The Four Sisters

Chapter 11

 Spencer woke up early on Thanksgiving to start cooking, and her belly was filled with excitement as she started to cook her very first turkey for their first Thanksgiving dinner ever – minus the ones in shelters that their Mom would take them to sometimes. 

  Spencer remembered feeling ashamed and trying to hide her face. She wished she could go back and appreciate those people more. They happily fed them and even gave them early Christmas presents. 

  The memory always left a lump in her throat as she remembered how her Mom on the walk home wondered how much a brand new Barbie cost. Victoria cried and begged their Mom not to sell their toys. It wouldn't be the first time. She sold the toys they got from another charity the previous year. She said they were too old for the beautiful, wooden block set and the tricycle. 

  "I'm not going to sell them!" Janet finally said with a long sigh. "Keep your stupid dolls. Real girls don't look like that though."

  "Of course not," Spencer said at six years old. "I'm way bigger than them!"

  She remembered her Mom laughing hysterically, and it was one of the few Christmases that wasn't completely miserable. Spencer and Victoria went home with their new Barbies; the brand new ones mingled happily with all the old Barbies they'd collected from Goodwill and yard sales. Spencer still had that Barbie somewhere in her things that were packed up tight in the attic. Parker and Charlotte had both played with her too, and she was now in terrible shape, but Spencer would never get rid of her. 

  Spencer was surprised that Rose was the first one to wake up as it was usually Victoria. Rose was fully dressed in a pale pink dress shirt and dress pants like it was just another day at the office. Her hair neatly up in a high ponytail, and she had her laptop and research as she liked to work in the kitchen as she said her office got too lonely sometimes. 

  She'd talk to herself, and if someone was around they'd answer her, but it didn't seem to matter either way to Rose. Spencer was always shocked by how many folders that Rose already had on the William project. There didn't seem to be a lot of information in Spencer's view, but Rose's files kept growing.

  "Most of it's interviews that never go anywhere," Rose said when Spencer commented on the gigantic folder as Spencer started on peeling a massive pile of potatoes. "I keep them just in case – of what I don't know, but I guess that's just because I don't have a lot of other stuff. Oh and we're going to go see his grave later if you want to come with us."

  They had been planning to go to the city cemetery to see William's grave for a while now, but they'd been too busy. Rose was going to take some photos, and Spencer was just curious. Her Grandmother was buried out there too, and Spencer felt they should give her a visit. She did give them this house after all and all of her stuff; including the expensive jewelry which was keeping them funded for now.

  "Sure," Spencer said. "That cemetery is huge though. Do you know the section?"

  "Got it off the internet," Rose assured her. "Your Mom has a plot there too."

  "She used to, but she doesn't any more," Spencer said. "We sold that too. It's crazy how expensive that place is."

  Their Mom hadn't wanted to be buried. She was cremated, and her ashes now sat in a lovely urn on the fireplace in a small, unused bedroom on the first floor. Charlotte had wanted to put her in the living room, but Parker said that was creepy so it was off to the little bedroom. 

  Spencer could tell that Victoria hadn't liked the idea of her being in the living room either, but she rarely spoke up when it concerned their Mom. Spencer knew she still felt guilty that she hadn't been there while she was sick. Victoria and their Mom's relationship was complicated and sometimes explosive. Spencer didn't have any vitriol about Victoria not being there for her Mom. It was more about her not being there for Charlotte and Parker. They were the only innocent ones.