It didn’t take long for me to spot my family. Despite not seeing them for a few years I instantly knew the classic ‘You are doing something wrong’ scream that came from my mother. Especially since that scream had always been a target towards me. They were sitting in a corner next to the window. I stood in the doorway for a bit practicing my fake smile.
“You have to be as friendly as possible, even if they act rude.” Mei had told me. Easy for her to say. My brother was laughing at something he had seen on his phone, while dad was trying to light a cigarette. Finally I mustered up enough courage to walk over to them. Martin (My dear older brother) was the first one to spot me.
“CLAIRE! CLAIRE OVER HERE!” he yelled. He had a habit of yelling instead of just speaking like a normal person. Most people in the small restaurant looked up at me. I tried to ignore the eyes staring me down like a hawk searching for its prey. Instead I smiled at him and waved. I continued to slowly make my way towards their table, like I was trying to sneak back into my house after being out all night.
My Dad didn’t say anything when I sat down. He simply nodded, even though he had been the one to call me a few days ago. My mom on the other hand had plenty to say.
“Oh Claire, it is so nice to see you again. It’s been way too long since we last spoke. I am so glad you could make it tonight. How are you holding up? Oh, you look tired. Are you getting enough sleep? I hope you aren’t overworking yourself too much.”
“I’m fine Helena.” I said unenthusiastic. I knew better than to trust a single word that this woman said. I sat down next to my dad, as far away from Helana as I could.
“Can’t you just call me mom or mother for once? We haven’t seen each other in years. I thought we put all of this behind us.” She said, giving me a sad face. I ignored her and placed down an order.
“So…Dad, how are you?” I looked up at my dad who had just finished his smoke. First he looked at Helena, then Martin and finally at me. He shot me a smile that just screamed ‘I’m sorry you have to be here.’
“I’m fine kid. Glad you could make it.”
I felt a bit bad considering I was only here to get information out of him. But I smiled back and said something about being happy to hear that. Words that had no weight behind them, but was what I needed to say.
“Aren’t you going to say hello to your big brother?” Martin asked, snapping his fingers right in my ears. I wanted to say something back but instead I took a deep breath. Just needed to survive tonight and then I hopefully never have to speak with them again.
“Hello Martin. Glad you made it here safely. So dad,” I turned back to face my father “Can I ask you a weird question?”
“Sure kid. What is it?”
“So Grandpa was a teacher right? Did you ever happen to meet any of his students? Like for example a girl named Julia?” The table went quiet. My dad turned pale, his eyes widening.
“Yeah…Yeah I met Julia. The oh so perfect Julia. I swear my dad always paid more attention to her than me. And she would always be around that weird kid Bill. Weird, perfect Julia. Never liked her.” Dad sounded mad. Which was rare. He did marry my Mom afterall.
He must’ve realized that he had gotten a bit heated.
“I apologize for the outburst. This is supposed to be a nice evening. Let’s change the subject to something else shall we?” Both Helena and Martin seemed to like that idea, but this hadn’t really given me much information.
“What exactly do you mean when you say you never liked her? What’s the reason for that?”
“Can we please change subjects kid? This is a sensitive subject.” He said, pulling out another cigarette. I clearly wasn’t going to get many more answers out of him. Martin started talking about his birthday and I zoned out.
My dad clearly didn’t like Julia. This did put him as a suspect. I was going to have to add him to the list later. I didn’t want to. Dad had always been one of the few family members who had been there for me. Him and Lenore. those nights where mom would send me to my room for not being good enough. That time when she kicked me out, for having my first beer. The time I moved out. My dad had been there for all of it. And now he was going to be one of the suspects in a murder case. These thoughts kept me occupied until someone said my name.
“Claire. Claire, are you there?” I looked up, locking eyes with my mother. I blinked once and she must’ve taken that as a sign to continue speaking. “So. Do you have a boyfriend yet? It has been a few years. Surely you’re out of that weird faze now right?”
Fucking hell Helena. She still thought it was ‘a faze’. She had said the same thing back when I first came out and it was great to know that nothing had changed.
“No mom.” I said finally taking off my cloak revealing my t-shirt. “I think it might have gotten worse in the time you’ve been away.” If she was going to act petty, I might as well act petty back. I could see her brain trying to process the shirt I was wearing. I honestly thought that this woman would react better if I turned out to be a murder, which would be the case if I didn’t find the actual Julia killer.
“How dare you put disrespect on our family by wearing something so heinous. You did this just to embarrass us. Well it worked. You are such a petty child. Why did I even invite you?” She screamed. I shrugged.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“No idea. You tell me.”
She slammed her hand on the table. Both Martin and Dad were looking the other way, clearly having no intent to step in. Smart.
“You are a shame to this family. What would your sister think?”
My turn to get mad.
“Don’t you dare bring Sofia into this. She has nothing to do with this.” I yelled, standing up. “Would one of you please say something?” I looked at Martin and then at my Dad. None of them looked back.
“Fucking pathetic all of you. I am ashamed that we share the same blood.” I said. My phone vibrated. A text message.
Meet me at the station. Now.
-Mei
Thank the gods. Mei had once again saved me.
“Well dear family this has been a great reunion. I hope you have a great evening. I have a date. See ya.” I flipped them off and ran towards the exit.
…
I had no real idea where I was going. My plan was to just figure that out along the way. Mei owed me a big one after this whole thing.
‘Oh yeah Mei,’ I thought. ‘I should probably report to her. Wonder if she’s home or at work?’
I decided that I wasn’t in the mood to go to the station. That would have to wait. Instead I started making my way towards Mei's apartment. That was until she decided to just call me, which was just great timing.
Mei: Are you done with your little meetup?
Claire: Yeah. What’s up?
Mei: Told you already. Need you at the station.
Claire: Can’t it wait? I’m kinda in a really bad mood. Thank you for that by the way.
Mei: Just get your ass down here.
I was about to reply but she hung up before I had the chance. I sighed. Guess I was going to the police station to give a formal statement.
“That was an absolute disaster.” I said, taking off my jacket and throwing it on the sofa. “They absolutely hated me. And what was with those inappropriate questions? Most parents don’t ask about your body count. You do know that right Philip?”
Philip pushed my jacket to the side and sat down. He didn’t look at me. The air felt thick in the room, him staring at the floor, me at him.
It had been my first time meeting Philips’ parents. At first they seemed nice. His dad joked around, teasing Philip while his mom prepared the food. Everything was normal. That was until we sat down to eat.
“What’s your body count? How much do you weigh? How many times have you and Philip had sex? When are you expecting to bless us with grandchildren?”
When I had said I didn’t want to answer those kinds of questions they had gotten hostile with me, calling me such things as a whore. At some point I had enough. I stood up, grabbed my things and just left. I didn’t care if Philip was behind me or not.
“Well aren’t you going to say anything? Apologize for what your parents said or did?” I asked Philip, tapping my foot faster and faster. I knew it wasn’t his job but I still felt like I was owed some kind of apology. But Philip didn’t answer. Instead he stood up and went to use the bathroom.
'Unbelievable’ I thought to myself. Couldn’t he see how immature his parents had acted? I went to the kitchen to make some food. I hadn’t had the time to really eat anything when visiting Philip’s parents.
Suddenly I got two text messages. One from Philip and one from his mom.
Philip: Sorry about my parents.
Philip’s mom: I can’t believe you would act that immature when meeting your boyfriend’s parents. Honestly, do better.
I didn’t sleep well that night.
I was once again inside the small interrogation room, though it wasn’t Mei sitting in front of me this time. It was the same officer who had responded to my there’s a dead person in my apartment call.
“You don’t mind this being recorded, do you miss Manshire. Mei wanted a recorded version of your statement this time.” He asked, taking a bite of his donut.
“Yeah sure. If you can promise to not eat donuts throughout this whole thing.”
He laughed at this comment and turned on the recording device.
Statement of Claire Manshire about the death of #####:
Officer Marson: Could you please state your name and age?
Miss Manshire: My name is Claire Manshire and I’m 20, almost 21.
Officer Marson: Nice to see you again. Shame it had to be in the circumstances. Now let’s stop beating around the bush and get started shall we? What were you doing on the date October 26th?
Miss Manshire: I was at work at The Golden Field, a small bar, and afterwards I went home to rest for a bit. A few hours later the body showed up in front of my door.
Officer Marson: Do you have anyone that can confirm that you were at work on the 26th? A coworker maybe?
Miss Manshire: I worked alone that day, however we have a somewhat regular customer named Bill who can confirm that I was there.
Officer Marson: I will look into that, thank you. Next question. What was your relationship with the victim? Did you know her personally?
Miss Manshire: I did not know her before she showed up on my doorstep no. And before you ask I also have no idea why she chose to show up at my doorstep.
Officer Marson: I see. I think that’ll be all for now. This recording will be kept as evidence in this ongoing investigation. You may leave now.
End of recording
I left the police station in a hurry. I didn’t have much of a reason to hang out around there. Plus I was starving. Turns out when your family dinner turns into a screaming match there isn’t much time to eat. I didn’t really know where or what to eat so I just picked a direction and started to walk.
I was in my room crying again. Both my parents were out so it was just me. I was hugging my wristband. Or what was left of it anyways.
John had destroyed it. John Conners. The untouchable. He hated me for some reason. I knew he did. Ever since that day his dad had complimented me on a school assignment. Didn’t he ever get tired of it? We had been in class together for 4 years now. And despite that he was still bullying me and Bill.
Mr. Conners had apologized many times for his son’s behaviour but it wasn’t like he ever did much to stop it either. His children truly were untouchable. I hadn’t heard anything from Bill. Seems like his parents took away his texting privileges after he had broken John’s nose. I didn’t support violence. I never had. But on the other hand watching Bill punch John was so satisfying.
I decided to go downstairs and get some of my ‘stuff’. I opened the small room I had carved under the floor board, grabbed the small plastic bag. The message was still there from when I had bought it. I hadn’t had a chance to try it yet.
‘Don’t overdo it kid.
- M.S’
I opened it up and for the first time in my life held one of the small pills in my hand. I decided to take a couple with me just in case and put the rest back under the loose floorboard. I had just swallowed the first pill as the front door opened.
A door next to me opened, snapping me back to the present. John…Conners. My Dad. Bill knows my dad, my dad knows Julia, Julia knows both. This made my dad a suspect as well. I knew it did. But I just couldn’t get myself to admit it. My dad couldn’t…He wouldn’t. One of the few members of my family who I felt connected to. He couldn’t be the killer could he?
Someone grabbed my arm. I looked and got eye contact with an older woman. She had grey messy hair, and smelled my old dead hamster. I tried to break free but she was surprisingly strong.
“Julia? Julia, it really is you!” The old woman basically screamed. I just stared blankly at her, not knowing how to respond.
“I…Uhm I think you got the wrong girl. I don’t know you.” I tried saying while pulling back.
“Don’t say such nonsense Julia. I know it’s been a while but who doesn’t remember their own mother?”
WHAT?