All Dolled Up!

Charlie

"Is that true?" my mother asked.

"Yes, her name was what... ah, right, Charlotte," Suzy said.

"Oh, that's nice," my mother said, though for the first time since lunch had started I could see actual disappointment in her eyes.

Josephine and I had been close to getting married - my father would remind me at times that at my age not only were he and my mother married, but that they had also had me. It was part of being the 'perfect older sibling' - I had a good career in nursing and was going to get married at what they deemed to be a reasonable time. Not to mention I could tell that my mother had been very fond of Josephine, and it seemed that she had been hoping that we would get back together at one point. It was something that was clearly never going to happen, though I think she still had hope we would work through our 'differences.'

Yeah, me quitting my old job and getting with another girl really ruined the ideal image I was supposed to maintain- notwithstanding that Charlotte and I were not dating, we were just friends. But how was I going to explain that to them when she was living in the same house as me? I didn't even think that my sister would've remembered that conversation, but she had even remembered her name - come to think of it it was entirely within her character to remember all the things that she shouldn't.

There was a gleam of victory in Suzy's eyes - she clearly knew the effect that this would have on my mother and had thrown me to the wolves to take the heat off of her. When neither of them were looking my way, I sent a glare in her direction that let her know that I would remember this strike against me.

My father was far less interested in this, and asked, when he noticed how there was this brief period of awkwardness, "So, what is she like?"

I struggled to answer - because there really wasn't one that I could give them. Instead, I just said, "It's uh... it's complicated."

My dad scoffed. "You kids and you're 'it's complicated' answers. You know what's really complicated - the square root of a negative number. I mean, do you like her? Does she like you? Does she seem like a good girl? I don't get what's so complex about that?"

"It just kind of is," I said. "I don't know where it's going, basically."

"Well, I'm sure you'll find someone if she isn't the right one for you," my mother said.

At this point I didn't bother stifling the large yawn that came out. "Ah, I am so tired, I'm going to go get some shut-eye if that's alright with you guys?"

"Just remember to wake up in time for the Robinson's barbeque," my father said.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I said as I walked upstairs.

My parents had changed houses - but they had taken almost all of their stuff with them. That meant that they took almost all of my stuff as well- and as such, there were all of my things around the house which they had thankfully not thrown out, but it was odd seeing them in locations where they shouldn't have been. It was familiar and completely foreign simultaneously, giving everything a very strange surreal feeling.

I fell asleep almost instantly despite the strange surroundings, and found my eyes opening up to see... gnomes?

I nearly leapt out of bed as I saw a number of gnomes all around the room I was sleeping in - near the door, on top of the dresser, near the foot of the bed. My heart was racing in my chest as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

I was right! The gnomes were sentient and coming to life!

That's what I thought - but then they didn't move at all. The door opened to reveal my sister, holding a gnome in one hand, and I realized what had happened.

"Aww..." she said, seeing that I was already awake. "I was going to wake you up..."

"Sure, after putting gnomes all over?" I asked, shaking my head and flicking my hair nonchalantly to show that her prank hadn't bothered me at all- which was a lie, but she didn't know how fast my heart was racing even now. "Such childish pranks won't get you anywhere, little sis."

"Whatever, the barbeque starts in half an hour, get ready."

The barbeque was one of those occasions where I found myself very much feeling out of place. Normally I would hang out with the kids - but that was when I was a kid. I could stick with the adults, though they were mainly talking about their own kids and I had none. Otherwise the conversation would shift to jobs or careers and I wanted to avoid that kind of talk. My sister was at the table with the adult's drinks, and taking full advantage of it.

I shook my head and decided to just help out with the barbeque itself - they needed a free set of hands, and it gave me something to do other than awkwardly standing in the corner. Not to mention I wasn't really in a partying mood given I was still almost half asleep and had to fight to keep my eyes open sometimes. Even a cup of coffee didn't help much.

My phone vibrated once it started to get dark - it was a text from Charlotte: 'Thank you for the tea, but it's too cloying for my personal taste. I appreciate the gesture, however.'

She didn't say that she was upset or anything - and then it occurred to me that maybe she hadn’t seemed upset because I had left, but because she had no family and I was going to visit mine. It was a strange thing to think, but I knew that people's minds worked in weird ways.

I looked up at the party and, though it was a bit counterintuitive, took a picture and sent it to her. Maybe it would cheer her up somewhat? Indeed, if she was upset about her missing family, maybe seeing an active one would be what she needed? It could also backfire, and I waited as '...' appeared on my screen for a few seconds before: 'It looks nice. I hope you have fun' came as a response.

I had read somewhere that about only thirteen percent of human communication was words, and that the rest was entirely nonverbal based on things like tone, inflection, and facial expressions. Which is why a lot of people fall for online scams much more easily than they would in real life.

Also why it was so easy to overanalyze texts- something I had been guilty of many times before. Did she really mean what she typed? Even if it was a phone call and I could hear her voice, that would give far more of a hint than just words on a screen - even better if I could see her.

But there was no real use in over-analyzing things.

Ah, look at that- my father was giving my sister askance glances as she seems to have taken one too many drinks. Perfect opportunity to stop my family from being embarrassed - and also a perfect exit opportunity for me.

"Hey, sis, let's head back home," I said, walking up to her.

She was still sober enough to realize that she had probably had a bit too much, and agreed. We drove in my car, and I texted my dad to bring hers over.

I thought that would be the end of things... though as I would discover the next morning this supposedly 'smart' decision of mine had backfired in a way I hadn't expected.

When I woke up the next morning, it was quite early and my sister was still asleep. Charlotte had sent me a few messages, likely not knowing that I was asleep at the time, and I messaged back to her an apology for not responding - though nothing she had sent me was very urgent.

I was probably still working on my night shift internal clock, and my mother was awake while my father had gone for a jog.

Perfect- because there was something I needed to ask her once I had retrieved something from my car.

"Hey- Mom," I said. "I uh- kind of need to ask you something, but can you keep this between us?" I knew there was almost a zero percent chance she wouldn't tell anyone, but I didn't particularly care for now.

"What is it?"

"I uh, needed this cleaned and polished, but I wasn't sure where to take it and what a fair price would be to pay for it - I don't want to get ripped off, and I thought you might know somewhere," I told her as I took out Emily's necklace - well, it was now Charlotte's necklace now I guess.

My mom examined it for a moment before sighing. "Did... whoever own this wear this while working in a coal mine?"

"It's an old family heirloom of theirs," I told her. "And they found it collecting dust for a long time."

"I see," she said. "But why ask you to do it then? She should have a jeweler already, no? And no offense to you, but why give someone else something so valuable instead of doing it themselves?"

I didn't have a real answer for that. I had hoped my mom wouldn't ask too many questions, but I guess she would obviously wonder about something that didn't make much sense. "I uh... I'm sorry but it's something I'd rather not talk about... but she had her reasons."

"Since when do you hide things from your own mother?" she asked. I had been hiding things from her ever since I was fifteen - with her 'you can be completely honest with me' policy coupled with my father's strictness just meaning that I had learned to lie extremely convincingly.

"Well, let's just say that she needed a favor and was too busy," I told her. She gave me a hard look for a second. "Be honest with me for a moment- you didn't steal this, did you?"

"What!?" I exclaimed, nearly so loudly I would've woken up my sister, but I controlled it immediately after. "Of course not- how could you think that?"

"Well, why else would you ask me this?" she said. "And I know you lost your original job so I thought it made sense but... no, you don't look like you're lying so..." She sighed and gave me the name of three places. "This one is the most high-end place I know, but I've never been there. This other one - a friend of mine works there and I could give them a call. The third one is one I've been to once or twice, but I don't know anyone there."

"Thanks a bunch," I told her.