2 Chapter 2
“Hey guys, sorry I’m late,” Matty sat down at the table joining the discussion.
“You’re always late,” Lizzie responded.
Matty knew that Lizzie was just being Lizzie and he was going to ignore her snooty little comments per usual.
“What’s to eat ?” Matty asked, rather excited.
Anne passed him a plate, motioning him to dig into the course prepared by Bernice and John. There was cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, turkey, corn, dressing, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Everything looked delicious, Matty couldn’t tell what to dig into first .
“Don’t be greedy , I haven’t had my second round of food yet,” Laura said.
“Well, I haven’t even had my first round, so calm down,” Matty had already felt left out and annoyed in the matter of ten minutes. He thought to himself that he should have just stayed asleep to avoid his mom and his sisters and the pill he took wasn’t helping him slide into the sociable groove . Nonetheless, Matty packed his plate and started to stuff his face.
“So what were you guys talking about, before the life of the party came ?” he asked.
“ We were just talking about that time where you and Grandma solved one of the one thousand puzzle pieces, and you guys lost some pieces,” Lizzie said,” And that’s when I text you.”
“They only lost the pieces because Matty kept eating them,” Laura said, laughing, almost spitting out her second helping of pumpkin pie.
“That’s not true!” Matty responded.
“Mom said that you kept taking the pieces and hiding them all over our house,” Anne said.
This is a story Matty has heard all of his life and there were, of course, varying solutions on what happened to the puzzle pieces, but none of them match how Matty remembered the memory.
It was the summer of 1985. Anne and Lizzie had planned to have a mommy-daughter date and needed something to do with Matty. So Grandma came to the house to babysit. This was wonderful! For all the love that Matty missed out on from his family, it seemed that Grandma made up for it. They were best pals and Matty was sure that he was his grandmother’s favorite grandchild , but he never let anyone else know that.
When she got there, she got a phone call and set Matty down to play with his toys until she got back. Matty played with his tonka truck, rolling it up and down the main hallway of their house. He took the truck all the way down the hall up to the front door then back down the hall again. Matty wondered what was taking his grandma so long on this phone call. She had been in that room for about an hour and the girls would be back not before long. He stopped by the room that Grandma was in to listen to her conversation. Her voice was elevated.
“What do you mean you don’t know what happened to the money?!” she said.
Then there were muffled sounds from the other person on the line.
“Well, you better figure it out or there will be consequences. You love your kids don’t you ?” Grandma asked. There was a softer response from the other person. “Well then you figure that out and call back when you do.”
She hung up the call.
After, she came out of the room, picked up Matty and apologized for the call taking up all their time together. Matty noticed that she had brought a puzzle for them to put together, but they hadn’t because after the call, he and Grandma cuddled and watched her soap operas. Of course Matty didn’t mind this, he felt that his grandma’s cuddles were way better than putting together whatever puzzle she brought for them to solve.
Matty had fallen asleep, but when he woke up, his mom and sister were back from their date and Grandma was leaving.
“We tried to solve a puzzle but we just kept losing the pieces ,” Grandma told them, “ I think he might have been hiding them from me.” Grandma laughed. Matty didn’t know what she was talking about, but he wasn’t too worried about it, he just didn’t want her to leave.
The thought of this story brought Matty’s headache back because he missed his grandma, his best friend. He thought he might need more pills.
“I’ll be back, gotta make a phone call.”
As Matty scooted his chair out Lizzie gave him a curious look. It was a little suspicious that he just got here and needed to make a call. She ultimately decided she had been in his business enough and did not want to push it farther . Maybe he was feeling Grandma’s death more than the others or that he had let on. She just wished he acted like he cared sometimes.
Lizzie certainly did not see grief or remembrance from any of her sister.
Laura was absolutely obliterated from how much she had been drinking. She was having fun with mom and giggling. She had the same giggle that she had when she was sixteen and Lizzie had to pick her up from a party at 3am . Mom never found out about that thankfully.
Mom had to know Laura was drunk. Laura had a pink flush in her face and was just beginning to slur her words. Mom acted like everything was normal, but she had switched her own water glass with Laura’s drink to try to slow her down. It seemed to work for that moment.
Mom did not like to drink much. She would occasionally, but not when the kids were around. Lizzie had only seen her with a gin and tonic a couple of times. She remembered seeing drinks like that more when Lizzie was very young .
She remembered when her mom would sit in her living room with Grandma and sip a drink. This was before Matty was even a thought to anyone. She vaguely remembers them talking about something with numbers. Lizzie was only 5 or so at the time. She remembered handing Grandma fake money from her toy register to engage with her. Grandma’s face lit up like it always did around her or her siblings.
Lizzie has seen that look on her mom’s face, but much less often than Grandma. She saw it now as her mom listened to Laura ramble on about Europe and how she was blowing Grandma’s inheritance.
Lizzie stared at what was left on her plate. She had tossed and turned her food to distract herself and began to think back on the memories of her Grandma . Thoughts slowly bubbled up about the countless number of times going to get ice cream or all the movies they would watch, but then a much deeper memory rose.
It was Christmas in 1992 almost everybody had left the house as it was getting late leaving only Grandma, Grandpa, and Anne in the living room. Lizzie walked down from the second floor and crouched near the railing barely peeping with her eyes and ears as she just heard soft arguing and did not want to intervene.
“I told you enough is enough I want out of this; I don’t care how much I could make” Anne said in soft quip. “Don’t you want to live like us?! We can have anything you could think of and all we do is- “Anne cut off Grandpa pressing her finger to her lips, “SHHHH! My answer is final and the last thing I need is you talking about it around my kids.”
Anne glared at the presents knowing what had bought all those toys and clothes. They sat in silence for a moment as the crackle of the fire grew louder until Grandma broke the silence.
“How about you cut me and your father a slice of pie to go dear?”
They both sat up and walked into the kitchen as Grandpa sat staring at the fire mumbling and grumbling. Lizzie saw the opportunity and snuck downstairs past Grandpa down the dark hallway barely illuminated by the white kitchen and listened closely.
“If you really want out then you’re on your own.” Grandma said in a demeaning tone. “But you still owe us too y’know.”
“Owe you for what? Anne said with a fast chop through the pie crust.
“Don’t think I forgot about all the trouble you and your sister got into,” Grandma said with a raised eyebrow while taking the first slice. “Who do you think paid the attorney Anne?”
Anne looked back at her mom almost like she could see all the years of loose living being projected right through her face. She looked back down to focus on cutting the next slice.
“Well, what can I do now that I have three kids to take care of?”
“I’ll see what comes up then we’ll talk.”
Grandma took the last of the pie and started walking towards the doorway to find Lizzie looking at them curiously, Lizzie stared back not knowing what she just heard.
Snapping back to reality Lizzie sat up in her seat like she was shot out of the memory and looked around the room in a new perspective now knowing what was really said all those years ago.
Lizzie was not sure how her mom had spent her money. Bernice and John had to be paid somehow so she guessed some of it had gone there. She was always careful with money. Lizzie remembers her working with one of those calculators that would print tape records as she did math on them. She was always the one on top of the bills. She wasn’t necessarily stingy though. She did have nicer nails since the last time they had been together. Her hair was dyed a slightly different color. Perhaps to hide the gray streaks that had been sneaking through since Lizzie had stressed her out as a kid. She looked ever so slightly better. She carried herself as such too.
“How was New York, Saucy?” asked Anne.
“Oh just wonderful…” Laura said. She reached for the glass she believed had a shot of Ciroc floating in it. She took a long drink before pulling the glass away to look at it. Lizzie suspected this drinking was not just the family getting to her, but that there was something else .
“Have you been seeing anyone lately?”
“I was, but he isn’t important. I am moving on to bigger and better things.”
Lizzie did not believe this one bit, but Anne seemed satisfied with her response.
It had been a windy day in New York City. Laura didn’t usually mind the wind since she had been used to it for some time then. However, that day as she walked back home from her job she had hated the wind as it burned her teary eyes. Her boss had decided to let Laura go since her work was not meeting the gallery’s standards. No one had been buying her artwork for some time and Laura knew that she needed to do better but she didn’t think that it had been getting to a point where she wouldn’t have a job at all anymore.
Before arriving at her apartment, Laura had decided to get herself a cupcake for herself just to give herself a break. It had only been ten o’clock in the morning but at that moment Laura hadn’t cared. She had always worked hard at her art, but lately she hadn’t had any inspiration. She had had so much when she was freshly out of college. As she finished the cupcake, she headed back home to tell her boyfriend, Louis. She had dreaded telling him. The cupcake was supposed to give her time to come up with an explanation for her losing her job. She may have something to tell him by the time he gets home from work.
Louis had always been supportive of her work and told her to never give up, which is why she knew it was going to be tough to tell him. As she neared her home, she had noticed that his car had still been parked in front of their apartment. This was unusual due to the fact that Louis had to be at work at eight thirty every morning. She had thought maybe he was running a little bit late to work or didn’t have to go in early today.
As she finally made it to her apartment, she had again noticed something that had been off. There had been classical music from the other side of the door. Louis didn’t like classical music. As she unlocked the door, she spotted a Louis Vuitton purse that she knew wasn’t hers. Laura had never liked the Monogram that Louis Vuitton had, she had preferred a purse from there that was more simplistic . The purse looked familiar and her heart dropped. As she entered further into her apartment, she heard giggling. As she opened her bedroom door, she knew it had been the worst day of her life.
“Louis?” Laura looked in disbelief as Louis turned over in shock.
“Laura! I thought you weren’t going to be home for another two hours!” Louis frantically jumped off the bed and off of Laura’s best friend, Olivia.
“How could you? Both of you!” Laura tears spilled from her cheeks as she looked at them.
Laura hadn’t even bothered to listen to their explanation as she started for the door while Louis chased after her.
“Laura, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, it just did …” Louis had begged.
Without a care in the world, Laura had walked out without another look back. She didn’t have the strength at that moment to deal with either of them due to the fact that she had just lost her job and she had to see her family in a matter of days. Laura knew that she couldn’t let her family see her life falling apart, everyone in her family thought that she was the only one that had her life sorted out.
From that moment on, Laura had known that she was going to let this all go to the past and that nothing would let her break , but it was hard to let that be the truth as she walked out of the building with one last tear rolling down her cheek.
Despite Laura’s attitude she loved her family. She missed when they were all together. Even if drama was a common occurrence, being around people who loved her unconditionally made Laura feel alive. She could be the stubborn, spoiled brat that she was.
As dinner continued, all Laura could do was look around and observe the massive house. She had to have it , she thought. They were eating on the most elegant plates she had ever seen, the silverware so shiny she could see her own reflection clearly.
Dinner wasn’t over but Laura had to see more of the house for herself. The alcohol in her system was making her curious despite Anne’s attempts to sober her up. She got up and announced to her family, “I’m going exploring. Don’t wait up for me.”
“Laura sit down and enjoy this time together with us. When was the last time we ate like this?” Lizzie replied. Laura rolled her eyes and started exploring anyway. Laura loved her family, but she loved the house even more.
As she walked around and found the staircase all she could think about was how much this house was possibly worth. All the money she inherited had her living the life she always wanted. But that life wasn’t complete without this house.
Laura found a staircase that seemed to go on forever. At the top of it was a picture of her grandma and grandpa when they were young . Then there was a long hall in front of her full of family photos. There were a few pictures with Laura in them that she did not seem to remember.
At the end of the hall, there were two massive doors. A shiver ran down Laura’s back and her heart dropped. The last time she felt like this was when she found Louis cheating on her. To her this all felt unreal. A massive house secluded from the rest of the world . A dining room filled with gold and expensive dining furniture. The ridiculous plates and the silverware that seemed to never be used before. These two doors just added to the mystery that was this whole situation for Laura.
As she slowly opened the door, the fear she experienced faded away as she saw the massive master bedroom. The room resembled the chambers of a queen. A bed that was big enough to take up half the room in a regular sized room. Two dressers that were as tall as Laura. A massive door that lead to a balcony. A bathroom that seemed to be the cleanest thing Laura ever saw. A walk-in closet that was bigger than her childhood bedroom.
All Laura could was gasp. She explored the balcony first. The forest looked at her as she stepped out onto the balcony. If Laura could not have this luxury then she believed no one deserved it .