Page 8 of The Bane of a Sinner
My fingers fumbled slightly as I carefully unwrapped the gift, my curiosity piqued.
Inside, I found a simple leather bracelet, the soft brown etched with the Goddess of the Hunt, Diana, her namesake, with a unique silver clasp that held it together. I’d never seen anything like it before. But it was the engraving that truly took my breath away. “Always,” it read, and in that moment, I knew this woman standing before me was the always kind of love.
I could hear laughter coming from within the house as Diana and I walked into my family home to find several kids running around. Keeping her hand firmly clasped in mine, I steered her through the house and toward the kitchen, knowing I would find Barb standing over the stove cooking. The woman loved to cook, and thank God, because neither my mother nor father could. Though they were good at ordering takeout.
“Are you sure I look alright?” Diana whispered as she looked around the large house.
“You’re perfect, baby,” I stated when I heard my sister arguing with Barb again. Sighing, I looked at Diana and smirked. “I want to apologize right now for what you are about to hear and see.”
Walking into the kitchen, Diana and I got a front-row seat to another one of my sister’s drama-filled tantrums and, like always, my sister didn’t disappoint.
“But why?!”
My sister Amy was a senior in high school, spoiled rotten and a total pain in the ass, but she was my only sister, and I loved her to pieces. Almost ten years younger than me, my sister was unexpected but loved and wanted. From the moment she entered this world, she had me and everyone else wrapped around her little finger. As she got older, so did her temper, which was known to be explosive occasionally. The only one in the family who she seemed to even listen to was our mother, but knowing she was in the middle of one of her charity meetings, that left Barb and my dad to pick up the slack.
“All the other kids are going!”
“And if they all jumped off a bridge, would you follow them?”
“YES!” my sister adamantly rebuffed. “If it gets me out of this house, I would!”
“My answer is still no, Amy. I’m sorry. Maybe next time,” Barb huffed, refusing to back down.
“This blows,” my sister complained. “It’s only the movies. Kansas said Arizona will drive.”
“This discussion is over.”
“I HATE YOU!” my sister screamed just as my father strolled into the kitchen, and Amy shoved past him right into our mother.
“Explain yourself, young lady, right now.”
Gulping Amy took a few steps back and sighed. “Sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to pull you out of your meeting.”
“Well, you did. So what’s the problem?”
“I wanted to go to the movies with Kansas, but Barb said no.”
“I’m still waiting to hear the problem?” my mother firmly stated as she glared at Amy, and when my sister didn’t speak up,our mother did. “Listen to me, little girl. If Barb says no, then she speaks for me and your father. Is that understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With that, Amy quietly left, no doubt going up to her room to sulk.
Turning toward me, my mother smiled. “I’m glad you made it, August. Barb misses you.”
Quickly giving my mother a kiss on her cheek, I held Diana’s hand and walked her over to Barb and said, “Barb. I’d like you to meet my girl, Diana Cooper.”
Diana never got to utter a word before Barb engulfed her in a warm motherly hug. “Oh my God, Julia, look at her,” Barb said, grinning from ear to ear as she looked Diana up and down. “She’s magnificent.”
“I expected nothing less from our boy.” My mother smirked as she walked over to Barb, wrapping her arm around her waist before kissing her forehead.
“It’s wonderful to meet you both,” Diana greeted as my father groaned, looking put out and ready to run for the hills.
“Julia, you’d better get back out there. The natives are getting restless,” my father, Albert, groaned as the back door flung open and in walked Virginia Stone.
“Who the hell are you calling native, Al?”
“You!” My father grinned. “You are all nuts!”
