The Sister-in-Law
Chapter 3
"Saki! Saki! Where'd you get to now!?" I checked under the table.
"Somethin lost, love?" Jin asked as he entered the room.
"Yes, as a matter of fact there is something missing! Is your sister still a two-year-old or something!?" I demanded.
"No why?"
"She and the kids decided to play hide and seek! When it was her turn to seek she pulled a Houdini!"
"Houdini?" Jin blinked. "What in the hell's 'a Houdini'?"
"It's when you disappear, vanish, go poof, fade, flee…" I answered.
"Did ye check in the liquor cabinet?" Jin asked nervously.
"She wouldn't! She's too young!" I stared at the cabinet- the lock was missing.
"She would. She doesn't care that she's too young," Jin sighed.
"You really think?" I asked, placing a hand on the cabinet's handle.
"Pull," Jin insisted.
I threw open the liquor cabinet, "Empty… all that's in here are the empty liquor bottles."
"She's a wiz when it comes to pickin' locks…"
"Where do you think she is now?" I asked, fearing what the answer would be.
"Suff'rin' fro' a hango'er in the bathroom," Jin replied.
"That's not a hangover Jin," I started leading him up the stairs, in search of his sister. "A hangover happens the day after."
"Really? I thought a hango'er was anythin' tha' happened as 'n after-effect o' the alcohol," Jin blinked.
Sure enough, we found Saki in the upstairs bathroom. She was clearly sick to her stomach. Who wouldn't be after drinking five bottles of whiskey, two and a half wine bottles, a couple beers, and three and a quarter bottles of tequila? The random combination alone was enough to make you vomit.
"You okay sis?" I asked her. She nodded weakly. "I think this ranks up there with the moldy olives incident."
"Yep. Sure does," Saki groaned.
"Here take these- they'll help your stomach settle," I offered her two pills. She snatched them from me and gulped them down.
"Moldy olives?" Jin queried.
"Oh yeah… that happened when you weren't around. Your sister ate a jar of moldy olives and got very sick."
"They tasted good…" Saki countered.
"Anyway, maybe this incident'll teach ya to stay out of locked cabinets?"
"Yeah yeah—Ow!"
After smacking Saki across the head, I looked down on her with a slight frown, "Listen to your brother for once. This may surprise you, but Jin actually can be right."
"What do ye mean 'can'!?" Jin shouted.
"Calm down," I smiled at him and waved my hand in dismissal. "I didn't mean you were stupid. It's just that, between siblings, they typically believe themselves to always be right and the other to always be wrong."
"I'm afraid I don' believe ya," Jin folded his arms over his chest and looked away.
"Jin!" I yelled. "I'm telling you the truth!"
"Please… keep it down…" Saki groaned. "I think I'm in the hangover stage and I have a major headache."
"A hangover happens the day after, Saki," I insisted. "Jin, what's wrong with your family? You're all alcoholics and you don't know what a hangover is!"
"Ya don' need to know what it's called to suffer fro' it," he raised a finger.
"In my family, you learn what a hangover is when you learn to count," I sighed, "and my family is alcoholic but we Maxwells tend to stay away from the alcohol."
"Hey… where ar' the kids?" Jin suddenly asked.
"I'm not sure… why do you ask?" I looked at him quizzically.
"They's aw'ly silent, ain't they?"
"Yes. They must be doing something they shouldn't."
"What makes you so sure they aren't napping or something?" Saki asked.
"When you're around, all they do is misbehave," I answered flatly. It was true. Last time Saki was over, the kids tried to launch a homemade rocket off the roof... we were still paying off the loan we took out to fix the whole…
Surprisingly, the children were not misbehaving. We found them on the couch in the basement watching Nickelodeon reruns. Still, that didn't change that fact that life with Saki around was about to get worse…