Time For Trouble
Kiki was in the kitchen preparing dinner for herself as well as The Brat. She supposed that she needed to feed her annoying niece. At least the cupboards had been stocked with food; that Mrs. Mendalhall had been good for something ... until Kiki had fired her anyway. She detested the idea of having to go out to get the groceries. She needed to begin to unpack while the meal was cooking, so she left the kitchen.
Marty, still clutching Sara Beth, watched from her position until Aunt Kiki had exited the kitchen. She peeked to make sure that Aunt Kiki wasn't coming back in just a few minutes. She could tell that her aunt was making them dinner from the noises that had been coming from the kitchen.
She scurried into the kitchen as fast as her little legs could carry her. She placed Sara Beth under one arm while dragging a stool toward the cabinets. She clamored up onto the stool, quietly pulling open one of the cabinets. There was something on the stove cooking. She knew what she had to do. She had to ruin Aunt Kiki's dinner!
She spied a bottle of white stuff. It looked like some of the seasoning Mrs. Mendalhall used when cooking. It was called Salt. She grabbed it and unscrewed the top of the jar. She climbed down again. She moved her stool quickly, dumping the salt upside down. Every bit of it went into the pot on the stove. She moved the stool back to cabinet, stuffing the jar back inside of it. She quietly closed the cabinet, then she put the stool back into it's original spot.
She rushed out of the kitchen and went back to sit on the bottom step as Kiki was returning to the kitchen. While Kiki was busy in the kitchen this time, Marty rushed upstairs.
When she entered the bedroom, she saw her aunt had started to unpack some of her belongings. The room had belonged to Marty's parents, but Kiki had overtaken everything, making it her own.
Marty's eyes searched around. After giving it some thought, she rushed to the desk where her father used to write his letters. She quietly pulled open the top drawer, finding a large bottle of ink. With a little effort, she was able to unscrew the lid. She flung the whole thing at the bed, causing ink to splatter and spill all over the items on the bed (which included a very expensive silk dress and the satin bed covers). There were dark-blue stains EVERYWHERE!
She saw her aunt's suitcase sitting on the floor. It had only been partially unpacked. She started flinging things out of it behind her so they landed haphazardly all over the floor and furniture. She found some funny-looking jars or bottles of some type buried beneath the clothes. She shook the bottles and the liquid moved inside. Marty wasn't sure what the bottles contained, but she knew that liquid always went down the drain.
She rushed into the water closet and tugged at the top of the bottle. It took her a few tries to get the lid off. Sara Beth fell to the floor in a heap, but she was still safe. Marty got the lid off the bottle by twisting and pulling. She turned it upside down over the toilet, so all it's contents poured out. She went back into the bedroom for the remaining bottles and did the same, leaving the empty bottles on the floor.
Then she ran back to the desk and found something that looked like it would could make holes. She didn't know it was her father's letter opener. She took it back to the pile of clothes she had left on the floor. She started using it to shred up the articles of clothing with it, poking holes in the fabric and tearing them up.
She spied some of her aunt's jewelry and took it all over to the toilet. She dumped the necklaces and rings in one by one. After the final 'plop,' she pushed the flusher handle on the side.
"Now Aunt Kiki will go away forever; I know she will," she said to herself triumphantly.
~*~o~*~
Kiki was in the kitchen, standing over the steaming pot of beef stew she had just prepared. She stirred the food on the stove with a wooden spoon, savoring the rich aroma drifting from the pot. She decided she'd take just a little taste to see if it needed seasoned. She got a bit of stew on the spoon and gently blew it, cooling the liquid, then she gingerly took a bite.
Suddenly she grimaced, dropping the spoon. The stew had been sabotaged. "That HORRID little demon," Kiki hissed under her breath.
That wretched little brat would pay for destroying her delicious stew! "MARTY!" Kiki growled as she left the kitchen in search of her niece. She wondered where the annoying, whiny child might have gone.
She looked all over the house in search of Marty, but could not find her. The last time she had seen her, Marty had been sitting quietly on the stairs, clutching her doll. Kiki was seething mad as she stomped up the stairs.
Kiki rushed down the hallway, bellowing her niece's name. She glanced in the child's room, but it was empty. She then headed further down the hallway.
"There you are!" Kiki hollered. She walked into the master bedroom, seeing her niece leaving the water closet. "What in the world do you think you are doing?"
She saw the ink splatters all over the bed. There were dark stains on her best dress as well as the expensive bed spread. Everything in the room was ruined, even Kiki's clothes that had been torn into shreds by a letter opener. It was lying on the floor at the scene of the crime.
Marty looked pleased with herself as she stood near the bottles of perfume she had spilled out. They were lying on the floor and every single one of them was empty. It had taken Kiki years to get all of those fragrances. Some of them had come as far as France and the Orient!
"How dare you destroy my things!" screamed Kiki.
She ran over to her jewelry box, discovering it was empty. "Where is my jewelry?" demanded Kiki.
She grabbed Marty by the face and squeezed. "Tell me now or I will throw your doll into the fireplace!" Kiki warned.
Marty could barely breathe; Kiki was crushing her jaw. "I- I -" she managed to shudder.
"Speak up, child!" Kiki yelled, dropping her arms to her sides.
"I flushed the jewelry down the toilet," Marty stated quickly.
"Why you little -!" Kiki screeched an obscenity and backhanded her niece across the face.
She had slapped Marty so hard that she dropped Sara Beth. Marty was howling in pain and scrambling to pick up her doll, but her aunt had no sympathy for the frightened child.
"Why? Why?!" Kiki kept saying.
"I wanted you go to back to Boston," Marty said. "That's why I did it. You were mean to me, so I wanted you to leave."
Kiki glared at her niece, her face a mask of sheer hatred. "You're the one that's going to be leaving, Missy! On the first train to Boston... to Miss Priscilla's Boarding School. Pack your bags, you ornery little brat! I can't wait to get rid of you. I bet your parents killed themselves just to be RID of you!"
"No, Aunt Kiki... No!" Marty sobbed. She didn't want to leave her house, the only home she had ever known. She didn't want to leave everything behind that reminded her of her parents.
"My mommy and daddy didn't kill themselves. They drowned," Marty said sadly.
Kiki was trying to fish her jewelry out of the toilet with her bare hands but had no success. The air was thick with the sickening sweet scent of her perfume. The fumes were choking her. From the door of the water closet, she turned to give Marty an evil glare.
"I mean it," she said through clenched teeth. "Go into your bedroom and pack your bags! NOW!"
The frightened child had no other choice but to do as her aunt said. Her plan had not worked. Kiki wasn't going to go away. Instead, she was sending Marty to Boston.
*Maybe boarding school won't be so bad after all,* Marty was thinking as she was stuffing her suitcase. She packed her favorite dresses and a few mementos to remind her of her mother and father. She placed her precious Sara Beth in the suitcase along with the other articles. She couldn't leave her favorite doll behind.
*At least I will get away from Kiki,* Marty was thinking. She closed the suitcase and she was ready for her journey.
She would arrive in Boston with a black eye and bruises.