Acatalepsy

Chapter 2

The Rosea house is a fairy tale. The sunshine paint and snow colored shutters stand proud in the light. The doorknob on the front door is crystal-like. Its facets reflect the sunlight off into beams of rainbow that dance jovially over visitors. The mailbox is white with five hand prints on it. Blue, purple, red, orange, and pink. The house is an enigma, standing tall and bright in a neighborhood of morose mediocrity.

So it's only fitting when the pale pink bike pedals up it's driveway. The pastel dream of a girl slides off and kicks up the stand. She walks over and enters the code to open the garage. As it opens, she goes to kick the stand back up. In doing so, a book falls from her basket. She bends over to retrieve it. Jane Eyre. One of her favorites.

Lovanna grins. "Can't escape being re-read for the millionth time old friend." Jane stared up from the cover with lifeless eyes, as though to say, "And why should I stay? I've no devotion to you."

Lovanna let out a sigh as she entered her house. "But I need you Jane. Just as I need Anne and Alice."

The inside of the house wasn't on the same page as the outside. In fact, they weren't even reading the same book. Probably not the same language either. The floors were all grey shag carpeting, and the walls were a pasty, yellow-white color. The house had popcorn ceiling, and every room smelled of dust and mildew. The living room had nothing but a small blue sofa, an out dated television, and a small end table for the television to rest on. The kitchen was teeny tiny and smelled of burnt everything. The kitchen was the only room to have wallpaper. Old-fashioned wall paper covered in ugly print. It was peeling off the wall, creating crevices for spiders to build their homes in. The bathroom was unspeakably filthy. It looked as though it had never been washed since the day it was built.

But there was one room in the little sunshine house; Lovanna's bedroom. Unlike the rest of the house, the walls were lavender. Rugs of all pastel colors were fitted onto her floor like puzzle pieces to cover up the shag carpet. She constantly burned a candle that smelled of strawberries and vanilla ice cream. She used her hand vacuum daily. She dusted every other day. Her room was her sanctuary.

Lovanna peered around the entryway of her house. "Mom? I'm home."

There came no reply, not that she had expected one. Mrs. Rosea was once the neighborhood sweetheart. She baked cookies for neighbor's kids, and casseroles for neighbors. She was a talented artist, and would decorate their house into a home.

But not anymore. Her once lively eyes were now vague. Her face hollow and gaunt. She just sat in her rocking chair and listened to a hand-held radio she had once received as a gift. It didn't matter what was playing, she just like noise. Never cooking, never cleaning, only standing for the bathroom, always forgetting to eat. The life had truly been drained from her.

Mr. Rosea was the most ordinary man one could imagine. Brown hair, brown eyes, average height, neutral demeanor. Nobody particularly disliked him. Though nobody particularly like him either. He worked for a lighting company. He was just pleasant enough to work with people, but never pleasant enough for a promotion. He loved his wife and children. But he never made more than baseline effort to show it. That's just how he was.

Lovanna sighed as she leaned against the doorway to her parent's bedroom. Her mom sat rocking dazedly as a sports announcement droned on and on.

"Mom? Have you eaten?" Lovanna asked softly.

Mrs. Rosea said nothing.

"I think I'm going to go make some chicken soup. I'll bring you some if you want?"

Nothing.

"Okay, I love you mom."

Nothing.

Lovanna made her way to the kitchen and opened the pantry. There was one can of soup. She sighed. Grocery shopping. That was next. She grabbed the can, and started to heat up its contents in a pot. As she did so, her mind began to wander. It met back with that man, Mr. Rubrum. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of him. Though she'd never admit it, she found herself undeniably attracted to him.

Shaking her head, she scolded herself. He was over twenty years older than her. He was not interested in a child. No matter how much Lovanna no longer felt like a child, she was self aware enough to see herself for what she was.

When the soup was done, she transferred it to a bowl and carried it upstairs to her mother. She set it down on the table next to her. "Here mom, you should eat."

Her mother glanced at the soup.

Lovanna backed out of the room. "I'm going grocery shopping, I'll be back later."

Just as she was turning to go, she heard her mom speak. "Thank you."

Lovanna smiled to herself. "You're welcome."

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Lovanna eyed the bills in her hand and the prices in front of her.

She had twenty dollars to spend on food for three people. How hard could that be?

Extremely hard.

She sighed and leaned back against a shelf as she worried her lip. She now had a twelve pack of soup cans, a loaf of bread, a half gallon of milk, a carton of eggs, and a large pack of individually wrapped peanut butter snack crackers. That brought her to about seventeen dollars. She glanced at the prices on the fresh vegetables. Most would weigh and cost too much. Lovanna hesitantly picked up the smallest broccoli leaflet. It would still cost her, but she needed some type of vegetable. She glanced at the display of suckers, but shook her head at her immaturity.

Walking up to the register, she grinned. "Hi, Kiran."

The boy looked up and grinned right back. "Hey, lovey."

Lovanna rolled her eyes. "I told you to quit called me that, Kira."

The boy shook his head. Kiran was a few years older than Lovanna. He had been friends with her older brothers growing up. Lovanna would always chase after them and demand to play too. The rivalry between Kiran and Lovanna dated back far for both parties.

"How you holding up?" Kiran asked.

Lovanna shrugged. "Fine. Everything's been pretty usual."

Kiran stared at her as he bagged her groceries. "You know you can talk to me right? I'm here for you."

"I'm really fine. There's nothing to be done about it anyway. You can't change the past." Lovanna said dismissively.

"Don't expect me to quote The Lion King just because you did." He joked.

Lovanna snorted. "Yeah, whatever. But enough about me, what are you still doing in this dump? Didn't you get accepted to like seven different colleges?"

Kiran cast his eyes down. "None of 'em felt right. Besides, it's not all bad here."

"What are you on, and where can I get some, because I know you're not looking at this place clearly." She said.

Kiran just shook his head and handed her the grocery bags. "You're too rough on this place. Besides, if I wasn't here who would do this?"

Lovanna glanced at his hand and saw three lollipops. One pink. One yellow. One red. She took them and smiled up at him. "You're going to get in trouble one day."

He smirked. "Well today's not that day. Have a safe trip home lovey." He then leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Lovanna gave him a shove and made her way outside. She pedaled her bike around the corner. Down three blocks. Took a left. Two blocks. Right. three blocks. And down her home street. She looked ahead the sunshine house. The sunshine house with snowy shutters. The sunshine house with the rainbow-casting doorknob. The sunshine house with the gold star hanging in the window.

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