Have you ever wished you could have a soundtrack to play in the background while you lived life? Well, if such a thing existed, I assure you that Bach’s minute in G major would be playing as I walked up the stone pathway to my relative’s brick mansion beside my brother. The whole atmosphere reminded me of a scene from the Pride and Prejudice movie. That is, everything except the half a million dollar Koenigsegg CCX on the driveway. If you would like to call the short elegant stone road strip in front of the four car garage a “driveway”. Personally I think it’d be offended to have it called such a thing.
“Can I just go live with Grandma? I don’t think my cat allergy would be a big deal…”
“Cora, I know this whole thing sucks, but try your best to make the most of it, ok? Mom and dad would want to you to try your best to behave and please your aunt and uncle.”
“And where are YOU going to live?”
“We’ll see.”
I rolled my eyes. It was already foretold that Uncle Todd simply wouldn’t allow Jayson to live with them, having voiced his opinions at Christmas of an 18 year old with a good job and a car of his own to still be living with his parents. Uncle Todd had a son named Eric who was a couple years older than Jayson and had moved out at 18, and already halfway done with obtaining his medical degree at Harvard Medical School.
We stepped onto the wide brick porch (once again, if you could call it such a thing), and my brother rang the doorbell. A minute later, a maid answered the door.
“Mr. and Miss Cook,” she did a small curtsey. “This way please.”
I grimaced at the thought of living with such an impeccably polite creature as that maid, and Jayson caught my face and nudged me with his elbow. I timidly cleared my throat and followed the black and white clad woman down a large entryway and into a larger sitting room.
The room itself seemed suffocated, as if it needed a breath of fresh air or to be relieved of the rich, heavy furniture and drapery that overcrowded it. One more item on the coffee table and I think it would probably die from lack of oxygen.
“Jayson, Cora Lynn. We’ve been expecting you for the past half hour, dears.”
Cora Lynn? Great. Another thing I was going to have to live with.
It was my Aunt Bethany that said this, a small, slip of a woman that had hollow cheeks and a high forehead. Her hands where almost as thin as paper, perfectly pale, without a blemish on them. Her hair was a shiny chestnut shade, and her eyes a faded hazel. She wore a black pencil skirt of a silk material, without a single wrinkle evident on it, and a navy blue blouse that came rather low on her flat chest, revealing nothing but her neck bones and more blemishless, pale skin. She stood and I noticed her tiny feet on black stiletto high heels, with a gold Coco Chanel buckle on the toe. They alone probably cost more than all the clothes I had on.
“Sorry Aunt Bethany; seemed as if every red light caught us at just the wrong time and the traffic was horrible.”
I wanted to tell her that red lights and traffic didn’t cease for us as they probably did her highness, but I kept my mouth shut for Jayson’s sake.
“Short just like your mother, Jayson. I see you haven’t grown since last Christmas. And Cora, my, but your slacks look rather trashy!”
I really had a tough time not snapping back when my uncle said this; they didn’t get that distressed jeans were in style. And saying my mother was SHORT? At least MY mother had MEAT on her bones and didn’t STARVE herself like Aunt Bethany did!
I forced a sickly sweet smile, hands locked behind my back, and Jayson cleared his throat uncertainly.
My uncle had on a perfectly ironed suit of a dark gray shade, a burgundy tie, and a ruby studded tie pin that almost blinded you in its tiny excellence when it caught the light from the crystal chandelier. His shoes were flawlessly polished to a mirror like state, and I almost wanted to step closer to see if I could observe my reflection in them. His head was absent of hair in the middle on the top, what little steel gray hair he had being neatly combed and parted on the side.
“Never mind dearies, the important thing is that you have made it safe and sound. Jayson, would you care to join us for dinner?”
My brother opened his mouth to protest; he wanted out of there as much as I did, but he must of decided to sacrifice his wants to stay a little longer with me before he left.
“Uh, yeah. I guess I’ll stay.”
“Hm?”
“Yes ma’am, I’d enjoy eating dinner with you and Uncle Todd and Cora Lynn.”
“Lovely. Right this way, Lucile has cooked some divine lobster as the main course tonight.”
Lobster? Good grief. I was going to wither away and die here.

- - -

“That was very delicious Aunt Bethany.”
“Oh, why thank you dear.”
She didn’t even make the dinner. The cook had.
“I should be on my way now…”
Jayson slowly scooted out his chair from the eternally long dinner table and stood up. Clearing his throat, he politely shook hands with Uncle Todd. He made his way over to Aunt Bethany and graciously kissed her cheek, bidding her goodbye. He paused beside me, as if deciding whether to bid my farewell in front of my aunt and uncle or not.
“Hey, Cora, come with me for a second, ok?”
I gulped as a lump swelled up in my throat, and nodded silently. The only other close family I had left was actually leaving.
“Cora dear, don’t stay outside very long, it’s damp and you might catch a cold!”
My aunt shouted after me as I stepped outside behind Jayson into the cool night air. It was starting to snow outside, gentle flakes daintily falling from the fluffy clouds hidden in the dark of the winter sky. I bit my lip, I tried to never ever cry in front of my big brother, the only time I ever had being when my goldfish died when I was seven. I remembered my ten year old brother who seemed very old to me at the time giving me warm hug in his skinny boy arms and telling me in his assuring voice that he’d catch me a frog to take the place of Goldie. It somehow made me feel all better, knowing I’d have a pet to take the place of the one that’d died.
But now, as I stood in the cold outside a hostile, unfriendly mansion made of repelling red brick, more than a little goldfish had died. My whole family had been wiped out in one fatal swoop, leaving me in shock with nothing to hold on to but Jayson. And he was leaving. I didn’t even know where he was going. Or when I’d see him again.
Tears helplessly welled up in my eyes. I furiously blinked, trying to hold them back, but a small, pitiful sniff ended my efforts. Jayson turned around, his back having been to me, and took his hands out of his pockets. He wrapped his arms around me and I gave up trying to be tough. I let my crutches fall to the ground and sobbed in my brother’s chest. How could life go on? How could I live anymore? What was there to even live for?
He didn’t say anything, just hugged me tight. His arms weren’t a little boy’s anymore, they were a man’s, and for a moment, I almost let myself believe it was my dad hugging me.
“It’ll be ok Cora. It’ll be ok.”