The Wish From Heaven | ✓

chapter 17 | pt. i : the conways

Edgar's family turns out to be everything I didn't imagine a family to be.

Of course, I have read about many different types of families in books. But for some reason, I never thought that families like that exist. The Ambers were already shocking enough, but the Conways are on a whole new level.

First of all, I get to know that they don't usually let guests from the outside, as in those who have never came to the Johnston Lane before, come to their house alone in such an environment. But since I am their kid's rival in love, they wanted to see how capable I was. "Capable enough, sadly," Edgar's grandpa said after I entered the house. I felt flabbergasted.

Starting with their house: it has only two small rooms and some space in the middle where a big dining table (by big, I mean a six-chaired one) has been placed. Two sofas lie in vicinity in front of a very small box television, apparently bought by the remaining savings of Edgar's paternal grandfather.

In one room, the adults sleep, and in the other room, the siblings do. Both rooms are small and has only one bed, so the siblings take turns sleeping on the floor. "If anyone feels too suffocated due to the cramped space," Edgar's mother Mrs. Lavender, cheeruly says, eyeing her oldest son Eden, "they can sleep with the roaches here in the dining room, or maybe outside along with the vagabonds, or wherever the fuck they want."

The roof of their house is made of tin, which I find really astonishing for some reason. Edgar tells me how when it rains, the sound of the drops hitting the tin roofing is a very beautiful and calming tune. But the con is that when it's summer, like now, the heat is conducted greatly and makes the house excessively hot. Which is probably why five minutes in, and I am already sweating.

Mrs. Lavender Conway is the prime bread earner of the family, if you do not count Edgar's older sister Elysia's rich husband who sends them a generous amount at the end of every month. She carries the weight of the entire family's expenses on her small shoulders, and she doesn't forget to smile. While I watch her finish the remaining bit of the cooking sitting on one of the two sofas, Edgar's senile grandmother on the other one, I notice how she is simultaneously working on two dishes, talking on the phone about work and tending to the youngest member, the two years old Eve. I feel awed.

It was a surprise to find Mr. Eugene Conway, the father, in a wheelchair. Edgar told me that he got into an accident four years ago and got his body's bottom half completely paralyzed, and hasn't been able to work since. He is tall, equally cheerful, and Edgar has evidently taken after him in looks. Currently, he is engrossed into watching cheetahs chase deer on Animal Planet.

If I have to describe the atmosphere, the two best words would be "Absolutely Chaotic".

It is eleven people, including the talkative parakeet Enchilada, all cramped in one small place, so chaos is not surprising. I hear occassional gasps from Mr. Eugene whenever a deer gets too close to the cheetah's mouth. Edgar is impatiently teaching his grandfather, Mr. Edward, Facebook and both of them are shouting at each other. When Edgar threw a series of insults and told him that the world isn't easy, Mr. Edward started arguing back saying that he knows the world better than a fifteen year old 'puny ass'. And hence it continues.

Brother Eden is literally quarreling with Eve, who is at least nineteen years younger. She is eating dinner first, and Eden is trying to teach her how to eat by herself using a spoon. She is of course bad at it, and like the rest of the family, he isn't patient.

When she starts spilling the food everywhere, he slams his palm on the table and screams at her. "The fuck are you doing? That is so gross!" And then Eve starts wailing, at which he softens and says, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Eden sucks. He is a fucking phony. He is slapping himself." Then he starts slapping himself. Eve stops crying and throws some porridge at his face, and the screaming and crying starts again.