I slowly open our kitchen barn doors and quietly enter the living room.
My mom pulls the 'twins' in front of her and introduces them, " Marietta, this is Elizabeth," she says pointing to the taller one. " And Blaire." Rubbing the shorter one's hair. I can't help but take notice of the fact that both of them have hair closely matching my mother's own natural Dirty Blonde hair with honey highlights. Whereas I got my thick raven-like brunette hair from my father. As she held them in front of her and introduced them to me, I thought to myself what a picture-perfect family she, Hoover, And the girls make without me.
Just when I'm hoping my mother will say something to console me she starts with "…And the girls will be having your room, it only makes sense as we're all gonna be staying in this two bedroom together for just a while but the girls aren't used to not having a bed. Their beds will be placed in your room and you can sleep in the living room." She saw my face and pretended to feel bad for a moment "Aww but don't worry honey this isn't a permanent thing. When Hoover gets his next big raise we'll move into a bigger house." She says excitedly.
My stomach drops, I have a bad feeling about where this is going.
The movers finish moving the rest of Hoover and the girl's stuff in their dramatically extra extravagant double full beds looking completely out of place in what used to be my plain bedroom with dingy grey walls. Our beaten-up tiny couch was replaced with a new-looking leather sofa with a sectional, our dining room table once metal now dark wood, all of the new things in the house look like their already suffocating the energy it once held. My small twin bed was given to the movers and I'm expected to sleep in the loveseat Hoover couldn't part with that previously resided in his home office.
My closet was cleaned out and stacked full with the girl's clothes while my things were placed in bins in the hall closet for cleaning supplies.
All of this change was accomplished in around 5 hours thanks to the mover's quick work.
At 8:00 as i sat on the couch trying not to be swallowed by the thoughts rushing in my mind, my mother called me into the kitchen.
" Makayla Hoover expects dinner on the table by 6pm every day, this is a lot later than what he wants but he's letting it slide today as it was a big day for everyone. As you know Mommy doesn't like to get in the kitchen much so we need to talk about some of your new responsibilities.." she pointed at a chair for me to sit down, then grabbed a piece of paper of the fridge that wasn't there yesterday.
" this list is everything you're gonna be expected to have completed by the end of the day every day, Sunday's you will have a special list including laundry and yard work. Please understand honey will all have to do our part to earn our keep, And we simply could never ask Blaire or Elizabeth to do anything so laborious of course. The girls must focus on maintaining their grades and their various after-school activities."
The realization starts slowly setting in now. I'm going to be the maid while they play the perfect family and I get breadcrumbs of everything like a mouse.
My life has gone from bad to worse.
And just when I'd thought there was no way things could get there.
I'm starting to wonder if my mother ever loved me, or did she just lose her mind, and the love for me went with it .
"Please get started on dinner ASAP everyone is waiting and they're starving."
How she expects an eleven-year-old to prepare food for five people is a mystery to me but it looks like I have no other options here. Thankfully no one is sitting in the living room so when I cut the TV on and search for a food channel there are no witnesses.
I settle on some Italian man's show and search for the ingredients i know we have in the kitchen. As I glance at the list i see grocery shopping which I'm hoping is a joke because I'm one hundred percent sure it's illegal to send your child in the store alone even in the early 2000's.
I found all the vegetables, tomato sauce, and meat I needed for the dish and boiled some after for the noodles.
The only thing I'm sure i can't mess up right now is spaghetti as that's what I usually make for myself most weeks. Coincidentally thats what the Italian man on TV is making, so I'm calling it fate.
I chop up the celery, carrots, and onion to throw in the meat sauce with the sausage and put that in a separate pot. I'm actually sweating bullets I just can't believe all this is happening right now. Out of morbid curiosity, I take a glance at the list to see what my new-found torture will entail when I notice 'Set the dining room table!!' In red pen unlike the rest of the list in the black ball-point, with wash the dishes directly after it.
So I'm expected to do everything. Got it.
As I let the food cool in the pots I begin searching our kitchen for this new dining set we must have, as we've never set the table in the 11 years I've been alive. Right in the second drawer and cabinet, I find the plates and utensils to set the table.
10 minutes later
With the table set and everything plated I noticed there wasn't a chair for me to set a placement for myself but with the day I've already had I'm honestly too exhausted to care. I make myself i plate grab a fork and some water and make my way to our backyard. I'd rather not sit in the living room while they act as a perfect family with a maid. Especially knowing I'm expected to clean up after everyone when they're done but I can't even eat with them. In a day I've gone from neglected to the equivalent of a French peasant.
As I close the back door and make my way to the only untouched spot left in this house. Our back porch still complete with only two dingy chairs from the time mom took me to a bargain store and got us chairs so we could sunbathe and have 'girl time' together.
Seems like those days are long gone now.
I sit in my yellow and green beat-up beach chair and place my food on the little table between the two chairs. As i place my cup down the table jerks a bit from the weight and slightly hits my mom's chair when I hear something rattle in it. Although I know being nosy isn't always in your best interest I can't help but wonder what she could have left in the chair.
I lifted the small cushion she added to it and saw a small white bottle, it read "methylenedioxymethamphetamine" which I can't sound out for the life of me. I opened it up and the only things left were two pennies, no trace of whatever mysterious medicine she was taking at all. I didn't even know my mom was taking medicine or that she was sick so maybe that's why she's been acting so weird lately? I put the bottle in my pocket to ask her about later and continue to eat my food by myself, looking up into the sky and off into the distance.
Wondering how different my life would be if my dad was here still, wondering how he'd be different after the war. I wish things were a lot different.
I doze off.
——-
I'm awoke very shortly after I fell asleep probably because everyone inside finished their food and it must be time for me to be a good little maid and clean the house again.
I wake to Blaire and Elizabeth each shaking my shoulders on opposite sides and catch them chanting "Maid, maid it's time to clean, maid, maid we've finished eating…" I don't have the energy to start an argument with them about this, plus it's abundantly clear that my mom and Hoover would take their side anyway so no reason to cause unnecessary problems from myself on top of everything else I'm already dealing with.
I gently shake their hands off my shoulders and let out a sportsmen-like chuckle of defeat "Okay haha the maids gonna go clean the kitchen now, I hope you enjoyed your food." I still have no idea how old these girls are but now that I'm getting a closer look at them I realize they look a bit older than me actually. I'd say maybe 13, their personalities would make you think they were the younger ones.
"How old are you guys?" I ask not really expecting them to give me an answer.
" I'm twelve and a half" Elizabeth points at herself and says. " And I'm 11 and three-quarters." I'm assuming Blaire says. "We have different moms." Elizabeth continues and stops the conversation right there. They abruptly turn around in unison and walk away from me, back into the house, and up to 'their' room I assume.
Oh, so Hoover must be the parent they look like the most.
That was weird but could've been worse I guess. The fact that my bed was given away so quickly made me realize my level of importance here. The best thing I can do for myself is try not to get on those two's bad side and silently endure any bullying I may face from them because there isn't anyone to care on my behalf as of right now.
I only have me, I just pray they don't go out of their way to torture me too much, as that's a fight I literally can't win. My mother is actually like she signed me away as an indentured servant to get a leg up in life. Sick. Only time will tell how mean my step-sisters will be I suppose.
I gather my dishes from outside and head into the house, ready to take on whatever mess they've made of the kitchen and get on with my train wreck of a life already. Guess it's time to start calculating the days, hours, minutes, and seconds til I turn eighteen again.