Walking through my aunt's 'garden' was like walking through a mound of brown dead stuff that wishes it were a garden. It has no life what so ever. She spends all her time trying to kill the life that surrounds her house instead of trying to save it. She even killed the pet bird I tried to save when I was little. I found him in the 'garden' and brought him inside up to my attic room. I made a make-shift cage out of old shoe box and tried to nurse him back to health. I did all-right until one day, I left the box open when I went to the chicken coop to get him some food, and he flew down the steps and into my aunt's reading room. Now my aunt doesn't let a living soul but herself into that room, so of course, when the bird got in there she flipped.
Well, anyway, my bird flew in and squawked in the middle of the room. Of course the flying bird couldn't get away so, she caught him and put him in a real bird cage and threw him into the brown pool next to the house. After that day I have been the houses own personal maid, apparently paying for the price of the air disturbance in her room. So my only break was to walk around this old brown piece of yard and to go to school.
I walked to the middle of the garden and sat down on the bench. It was covered with green moss. It was the only living plant in the garden so I didn't have the heart to rip it up just to sit on the bench. So, instead I just sat on top of it. I opened my African bag and reached inside. There, right where I left it was my heart and soul. It sat there shimmering in the sunlight, the golden goose on the front shinning when the light hit it just right. My mother's locket is all I have left of my life before the AUNT. The memory of my life that was full of fairy tales and magic, angels and demons, seemed far and distant. Now the magic had ended and my life of tragedy and misfortune had begun.
I gently put the locket back inside my bag and started to move forward to the house to do my cleaning. My Aunt would be furious if I didn't do the kitchen today because I skipped it yesterday. I walked through the small garden and over the bridge. Below me was the brown pond where my bird now lay. I would have to go and get his body at some point so I could dig him a grave and so forth. He was so beautiful when he was alive. He was a blue bird, with a gleaming white chest. He crooned when I stroked his head and ruffled his feathers. I looked down into the murky water hoping to find one last glimpse of my old friend, but instead, I thought I saw something shimmer in the water. No, I thought, thats's impossible, the water is so deep and dark I could not have possibly saw a fish. I kept talking to myself all the way back to the house.
My Aunt didn't have a large house, so it was easy to clean and get around in. The roof was made of tin and sometimes when it rained hard enough the water would get through and leak into the house. The door was a bright red and the flowers in the boxes, under the windows were also dead, just like the garden. I walked inside the front door and turned into the mud room to take off my shoes. I looked down at them and noticed that they were covered with mud. I didn't remember stepping in any mud and I didn't go any where near the pond bed. I slipped them off and soaked them in the water basin. The mud wouldn't some off. I took the iron wool brush down from the self and scrubed at them. Still the mud stuck to my shoes. Oh well. Just have to get punished with more cleaning for dirty shoes.
I ran upstairs and got my apron on. I ran back downstairs and got my cooking pots and pans out. I had to cook dinner soon. After my mom and dad died, they intrusted my aunt with me and my brother, Jordon. She wasn't very happy about it, but how could you deny a dead man's wishes. She decided that she didn't need the boy aroud the house, but she needed a maid and cook, so she took my brother out to the stables and tied him to a stall door. I tried to go out and help him, but my aunt wouldn't let anyone see him but the horses. After sitting outside for three days without food or water at age 5, he died. She also threw him into the pond with my bird. But, being the sister, I had to swim down and retreive his body and bury him. Just on the edge of my aunt's land, where the green finally could erupt into life. My brother loved the green, so I thought it was good to bury him there, and as far away as possible from that wretched witch of an aunt. I picked up the first floral dish I saw and started to scrub at it with an old dish rag. I got finished soon enough and started on the next one. Soon I had a system going and was soon finished.
As I left the kitchen, I noticed a small object falling from somewhere and hitting the ground with a large thud. I looked back and saw my locket on the ground. The goose on the face was scratched but not so much that you couldn't tell what it was.
"KAY!!! You wretched girl, get up here and take the laundry. It's not going to do itself you know!!! If you're not up here in a minute, I'm going to give you horse mucking for a week!!!" My aunt was yelling from the second floor and had made my jump. I thought she had seen the locket and had come to claim it as her own trinket. I quickly stooped low to grab the locket and hurried along to do the rest of the day's work.
My locket was scratched...my locket...