Cousins In a Room 1

In this story, everyone is at least 18 years old.

*****

"I'd love to accompany you, Mom."   In response to the question that she had just asked me, I will say that the last time I saw Helen and Aunt Julie was three years ago at the large family reunion that was held in Cyril out on some farmer's land during which we all camped out.

"Wasn't that three years ago?" I couldn't recall the last time we'd seen them. Despite the fact that I should have figured it out based on what Julie told me this morning."

"What did she say to you?" What brought them back to America? Why didn't they relocate closer to us so it wasn't a nine-hour drive to see them or for them to come see us?"

"According to what she told me this morning, she moved back to the United States two and a half years ago, right after the family reunion." She arrived home a few hours early to find her then-husband in bed with a drug whore looking for drugs and having s.e.x with him to pay for the drugs.

He saw her in their bedroom doorway and told her to leave until he finished getting his money from the bitch. So Julie booked a plain flight back to the United States for herself and Helen, and she told her boss she wanted the job that was open in the United States, but she wasn't going to report to the office there until she could find a place to stay.

They were on the flight that evening, along with the evidence she needed against her husband for the drug trafficking he was in charge of, and as soon as she arrived, she contacted the authorities and gave them everything she had against him. It took them until now to catch him so she could contact us and let us know where she was without him showing up on her doorstep to possibly kill her."

"When are we going to see them?"

"If your father wishes, he can begin his vacation on Saturday, next week." That is, if you can get your vacation time at your job as well; otherwise, we will wait until you are able to begin your vacation."

"As of this morning, I'm on a permanent vacation." I just got out of the labor board office an hour and a half ago. I just spoke with Eva, and as soon as I told her what happened at work, she decided to end our relationship."

"She acted as if she only wanted your money, rather than you yourself, as I had told you."

"After you mentioned it to me a few weeks ago, I started having that feeling as well, so I decided to test her as soon as I got out of the labor board office, and she failed the test badly."

"I'm sorry she dumped you like a hot potato over a job opportunity." If you don't mind me asking, what happened to cause you to lose your job?"

I was framed for something I knew nothing about, but someone wanted my job or didn't like me enough to frame me. Apart from that, I'm not sure what I didn't finish yesterday."

"How long had you been there?"

"I started out part time shortly after my sixteenth birthday, then after high school, on my eighteenth birthday, I started full time with a promotion, as over seer of my section."

"It's been four years at that job, and they want to believe someone under you rather than you." That sounds very low-key. According to what you're saying, they didn't even tell you what you didn't finish."

"That's the whole kit and caboodle of it."

Evaa, as you may have guessed, was my girlfriend but is now my ex. It hurt, but I knew I was better off without her, considering how much money I had spent on her, despite the fact that she was always asking me to buy her something every day of the week, whereas I only bought her something on Fridays, which was my payday. If I had bought something for her every day, I would have been broke long before payday each week, so I bought her that one thing each week after buying something every day of the week for two weeks and being broke by Wednesday, and she didn't want to see me until I got paid on Friday those two weeks.

Aunt Julie didn't seem too happy when I saw her at the family reunion three years ago, and Cousin Helen told me that her mom wasn't very happy with her dad, but she didn't know why Aunt Julie was so unhappy with her husband, who is now an ex-husband, according to what I was just told.

The day before we were supposed to leave for a week with Aunt Julie and Cousin Helen, Dad informed us that he needed to catch a flight for a business trip.  He didn't even book his vacation as promised. He had a bad habit of not doing what what he said said he would do and then doing what he said he wouldn't do  do.

Mom and Dad's first few years marriage, his father kept his word at first, but then he stopped. It took mom and me nearly a year to figure out when dad stopped keeping his word. When dad told mom last week that he would book a vacation to join us, mom and I figured he wouldn't, and he didn't "'t do anything like that. Mom and I loaded up her car and drove out of town as soon as Dad was in the cab and on his way to the airport.

Cousin Helen and I went off to the other side of the big pond, which was on the farmer's land where everyone camped three years ago, to be alone so we could talk without anyone listening in on what we were saying to each other.

Helen was dealing with the fact that her boyfriend had broken up with her at the time, and she needed someone to talk to about it, and I was the one who got her to open up to me.

Helen and I were very close back then, and we trusted each other more than anyone else in the family, plus we were close in age. Helen is three months younger than me, and I thought she was the most attractive girl in the room.

I had told her several times how beautiful she was, which made her feel better about her appearance, which no one else had told her. I figured that was a big part of why she trusted me enough to tell me about her ex-boyfriend.

Mom and Aunt Julie were also very close and had always talked to each other about different things that were going on in their lives, which I had overheard some of those conversations but wouldn't say anything to mom about hearing what was said.

I even found out what was wrong between her and her father or Julie and her husband so they wouldn't be mad at me for eavesdropping, which is why I never mentioned hearing what they said to each other.

I knew mom and dad were having marital problems before I heard what was said to Julie, and before I even heard what mom said to Julie, I tried to get mom to talk to me about it, both before and after hearing her and Aunt Julie talking about it, but she wouldn't "t relent to tell me about the problem she and her father were having. That told me I couldn't  used to go to her and tell her about every problem I had, but she never asked what was wrong, so I never knew if she could tell if something was wrong with me or not.