2. Elle
Pulling my car into the parking spot, which wasn’t so much a spot but a dead section of grass and looked threw the windscreen, squinting. Not from the blinding sun but because I couldn’t believe that I was seeing what I was seeing.
“Is it me or is the side of the building a different colour than what it was two days ago?” I asked my sister without looking at her. Claudia only snorted in response as she rummaged through her handbag not worried in the slightest our father was standing on a ladder painting in thirty-four-degree heat.
“Remember who he is married to,” Claudia expounded, whipping out a lipstick, “Why isn’t your other half here?”
“Why isn’t yours?” I questioned without answering hers.
“You first,” came back to me but Claudia knew me better to ask me to go first. Sitting back in my seat, I kept my eyes trained on the man standing on the top of a very high ladder and doing a good job of ignoring the death glare I was receiving and waited. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Fine,” Claudia gave in, “after five days this week helping Gisele and mum, I felt for his sanity Josh could use a break. He’s home with a six pack of beer and footy on the tv, I figured he deserved a pass from Sunday dinner.” The explanation was totally logical. Sunday dinner at the Blessing house was compulsory and non-negotiable for me, Claudia and Gisele. Our other halves were allowed to opt out. Claudia and I both had partners, Gisele was the only single sister.
Smacking her freshly painted lips together, Claudia continued to look in the small visor mirror. “Now you. Where is that flaky dimwit you married?” Claudia had more of our mother’s DNA than I was comfortable with, used too, but not comfortable.
“Don’t know and don’t care,” I snapped, unhooking my belt. Any conversation about my husband finished.
“Good enough for me,” Claudia quipped then got out of the passenger side meeting me at the bonnet.
“Hey daddio, you do know it’s like a billion degrees out here, don’t ya?” she called out, bringing a smile to my lips. My sister was the best, Gisele also. They were two of my favourite people.
“Wasn’t the side a soft yellow only a few short days ago?” I added my own question before he had a chance to answer the first.
“Hello first and second offspring, where are your men?” our father queried us. Typical. It was no wonder we were the way we were.
“Josh is resting his brain after a week with your wife and douche is probably trying to find where his is,” Claudia bounced back at him, a huge grin splitting her pretty face.
Narrowing his piercing blue eyes, dad gave me his attention. “You need me to take Jake for a walk down the back paddock, Elle Naomi? I know where every abandon mine shaft is. Just say the word baby girl and it shall be done.” I laughed because what he said was funny not because he was joking. My father might be painting the side of the house again because his wife owned his arse, but dad was no slouch in the scary department. Especially when it came to the women in his family.
“Hold that thought Daddy, I don’t think Georgina will appreciate having to bail you out of lockup again. Love you for the offer though.” And I did, truly. There was no man in my life more important than my father.
“That particular incident was years and years ago sweat pea, and if I remember correctly, it had been her fault I got arrested in the first place,” dad reminded me, slowly making his way down the ladder until he hit the third last rung then dropped to the ground, his six foot two, ninety kilo muscular body making the ground vibrate under my feet.
“And got the family banned from attending Sunday Mass for life,” Claudia added helpfully. Not that she wasn’t correct but now was not the time to reminisce about the infamous event that the town’s people refused to forget.
Giving my sister a stern frown and me a gentle understanding smile, dad bent down to pick up the painting supplies he dropped down from the ladder.
“I’m out here changing the colour again because your mother wasn’t sure if soft yellow was the way to go. She is also on one of her tangents and I want to stay married to her but if I stayed inside listening to the reasons why Jaws the Revenge shouldn’t exist, I would be weighing up divorce right about now.” The gleam in his eyes belied his threat but I understood his dilemma. Being married to my mum had too hard on the poor man and sometimes he needed a timeout.
“Where’s Gis?” I asked leaning up on my tip toes to plant a kiss on his stubble covered cheek.
“Having a meltdown,” he laughed giving me a squeeze before turning to Claudia.
“Office,” she nodded, kissing dad on his opposite cheek and getting the same squeeze l had.
“Tell mum we will be in soon to help with dinner and tell her she’s two guests down please Dad.”
“Why do I have to be the one to tell her?” he shouted indignantly at me as Claudia, and I retreated. Quickly.
“Because she’s already mad at you,” Claudia laughed not bothering to look back as we made our way to the other side of the building where we would find our little sister. Apparently in the midst of a meltdown. Such fun.
Pushing open the main door to our parents’ old school grocery/general store, I followed Claudia to the back office where we were sure to find Gisele. The youngest of us, Gisele had suffered the worst when it came to the curse that plagued the Blessing women. Falling pregnant at sixteen, her baby daddy after hearing the news he was to be a father at eighteen was hit by a car travelling way too fast, breaking both his legs. The silly bastard had no one to blame but himself, after all he was the one who ran away down the wrong side of the road when Gisele told him he knocked her up. However, talk started up that the Blessing Curse was to blame so Gisele became a single mum to be. Then when Miracle was born so premature, the talk and gossip continued making Gisele out to be nothing but bad luck in the eyes of the locals. Don’t get me wrong everyone loved her, just at a distance unless they needed groceries and their mail. The shop was also the town’s only post office. The closet city was over an hour away from our little town. Blessings was more like a little village or hamlet except we had a church, pub and a handful of businesses other than the one’s me, my sisters and our parents owned. The population was just over one thousand permanent residents, spread nicely around the main street and two kilometres each way you looked. We called it a town because it sounded less pretentious than a village or hamlet. The tourist preferred hamlet but most tourist were up themselves coming here only so they could experience a quainter slower pace of living for a few days then headed back to their fast city living.
Blessings was the only place I wanted to be, you can take the faster pace and shove it right up your?—
“Hello Gissy, did the laptop survive today?” Claudia asked, interrupting my silent musings.
“Don’t call me that Claude,” came the familiar come back, sounding somewhat muffled.
Spying my sister, the second I walked into the back-room Gisele and our mother used as an office, I quickly saw why. Sitting on the floor on her arse, the office chair overturned at her side, Gisele looked up at us through teary eyes.
“The chair broke, I’m cursed. Mrs. Rowethorne is right,” Gisele sobbed pathetically. Squeezing my lips shut so not to contradict or her worse, laugh at her. I pushed my way past a laughing Claudia who had no problem showing her concern for our poor little sister, I reached down and pulled the offending chair from under Gisele.
“You aren’t cursed,” I argued helping her to her feet.
“I am. I’m dangerous to the community, I need to be put away before I cause a cataclysmic event.”
“You’re being a tad dramatic chickee,” Claudia laughed, taking the chair from me and putting it in the far corner of the office. “You only need to get laid. When was the last time you had an orgasm from a real male penis? And stop calling me Claude.”
Turning redder than the planet Mars, Gisele glared at Claudia. “My god, do you have a slither of a filter Claudia. Just because you look like mum more than us doesn’t mean you have to take all of her less than fine attributes.” This was a common argument we as sisters had more than often. Claudia did indeed have little to no filter, she wasn’t backward when it came time to speak her mind. I had a little more control, taking more after our dad, I got his sarcasm gene where little Gisele unfortunately had taken after our sweet timid grandmother. There was no bark or bite in Gisele, she took everything to heart. With one exception. Miracle. No one was allowed to go after her daughter. If someone even dared my dear timid little sister tuned into a pit bull. Not saying she sat back and took a beating, because that was bullshit. Gisele just had a more placid way of dealing with people. She used her sweetness and carefully cultivated veiled insults, unless a computer or electronic device was the offender then she let her temper rip.
As entertaining as it was to see Gisele blush profusely, there was a dinner to start preparing and a woman with a sharp tongue and short fuse waiting on us.
“Ladies, please. How about we get to what is really the problem here.” I said using my oldest sister voice, if l didn’t put a stop to this God only knew what could happen. Looking around for anything sharp close to Gisele’s reach, I played umpire.
“Chickee, you know Mrs. Rowethorne talks threw her tight sphincter nine times out of ten. She’s holding onto that crap that got mum kicked out of the parish years ago. It has nothing to do with the stupid family curse and everything to do with her accusing dad of flirting with her in church. Mum punching her in the face was totally justified, Father Donaldson had no choice to ban her from Mass,” I reasoned in my most placating tone, “Dad felt obligated to knock out Gerald’s teeth, so mum didn’t believe he was flirting.”
“He wasn’t,” Claudia interrupted me again. “No way he would flirt with that old battle axe, even back then she had a haggard horse face.”
“Very helpful Claudia thank you, now back to the matter at hand,” rolling my eyes at one sister, I focused back on the other.
“Do you need an orgasm chickee? Because if you do, I’m totally up for a road trip next weekend. You can rent a male escort for an hour while Claude and l go replenish our makeup supply.” I suggested with pure love for Gisele and her plight. She was our little sister; her life so far had been full of drama most of it because of cruel gossip surrounding the stupid curse everyone in Blessings believed. For a town named after my father’s great, great grandfather, they sure didn’t show us much respect.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Gisele sniffled noisily, but her pretty blue teary eyes sparkled happily. All three of us shared the same colour eyes as our dad. Our looks coming from our supermodel beautiful mother. Hence our names “Are you two quite finished? Mum already had her say on that topic today was enough for one day. Now you, jeez do l have no sex life tattooed on my forehead?”
Handing her a tissue from my bag, Claudia wiped away the tears and snot from Gisele’s face.
“No chickee, we just know the sparse choice of men Blessings has to offer. Now let’s go save dad from Georgina. God knows the poor man suffers enough without having to be alone with her for the entire Sabbath.”
“Miracle is with them too,” Gisele reminded us, pushing her fingers through her long blonde hair, working out the knots caused by the fall and her meltdown.
“All the more reason to hurry up, I swear she is becoming more and more like Gigi every day.” Claudia worried, picking up her pace to go save the sweetest little girl ever born.
Gisele and I both chuckled but we also knew what Claudia said was truer than just lighting the moment. Miracle was indeed in danger of becoming a Georgina Grace clone.