The Burden

“Everything will be fine,” I convince myself as I prepare for the first family function since the incident. My niece’s wedding was just what we needed to bring the family back together, or rather to bring me back in everyone’s good books, I hope.

I can see the rustic grey house in the distance, the last house down the street and the largest. There are at least four cars parked in the yard. A full house. I park near the gate so as not to crowd the others. It’s only been three months since I’ve been here but somehow it seems very different.

The house looks as grand as always, the grey colour enhancing its Victorian style – a classic mini-mansion. The yard is well maintained with neatly cut grass and enchanting evergreen magnolia shrubs on either side of the entrance to the front door. I really need to commend our gardener, Simon on that. I guess it’s all basically the same apart from the fact that mom is no longer here.

The old red and yellow stripped swing set still stood at the edge of the front yard. Just looking at it takes me back to memories of a different time - an easier time. My family consisted of four siblings, me being the third. We all got along quite well, sure there were squabbles here and there but nothing that couldn’t be sorted over my mom’s delectable dinners.

 My sister Kate was the oldest, she had gone with the traditional life of getting hitched early in her life and becoming a housewife. She had two beautiful children - a girl, whose wedding were all attending and a boy who came 7 years later. My brother Thomas was the first boy, and had gone the other way - he had four children with four different women and spent more time at the bar than at work at the local oil mine– which is probably why he still lived at home. The last born was my brother Luke, he was significantly younger than the rest of us; he was born when I was in the ninth grade and had just turned eighteen this year. I was more of the dark sheep in the family, at 32 I was unmarried with no children and no plans of any – I was happy with my career as a lawyer and I couldn’t afford any deviations from my well-strategised life plan.

I take a deep breath as I stand by the entrance and prepare to go in. The icy air makes me shiver for a second and I clumsily latch onto the door and fling it open, staggering in to find at least twelve pairs of eyes gawking at me. Kate stands over the couch with her six-month old grandchild in her arms, he looks bigger – well given I hadn’t seen him in three months. Thomas is sitting on the couch with a drink in his hand, typical. Luke is the only one who seems happy to see me and he runs toward me.

“Sis,” he greets as he leans down and wraps his long arms around me. He’s grown taller. How is that possible?

“Hey Lukey,” I respond trying to form a smile. “How have you been? I’m sorry I haven’t been able to come around for the past months but I tried to make sure I sorted everything as much as I could, and you got the cheques right?”

“Oh, yeah. No everything is good, I just missed you,” he says, his eyes looking like a lost puppy. The two of us had always been the closest, but with work keeping me preoccupied I only had time for a few phone calls here and there.

I look up to see Kate glowering at me and Thomas abruptly gets up and leaves the room. Theresa, Kate’s daughter looks at me sympathetically.

“I’m glad you could made it Aunt Marcy,” she says giving me a quick embrace. “And you remember my fiancé Jeremiah, right?” She says signalling to the young man at the corner who seems taken aback by the situation.

“Of course, congratulations again you guys.”

“Let’s get you settled in,” Luke suggests as he lifts my suitcase. I nod weakly and follow him up the stairs, careful not to make any eye contact with Kate.

After a few moments of settling into my room, I wander to mom’s room. It still smells like her. Her bed is neatly made up with her floral bed-cover and countless pillows at the head of the bed. Her dresser was different, usually it was clattered with her perfumes and cosmetics, it had all been cleared up now – just bare.

I sit on the foot of the bed and reminisce on our last few conversations as she lay in her death bed. I had taken two months off to help nurse her back to health before the unfortunate happened. Although the two of us had never been the closest, those last months brought an understanding between us. She had always been hard on me, more than my siblings; she never understood anything I did or the reasons behind it and I, of course was hell-bent in my ways. She would have rather I settled down and become a devoted housewife as she and my sister did. I had gotten over trying to convince her that living my life differently was not the worst thing.

 She had married well, my father was a handsome businessman who gave her everything she desired and when he passed away whilst she was quite young, everything went to her and she commendably took charge. It was a shock to me when she burdened me in her last moments. I stared at her face in disbelief as she spoke. Her face now tainted with liver spots and shallow creases. Her mouth was white and it quivered as she spoke.

“You have to handle it. You have to look after my investments and the family.”

“But--- but Mom, Kate can do it and she is the oldest,” I protested.

“Marcy, if we leave everything to your sister she will burn it out within the first year. She’ll spend most of it on superfluous shopping sprees and you know she and her husband are in debt. And it isn’t like we can rely that brother of yours- he’ll make all the local taverns affluent,” she spoke without a single emotion evident.

“Mom, I-“

“And you know that when everything runs out, it’ll all be your burden; they’ll expect you to bail them out… Do it for me Marcy, if not me then do it for Lukey, he still needs all the help he can get with figuring out what to do with the rest of his life.”

“But mom, Kate will have a fit, she won’t-”

“I can’t trust anyone else Marcy, this is your burden to carry.”

I had said nothing about it until her demise, Kate found out with the rest of them a week later when the family lawyer assembled us to carry out mother’s last wishes.

“All the children of Margret Beatrice Horton and Lucas Theodore Horton will receive a total sum of four million dollars which would be a million dollars each, and all known grandchildren will receive half of that amount. However, all finances will be managed by Marcy Valencia Horton and will be regulated as she stipulates. Furthermore all properties will be overlooked by her including cars, the family house and the rental properties,” Phillip Goldstein spoke.

I watched timorously as Kate’s eyes bulged revealing a constricted array of blood vessels. She stood up abruptly and before I knew it she stared me dead in the eye.

“What did you do? What the hell did you do to her?” Kate demanded.

“Kate, I didn’t-“

“Mom would never give you control- she hardly got along with you. So that’s why you spent two months with her to ‘take care’ of her, you took care of her alright. So how did you manipulate her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her, she made the choice by herself and tried to tell her I couldn’t.”

“Haha right, its obvious you came at the right time and used your dirty lawyer schemes to manipulate an old woman in her death bed, have you no shame?”

“But I didn’t-“

“This is beneath even you Marcy,” Thomas spoke looking disgusted.

The rest of the day’s events is now a faded nightmare. When they had finally calmed down I notified them that they would all be receiving small monthly amounts of the money belonging to them, which caused another uproar. And that the money form the rentals would be used to maintain the family home and its occupants rather than selling it. They stormed off one by one leaving just me, Luke and the Phil, our lawyer in the room.

I hadn’t heard from them since. I had sent a reasonable check to Kate to help cover the wedding but I got no response from her.

The wedding day dragged through as I tried to avoid Kate and Thomas. Chairs were neatly placed in the backyard making way for an isle in the middle. The entire place was strewn with white roses and gorgeous silver and rose-gold centerpieces against a rustic grey background. Kate sure didn’t hold back. I sat at the back like the outcast I was as the proceedings went on. As the service broke and the reception began, I began to make way back to my house to get my bags and leave for the City. Luke grabbed my arm as I entered my car.

“I’m really glad you came sis,” he said with a warming smile.

“Thanks Lukey,” I say as I start the car and leave the place the place I once called home. A place that was now so cold.