RAYNA Chapter 3: Can't Keep Us Apart

A Chapter by CarmenT

Even though Rayna and Airyn are struggling to be able to be together they always find a way.

That was probably the worst day ever when my Aunt Cecilia brought me to her house. To make sure I wouldn’t run away again she kept me home for weeks from school. Even after a few days of sitting there all day was boring. I couldn’t take staying inside all day every day in that filth.

On a cool November day when Cecilia was shopping at the market a few blocks away, I found a relatively clean tissue, wrapped it around my hand, and picked up the telephone. I dialed my Uncle Roger’s number so he could come and pick me up. He didn’t speak to my family much anymore because he was Cecilia’s wife until he discovered that she was filthy. Cecilia is my mom’s younger sister and since she and Roger were divorced he technically wasn’t my uncle anymore. But he seemed more like an uncle than Cecilia was an aunt. He was a really fun guy with strange, healthy foods in his home. The food tasted good though. There was always an aroma of fresh fruit in his house. He also had board games and he has an afternoon job so you get all morning to hang with him.

I had hoped when I called that he would remember me. “Hey! Rayna! How’s my little buddy doing?” Okay, so he had remembered me but was he willing to take me in?

Once I told him my problem he headed right on over. It took him less than five minutes to get over there. He looked different. He looked perfectly skinny and muscular. His disheveled brown hair was whipped over to the side. The last time I had seen him was when his hair was cropped short and blonde and he was slightly chubby. At the time I honestly didn’t care how he looked until we were on our way to somewhere away from that house. So that was pretty much it of all I had with Cecilia. Well, that was all I had with her house. Cecilia forced Roger to give me back to her. She said that I was the only one that kept her company. And she had to add in “Besides the cockroaches.” That gave me a picture in my head that I didn’t need and I immediately went to bed.

The next day, I was officially in Roger’s care until my parents came back from Japan. I decided not to go to school that day either because I had a lot of unpacking to do. Also, I wanted to catch up with Airyn because I had no contact with her for a complete month. Roger let me use his cell phone to contact her. This happened at about three in the afternoon when Airyn would be off of the bus so it was the perfect time to call her.

“Hello?” It was her mother’s voice.

“It’s Rayna,” I blurted.

She hesitated and then in the background I could hear her yelling, “Phone for you, Airyn!” Then tapping noises sounded probably from her feet pounding against the floor.

“Rayna!” she cried when the phone was placed in her hand. “I’m so happy to hear from you!” Of course since I was gone from school a month she had a ton of questions for me. She didn’t seem so surprised anymore after I told her the whole story and when she heard I wasn’t living with Cecilia anymore she made her mom drive her over here to celebrate. I gave her the address and she instantaneously hung up. Hearing the sounds of boots crunching through snow made me happy because then I knew that she was coming and we could leap into each other’s arms. She could tell me it was okay and that I was safe. I wanted to believe her but Cecilia was still fed up with Uncle Roger taking me away from her. Who knows what she could do next?

Life with Uncle Roger was the best. It was like a vacation except in between the vacation you had to go to school. He played with me whenever he was home. He would take pictures of himself in some of my Halloween costumes. They didn’t fit him obviously so he looked pretty weird. But when the last week before my parents came home was tough. It was just about Christmas Eve and he was busy at work. He had to work the morning, too so I basically hung around Airyn’s house during Winter Break. This year for Christmas, I wasn’t excited at all. Christmas is something a lot of kids are excited about but this Christmas was the day I had to go back to my normal home with my Mom and Dad. It’s not that I didn’t like being with them because I did, it’s just that Roger had a lot more fun with things.

On Christmas Eve, I persuaded Roger to sleepover with me at Airyn’s house so we could all open presents in the morning like friends and family. A warm feeling appeared in my stomach when Mrs. Baker said that. Like every basic Christmas morning we ran down the stairs and surrounded the Christmas tree. Mr. and Mrs. Baker started singing Christmas songs as they held hands. We eventually all joined in. Airyn sang right next to me. I tried to be calm about it but her singing was terrible. The torture ended quickly enough and we all opened our presents. I was so happy with what I had gotten that year. I had hugged everyone that lived and slept in that house.

All my happy moments were ruined when a booming voice came from the front door. “RAYNA MARY FEINGOLD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITHOUT CECILIA?!” Mom walked in the door. She looked a little different, like she was tanner, leaner, and her hair seemed lighter. Behind her was Dad and way out by the sidewalk was Cecilia.

Keeping my eyes down at my feet, I hid behind the tree. Airyn followed me.

“She has the right to be with me.” It was Uncle Roger’s voice. “She belongs with me.”

“I specifically told her to go with Cecilia,” Mom barked, as Dad whispered, “Her house is a mess.” They both looked at each other and didn’t say anything.

Okay, did Mom even see that house? Apparently, she wouldn’t have if she wanted me back there. “Mom, it was filthy there,” I whispered from behind the tree. “But now I get to go home anyway so…” I walked out the door to her car and waved goodbye to everyone. The sad part was that I didn’t even get to say good bye to Uncle Roger. Cecilia rode in the back of the car with me. She managed to keep herself clean for once. She actually looked a little bit dressed up.

School started again after another week went by. Mom and Dad- mostly Mom- were still angry with me for not telling them. They didn’t want me going anywhere. They figured that we might as well spend some time together. But we hardly ever spoke with each other. Just when we had breakfast and Mom would reluctantly ask me if I wanted syrup with my waffles. Dad spoke to me a little more than Mom because he actually saw Aunt Cecilia’s house and what a mess it was.

Airyn and I still talked to each other. We didn’t call each other but we created email accounts. I was actually pretty happy after we saw each other again because we agreed not even our parents can keep us from seeing each other.

You'd probably assume that was our happy ending. It didn’t even last a month. We hardly ever fought, disagreed, or argued with each other. We always picked each other over other friends. Even if they were angry we ignored them and went on with our own lives. We made up the "being annoying" faces in fourth grade when the fifth graders mocked us and made faces at us.

The girls that teased us were named Callia and Marilyn. They were best friends like Airyn and I, except the difference was that they had a lot more fights than we did. Callia always bossed Marilyn around and somehow she seemed to live with it. Marilyn always told Callia to shut up but that just made her even more upset.

One rainy day, when recess was just held inside the lunch room for fifth and fourth graders, Callia and Marilyn came up to us and made faces at us. "This is how ugly you look," Callia taunted.

Then Marilyn made this really funny face that made her look like a complete idiot and she said, "Wow. Ugly, dumb, lonely. You guys don’t have lives at all." Callia’s face turned red and her fists were balled up. Marilyn acted like she did the right thing by brushing her blonde hair off her shoulder.

"Hello? I was supposed to say that!" she spat. Her messy blonde hair was swaying around her shoulders and she tugged at it with fury. Callia's face was scrunched up, red, and her mouth was in a triangle shape. Airyn and I burst out into giggles as they both storm away into the bathroom. We mocked them until the end of lunch, maybe even until the end of recess.

“Hey, at least we aren’t as ugly as you!” I called after them. We giggled when we heard them growl.

That afternoon when I came over to Airyn’s house to study for a quiz that was the next day, she was blabbering about how she thinks it’s unfair that we have to complete a series of things in flag football in gym to get an A. And as you know Airyn is an A student and flag football isn’t her thing. Please don’t ask me why she was talking about flag football when she asked me to come over so we could study for a Language Arts spelling quiz. Soon her voice got really annoying from talking so long and I decided that it would be funny if I made a Marilyn face at her. Once I did she stopped talking and we both burst out into loud, uproar of laughter. She stopped babbling and started working with me on the studying.

We actually got done studying pretty early so we made our way over to the bean bag chairs that sat a few feet away from a 40 inch TV. I have no idea why two multi-colored bean bags were in this room anyway. These bean bags had gone better in her own room which had a 25 inch TV. The vibrant colors stood out in the boring nothingness of tan walls, with old paintings barely hanging from the hooks, the cream colored carpet, the almost white of the couches that were splattered with dirt and probably food. When I was and wasn’t at her house she always tried to get away with sneaking food into the living room. Her younger twin sisters, Michella and Grace, and her older brother, Jason, were always sneaking food in the living room, too. Airyn’s parents were very strict; they only allowed water and fruit in the living room. She and her brother and sisters usually snuck fruit roll-ups and chocolate chip cookies in there. Her parents weren’t home a lot since her mother was a doctor and her father had an afternoon job from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Jason babysat a lot. He was a very kind babysitter and let us eat a lot junk food and eat in the living room. Eating in the living room may not be that big of a deal, but for the Bakers it was a big deal. Mrs. and Mr. Baker were always getting a new table for the kitchen. They didn’t seem satisfied with the tables they got. As they always said, “The furniture looks way better in the catalogues.” Since half the time there was no table they had to go to the living room to eat. Mrs. Baker disagreed.

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