No More Secrets

Aunt Deidra's house was two hours away in the next town. It was a three story mansion with a very large lawn that left a good deal of space between the neighbors. And there was only three people living in it! She had married a very rich stockbroker when she was younger. He was about three times her age, but she was only in it for the money and everyone, but him, knew it.. Sure enough, when he kicked the bucket, she got everything. They were set for life.

The backyard was my favorite place at my aunts. it was layered into three parts. The first was a covered patio that held a hot tub, a table and chairs and several rose buses along the railing. There was an enormous lattice work that went from the ground to the third floor that was covered in purple, fragrant flowers. The second layer to the back yard had a walk way in between rose bushes and the walk way led to the empty third layer where there where two lawn chairs and another table. This sloped down to a small dock and a river that was perfect for swimming, or just laying around getting some sun. The river wasn’t wide enough for a boat, so most of the people spent time swimming. I was planning on spending as little time in the house as humanly possible.

Did I mention Samantha and Charlotte where twins? They both had light brown hair that would make the most accomplished hair dressers cry, and beautiful hazel eyes that could get them out of any and every situation they came across. Charlotte was the oldest by three minutes and Samantha was her shadow. Literally, she would agree with everything that came out of Charlotte’s mouth no matter how crazy or vile. When I was with them, they acted like they were doing something for charity. They treated me like I should be grateful for their attention. I wasn’t their cousin, I was a charity case.

When Mom and I arrived at the house Reginald, the butler greeted us outside. Reginald was a stooped old English man of eighty five who had a funny limp. The war, he used to tell me, and I left it at that. I always liked Reginald. When I was younger, and no one was around, he’d let me sit with him in Deidra's car and pretend to drive. He was waiting on the front steps for us when we pulled up.

“Welcome Ms. Adams. Miss Adams. “He said nodding towards me. He really should have been a grandfather, even though he never married. I never knew my grandparents; they died when I was young. But I always thought of Reg as a substitute grandpa.

“May I help you with your bags?” Reg asked us.

Mom and I looked at our bags. We could hardly lift them, and we weren’t eighty five years old with a bad knee.

"No thanks Reg…Reginald. We can get them.” I said. He held the doors for us as we walked in. Aunt Deidra's house was impeccably clean. She had a staff whose sole purpose in life was to never let a grain of dust in the house. I swear I saw a couple of them shudder when I walked in with my dirty Converse.

I knew one of her staff members from previous visits. Nancy had worked for Aunt Deidra as her assistant, who basically ran the house, for years and was the only staff member who would talk to mom and me. She stood by the front door, with the rest of the staff and when we walked into the house, I made eye contact with her, she smiled. She motioned up stairs. We’d talk with her later, once Aunt Deidra was done playing hostess. It never failed. Deidra would play hostess for two days and then she’d be called to go away for ‘business’. In reality she was sick of her own family.

Inside Deidra's house, you immediately saw a grand staircase that lead to the second floor and a large chandelier hung over the entrance way. Directly in front of us lead to the dining room and to our left was the living room. Everything was decorated in 18th century inspired furniture. Spindly tables held vases of roses (a trend in this house) and dark polished cabinets held books that were never read and an entertainment center fit to be used in a movie theater. The walls were pristine white and nothing was hung on them, except a sinister looking portrait of Deidra's late husband. His look was calculating and disapproving. Like he detested my old shoes and was waiting for them to leave his house.

As my eyes adjusted to the light, the two French doors to our right swung open. There stood my aunt. She was wearing a deep plum colored suit and her dark brown hair was pulled up into an elegant knot at the top of her head.

“Meredith!” she cried.

“Deidra !” my mom said going to her sister. If you didn’t know anything about these two women all you had to do was look at how they greeted each other. When they went to hug each other they barely touched each other. Because mom and Deidra were hardly friendly, they were just two different people who, by some grave mistake, where forced to grow up together. But, mom was always trying to develop some kind of relationship with her, and as always, it never happened.

They quickly stepped away from each other. It was amazing how different they where, even though they where sisters. Mom was very laid back and carefree. In fact she was wearing an old shirt with an old pair of overalls. Deidra was uptight and rude.

“Lillian.” She said walking over to me. She looked me up and down, like I was something slimy that came from the river. “So, you are going to be eighteen soon. What are your plans for the fall?”

“When school starts I’m going to move in with a friend of mine.”

“Where are you going?” She asked. “Yale? Princeton?”

She knew exactly where I was going. We didn't have money for a state school, I was going to have to work and go college at the same time. “No. Blackford.”

She stopped and thought for a second.

“I’m not familiar with that. Is it an Ivy League?”

“No, community college.”

“Oh.”

Deidra never missed a chance to lord her wealth over us. Like: sending both her children to an Ivy League school. Which, she did, as we sat down on her covered porch. It looked over a river that was a murky blue. As Aunt Deidra talked about things going on in her life, I stared out at the river. It looked very cool and inviting. The temperature had reached an all time high of 102 degrees for that month. Once Deidra was done talking, maybe I could sneak outside and go for a swim. As I was gazing longingly at the river, I realized that the opposite bank was just close enough to see the people in the opposite house. Not that I wanted to spy on anybody.

As my dear aunt kept rambling, someone in the house across the river came out. It was a guy my age, thin with dark brown, maybe black, hair. He was too far away to see any features clearly, but he didn’t look too bad. He was walking down to their dock in orange hibiscus print swim trunks, a white tee shirt and flip-flops. He got to the edge of the dock and kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt. WOW! He was skinny! Not a sick, emaciated thin, it was an “I-don’t-eat-crap- thin”. He stood on the dock for a second, and then jumped in. I tried to watch him swim, but I couldn’t see him over the edge of the porch.

“Lillian, what are you doing?” Aunt Deidra's voice brought me back to the porch. I realized I had lifted myself up on the table to get a better look.

“Oh. Sorry. There is someone swimming outside and I was watching them…to make sure they didn’t drown or something.” I said sitting down.

“Oh, that’s the new neighbors. They just moved from Las Vegas.” she said raising her over plucked eyebrow. “They have a son who is Charlotte and Samantha’s age. I hear he is a musician." She sniffed like it was a dirty word. "I've told the girls they are NOT to mingle with the likes of them. Those musician types are no good, getting involved with drugs…”

Aunt Deidra's voice trailed off as I thought to myself. Musician? That sounds cool. Admittedly, I had a soft spot for musicians. I was the girl in high school who had the major crush on the guys who started gradge bands. Maybe he could save me from this hell hole.