Arcadia's Gift(72)

“Arcadia—”
“Will you please stop that? Stop using that mother-voice on me. It’s not going to work, all right?” I paced back and forth in front of my closet.
“I am your mother,” she said, her voice rising with indignation.
I paused mid-stride and faced her. “Really? Some mother you’ve been lately. Tell me, while you were wallowing away in your bedroom like some Victorian-era heroine, did you even think about the two kids that you left to fend for themselves?”
I hated myself even as I was doing it, but something snapped within me, and I let it all out. “Who do you think paid the bills this month? Dad did. Who has been making excuses for you when your office calls, or the clients that you have abandoned? Aaron, that’s who. Who has been making sure there is food in the house? Me.”
The volume of my voice was steadily rising into a shout. “We’re all running around here taking care of things so you don’t have to. So you can feel sorry for yourself. But what about us? We lost someone too. You do not have a monopoly on loving her!”
Mom’s skin faded to a grayish white and her hands visibly shook. I had gone too far. I’d kicked her when she was down. What kind of shitty daughter does that?
Dad appeared at the door. The tight press of his lips let me know he’d heard at least part of my tirade. “You ready to head out, Julia?”
Mom stood, smoothing her clothes, not meeting either of our eyes. She nodded.
“Mom,” I said, reaching for her as she brushed past me. She yanked her arm from my grasp, leveled her lightly blood shot eyes on me and said, “Goodbye, Arcadia.”
The odd formality in her tone rooted me to the spot, keeping me from following them out the door, down the steps and to the car.
I crossed the hall to the guest bedroom and watched from the window. In the driveway, Aaron hugged Mom tightly and Dad tucked her into the passenger seat of his truck as if she were fragile cargo. Aaron waved until the truck turned out of sight.
I slumped down to the floor, drawing my knees to my chest, too upset to even cry. I never had temper problems before, but for the second time since the accident, I found myself feeling guilty and embarrassed by a sudden outburst. It wasn’t like me at all.
A long sigh from the doorway made me look up.
“So now what?” Aaron asked.
“Huh?”
He entered the room and sat down on the carpet near me. “Well, one of my sisters is gone, and I can’t do anything about it. My mother has a drug problem and is headed to rehab, and I can’t do anything about it. My other sister,” he cut his eyes to me, “has turned into some sort of psychic healer, and I probably can’t do anything about that either, but well, I’m here and so are you, so I guess that means we’re in this together. So again, what do we do now?”
“Now,” I shrugged. “It’s time to figure out what in the hell happened last night.”
Aaron’s head nodded in agreement. “Okay. Where do we start?”
I grinned. “I think it’s time for you to meet the neighbor.”