Chapter I
The women hadn’t seen each other in a couple of weeks, which for them was way too long. They had grown up together, they were best friends and they were sisters. The ritual was, that when they got together, they would do rock, paper, scissors to see who got to go first with their personal update. Claire won by crushing Sarah’s scissors with her rock. This was the third time Claire had won in the last few months and Sarah was sort of pissed this time. Competition was their way of life growing up in a large family.
“Okay”, said Sarah “what’s going on in your life?” Claire began telling her sister about her life the last couple of weeks as a wife, mother of two grown children and of course, there was her husband, Jim. “He will never change, he is just as tight fisted as he always was, and he’s such a jerk.” Sarah rolled her eyes, and took a deep breath, knowing that she was in for yet another episode of Claire’s’ married life. For Sarah, it was the same story she had been hearing for years. It wasn’t that they didn’t have any money, it was just that Jim, Claire’s’ husband, never trusted her with any finances of any kind and consequently, Claire, was the only woman Sarah knew who did not have a checking account, no savings account with her name on it, much less any money for expenses. Expenses being, personal items, money for lunch, and just cash on hand. Claire had to use a credit card for everything, and a gas card to fill up her broken down old Chevy. Periodically, her husband would take her card away from her. Jim was a control freak. It was sad really, poor Claire, she thought, but, on the other hand Sarah was completely fed up with hearing all the excuses as to why Claire put up with such treatment. Sarah snapped…. She normally would have let Claire’s explanations and excuses just roll off her back, but there was something about her tone that Sarah just couldn’t tolerate one second more. “What the hell is the matter with you Claire, are you completely blind to what your life has turned into?” Sarah knew she should probably stop there, but it just felt so damn good to tell it like it is to her sister. In her mind, Sarah kept thinking, lighten up girl, you have stepped over that ‘sister boundary’ and now you are slowing falling into the abyss of no return. When they were little girls, and had an argument, Claire was the one who would say something like, “if you don’t shut up right now, I will never speak to you again.” On most occasions the threat would work, and Sarah would stop talking. However, when she was beyond furious she would either keep screaming at Claire or just knock her down. If that happened she knew she would have hell to pay, but she didn’t care.
Claire never fought fair; it was a known fact in the family of eight kids. If you had the guts to actually, physically, fight with her, God help you. We would all sort of gather around and watch a match of pinching, kicking, pulling hair and yanking on ears till finally the victim gave in. “Stop, stop, stop, please.” Then Claire would grab their hair and say, ‘Say Uncle 10 times!” As it turned out, the person on the losing end of Claire’s’ tirade would try to say it 10 times but invariably lose track of the numbers and would have to start all over again. It wasn’t pretty.
On the other hand when it came to her sister Sarah, it was a different, even more traumatic punishment from Claire, and it went like this: “Sarah, I am never going to speak to you again.” Sarah would just stare at her sister and say something like ‘Sure, Claire, you’re stupid!’ Not smart. The longest the silence lasted was 2 weeks, and the only reason Claire finally broke the silence was because she had the chicken pox.
One day Sarah came home from a neighbor’s house and there was Claire, …..in bed…..spots all over her. Their mother was sitting on the side of the bed, taking Claire’s temperature. The mother turned as Sarah came into the room and said, “Oh Sarah honey, I think Claire might have caught the chicken pox from you." Sarah had done her time with the illness, a week before. Her mother didn’t say it like Sarah did it on purpose, just very matter of fact.
Sarah very slowly approached the bed, “Oh Claire, it is itchy?” Then Claire went on and on about how the disease was affecting her every bodily function, declaring that she was probably paralyzed and how she couldn't feel her feet or hands and how awful she felt and that she just couldn’t stand the itching. After a while Sarah walked away with just the tiniest smirk in the corner of her mouth.
Chapter 2
Claire just stared at her sister in disbelief. How could Sarah say those things to her, she was furious and felt the emotions rise, and a slight sting of tears, but refused to give Sarah the satisfaction . “Sarah, you have never understood me and my problems with Jim”. “It’s not like I can leave the guy.” What would I do, where would I go? I’m terrible with money, and I hate dealing with it, paying bills, saving for groceries, it sucks!” Claire thought that there was no way Sarah was terrible with money, because Sarah never had any money, but, she kept her mouth shut.
Here we go, thought Sarah, Jesus Christ not again. Tears will follow, I’ll fold like a fool and give into her misery. Then, she thought about an experience Claire had when she was in her twenties. Maybe if she reminded her of the story, her sister might realize how long she had been in this mess and consequences of her stupidity with money.It was around Christmas, 1980 , Claire, Sarah and their husbands, plus the rest of their brothers and sisters, had planned a family reunion. This would be the first time all of them had been together since their mother had died suddenly a year earlier. Sarah was excited about the get together, but also nervous about it. A part of the festivities included a drawing of names for some of their mothers' more expensive possessions. Jewelry, fine china, sterling flatware and serving dishes along with some of the art work their mother had painted herself, or friends had given her. This would be a bittersweet gathering for sure and Sarah wasn't looking forward to the bitter part. Sweet she could handle, bitter, not so much. Some members of the family had made their wishes known to the others as to what they wanted. However, they had all agreed that those items should be up for grabs just like everything else. It was basically a crap shoot. Sarah was nervous about that part of the whole affair. The items were not separated into types so consequently jewelry which included costume and expensive, flatware, serving items, and art work were all thrown in with all the cheaper stuff, like books, blankets, dolls, cologne, and lots and lots of musty old photo albums. This way of dealing with so much stuff would turn out to be the dividing wedge in the family for many, many years.
Chapter 3
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