Families Matter: Women Like Us, #4

By Brenda K. Stone

Families matter. But the secrets of our loved ones can be devastating. Or overwhelming. Or heartwarming. Sometimes, too, the truth is better left hidden, but is out in the open for the world to see.

Just ask Emily, Julie, Kiki, Megan, and Hillary, women struggling to come to terms with the decisions of their loved ones. Women repairing cherished relationships. Women learning just how tough it is to break family ties.

Women like us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brenda K. Stone
• Release date: Apr 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386174189

Brenda K. Stone

Brenda K. Stone is the pen name for Barb Lee, a native of Western Massachusetts who loves to write, travel the world, hike the world, and go to rock concerts.  When not engaging in these particular adventures or the several other activities she enjoys that leave her no time for rest, you can find her “doing research” with her nose in a rock and roll biography and her fuzzball bunny Muffin not far away, probably sleeping.

Book preview

Sisters Are Forever

Igrew up with three sisters.  We were as close as close could get and as thick as thieves when it came to keeping secrets and sticking up for one another.  We were also very close in age. Just imagine four teenage girls fighting for the same mirror in a small bathroom in a house probably not meant for a couple with so many kids, and you can picture a little of what our childhood was like. Our house only had a bedroom off the kitchen that Mom and Dad used, and two bedrooms upstairs that we girls had to double up in.  I never had my own space until I moved out of the family home to go to college. But none of those things ever caused issues between us.  It was just the way things were, and we lived with it and made the best of the situation.  We all knew that Mom and Dad were doing their best for us, even though we didn’t have a lot of money.

Our parents had started having children right after high school. Once my oldest sister Mary showed up, we all wanted to rush out after her.  Kitty came next, then Danielle, and lastly, me, the baby.  Mom was basically pregnant for four years straight and ended up with a full house in a very short time.

It was tough, Emily, but I liked it that way, because I had my four beautiful girls, and then I was done, she told me recently, a nostalgic look passing over her slowly aging face.

I was crushed to see her tears as we sat and reminisced about better times. She and Dad had worked so hard to keep our family together, to keep the love alive between us.  But families sometimes splinter whether you want them to or not.

It all started with Eddie, didn’t it? Mom asked softly.

We had never broached this tender subject before.

Mom- I thought that the conversation should wait.  After what we had just been through, I thought there was a better time, but Mom insisted.

She asked again if I thought it was Eddie that had pushed us in the wrong direction.  I nodded mournfully, and admitted that, yes, I believed it was Eddie Kay that had started to drive the wedge between the four Ferguson girls.

Eddie was Mary’s first serious boyfriend.  She was a late bloomer of sorts, partly because she was a serious student in high school and didn’t want her quest to go to a good college interrupted.  But it was, anyway, when Eddie moved to our town and started attending our school midway through her senior year.  I had just started ninth grade in the same school, Danielle was a sophomore, and Kitty was a junior, so we saw the whole thing unfold. 

Eddie came to Crawford High from California, a golden boy surfing into our dull Midwestern town on a curling wave of blue, the same color as his sparkling eyes.  Mary, who never seemed to be interested in any guy even though she was pretty and certainly had her chances, changed overnight when she first laid eyes on Eddie.

I remember being at the dinner table the evening after the school day that had brought the new guy to our school.  Mary could hardly eat anything, and Mary loved to eat whatever simple but delicious dish Mom would invent for us on our shoestring budget.

Honey, are you sick? Mom had asked.

Looking past us all and out the window, Mary had said, Yes, love sick. 

None of us had ever heard her say such a thing.  When I think now of how she had gazed through that pane of glass at the road, it was like she suddenly wanted to get on any piece of pavement that would take her to Eddie Kay.  And it didn’t take her long to find that piece of pavement.

The four of us had walked to school together every morning, gossiping about other students, as well as teachers and administrators.  Now, Mary would walk quickly in front of us while we tried to catch up.  We eventually figured out that she didn’t want us to catch up with her.  She wanted to be alone in her thoughts of Eddie, to plot how and when she would be able to see him that day.  Before long, Mary would join the ranks of girls vying for Eddie’s attention.  Being as pretty as she was, with her high cheekbones and long chocolate brown hair, and being that she was on the varsity cheerleading team and was the best dancer on the team, she was a shoe-in for Eddie Kay’s attention.

And she was so smart, too, Mom added, during our recent conversation.

Yes, Mary was quite a catch for Eddie.  But Mary made the mistake of thinking that Eddie was the catch.  And Eddie, being who he was, let her think that.

Within two weeks of Eddie coming to town, Mary had caught his eye.

Because Kitty shared a room with Mary, and because she was also the one closest in age, she had the inside scoop on everything that was going on, as well as everything that wasn’t going on.

I’m not even supposed to be telling you guys this, so don’t you dare go and tell Mom and Dad. Mary isn’t doing her homework.  She said her grades are good enough to get her through graduation and she doesn’t care anymore, Kitty whispered to Danielle and I one morning as, once again, we trailed behind Mary on the walk to school.

But what about being valedictorian? I whispered back.

And getting into a great college? Danielle added.

We knew Mary’s dreams almost as well as she did.  At least until Eddie Kay took over.

She doesn’t want to be valedictorian anymore.  And I haven’t heard her talk about college in a couple of weeks, Kitty had answered, shaking her head.

I think we should tell Mom and Dad.  I decided. 

Being the youngest, I was still the one closest to the cradle, and thought that our parents needed to know everything.

Danielle backed me up.  It was Kitty who vehemently rejected our plan.

Mary is gonna hate me if we tell them, because you know Mom and Dad will say something to her and she’ll know where they got the information.  Kitty folded her arms and shook her head stubbornly.

But if we don’t tell them Eddie Kay is gonna steal our sister, Danielle moaned just a little too loudly.

We thought that Mary was off in her own little Eddie world twenty feet in front of us and wasn’t paying any heed to our conversation.  But she suddenly stopped and turned to us and her face turned an angry red. I’ll never forget the look she froze us all with, as she zeroed in on Kitty.

Eddie Kay is going to steal your sister?  What does that mean? she demanded, before throwing an incriminating finger at Kitty and hissing, How dare you tell them my personal business?  I thought I could trust you.  What kind of sister are you if you do this to me?  You’re jealous is what you are.  Jealous of Eddie and me!

Today, Kitty would say that there was some truth in Mary’s words.  We were all jealous of Eddie Kay, because he was getting the attention we used to get from our beloved sister.  But when you’re a young adult the word jealous is an easy and convenient word to toss around and doesn’t sit well in your mind.

I am not!  I wouldn’t have that creep on a silver platter! Kitty shot back.

Eddie isn’t a creep, and you know it.  You should all be so lucky as to have a creep like Eddie as a boyfriend! With these words Mary turned her back on us for real, and, head held high, marched on ahead of us. 

I was speechless. Even today, Mary’s words are like the shot heard ’round the world.  She was suddenly such a different person, a stranger, someone who scared me.  The expression of rage on her face was one that I didn’t think she, or any of us, was capable of.

That day it seemed like Mary would never look back.  Things didn’t change for a long time, but they would.  Before that could happen, however, Mary had to drag her beloved family through all the motions of losing her.

THE FIRST INDICATION that she was ready to fly the coop came at the dinner table, the only time now that we were all together.

I have to tell you all something, Mary announced with a secret smile, just weeks after her outburst.

Kitty, Danielle, and I had told Mom and Dad what Mary had said to us about Eddie. But we never discussed it as a family, because Mom and Dad knew we would lose her even quicker.  We were already desperate to hold on to Mary for as long as we could, and if it meant being silent to keep the peace, we had to comply.

Her excitement didn’t come as a surprise; all day, Mary