A Family Battle

Tears came down my cheeks in floods. The woman on the phone gave me a minute to collect myself.

"Ma'am," she said once I had calmed down, “I’m so sorry for your loss, but there are some things that we have to deal with as soon as possible.”

“Such as?”

“I think it will just be easier to meet in person.”

“Alright, I’m currently free Friday”

******

I walk into the elevator of the lawyer’s firm head office. What needed to be settled so urgently? It was only two days ago that I had gotten the call about my parent's death. I couldn’t believe it at first, but I eventually did.

They had been driving back from a New Year's Eve party, they had been sober, but someone else that night had not. Being on the slick, fast highway roads made it dangerous, to begin with, having the intoxicated driver made it two times worse. They were hit from behind, and the car slipped on the ice and crashed into one of the ditches.

Ding! The door opened on my floor. I look to the left and right. Watching men and women in business suits and clothing walk through the halls into file rooms, meetings, and offices around me. I walk toward the young man sitting at the front desk.

“Excuse me, I’m here to see Mrs. Schorr.”

He looks up at me and smiles, “Give me one minute,” he says as he taps away on his desktop, “ Ms. Markham?”

“Yes, Mrs. Schorr is expecting you, she’ll be in the left hallway and the fifth door on your right.”

“Thank you.” I follow his directions and I am soon at a door labelled Mrs. Lila Schorr - Child Services Lawyer. I freeze for a second. I had forgotten about my younger brother and sisters. What would happen to them, who would they live with now that they were gone? I knock on the door.

A soft voice answers, “come in,” I walk in and see her sitting at her desk, “Hello, you must be Isa Markham.” She gets up from the mahogany desk and shakes my hand.

“Yes, that would be me,” I say, and I can hear my voice shake a bit.

“I can tell you're a bit nervous, but please don’t worry. So I take it you know what we’re here to discuss.”

“I do, it's Lori, Jake, and Lindsey, am I right?”

“Yes, you are. Since they are all under the age of eighteen and still require a legal guardian, we need to figure out who they are to stay with.”

“But of all my relatives, why are they talking with me?”

“Your parents have asked that you would be the one to take care of them.”

“I can’t look after them, I’m twenty, I have a job and school. How am I supposed to take care of three little kids!?”

“I can’t tell you how to do that, but I can help you with the details. Your parents asked, the day you turned eighteen, that if anything were to happen to them, you would move in with your siblings and take care of them till they turned of age, or until any stable family member volunteers to adopt them.” This was bad, very bad. I had school and a job, and the chances of a stable family member volunteering were slim (since many were either dead or very unstable). This was going to be a challenge of a lifetime.

******

I took the last box off the ledge of the moving truck. My siblings run around the boxes of stuff that lay on the front lawn, digging through my belongings. I couldn’t help but frown a bit. They didn’t know yet. They didn’t know that their parents would never come back. They were happy now, but what would it be like when I told them?

A young man walks up to me. He’s taller than me and has the same tanned facial features as my dad and kind gray eyes as my mother.

“Jake?”

“Yes?”

“Goodness, have you grown since I last saw you? I almost didn’t recognize you, what are you, sixteen now?.”

He gives a small chuckle, “yeah last month, mom says I look a lot like Dad now.” He doesn’t know, yet. I’d have to tell him first he was the oldest, but might also take it the hardest.

“She’s right, you do.”

He takes a box in for me, as I walk over to one of my sisters.

“Hey, Lori.”

“Why are you back anyway?”

“Mom and Dad wanted me to come to stay for a little while, so here I am.”

“Yeah, then you’ll just leave as you did before.” She says and then walks up the steps and into the house. She’s still mad. When I moved out, she insisted that I was leaving her, that I was ditching her for some stupid school. I tried my hardest to explain that I wasn’t doing that, but she wouldn’t listen. She was about ten at the time, but now she’s twelve, her hormones making her more angry and emotional, which wasn’t good for either of us.

Next, I find Lindsey, my youngest sibling. She was so young and innocent, she'd just be heartbroken when I told her that Mom and Dad had died.

“What are you doing, Lin?”

“Looking at your clothes, they're so pretty!” She exclaims. She lifts my short navy blue dress.

“I’m glad you like them, I’ll tell you what, when I get settled in we can have a fashion show with all our clothes, okay?”

“Yay,” she screams with joy.

I get the boxes all moved up to my room. It’s six o’clock and the kids are probably getting hungry. I walk downstairs to find Lori texting on the couch and Lindsey on the floor with some of her American Girl dolls. I walk over to the fridge and open it up to study the contents. There isn’t much for food, only a few pieces of fruit and some leftover ribs.

“What if we order some pizza, hey girls?”

“Pizza!” Lindsey cheers.

“Okay,” I say, “I’ll go down and ask what Jake wants before we order,” I hear Lori smirk as I head for the basement door, “what?” I ask.

“Nothing.” She simply replies, a devilish grin spreading across her face. I feel my eyebrows pull together a bit, but I just go down the stairs to Jake’s room.

“Jake! Jake!” I yell when I reach the bottom of the stairs. I stop at his door but don’t get a response. I knock on the door. Nothing. I open the door just a peep and quickly shut it.

He wasn’t alone.

“Jake!” He opens the door, and I peek over his shoulder. On the end of his bed is a girl his age, she gives a shy wave and moves her long brown curls away from her face. “Who’s this?” I ask sweetly.

“Oh, um, Isa, this is Hailey, my girlfriend.” Hailey gets up from the bed and comes to meet me.

“Hi.” She says quietly.

“Hello,” I can feel my body relax a bit, “it’s nice to meet you, we’re actually about to order some pizza, you’re welcomed to stay.”

“Thank you,” she says.

“Anything you two want?”

“A meat lover,” Jake answers, “you can call us up when it’s here.”

“Alright.” I walk up the stairs, ask the girls quickly if they want anything specific, and then dial Pizza hut and place the order. I put the phone down when I'm finished and turn to talk to the pre-teen on the couch.

“You didn’t bother to warn me did you?”

“About what?” She says innocently, not looking away from her phone.

“That he is with his girlfriend!” I can feel the anger rise in my chest, this is not something I want to deal with today.

“His girlfriend is here?” She exaggerates a gasp, “I had no idea!”

“Lori, I know you're still mad, but things aren't what they used to be, and are only going o get worse for us if you’re going to have an attitude all the damn time!”

“Yeah, especially after you left us!”

“Me leaving wasn’t the end of the world!”

“Oh, yeah, then what is!”

“Mom and Dad are dead!” I scream out, and I quickly cover my mouth to stifle a sob.

She goes silent and puts her phone down. Lindsey stands up, looking confused I hear footsteps coming up the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Jake asks.

“Mom and Dad are dead,” Lori says and then runs up to her room as she starts to cry.

“No…no… they can’t be, tell me she lying, Isa.” I shake my head, rubbing the tears off my face with my sweater.

“Where’s Mama.” Lindsey walks over.

“She’s not coming back Lin, she’s not coming back.”

*******

I’m sitting on the couch with Lindsey sleeping on my lap, tears still streaming down her cheek. Lori and Jake sit together on the loveseat holding each other as they accept the fact that our parents are gone.

“What happened to them?” Lori whispers.

“They were hit by a drunk driver on the way back from the party.”

“And that’s why you’re back?”

“Yes, they wanted me to take care of all of you.”

“What about, you thought,” Jake asks, “what about your job and school?”

“I’ll figure it out, just have to adjust a few things.” Jake nods, he understands this is going to be hard for all of us.

“What now?”

“Now we just have to keep on living, it’s not going to be easy and that’s why I’m going to need both of you to help out a bit.”

“We can do that, Isa,” Jake says.

“Yeah, I guess I can help,” Lori adds, but I can tell she is reluctant.

“Thank you guys this is going to be a family battle.”