Chapter One: Family Matters

“I don’t understand this crap. What the hell?”
“Well isn’t that ironic.” Diedrich smirked.

Penthea was the mother, soft, loving, and devote to everyone’s happiness. Diedrich was the father, unknowingly, keeping everyone in check, supporting Penthea when she needed it, and teaching us we had to take full responsibility for our actions. Reem was the annoying cousin who wanted everything handed to him on a silver platter and never understood the phrase ‘with my own sweat and blood’. But he was the cousin who gave willingly and thoughtfully, (in his own strange way). He never was graceful with his timing or actions, but if he was we’d never learn to appreciate him as we did. Toya was the older sister, the shadow behind the puppet, secretly manipulating Reem and me and even Diedrich on occasion so her entertainment could be filled. She carried herself with a flawless grace, never faltering and always holding back some vital information that could have avoided some conflict or other. But her heart was always in the right place. She was like a real older sister, one who protected you so well that you were never really aware she was ever there.

This was our family. Constructed out of miss-shaped cut outs and different textures, we looked more like a person’s laundry hanging out to dry, cottons, silks, hemp; pinks, blues, madder lake deep; but we were more family than our own biological ones. Amidst the chaos of papers, poverty, unrequited love, career paths and the stress of family member’s expectations; we found solace in our own hectic lives among each other. We learned a lot about ourselves and came to love the quirks we carried, the mistakes we made, and the future that was at our doorstep. It was hard for us to say this, but we all understood it, even if only unconsciously.

There came a time where Reem stopped going home around the holidays, taking a painstakingly long time to respond to letters and emails from frustrated parents, a sentence a day for 27 days. He said he just didn’t have the money to pay for the plane ticket and transportation to and from the airport. That wasn’t true because he did have the money, he just chose to spend it on fruitless things, concert tickets to unknown bands, take out dinners, and endless bouquets in an attempt to win over Toya. There came a time that his parent’s threatened to withdraw their financial support for his education if he didn’t use the plane ticket they bought. He responded by attaining bursaries and scholarships for students with trouble financially during their 2nd and up year. After that Reem seemed to lose connection with them all together and seemed much more content with his life.

Diedrich always came back earlier than expected on the holidays, even though he had the money and a large, loving family. He refused to spend more than seven exact days there, giving reasons of crazy cousins and sadistic sister-in-laws. “But you have those here.” I said pointing beside me to Toya who was sitting on the couch flipping through a fashion magazine. “Watch it runt.” She replied threateningly, not even looking up. “And there’s the crazy cousin!” I pointed towards the door at Reem who walked through at that moment carrying a large box of factory mittens. “Look what I found!” He chimed, dropping the box in the center of the living room. “Mittens!” Diedrich took a moment to digest his surroundings, looking from Toya, me and Reem, towards the mittens on the floor. He broke out laughing, grabbing his sides trying not to fall out of his chair. Toya looked up with surprise at the sight of Diedrich laughing and crying at the same time. “Elisha did you touch my voodoo doll?” Toya said slowly, weary of the scene. “I knew it!” Reem burst out. “You are a witch doctor!” “And you are an idiot, proving my point from earlier. Now run along with your mittens, I think there’s some poisonous mold on them and it’s affecting Diedrich, I don’t want to be affected next.”