Suddenly the Loud children were becoming interested about this Aunt Sylvia they hadn't heard of before. Aunt Ruth sat on the small sofa then rubbed her temples a bit before speaking.

"First of all Sylvia had quite a dreadful temper. Whenever she ranted and raved over the pettiest of reasons, Albert and I would hide in his bedroom with a chair under the door knob until she calmed down. Our folks never cared to do anything about it because she was the pretty and talented child, they just told us to endure it and not provoke her. When I was ten years old I rested one of my favorite dolls on her bed to remove the sheets from my bed because it was laundry day. Sylvia walked in the bedroom and became furious when she noticed my doll on her bed. She grabbed it, gave me a nasty glare then screamed at me, "I said stop putting your stupid things on my side of the room," and then she popped the head off and threw it and the rest of the doll at me," Ruth revealed.

The Loud sisters became wide eyed in surprise, "Oh my Gosh," Lori uttered.

"Did you manage to get the head of your doll back on?" Lana asked.

"No dear I couldn't so I had to throw it away," Ruth said sadly.

"She'd sometimes throw anything at me or Albert in anger or just for her enjoyment. Once she placed me in a head lock for about twenty seconds," Ruth added

The children except Lynn Jr. and Lola gasped in shock

"She did it for her own amusement, I could barely breathe. Whenever she couldn't find something belonging to her she'd lose her temper and stomp around the entire house with her fists doubled and scream she was going to beat or punch someone if she couldn't find it," Ruth continued.

Lincoln became surprised at what Aunt Ruth revealed next.

"She loved mocking everything Albert liked as a hobby. She made fun of him for having a stamp and baseball collection and made rude comments whenever he spent time looking at them and say something like, those are utterly childish or he was too old to keep collecting dumb things. She'd also get jealous when Albert or I got some good fortune like a perfect report card," she continued.

"She couldn't help but insult me by saying I'd never get a husband because of my extra toes and that I looked like a goblin. Well the joke was on her since I got married even though it lasted three years. Much to our relief she dropped out of school at sixteen and left home I was so glad she was gone. One year later, our father received a call from her saying she was working a waitress job. Months later we heard she got arrested for attacking a male customer. She called father from jail and asked him to bail her out and he brought her home but five days later we woke up and discovered she left. She didn't leave our parents a note. Sylvia contacted mom when she was twenty to announce she just got married. Two years later she was in the news for chasing her husband with a knife because he forgot their wedding anniversary."

"Oh my gosh," Lori thought

"Sylvia managed to slash Michael once on his right shoulder before locking himself in their bedroom and called and called the police," Ruth continued.

"Did he press charges against her?" Luna inquired but Ruth shook her head.

"No instead he asked the judge to send her to a psychiatric hospital and he filed for divorce a few days after Sylvia was admitted. She stayed at the hospital for a year then returned home. Albert and I had moved out then I was living with a roommate and working in a department store. Sylvia eventually left home but stopped keeping in touch with our folks. Then eight years ago your grandfather visited me and to my shock Sylvia was there with him. I became furious and declared she's not stepping into my house. Sylvia said fine. I asked "how did you find Albert" and Sylvia said she searched for him on the Internet. She started telling us a sob story about how she regretted ill-treating us when we were all growing up. One year later your grandfather called to tell me the nursing home she lived at contacted him to say Sylvia had a fatal stroke the day before. He also told me three months before he received a letter in the mail from her with instructions on what kind of funeral she wanted and he should use the check she enclosed to pay for the funeral. Even though he disliked her, your grandfather went through with it because she never had children of her own," Ruth continued.

"Did you attend the funeral?" Lucy asked.

"Yes dear but only because I wanted the satisfaction of looking at that witches lifeless body," Ruth declared bitterly.

Lynn Sr. then glanced at his watch and commented, "Ruth it was nice visiting but we have to go."

Before the Louds could rise from their seats Aunt Ruth asked, "Wait a minute I have something to say to Lincoln."

Ruth directed her gaze towards the only boy in the family, "Lincoln I'd like to say I'm sorry for giving you special chores whenever you kids visited me. I only did that because your grandfather wasn't bullied that much by Sylvia so I was taking it out on you," Ruth admitted.

"It's okay Aunt Ruth," Lincoln reply.

The younger girls became anxious to leave because they were feeling hungry.

"Goodbye Ruthie," Rita said.

"Thanks for all that information," Lynn Sr. added.

While listening to Aunt Ruth speak about her rough childhood, Leni, Lincoln, Lana and Lucy began feeling sympathy for Ruth.

"Bye Aunt Ruth," the children told her but with cheerless voices.

The Louds walked out of the house and towards Vanzilla parked on the front lawn. On the journey home, everyone remained silent for a few moments and gazed out of the windows until Leni spoke.

"Poor Aunt Ruth, I feel sorry for her when she was growing up," she remarked in a sympathetic way.

"I can't believe Aunt Ruth and Pop-Pop went through all that," Luan remarked with a little sadness.

Lincoln spoke next, "Yeah, it's hard to believe I'm not the only one whose hobbies are mocked by their sisters."

Lisa scoffed at her brother's remark, "When did we ever make fun of your interests and hobbies?"

"Lisa don't pretend you don't remember when you all poked fun at me for my Ace Savvy costume when I wanted to attend that convention. Then Lynn told me comics were boring, Luan said science fiction stinks, Leni said videos can rot my brain and someone I shall not mention by name said that my coin collection was lame," Lincoln added.

There was silence for the remainder of the ride home. Once they reached inside the house Rita asked, "Kids please come into the living room for a moment."

They sat obediently on the couch while the parents stood before the eleven children. Rita was the first to speak.

"The only reason we asked Ruthie to talk about her sister was because we wanted to show you what can happen when people cannot control their tempers especially you Lori, Lola and Junior," she began.

"So you're basically saying that Lola could actually harm someone with a weapon when she's older if nothings done about her anger?" Lori asked Rita with concern.

"It's a very high possibility, and you too Junior," Rita answered, "Because you threatened your brother with a bat."

"Rita let's hope that doesn't happen," Lynn Sr. said.

"So girls just remember what Ruthie said and keep your tempers under control so whatever happened to Sylvia doesn't happen to any of you," Rita said emphatically.

"Well it's time I get started making dinner," Lynn Sr. remarked, "Lori and Luna I need your help."

"Leni could you put Lily down for a nap," Rita asked.

"Sure Mom," Leni replied.

While the children going towards the stairs with Leni carrying Lily, Lucy and Lisa were walking behind everyone else.

"Lisa could I speak with you," Lucy whispered.

The five year old genius turned around and nodded her head in agreement, then followed Lucy outside to the front porch.

Lisa observed the solemn expression on Lucy's face and inquired, "What do you want to converse about?"

"You might think I'm being weird for saying this but I think Lola is a reincarnation of Aunt Sylvia," Lucy revealed.

Lisa's expression was one of skepticism and asked, "You can't really believe that?"

"I'm serious Lisa, almost everything Sylvia did to Aunt Ruth and Pop-Pop Lola does to all of us. Sylvia destroyed Aunt Ruth's doll and Lola wrecked Lincoln's plane, she blackmails and attacks others, then both have the same uncontrollable tempers," Lucy replied.

"It still sounds quite outlandish to me Goth sister, well I need a little rejuvenation before dinner time," Lisa said.

Both girls headed inside and kept themselves occupied until they and the others were called down for the evening meal.

When he got under the covers that night, Lincoln's thoughts were about what Ruth endured from Sylvia while growing up and realized they had something in common.

"I wonder what Clyde is doing," were his final thoughts before falling asleep.