'm using some 50's slang, so bear with me. You can find crap about the fifties here.
Chapter 2
This was more than 48 years ago. I remember the night exactly. November 26, 1955. It was raining like hell that day. I had just inherited a large sum of money from my late father and I was spending it like a kid at the candy shop. I had lived in Southern Virginia all my life, living off of pop and 1000% meat hamburgers, and today this little Daddy's girl was going to the city, the big apple, New York.
I stepped out of the taxi with only my purse and my clothing. My goal? To get the shoes straight from Coolsville. Oh, I must have been so tacky looking, dressed in my dungarees and my yellow puff-sleeved blouse. Well, I was going to fix that real quick! I'd look like crazy! I was going to buy all the designer evening gowns that caught my eye. Man, was I really lacking jets.
They had just put in the "Don't Walk" signs on the streets. Wow, I was just overwhelmed! I wandered the streets all day, even in the pouring rain. I was tough and a few hours of cold winds and rain wouldn't bother me one bit. Or so I thought. I came down with a horrible cough. Seemed like it was a common thing lately; the hospitals were in an uproar. They said smoking would make it no good. Please... I smoked a pack of Slims whenever I felt like it. I was a big girl!
Everday, I'd mail letters back home to my older brothers: Hiko, Tsunan, Saito and Shinya. (A/N: from dir en grey. ^^;;... It just seems to fit, the personality of Shinya and the character.) I'd tell them about the lifestyles of the cityfolk and the kinds of events that happened all the time. New York is the city of excitement, I'd tell them all the time. My brothers never responded back, which was okay with me, with the exception of Shinya. As time rolled on, the letters became more directed towards Shinya rather than the other three. We talked about all the things in the world, hinting suspicions and gossiping about the latest celebrity couples. My favorite letter from Shinya was his semi-letter, semi-playwrite. Shinya asked me to hand the playwrite to a Broadway director if I ever met one. I never did until he died.
Shinya was the youngest of the brothers and the quietest. I swear, I could mistake him as one of my girlfriends and immediately braid his hair; he looked so baby-like. He was also very strong and righteous. A real gentleman, I'd alway say. I got a letter from Tsunan one day telling me that Shinya was on his deathbed with a bad sickness. That confused me. Even though Shinya was quiet, he'd always talk to me. But he never told me anything about his sickness.
I dropped everything in shock. Why in the world would the good lord take my innocent brother? I entered the nearest church and prayed my lungs out; a thing I hadn't done since who knew when! Oftentimes I'd look at myself in the mirror in shame. My hair was bobbed close to my head in wavy pincurls, the style at the time. I painted my lips with Snow Ball of Fire lipstick and sipped wine like I owned it all. I had my dresses, I had my shoes, I had my chlorophyll toothpaste and deoderant, I had it all. That just made me more saddened. For hours I'd sit in the dark of my home, a large two-storied apartment. I nearly became a raving madwoman who was addicted to Burbon.
Life was slowly evaporating from me. I stopped writing letters to my brothers and I never left home. To me, Shinya's death proved something I didn't want to know. Although I still spent my evenings at parties mingling with the rich and the famous, it was never as fun.
The events occuring before my father's demise haunted me like a bad hangover. Shinya's death confirmed all the things I had heard being whispered under the record player playing Elvis' sweet voice.
"Deciet."
"Lies."
"Deals."
"Gangs."
"Knives."
"Tommyguns."
"Murder."
I was scared half to death. What if? What if? What if? It was like a bad drama movie!
Christmas time rolled around pretty soon. I would remember Christmas with my mom, before she croaked, of course. I'd wake up bright and early just to help her bake cookies in the shape of a little baby Jesus. I always laughed at the thought to biting the feet off of a cookie Jesus, though I feared that I'd be killed in an instant by a thunderbolt like they'd do in the cartoons.
I was partially weakened by the sickness I had caught in November. I'd have to sit down and catch my breath sometimes.
Come New Years, and I was invited down to Virginia for a bit of a family reunion, devised by Saitou. Oh boy! I get to see Shinya! I thought, so I hopped on the next train back home. My brothers welcomed me openly.
"How are you?"
"Wonderful! Where's Shinya?"
"Oh, he passed away last month."
"What! No one told me! You... you... you nosebleed!"
I was beyond infuriated. With the rage that I had inherited from my father, I screamed and cried and brought up the dead. They left me alone afterwards and that was when I'd cry my little eyes out. Tsunan came to confort me with peach tea and offerings of hairspray and eyeliner. He even took me out for some KFC.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"We were afraid of hurting you."
What a bold-faced lie.
After a while, my other brothers started to talk to me, but Saitou and Hiko would always get into fights. Tsunan tried distracting me with a game of poker, but I could still hear the words.
"Why did you make me do it?
"I made you do nothing!"
"Brothers, please! Excuse yourselves, we have our younger sister present."
Once they would excuse themselves into empty rooms, it was din from Hell. They called each other bastards and threw things across the rooms. Oh, Daddy's rage must have been passed down to Hiko and Saitou too. I asked Tsunan why they'd fight so violently. He merely brushed it aside and said that they were just divided on how to care for the farm. Saitou had made a big mistake in convincing Hiko to sell part of the land.
"You know how they are. They've been at each other's throats since childbirth, you know that."
"I know, Tsunan. They broke the head off of my doll because of it."
The fights became more and more heated. I heard all the obscenities in the world in just a matter of days. Oh, my lady-like ears were never so violated in my life. Tsunan would, when he thought I wasn't looking, glare at the two and mouth the words:
"She doesn't know. Don't blow it."
The fights would simmer down into a stern stream of voices.
"I can't believe you."
"Look, you did what you did knowlingly."
I was bored at the Virginia mansion. I'd spend most of the time in the attic looking out the windows. No one could find me and no one seemed to care I was missing. I'd see many things from my window. Tsunan was courting a lovely girl and they would take walks around the garden, shyly stealing glances at each other. It was sweet enough to rot your teeth and bones inside out!
I had to get out. You just don't understand how much I needed to get out. I wanted parties again. I wanted to see lights! City lights! AHH! I went crazy sometimes, babbling about needing my dresses. I think they were more than happy to let me loose. I was more than happy to leave. I ran back home the instant I found a train that went back to NY.