Lennon

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen - Home 

 One knock is all it takes for the screaming to start pouring out of the house.  

            Of course the screaming isn't directed at me, as they don't know just yet who rang the doorbell. The first yell belongs to my aunt, who's more often than not at the center of things. Uncle Drew responds back, his voice overlapping the high pitch of his wife. It's like fighting fire with fire, no one comes out breathing afterwards.  

            Even when there isn't a single thing to yell about, they'll find some excuse to raise their voices. I'm not too sure that they know how to speak properly, without it ending in a loss of an eardrum. In all of my eighteen years spent around them, I've never heard them speak softly and that's saying a lot.  

            I guess the only way to be heard in life is to scream. I doubt that my family is deep enough to think of their screaming in a metaphorical way, as Aunt Sarah always said I was too deep for my own good. Can someone be too much of a deep thinker? Isn't philosophic way of thinking supposed to be praised upon, like Sophocles was back in the olden ways when death was an old family friend? 

            Dysfunctional must run in the family,  instead of intelligence.  

            I still don't think that's a good enough reason to never speak like average people their age would, but they aren't ever going to change their patterns. It won't matter for long, as I don't plan on staying with the two of them in that small house anymore. I would rapidly grow even more sinister and relapse like there's no tomorrow, making my time spent at Elliston all in vain.  

            The door starts to open and a familiar face peers out to greet me. She speaks before the door even reveals my identity, causing Aunt Sarah to not realize that it it's her long lost niece at the door for the first time in five months. "Who is it? It better be important or I will be mad that I'm missing this episode of Family Feud. It was just getting good and-"  

            "Oh," all of the words she's spent her forty years learning flies out of the window, leaving her unable to say anything od importance to me. Her perfectly manicured face hangs open in utter shock, probably believing that I would ever come back to town and that she would have to accept the fact that she has one less niece.  Considering the fact I haven't made any sort of contact with them for months now, I can't really blame them for thinking like that.  

            "Who is it? You're missing the Choi family win the speed round!" My uncle calls out from the living room, keeping to his character by yelling it louder than necessary. It's good to know that some things will never change, no matter how far I've gone.  

            Not knowing what to say to me exactly, she invites me in with a shrug of the shoulders. "Well since you're here now, Lennon, you might as well come in. You know the routine good enough as is, as things haven't exactly changed since you left. You aren't the center of the universe, just as much as you can't seem to pick up a phone and give us a call."  

            My favorite aunt walks away from the open doorframe, leaving me stung and barely able to walk through the front door. Even though I just got here minutes ago, I already want to leave. I have to do this, no matter how much I want to throw a fit like a four year old and die. I spent the months after Dad's death in this house, willowing in self pity and doing God knows what. I know every escape method in the whole house and I could easily walk through one without patting an eyelash.  

            I push a stray wisp of hair behind my ear, trying to settle my nerves. There isn't anything to be nervous about, really, as this is my family. You're supposed to be comfortable around your own flesh and blood, not wanting to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. God, I really am messed up.