Chapter 1, A Death in the Family

Chapter 1: A Death in the Family

        07:12am

The comforting smell of freshly baked blueberry muffins, and slightly burnt bacon began to fill the air of fourteen year old Daniela’s room. Sleepily rolling over, she found herself facing the window as the sunlight began to subtly peek through her hot pink curtains, and she realized morning had finally come.

        The night before had been riddled with unease for Daniela. Music softly played from her sister’s room nearby and a warm summer breeze swayed past her window and brushed her skin, continuously. The night was calm and laced with ease; and would ordinarily give the perfect conditions for an abnormally peaceful night’s rest; but she was uneasy.

         She felt a lingering sensation of eminent doom, but didn’t understand why. If only she knew. If only she knew what would happen seventeen hours from this very moment. A member of her family will be dead.  

Bang. Bang. Bang.

        Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a knock at her bedroom door. “Danni, it’s time to get up, you’re gonna be late!” Her mother yelled through the door in passing, as she moved onto the next sleeping child.

        “One down, two to go” Daniela’s mother, Rosalyn thought to herself as she approached the door of sixteen year old Leighton.

        “Rose!! Don’t you ever knock?! Get out!” Leighton yelled as she shoved her mother out the door, quickly slamming it behind her. Yes it’s true. Leighton called her mother by her first name. She wasn’t her stepmother, and sure wasn’t a pushover, but over the years the habit of respect fell away.

        Next stop, fourteen year old James Lee, Danni’s twin brother (younger by three minutes, although he’ll always tell you differently).  Every morning, she was disheartened when she saw the door leading to her son’s bedroom. It was a very expensive door, carved of pure cedar, but was now plastered with stickers ranging from vulgar and obscene comments, to rude and obnoxious quotes; which she felt were entirely inappropriate for a fourteen year old.

Approaching with caution, Roselyn knocked three times on her son’s bedroom door. No response. Again she knocks, “Jamie honey? Are you up?” Just before her fingers grazed the warm metal of the door knob, the door slid open. 

Nearly stumbling on the several layers of trash and clothing which consumed her son’s bedroom floor, she reached out towards his bed. The room was so dark and cluttered, that she honestly couldn’t tell if he was in it or not. “Jamie? Are you up?” no response.

Blindly leaning towards the bed, she stretched her hand out hoping to feel the body of her sleeping child, as loud boisterous laugh startled her. Slightly alarmed she looked up to see her son in the corner huddled over his phone. He paid no attention to her, and didn’t even know she was there.

Wasting no time at all, Roselyn marched over to her son, ripped the earphones from his ears and snatched the phone from him. “You’re supposed to be grounded! How did you find this?” she curiously asked, holding the phone up high.

Nonchalantly brushing off the feeling of getting caught, he began to speak, “Okay first, rude much? Secondly, you need to find better hiding spots. It’s not my fault you hide everything under your bed like a desperate six-year-old.”

Taking a deep breath and whooshing away a brief glimpse of anger, she watched her son briskly walk off. Knowing he wouldn’t listen to a word she’d say, she let him go.

Making her way to the kitchen, the first thing Roselyn saw was her husband Daniel. Studying the daily newspaper was part of his morning tradition, and he never once broke it. He was a very simple man; and easy to understand. Day in and day out, nothing ever changed. He parted his thick brown hair the same way, every day. He ate the same nutrition-less breakfast; a double glazed donut from Eddie’s Baked Good’s, and a cup of coffee (three sugars, and just a dab of low fat creamer), every day. He even used the same conversation starter…every day.

Looking up from his paper for a moment, he gazed up at his wife from the rim of his glasses. “You know honey, I think today’s gonna be a good day. I can feel it”. With her back turned, Roselyn sarcastically mouthed every word as he said it; turning to insincerely grin at her husband in agreement.

She felt continuously guilt-ridden, and feared she was becoming bored with her husband. His only unpredictable characteristic was his anger, which he had been adamantly working on. Other than that, he was the typical American dad; a hard worker with high expectations of his family and their lives together. 

He made it known many times, that his wife’s place was at home in the kitchen, not working for the police department part time, as she did.  He felt it was impractical for women to work outside the home, especially when her needs were more than met. It became an ongoing argument between the two of them, which often left them both aggravated.

Putting aside her irrational feelings of boredom, she sat next to her husband, as she did every morning. With her, came a plate of freshly made pancakes, and a pitcher of orange juice.

“Whatcha reading babe?” She asked, already knowing the answer. After a long pause, she assumed he wouldn’t respond just as he began to speak, with a slight southern accent. “I’m just looking for anything interest’ in… gotta keep up with these things, ya know? It’s unofficially in my job description”. Chuckling at his dry joke, he looked up at her; his eyes stinging with love for her; which only made her feel even guiltier for not loving him back.

Author's Note

Whatcha think?

Reviews

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Nice writing, Bri! At first I thought this story was about a very ordinary family to whom tragedy strikes, but on further reading I decided it was a very dysfunctional family. I didn't see and "__", so guess maybe you found the right words after all.

[Kaybrie93]

Thanks! ...yeah, the family is suppose to "seem" normal to the outside world, but have problems laying deep inside the walls of the Gates home... and yeah, I guess I found all the words I needed for this chapter! lol there's many more though :)

[Nicole]

BLEEP BLOP BLOOP! :)))))

[Schyala]

I really liked this :) Good job. Your writing is really amazing and mature

[Kaybrie93]

Thank you! I hope you keep reading, I'm having a lot of fun writing it for you guys :)