Sera Ch. 01

"I know, a bit startling, huh?" Mum smiled with little humour.

"Yeah... And you don't think Sheila would do that?"

"Where are you from, honey?"

"Langley, British Columbia."

"We're coming from the Maritimes. She'd have to have an eye in each location and the logistics for that kind of thing was never her style."

"But, who else could it be?"

"Someone who's connected to both of us by some means. More importantly, why are we being kept around waiting to find out?"

"Maybe we should all just start grabbing stuff and make a run for it," The young woman suggested with a thoughtfully sarcastic grin.

Mum laughed out loud at this and took another sip, looking favourably at her niece but asking them both, "So, did you drive here?"

"Yup," the infamous Sheila's long lost daughter confirmed. "We took turns driving and took our time. Did it in three days."

"Cool," Mum replied.

"I don't think my back will ever be the same again," Gina politely joked.

"Not cool," Mum replied again. "I'm okay as far as my back goes, but we didn't have to come as far as you and we stopped a lot along the way. It was actually a nice drive."

"Yeah, I enjoyed the trip, too," the young Kathleen smiled. "I've never actually been on this kind of a road trip before, usually just nearby places like Vancouver and stuff. I thought it was exciting."

"Road trips can be," Mum smiled in return. I've been on more than a few and I know this, but sometimes it depends on where you're going. Or leaving."

"I can see that, yeah. I've always lived at home."

"Did you have a stepmother?"

"Not till a couple years ago. Daddy raised me by himself."

"Well, he did a fine job of it. He must be proud."

She smiled and looked down, actually a little embarrassed, and I was again struck at her childlike quality mixed with an inner spark that was as interesting to me as how she filled out those jeans and the little black tank top. I was having more and more trouble keeping my attention off of her.

"Look," Mum said with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry and I hope it doesn't bother you that I bring this up again, considering who we're talking about, but... I just can't get over how exactly like my sister you look. It's just like looking at her back when she was in school."

"It's okay," she replied. "I can imagine it'd be pretty shocking for you."

With a regretful smile, Mum heaved a sigh and let it out, saying, "Sheila and I were very close growing up."

" ... She's a stupid whore."

"Yes... yes she is, sweetie pie."

Gina's head cocked, first looking at Mum, then at her friend with questioning eyes.

"Wow... I just called Gina that last night," the captivating young woman revealed.

"What's that?" Mum asked.

"'Sweetie pie'. I just..."

"Really? Maybe your father picked it up from Sheila when he knew her and you heard it from him?" Mum asked, looking from Gina to Kathleen with her brow raised.

"Well, he calls her 'sweetie'," Gina imparted, "but I've never heard him call her 'sweetie pie'."

"Neither have I that I can remember," young Kathleen put in.

"Huh..." Mum thoughtfully expressed before summing up with, "Must be one of those weird coincidences. The kind of thing you see on those late night shows onDiscovery Channel."

"Hmm," the younger woman offered with a perplexed expression. "I guess. It is pretty weird though, huh?"

"Not as weird as sitting here waiting for god only knows what," Mum said, skillfully changing the subject away from the affectation I was all too familiar with. "Although I'm very glad we've met and I've been enjoying our conversation immensely, I'm becoming more impatient than weirded out or nervous."

"Me too, Auntie. I mean, I'm really glad I met you and you're really cool but, whoever this is, they need to get their show on the road before they lose their audience. And that nice big globe over in the corner."

Mum laughed softly again at her niece's continued joke and added, "I'll help you with it if you help me with that antique roll top desk over there."

"(giggle)" the young Kathleen replied.

"(giggle)" Mum confirmed.

That little exchange gave me pause before I managed to speak for the first time since the other Kathleen and her friend had arrived.

"Um, it's possible that not everybody's here yet. Whoever it is that invited us here may be waiting for-"

My words were stopped up as the door opened and, as though to prove what I was in the midst of saying, a beautiful, mid thirtyish little blonde entered. The glamorous woman wore a black, ankle length summer dress without sleeves or shoulders that covered everything, yet tastefully accentuated her perfectly proportioned, athletically slim body. She held a teal invitation and, at about five feet tall and after meeting my cousin, there was no mistaking who this drop dead gorgeous, bright blue eyed beauty was as she looked around the room.

"Sheila!"Mum accused with a gasp, taken by complete surprise once again, but managing to hold on to her glass this time.

Kitten

Her presence at first blinded me to who she was, despite the fact that I was looking right at her face, and it only clicked in my head a fraction of a second before my aunt verified my own shocked assertion.

After everything Gina told me about what happened to women who live life in the fast lane for too long, I would have expected her to be a used up old bag, but she was the complete and polar opposite of that. In spite of her height, she came off like a celebrity, or some kind of obscure royalty, and I was surprised to find myself checking Steven's reaction to her, more surprised to be put out by his very obvious, positive attention.

But, beyond this vague and disturbing detail, it was actually her. Sheila. After all I'd heard, all I'd imagined, all the times I fantasized about meeting her, here she was and, like everyone else, I was stunned.

" ... Kathy..." her perfectly cultured and alluring voice dared, she just as stunned as the rest of us.

Her eyes drifted to the left and, seeing my cousin Steven, she actually stumbled backward a step, hissing, "Oh my god...!"

As I was wondering what that was all about, she caught my glance and slowly raised her hand, the one holding her teal invitation, over her mouth, staring wide eyed. Obviously, Sheila didn't set this up, her reaction to her three relatives being enough evidence of this if the invitation she carried wasn't.

"I imagine this must be very uncomfortable for you," my aunt conveyed.

She'd said it in a soft, yet unsympathetic tone that hadn't yet gotten over its shock at seeing her. Sheila's eyes darted back to Kathleen as her other hand, clutching the thin, black straps of a purse that actually matched her dress, moved to grab the door frame for support. She continued holding the other over her mouth for a second before it slowly lowered and she spoke in somewhat the same condition as my aunt.

"Wh- what?"

"Well... first there's me, who you betrayed and abandoned to what all happened after yourmess...Then, there's my son here, obviously averypainful reminder of what you did..."

Sheila closed her eyes and seemed to shrink backwards even further, though she never moved as Auntie Kathleen's voice became gradually harder, angrier. Sitting up and closer to the edge of her seat, she went on with a subtly aggressive posture.

"And to top it all off, here's your very own daughter, the one you abandoned after cleaning out her father and-"

"Stop it!" she said in a shaky voice, her eyes glancing briefly at me.

"Yeah. Well, that's what I say, it must be pretty uncomfortable for you to stand there, looking like a queen in a roomful of people who know what a stupid littleslutyou are."

Anger flashed across her face and she seemed to stand straighter, her voice trembling with as much affront as hurt now as she lashed, "Shut up, Kathy!"

Kathleen stood, her height and weight advantage made obvious in the movement as her face turned mean.

"Youdon't tellmeto shut up, youtwat!" If you hadlistenedto me-!"

"Okay, you know what?" Sheila defiantly sneered, waving her invitation irritatedly, "If this is some 'shit on Sheila' party,I'mnot interested and you can all gofuckyourselves!"

She'd turned to go, actually putting her hand on the door and the incredible reality of having Sheila before me was about to end. So I shot out of my seat, my heart in my lungs.

"Wait!"

She froze and, along with everyone else, stared at me as though waiting for one reason why she should.

"You- we didn't send it. The invitation, I mean. We all got one, too."

Her hand slowly left the doorknob as she continued to watch me, now studying me closely and probably trying to get over our likeness before she spoke shortly in a low, unsure voice.

"Who, then?"

"Um, we don't know," I answered, staring back, amazed at how young she looked, how she looked just like me, but different in some strange way. "I thought it was you."

" ... I'm sorry."

She said it very simply, almost without emotion, yet I knew it was sincere despite my mystification at how she may have meant it. I was wrestling myself for something to say as Kathleen glared at her, my cousin seeming to keep an eye on his mother while stealing glances at both me and Sheila. At that moment, Delores entered with a tray.

"Hello, everyone. Ms. Burchell, would you like a drink?" she asked, offering Sheila a glass of white wine.

"God, yes." She blurted, gratefully accepting it and throwing it back to allow Delores to move through the library to offer up more to anyone who wanted it.

This eased tensions in the room, at least enough so that my aunt and I resumed our seats, Steven visibly relaxing a little in his. Sheila hesitated, eying each one of us before moving to the seat that was furthest apart from the group, but still under her sister's watchful eye. I suppose Gina, being the only person in the group not personally involved by blood, was the most natural one to still have some wits about her at this point, and she took the opportunity to speak up.

"(ahem) Excuse me?"

"Yes, Ms. Green?" the pretty, tray bearing brunette encouragingly asked after turning to face Gina directly.

"Uh, thanks for the drinks and everything, but let's cut the drama. What's going on here, Delores?"

"Here here!" Kathleen seconded. "Do speak up and enlighten us, Delores."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Burchell, Ms. Green, I understand your concern and Mistress will be with you very soon."

With that weird placation, she walked out, all our eyes now on her back as she closed the door behind her.

"Well, that was odd," my aunt remarked, looking at me.

"I wonder who 'Mistress' is," I ventured.

Looking at Sheila, who was trying to mind her own business across the room with her drink, my aunt replied, "At this point, it could be anybody. I kinda figured this for a three ring circus when somebody sent in the clown, here."

Sheila's lips compressed, but she silently regarded her joined knees, refilled wineglass held just ahead of them in both hands.

"So where've you been?" Kathleen pressed. "Huh? Where've you been hiding all these years?"

The beautiful blonde with the large boobies rose as gracefully from her chair as I would have expected Sheila to do it, walking closer to her sister in that nice blouse and narrow business skirt. She, in her own way, was every bit as striking as Sheila, kind of like the type I'd expect to see in office. Hell, I'd have voted for her. But, stopping beside Sheila and looking down on her bowed head, she went on and blew that impression right out of the water.

"Where've you been, Sheila? Too embarrassed to say? Was it that low?"

"Mum... Steven cautioned, a look of something akin to dread in his eyes.

She gave the back of Sheila's head a sudden slap, her hand deflecting upwards and mussing up her sister's perfect hair.

"Owwww! Kathle-en, stop iiit!"

"'Kathle-en, stop iiit!'"my aunt mocked, the both of them making it very easy to believe they were siblings.

"Mum, c'mon," Steven almost plead to no avail.

"Speak up, Sheila. You don't think you have things to answer for? I should beat your head in right now." Kathleen suddenly grated, giving her another hard slap.

"Oh my god," Gina moaned when Sheila shot up out of her seat and gave Kathleen an overhand smack to the face.

The next thing I knew, after a brief period of vicious slapping, they had each other by the throat and were apparently trying to choke each other lifeless. Gina's hand fastened on my wrist while I sat in shock, Steven erupting from his chair as they went to the carpet making desperate gargling attempts at breath, rolling in personal combat.

I had no idea what these two women had between them, but my cousin was having a lot of trouble prying them apart as he yelled,"Mum, cut it out! Let her... go! Jesus Christ, can I have some fuckin' help here?"

The whole scene had me rooted to the spot, Gina too I suppose, but she was the one who clued me into the fact that he meant us and not his savior. She leapt from her chair and went to assist before the beautiful blonde sisters killed each other. I was up and behind her, not thinking of what I was doing anymore than when I shot out of my seat to keep Sheila from leaving, but found myself suddenly helping Gina to pry her fingers from her sister's throat while Steven pried at Kathleen's.

They came apart all of a sudden, Gina, Sheila and I falling in the opposite direction of Steven and Kathleen. Both women were still struggling to get at one another as the comical aspect of the scene from an onlooker's perspective forced a sudden, clear laugh from my throat. I mean, here's Gina and I, struggling to physically restrain Sheila, of all people. Boy, life sure does throw some curveballs.

"Mum! C'mon, stop it!"

"Sheila, get a grip on yourself!"Gina demanded, prompting me to laugh again.

When Gina looked at me like I'd gone crazy, I began laughing in earnest and couldn't stop. I don't know why. I suppose it was the tension of everything that led up to this scene, but the thought of how it must look with me laughing uncontrollably during all the pandemonium sent me over the edge and I was afraid I'd wet my panties as I lost my grip on Sheila.

Sheila was still struggling, her throat now capable of rough speech as she cursed and swore, fighting Gina who's incredulous expression over my behaviour suddenly erupted into laughter along with me. I suppose we know each other well enough at this point so that she could understand my humour in a situation like that.

"What inhellis goingonhere!?"

The voice was that of a woman's, the tone sultry deep, the emotion surprised, exasperated and demanding all at the same time. My laughter died in a hiccup of surprise before I could get my head turned to see who it was but, when I did, I found myself looking at a tall, big boned but well proportioned woman with shoulder length black hair. She wore thin, black leather pants and a black, loose fitting, opaque blouse that showed off a rather stylish black lace bra beneath it. I guessed that bra to be the same size as what my aunt Kathleen would wear as I moved my eyes back to her strong, attractive face with bright blue eyes like mine. She looked a lot like Steven, enough to be his mother, and I guessed her to be in her mid forties as she looked from one of us to the other, shaking her head with her jaw slightly agape in wonder.

From behind me, Auntie Kathleen croaked,"Ahk-! Ashleigh!?"