![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pascal_curious) wrote2011-07-23 09:22 am
Chapter 41 : The Mailman's Kid
There was a silence as Chloe Singleton struggled to regain her composure. She hadn’t thought about the possibility that she and Lola had siblings for ages. It was just something she had filed away in the back of her mind a long time ago.
“Are you okay?” Pascal asked.
“Yeah,” Chloe said quietly. She felt like she was in a dream that wasn’t quite a nightmare, but not exactly good either. “Your father’s name was Glarn, wasn’t it?”
“Yes!” Pascal said excitedly. “I didn’t think you would know that. I thought your mom was trying to keep you and your sister from knowing my dad.”
“I think she was,” Chloe explained. “Lo doesn’t know anything, and I kinda learned about your dad…our dad, by accident. I always meant to try to find him someday, but I thought it would break mom’s heart if I did. I saw your dad’s obit in the paper last year, and I kind put it out of my mind after that. I’m really sorry about your dad, by the way. I remember reading the letter he sent and thinking what a kind man he seemed to be.”
“You got a letter from my dad?”
“It was a long time ago. I just remember that mom was down with a really bad case of the flu. I got the mail one morning, even though mom had always told us we weren’t allowed to go to the mailbox. I always thought that was a little weird.”
“You have known all this time, and you didn’t tell anyone? Not even your sister?”
“Yeah,” Chloe told him solemnly. “I was really freaked out at first. Then I was angry at mom for not having told us about our father. She always changed the subject when one of us brought it up, and if we pressed the matter, she’d get really pissed. Lola and I eventually gave up asking. I guess I figured mom must have a good reason for doing it, but when I got that letter things just didn’t add up. He seemed like such a nice guy, and so remorseful that it really bothered me. I didn’t want to tell Lo because I knew it would just upset her too.”
“That’s a hell of a secret to keep all this time.”
“There were times I just wanted to throw it in Mom’s face and ask her ‘what the fuck, mom?’ But, I never did.” Chloe realized what she had said a few seconds after saying it. “Sorry about the swearing. Lo says I curse too much and it isn’t very ladylike.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Pascal told her. “I’ve dropped a few f-bombs myself.”
“Well, I guess that means neither of us is very ladylike. I’m sure that is a great comfort to you, but Lola is of the opinion that I should be deeply ashamed. I usually just tell her to fuck off.”
Pascal and Chloe both laughed.
“So,” Chloe said. “You have two brothers, Lazlo and Vidcund.” Chloe stumbled over the pronunciation of Vidcund’s name. “And a sister, but I can’t remember her name.”
“Jenny,” Pascal told her.
“You probably think I am some kind of ass for knowing about you guys and never trying to find you.”
“Not at all,” Pascal assured her. “I didn’t think you would know anything about us. When I found all of the letters dad wrote, I just figured that you never got any.”
“Letters?” Chloe asked, “As in the plural of letter?”
“A whole box full of them.” Pascal explained. “The woman that bought dad’s house found them hidden above the ceiling tiles in dad’s office.”
“Wow. We definitely are related.”
“What do you mean?”
“I kept the letter I found hidden above the ceiling tiles in my bedroom so than Mom and Lo wouldn’t find it.”
Pascal laughed at this.
“I generally just hide stuff in my wardrobe. Maybe I’m actually the mailman’s kid.”
“I doubt it,” said Chloe. “Your dad was so proud of you. He said in his letter how much he thought you and he were alike.”
Pascal was a little embarrassed. He wanted to ask what else was in the letter that Chloe received, but he didn’t want to sound like he was fishing for compliments.
“I hope you don’t mind that I read the letters that Dad meant for you and Lola. When I first saw them I didn’t know what to think. I was only going to read the first one, but I couldn’t resist reading the rest. They were all still sealed, I felt a bit like a criminal opening them,” he explained nervously. “I kept them all for you in case I was able to find you guys.”
“It’s too bad your dad didn’t send them. I wonder what it would have been like to have brothers, and a father,” Chloe lamented.
Pascal wasn’t sure if he should tell her that his father did send all of his letters, and they were sent back, marked ‘return to sender’. He didn’t want Chloe to think less of her mother.
“I really want to read them, but I wonder why he only sent us the one,” she said.
She’s going to find out eventually, thought Pascal. It was probably better to not surprise her with the information when he finally delivered the letters to the intended recipients.
“Dad did send them,” he told her. “They all got returned.”
Chloe didn’t say anything for a moment. Pascal guessed she was figuring it out on her own.
“Mom sent them back didn’t she?” Chloe asked quietly.
“Yeah. She did,” Pascal told her. He hated having to tell her, but she would find out soon enough anyway.
“That would explain why we were never allowed to go to the mailbox as kids. I always just figured it was because she thought we didn’t need to know any of her financial stuff, like bills and things.”
“I’m sorry,” Pascal said sadly. “I don’t know why she sent them back, but I’m sure she had her own very good reasons.”
“I’m sure she had reasons she thought were good.” Chloe said a little angrily. “I don’t know that I would agree if they were good ones or not, but I guess I’ll never know, will I?”
“Maybe not, but there are lots of things I’ve learned about Dad since he died, so you never know.”
“So,” Chloe asked, “What do we do now? I mean, we have to get together, right? I can’t wait to meet you guys.”
“Well, that’s kind of a problem,” Pascal explained. “I haven’t told anyone else yet. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.” Pascal paused as he reflected on the enormity of the situation. “You have no idea how much explaining I have to do.”
“Then I guess we’re kinda in the same boat, then. I have to tell Lo. She is going to be so pissed.”
“Why am I going to be pissed?” Pascal heard in the background coming from Chloe’s end.
“Shit,” Chloe muttered.
“Who are you talking to, Chloe?”
Chloe groaned. Pascal resisted the urge to snicker. This was going to be interesting. He almost wished he wasn’t on the line to hear it.
“Can you hold on for a second?” Chloe asked Pascal. I think I have some ‘splainin to do.”
“Sure. If the call drops, though, I’ll call 911” he joked.
“Good idea,” Chloe said as she laughed. “Hopefully it won’t come to that.”
Pascal heard rustling as Chloe covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand.
“I didn’t even hear you come in,” Chloe told her sister sheepishly. “How long have you been listening?”
“Not nearly long enough from the sounds of it. Who exactly are you talking to?”
Chloe was suddenly very irritated with her sister. She was used to Lola being the ‘adult’ in the family, but she resented it when Lola didn’t trust her. She wanted to tell Lola that it wasn’t any of her business and to bugger off, but this was too important.
“Just some guy,” Chloe said tartly. “I was going to have him and his brothers over for a party some night. I thought we could all get drunk and have an orgy.”
Lola scowled and started to walk away from her sister. She knew when she was being snarked at. “You can be such a child, Chloe,” Lola admonished as she walked into the kitchen to get herself a cup of coffee.
Chloe huffed and followed Lola to the kitchen.
“Just because you are three minutes older than me, it doesn’t mean that you can take over Mom’s place.” Chloe shouted. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and if you weren’t so distrusting of everything I do, I might have told you who I was talking to for real. It just so happens that it is pretty fucking important.”
Lola rolled her eyes at her sisters cursing. “Who is it then?”
Chloe was painfully aware that Lola didn’t bother to apologize. For a moment she considered not telling Lola anything at all.
‘It just so happens, dear sister, that we have a long lost brother…or three,” Chloe told her in a high-and mighty voice.
Lola grimaced and sighed heavily.
“For Pete’s sake, Chloe. You will believe anything anyone tells you,” Lola said in exasperation. “You didn’t tell him where we live or anything did you?”
“We didn’t get that far yet. We were just about to make plans to get together.”
“Give me the phone, Chloe,” Lola demanded.
Chloe tightened her grip on the phone. “No!” she shouted. “Why won’t you believe me?”
“Because you are the most gullible person this world has ever seen, Chloe Singleton. You’d probably trust Jeffrey Dahmer if he asked you to come over for dinner.”
“Jeffrey Dahmer is dead,” Chloe informed her sister, “and besides, I think he liked boys.”
Lola groaned. “Give me the phone!” she demanded again.
Chloe knew there was no way around it. She was eventually going to have to hand the phone over to Lola. “Okay,” she acquiesced. “Just give me a minute first.”
“Chloe! Don’t…”
Lola’s protestation was too late. Chloe had already put the phone to her ear and resumed the conversation.”
“Pascal? You still there?”
“Still here,” he said.
“Lo wants to talk to you,” she told him.
“Okay.”
“She doesn’t believe me, so she is probably going to give you a hard time. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay, Chloe,” Pascal said confidently. “I think I can handle it.”
“Don’t count on it,” Chloe advised. “I’m going to go find that thing we were talking about while she harasses you, okay?”
“No problem.”
“She’ll have to believe us then. I’ll try to find it as quickly as I can.”
“Take your time,” he told her kindly. “Just promise you’ll call me back later if she hangs up on me. Okay?”
“Promise,” Chloe assured him.
Pascal rattled off his phone number and told her where he lived just in case she forgot the number.
“Okay then,” Chloe said. “Here’s Lola.”
Chloe reluctantly handed the phone to her sister. “Be nice to him, please?” she pleaded.
“I can guarantee that I won’t. There is no way in heck I’m going to let some jerk try to scam my gullible sister.”
Chloe gave Lola a look of disgust. “For Christ’s sake, Lo! Just fucking swear for once already!”
Chloe stomped off to the bedroom she shared with their housemate, Erin.
She knelt on the floor beside the bed and pulled out two storage baskets she had stowed there.
She dumped the contents of the baskets and began to search while she listened to her sister give Pascal what-for.
“I don’t know who the heck you think you are and I don’t care what you’ve gotten my sister to believe, but you can be sure I am going to report you to the authorities as soon as I hang up this phone,” Lola shouted into the phone before giving Pascal a chance to say anything.
Pascal was ready for this. He had actually expected this kind of reaction when he first called. He was more than a little surprised at how trusting Chloe had been. Then again, Chloe had a vital bit of information that Lola wasn’t privy to.
“What are you going to report me to the authorities for?” he asked calmly.
“For preying on a grieving family not even 3 months after an integral member of their family has died. For your information,” she continued, “the only thing mother left us was her house, and it has two mortgages on it. So, you’re out of luck if you think you are going to squeeze any inheritance out of us.”
Pascal couldn’t help it. He laughed. “I didn’t even know your mother had died until about five minutes ago. I’m really sorry about that, by the way.”
“Darn it Chloe! Is there anything you won’t tell to complete strangers?” Lola shouted down the hall to her sister. “You probably told him what color panties you are wearing too!”
“Tell him I’m wearing a purple thong!” Chloe shouted back to her sister. “I knew there was something I forgot to mention. Thanks for reminding me!”
Pascal heard every word of the exchange and was laughing so hard that his eyes were watering. It was like listening to him and Vidcund argue; except for the part about the panties, of course.
“Okay then,” said Lola. If you aren’t trying to weasel money out of us, what exactly do you want?”
“I wanted to tell you that I think…no, I know that you and Chloe are half-sisters to me and my siblings.”
“And why should I believe you. Mom would have told us if we had other people in our family. Especially brothers and sisters.”
“You don’t have to believe anything I tell you,” Pascal said matter-of –factly. “But I think you should probably believe what your sister wants to tell you.”
“And what is my naive little sister going to tell me?”
“I’d rather not ruin the surprise if it’s all the same to you,” he told her, now wishing that Chloe would hurry it up.
“I found it,” Pascal heard Chloe shout in the background.
Chloe rushed out of her room with a few sheets of crumpled paper and old yellowed photos clutched in her hand. She waved them around in front of Lola’s face.
“See! I told you he wasn’t lying!”
She held a photo up to her sister and pointed to it. “See, this is Pascal.” She went to another picture and pointed to one of the two boys in it. “And I don’t know who this other kid is, but this one is Lazlo,” she explained before switching to the next photo. “This one is Vid…Vidcund.” Chloe picked out another photo and pointed. “And this is their mom, and OUR dad!”
Lola’s eyes were wide with disbelief as she watched Chloe flip through the pictures. “Chloe, slow down! You’re not helping.” Lola took the handwritten pages from her sister and glanced over them. “Where did you get this?” she asked quietly.
Chloe looked at her sister guiltily. “Do you remember that spring during out junior year at La Fiesta when Mom was really sick? I picked up the mail one morning on my way out to class and this was in it.”
“And you kept it from me?” Lola asked.
Chloe could see the hurt in her sister’s eyes.
“And Mom?” Lola added.
“I didn’t want to upset you. I especially didn’t want to upset Mom. You know how she got every time we brought the subject up.”
Pascal listened to the sisters uncomfortably.He had prepared for many things; disbelief, denial, and downright anger were among them. He had even prepared for the possibility that he had, yet again, located the wrong G. Singleton. He hadn’t prepared for squabbling sisters. He heard the rustling of papers and could only assume that Lola was reading his father’s letter.
“When did your parents take you to the islands for vacation?” she asked after a few minutes reading.
“It was January of ’89,” he told her.
“You seem pretty sure of that. That was a pretty quick answer to something that happened almost twenty years ago, “she said testily.
“I remember that because my mother died four months later. People tend to remember such things,” Pascal told her. He was starting to become annoyed by the Doubting Thomasina routine.
“Why did you wait so long to get in touch with us, Pascal?” Lola asked. The inflection she used on Pascal’s name indicated she was still treating him with a substantial amount of skepticism.
Chloe stood next to her sister, anxiously shifting her weight from one leg to the other while she waited for Lola to come to a conclusion. Chloe had already determined that she would get together with Pascal with or without Lola’s blessing. It would just make things a lot easier if Lola were on board.
Pascal was painfully aware that Lola had no words of sympathy regarding the death of his mother. This annoyed him further.
“I didn’t find out about you until a few months ago.” He told her. He did not bother to hide the irritation in his voice. “And, your mother was not exactly an easy woman to find.”
Lola finished skimming the letter and handed it back to Chloe.
“Well, Pascal,” Lola said in the same tone of voice. “I guess I have no choice other than to believe you. The evidence appears incontrovertible. I guess you and Chloe are just going to have to make your plans.”
Chloe almost squealed with delight as she did a little victory dance. Lola surrendered the phone to Chloe and quietly went to the living room where she plopped tiredly onto the sofa and held her swimming head in her hands.
“I’m so excited! I can’t wait to get together with you guys! So, when do you want to do it?” she asked Pascal.
“Well, now that I finally found you two, I have to get together with everyone and tell the whole sordid tale. Then we can make plans if everyone is in agreement. I don’t see why they wouldn’t be, though. I’ll have to give you a call once I talk to everyone.”
“Please don’t wait that long to call back” she pleaded. “I really want to talk with you some more.”
Pascal smiled. He was sure that he and Chloe were going to get along very well. Lola, on the other hand, seemed like she was going to be a bit of a challenge to win over.
“I won’t,” he assured Chloe. “You can always call me,” he suggested.
“I guarantee I will. I have so much to tell you. You will probably get tired of me after a couple of days.”
“I know I won’t,” he told her with a laugh.
Chloe felt a little thrill. She knew, already, that she adored her newly found brother. “Don’t speak too soon. You have no idea how much of a magpie I can be,” she said with a giggle.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, I guess. I’m going to try to get everything together for dinner one night to break the news.” He told her. “I think you probably have a few things to hash out with your sister, huh?”
Chloe looked over to the sofa where he sister was massaging her temples.
“Yeah, I guess I do,” she said solemnly. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“I don’t envy you,” Pascal told her, “but I am sure everything will be okay.”
“Eventually,” Chloe speculated, not wanting to say anything further for fear Lola might overhear her. “If you don’t call me tomorrow, I’ll call you,” She said in an effort to be a little cheerful before ending their conversation. “You’re stuck with me now, buddy. And I ain’t easy to shake.”
Pascal laughed before saying, “Well, I happily resign myself to my fate.”
Chloe wished that Pascal was standing in front of her just so she could give him a gigantic hug.
“Talk to you tomorrow, Chloe,” he said.
“Bye, Pascal. I’ll talk to you then.”
There was a click before the phone went to a dial tone. Chloe pressed the end button and tucked the phone into her pocket. She took a deep breath and steeled herself before entering the living room to sit next to her sulking sister.
no subject
And I actually LOL'd when I saw Chloe's victory dance :)
no subject
Chloe is so cute, I just adore her. She and Lola are such polar opposites.