Thursday, May 28, 2009

"Quick, give her space! Give her some water! Just don't stand there you buffoons!"

Those were the wise-cracking words coming from my best friend. Should have known that she was looking out for me. At that moment, I couldn't get up and focus.

She kept slapping my face to see if I could wake up on my own. And as soon as I felt her touch, I grabbed her hand to stop it. I forced my eyelids to open and the first thing I saw was a bright light shining over me. But surprisingly enough, a splash of water came with it.

The guys fetched a pail of water and those knuckleheads did the inevitable. Yup, drenched me all over with it.

Oh, my soaking eyes, hair and clothes!

But I needed that. However, Paige wasn't thrilled. She yelled at the boys which included her brother.

"You guys are plain stupid! Don't you use your brains? Now, the carpet is all wet; our parents are gonna kill us Robin! We need to dry this mess up with fans!"

After I fully woke up from my drowsiness, I learned that the water was only filled to half of its rim, so there wasn't a lot of fluid that fell on the floor. But it still made my friend hyper.

Knowing Paige for so long, she didn't tolerate clumsiness.

My friend started pulling me up and yanked my hand for us to get out of the room; but Christian didn't let me go without a fight.

Grinning wildly like the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland, he tried to take my arm back.

"Where are you taking her Paige? She's just getting the party started."

Paige fired back and tried not to walk on the watery floor. But she was unstable since drops of the water's edge kept flowing.

"Let her go now Christian!!! Obviously, you made Mae drunk. She's not herself."

"We'll see about that. We love the pretty little thing, right boys?" He pulled me towards him and looked at all his friends for support. Almost everyone shouted out "Yes" except for the boy in the back.

Paige ignored them and continued to drag me towards her.

I felt like a Gumby-like clay figure being torn apart. This stretch toy that can be pulled by its arms and legs as far as it can go. I wanted them to eventually stop, but it grew worse.

Soon other guys joined, trying to pull Paige's arm off of mine.

"Robin, are you just going to just stand there or are you going to help me?" Paige screamed, as she pulled me with all her might, "Be a man about it, Robin hood!"

With that sassy remark coming from his sister, I'm sure Robin knew exactly what he had to do without the help of his "merry men".

Robinaire quickly ran to find Moira to stop the fiasco, while I succumbed to this childish game of tag.

I was not in my right senses, so I didn't care who really won. I was just standing there listless, loaded with cloudless thoughts.

And in the end, I kept falling back on the sofa. But I also knew a certain bystander in the back enjoyed this show.

***************

When Robinaire came back with Moira, she started lecturing the guys like a sergeant.

Pointing at Chris, she shouted.

"TAKE YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY SISTER! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO MESS WITH HER AND ME!"

Alarmed, the boys in the room dropped their hold on me as the lieutenant required them to do. They were afraid of her, since she now had the facial features of a wicked witch.

Grabbing my hand tightly as if I was her little girl, Moira's strict face looked like she wanted to punish me right there. But she didn't.

"We are now leaving," she announced after seeing Owen and sneered. "Thank you Robin and Paige for inviting us, but as you can see it wasn't a great idea."

And with that she led me upstairs and marched through the crowd. On the way she mumbled; lecturing me on how I shouldn't have been down in the basement in the first place.

I wanted to tell my side of the story, but Moira wouldn't let me interrupt her.

No one wanted to upset the lieutenant, so people made room for us. And I was so mad at her for treating me like a little kid that couldn't handle herself.

But someone else beat her to the front door in the nick of time before she could open it.

***************

As Moira and I were headed to the front door, I saw a handsome figure standing before us. He seemed very familiar and his strong features resembled our late father's.

Was that my brother Joshua? Was he able to come for the graduation party? Did he take a leave of absence from his job in Italy to visit me and Moira?

I haven't seen him for over five years, and now he looks a bit different. Broad shoulders, short black hair and now a wrinkled face. I remember my brother as a quiet, reserved man but I assume the years spent in the Marines changed him.

Suddenly, I became aware of my surroundings despite the alcohol still in me and ran up to him.

"Joshua, is that you?"

He nodded yes, and I hugged him tightly like a teddy bear that has been lost forever. Joshua embraced me back and grinned.

"Yup, I miss my little sisters too." As he announced this, he looked up to Moira.

"Haven't seen you for a while either Mo. Come here and give your big brother a hug!"

Moira gave him the hug he was looking for, but guess after being in the military for so long, she was stiff as a  bat. She probably was keeping her cool because she was ashamed to show her affection in front of the crowd.

"Nice to see you too Josh. Thanks for coming, and call me by my whole name. I hate the nickname Mo."

Joshua laughed.

"Mo, I know you still love your nickname! I missed you guys. Sorry I couldn't attend the commencement, I just flew in today from Cuba. That was my stopover from Italy. Heard you left for the Coast Guard Mo from Uncle Felix, is that true?"

Moira shook her head in approval.

"Been there for at least three years bro. It's quite an experience."

Joshua turned around and noticed Owen. He was not in awe of him since he knew the story of my sister's heartache.

He frowned and looked at both of us.

"Do you guys want to go home now?" He asked us while he still had an evil glare at Owen.

Moira and I both nodded.

"Very well ... let me just say one thing to Owen, okay?" He shouted to my nemesis and said "Owen, tell Paige and Robin thanks for the invite, but apparently seeing your face here is just a painful memory!" That caused the crowd to look at us and pitiful Owen.

And then my brother took my hand, while grabbing Moira's in the other.

"Shall we go now?"

I put my head on Joshua's shoulder and responded with a yes.

As we closed the door, he kept holding us tightly when a teardrop fell down his cheek.

"What's wrong Josh?" I asked, trying to touch his face by standing on my tiptoes.

"Nothing, Mae...nothing ... I'm just happy to see my sisters."

I was confused at what just went on, but thought nothing of it. But something was bothering my brother that he probably took home with him from the war.

For a moment in time, it just felt like old memories where the Brennan siblings were all giggling with laughter. But as we aged, Josh, Moira and I all learned something new in life that would change our lives forever.

My brother wanted to hold hands as if we were little kids crossing the street.

"Josh, stop it!"

Moira refused to go along with my brother's immature attitude.

"Come on Mo, you know you want to hold my hand."

And out of the blue he started singing the Beatles' song. Then he looked at me.

"See, Mae is not complaining, right?"

I thought it over. Oh, who could stay mad at my big brother who I haven't seen for so long.

"Not saying anything Joshua."

"That's the spirit!"

But I still refused to be pampered like a child.

"Listen Josh...just because you haven't seen us for a long time, doesn't mean the two of us want to be dragged into your silly little games."

"Mo, I just want to be with my sisters, is there anything wrong with that?"

"No, there isn't, but you are taking it all out of hand."

And the constant arguing between my two older siblings went on for the next 10 minutes, until Joshua finally had enough, and rode off with his motorcycle into the night.

Eventually, the promise I made to my friends to clean up the mess that day never happened, but Paige had better ideas in plan for me next time around.

***************

I followed Moira who gave me the silent treatment.  She stood in front of her car and tapped on the driver's side, meaning that she was going to be my designated driver.  I didn't want to complain, so I reached into my shoulder bag for her keys and gave it to my sister.

As we got into our seats and put on our seat belts, Moira started the engine.

For the next five minutes, pure silence occurred as my sister drove off the Lewis' driveway. She was not only mad at Owen, our friends, but Joshua as well. She never got mad at my brother for something so nonsensical as his silly attitude.  I mean I know all siblings fight, but not like this.

I had a terrible feeling about this situation and it was giving me goosebumps. So I decided to break the silence that filled the car.

Looking at my sister, I bravely told her how I felt.

"Thank you Moira, for saving me from disaster at the party."

No response. I tried again.

"Moira, please talk to me!!! I love you, sis."

Still no response, except for her frown.

Then I had a bright idea to stop this senseless drama of hers.

"Thank you Moira, for mentioning my name in your speech. I really do appreciate it. I ...I thought you were mad at me when you left for your job."

Tears rolled down my sister's eyes, as she tried to say something but couldn't.

Then she told me her secret – the secret that I will keep forever.

Wiping her tears away with her shoulder, she softly spoke.  "Marlene, you know I always loved you, I guess I just have a hard time displaying my emotions."

Moira kept looking forward, but knew deep down she wanted to turn around and give me a hug.

She continued on with her small lecture.

"I need to tell you something Mae, something I kept hidden within me and thought I left it here in Texas before I joined the military".

"What is it Moira"?

My sister took a deep breath before letting out the burden that haunted her for years.

"The minute I saw Owen at the party, it came back to me: the memory of the past".

She paused before going on.

"You see Mae, before he even kissed Gretel; I slept with him when mom and dad were not around. I was such a fool! He led me on, and he talked in his sleep because I woke up in the middle of that night, where he mentioned that he loves..."

Nodding her head she started to cry again.

Dying to know who it was, I asked her to go on.

"Who was it Moira"?

"It was..."

"It was my baby sister."

Her tears flowed down her face even harder.

 "He's in love with you, not me!"

I couldn't believe it... after all this time.  How could he? I wondered why he had to go through all of the fiascoes and the girls, which included my sister in order to get to me. He's a complete douche-bag!

I wanted to ask Moira more questions, but at that moment, I noticed we were reaching the part of the road where a drawbridge came upon us.

I shouted loudly for my sister to stop, since the railings were going down to let a ship pass by. The boat signals in front of us looked so dim, since it looked like the reflecting lights didn't want to shine.

She hit the brakes, and we abruptly stopped, causing me to jolt forward near the dashboard. But thanks to my seat belt, it caused me to fall back in my seat.

"Are you okay Mae?"

Those were the first words all night I wanted to hear from my sister. I replied back by saying yes. And that is when I knew one part of the sibling rivalry was solved.

But for some reason after twenty minutes the boat signals didn't go up. I suppose someone was asleep on the job. I told Moira to beep the horn since there were other vehicles behind us who were getting annoyed.

BEEP!

BEEP!

Still nothing happened.

Another two beeps and soon annoyance triggered me to do something about it. I decided to get out of the car to wake up Mr. Maytag, a guy who probably fell asleep on the job.

Without telling Moira my plan, I got out of the passenger door and headed straight toward the wooden office of the drawbridge controller. And my suspicions were correct, the old gentleman was fast asleep like a doorknob.

I shouted at the controller, causing him to jump out of his seat as if I were a ghost.

"Hey Mister, the boat left a long time ago! DO YOUR JOB AND PUT THOSE SIGNALS UP AGAIN TO LET US PASS!!!"

I think that last outburst must have scared the daylights out of him, for he was shouting at me in a gibberish tone. I quickly ran out of the office, since I was afraid of the confrontation that would happen.

I entered the car, and found Moira who was relieved to see me.

But as I saw the signals going up, the bridge's moats did not go down as it was supposed to. Thus, it left a big opening. A hole that someone could fall right through. 

My sister and I found that out too late, as Moira had her foot on the break and we plunged into the river ourselves!