Living in Cavetown

Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

*This chapter is inspired by the song Overwhelemed by Royal & The Serpent* 

((I get overwhelmed so easily. My anxiety creeps inside of me. Makes it hard to breath)) 

  Why wouldn't my mother tell her sister that my father was also abusing his children?  

None of this adds up. Why would my mother tell her sister about how my father was abusing her, but not about how he was doing the same to his children? It makes no sense. Our mother loved us and if she did tell someone about what he was doing to her, she'd do the same for her children. Why didn't she take us with her the night she died? 

My aunt finished making dinner and then took me to her house, where there was a legal team and many faces that resembled my mother's waiting. When I walked through the door, it all went quiet. I felt everyone's eyes on me as they said nothing. I awkwardly waved at all the faces that resemble mine and Jamies as some cried. I flinched when one girl about my age hugged me and she pulled back looking scared for me. 

   "Hey," I say quietly while waving again at everyone around the room. 

  "Baby Jessica!" some older woman comes running out from one of the other rooms and stops in front of me, just looking me over. She looks so much like my mother it makes me want to cry. I start to feel my eyes well up and she gives me a kind smile. "I know, baby. I know," she lightly touches my cheek and i don't recoil as I lean into her touch. I smile at her and she grins. 

   "Welcome home, baby," the old woman says. I grin at her. "I know you don't remember me, but my name is Nina. I am-was your mother's mother. I held you when you were a baby a few times. Jamie, too," I flinch his name and her eyes darken in fear. "I want to know everything. Okay?" she asks sweetly. I have no idea why, but this woman makes me feel safe and at home. I nod and she smiles, but her eyes don't hold the same emotion as before. 

   "Everyone give the poor girl some space! You make me anxious and feeling unwelcomed just by looking at ya and I've known most of ya since before you were born!" Nina yells at everyone. The people quickly move away and start going into different rooms. I know I shouldn't but as they leave I count them. Fourty-five people including babies and the elderly man I saw. This family is fairly big, but it seems the house is even bigger. I look at Nina appreciatively and notice my aunt went into one of the other rooms. 

For the next three hours I followed Nina around the house as she gave me a tour and introduced me to people. A few of the older women asked me to hold thier babies and take pictures for the family photo albums. I said yes and the baby fevor has never hit me as hard as it did today. They're so cute! 

   After the tour and meet and greet, one of my cousins a few years older than me, named Merida, announced dinner was ready. I follow everyone into the dinning room and my jaw hits the floor. There's enough food on the table to feed three-hundred people here. Nina giggles when she sees my face. One of the younger cousins I met and liked came up to me and pulled on my pants. I look down to the sweet little girl and she gives me a smile with one little missing tooth in the front. Her name is Addison and she had already become one of my favorites. I bend down so I can hear her talk since she only talks in whispers. Her mother said it was a miracle she was even talking to me at all. 

   "Can I sit on your lap for dinner instead of Mummy's?" she asks quietly with a blush. I smile at her and nod. She gives me a cute dimpled smile and pulls me to the chair next to her mother and my great-grandfather. He's a pretty funny old man of about the age of 93. I smile at everyone and put Addison in my lap before helping her put food that she likes on her plate. For a six year old she isn't very picky and she says yes to almost everything I offer her. 

   I tried almost one bite of everything since I didn't know most the foods. Everyone chuckled when I made a funny face to the taste of mustard potatoe salad.  For sure not my favorite food. Addison sits quietly on my lap and eats everything on her plate before quielty asking me to get her a brownie from the dish in front of us. I comply and get one for myself. We make a fake toast with our brownies and giggle. 

   "I'd say someone has a favorite cousin," my uncle Travis- Addison's dad says. From what I can tell Addison doesn't really like her dad. I don't know why yet. I nod at Travis and my cousin, Jace (who is more than a little over dramatic) gasps from across the table before grabbing his chest and faking a stoke. 

    "I'm wounded!" he yells as he throws a hand over his heart and the other reaching for the ceiling. Addison and I giggle as we watch him slwoly and dramatically fall out of his chair in fornt of us and onto the ground. He comes back up a few times saying how badly he is wounded from my assult. 

   "Alright, that's plenty enough there, Jace," his mother- Jacqin says with a fake stern face on. She fake coughs to cover up a couple giggles of her own and Jace gets back up into his chair with a fake pout. 

    "I have been truly hurt tonight," Jace announces. Nina gives him a funny looks. 

   "Surely it's not the first time Addison had been chosen over you," she send me a wink and puts on an evil smile. "Addison is after all, above you on my favorite grandchildren list," she says before pretending to check her nails. 

   "Oh now you've done it!" says Jace's sister- Juleia. Jace then goes back into his act of hurt and pain. Everyone is laughing at his antics. 

After dinner, the aunts (six of them) and Nina pull me into a quiet room away from everyone else. 

   "Now I want you to tell us everything that Josie [my mother] was keeping from us all those years and what has been happening," says Nina. I gulp and nod before telling them everything.