I Eat Oreos

4

Gavin

My family lived in the states surrounding Georgia: Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina. Georgia was definitely a good state for the funeral. If I had it in any of their states, the others would complain that I was playing favorites and ask me why I couldn't have it in their state. It would be a mess like a bowl of oatmeal dropped on the floor. Since no one lived in Georgia, that's where it would be.

I wanted the funeral to be held December 15th, a Saturday. I was hoping they'd come on Friday and leave on Sunday to get back to work. That way, I'd only see them for two-ish days.

I finished fixing the faucets in the C, D, and B wings. The last ones were the A wing and Kayla and her parents wing. Surprisingly, there weren't many people staying at the Morgan's. There was me, some lady named Mrs. Rosenburg in the D wing, and Priscilla and her baby in the other room in the D wing. No one was downstairs in the A and B wings.

I would expect this place to be overflowing with people, but apparently that wasn't the case. I also suspected that Willy or Sherry would want to be here. Why weren't they if they were homeless and this place was free?

Going back to Uncle Terry's place, I fixed some more things up and cleaned out the refrigerator since that wasn't going to be used anymore. In a way, I felt like I was cleaning Uncle Terry out of my life. I never thought I'd have such a hard time throwing a box of Chinese food away. It was Uncle Terry's favorite take out. Every Friday, he got the same thing: chicken fried rice with extra chicken. Cleaning is house reminded me of cleaning out Susanna's room.

I sat down on his bed and stared at the picture of him, me, and Susanna. We were bundled up in warm clothes wrapped in ski gear. We had just gone skiing in the mountains. It was the first time Susanna and I had ever gone skiing.

I picked up the picture ready to take it with me back to the Morgan's and eventually back home in South Carolina. In the car, my phone rang. My eye twitched as I looked at the caller ID. Ethan. My older cousin Ethan. Son of Teresa. Nephew of Uncle Terry. AKA "do me a favor" boy who thinks he can just fly through life without working an inch.

"Hey, baby cousin," his strong, South Carolina accent rang through the phone. Just hearing his voice had my eyes rolling back farther than the Atlantic Ocean stretched.

"Ethan, how's it going?" I said trying to sound like I tolerated him. "It's all good, haven't talked to you in a while." We actually talked two months ago when he asked me to Cash App him $500.

"What do you need, Ethan?" I asked trying to get this conversation out of the way.

"Nothing, baby cousin. Why do you always assume that I need something?"

"Do you?"

"I'm coming in town for the funeral and wanted to see where you're staying. I'm bringing my girl."

His girl. I knew that couldn't be good. Whenever he got a girl she was some airhead who couldn't tell she was being used for two things. A place to stay and the other unmentionable. Every girl thought they actually had a chance.

I didn't even want to tell him where I was staying to be completely honest. Ethan was the only member of my family I consistently talked to and that meant every three to six months. He'd stop by my place and hang out but really he wanted to eat and sleep on my couch because one of "his girls" had just kicked him out.

"Isn't everyone getting a room at the Holiday Inn?" I asked hoping that was the case.

"Oh... I see what's going on. You don't want me to stay where you are. You don't want any of us to stay where you are. You were always so embarrassed of us."