I Asked First

The three of us sat, together, in Mum’s lounge, probably for the last time. I kept wanting to cry. The grief was exhausting. No, really, I wanted to curl up somewhere and hide until the hurting eased. Certainly, I held no desire to be with these two.

Kylee, eldest sister and big on organisation, addressed Melanie and me. Yeah, addressed. This was not casual conversation. We were close by blood, but not by friendship. At a couple of years off 60, she looked good. Menopause had not been a big deal for her.

“I’ve spoken with Jane at Ashby’s. She’ll come over and do an appraisal on the house. In the meantime, we need to get it cleaned out.”

“Yes, Madam,” Melanie, middle child and most outspoken of us all, rolled her eyes as she spoke. Unlike Kylee, her figure had not softened with age. She still had an athlete’s body.

“Cut it Mel. We’ve had enough drama.” Kylee snapped back.

Those two really did not like each other.

As usual, I, Tiffany, youngest and least argumentative, tried to be the peacemaker.

“How do we want to go about that?”

“Well,” Kylee backed down. “I guess, if there’s anything anyone specifically wants…” she trailed off.

“The uranium vase!” I butted in before either of them could say anything.

“No!” Mel snarled back, standing up so quickly that she swayed. “Mum promised me.”

“Did she?” Kylee was slower to move, her body less able to respond with urgency.

Both of them were standing in front of me.

Both looked ready to come to blows.

Which was why I had raced to put my claim in. We all coveted the vase, made from uranium glass, green with a hint of mystery. Mum had always said one of us girls would inherit it but that she would not say who. I doubted Mel’s claim as much as Kylee did.

“When did Mum say that?” I asked.

“Tiff, she said…,” But Mel knew Mum had said the same thing to each of us. She never had named names.

It struck me how stupid our argument was. While not common, uranium glass was still available. Why then did we want to murder each other to get the piece Mum had owned?

I remembered, Look within, inside the glass, see how different everything appears. Can you see the magic?

Those moments, when Mum held me and whispered about the magic, were my most precious memories of her. I wanted to hold onto them for the rest of my life.

“Was there anything in her will?” Mel had calmed down enough to ask a coherent question.

Kylee sunk back down onto her chair. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”

She was lying. Mel and I looked across the room at each other.

“What did the will say?” I was the better person to question Kylee.

Neither Mel nor I had been able to see the lawyer. We both needed to travel to get here. The funeral was delayed for us. We may not overly like our elder sister, but we trusted her. Wrongly, perhaps.

“The vase was not mentioned. No, not once.”

So, what else had been there which she decided we did not need to know about? “Spill.”

“All right. Mum didn’t say the car should come to me. She didn’t even mention it! But I need it. Mine’s blown the motor.”

I would not have touched Mum’s car even if offered money to take it. I hated it. The thought stopped right there.

“You can have it,” Mel was saying, contempt loud in her voice.

I nodded my agreement. Kylee claiming the vehicle, an old, grey Lada, told me she was struggling financially. That information sat uncomfortably. Mum used to always brag about how well Kylee was doing. Had my sister been fooling everyone all this time?

Mel gave a little cough. Kylee and I gave her our attention. Was she blushing? This was interesting.

She studied the carpet. “I, ah, borrowed some of Mum’s jewellery. I’d like to keep it.”

“What have you got?” Kylee spun to face Mel, clearly glad the focus was no longer on her.

As Mel listed the items, I found I did not care. Mum’s tastes in most things were completely different from mine. Mel could have all her jewels if she wanted. None of them had any great value.

“Okay,” Kylee responded. “I suggest Tiff and I go through what’s left here.”

No argument? Kylee must think she was getting the better deal. Honestly, the jewellery was probably the same value as the Lada.

Mel considered, “Tiff, what have you taken?”

“Me?” I sat up taller, surprised and outraged. I had nothing from Mum but my blue eyes.

And, suddenly, that was more than enough.

“Mel, what would you want that stuff for? You’ve got nicer jewels than that. You’re wearing it.” I asked as I looked at the golden heart pendant she was wearing.

Instead of brushing me off, which would have been a fair and predictable response, Mel sniffed. She looked at me, hard. “You don’t know, do you?”

Kylee and I exchanged glances before shaking our heads.

“Here were you two, living marvellous lives while my family was falling apart. Is falling apart.”

“What the?” Now, I was the one on my feet. “Mel, I only ever heard how amazing your life was. Smart, sporty kids, gorgeous husband, blah, blah, blah.”

Kylee nodded.

A shudder went through Mel. “I wish.”

Instinct told me to back off, so I turned my interrogation onto Kylee. “And, Ky, is your business thriving? I’m not asking just to be a bitch. Just Mum, is, was always telling me how you were travelling all around the world on company business, eating at fine restaurants, entertaining millionaires. But it’s not true, is it.”

I sunk back down into my chair.

“She said that?” Kylee looked stunned.

She took a couple of breaths before continuing, “Sure I travel, but not around the world. I don’t have a business. I’m a bloody sales rep. Joe’s Diner isn’t exactly haute cuisine.”

Mel giggled. I could not.

Because, right then, I was in the spotlight.

“And you’re the one with the veterinary degree, living on a beautiful farm.” Kylee snorted.

I blushed. As a kid, I had so wanted to be a vet. My reality was much more mundane. “The farm is real. But, I sure as heck don’t own it. I rent a cottage as part of my pay. I’m a bloody farmhand.”

The silence hurt my ears.

Finally, Mel spoke. “But, why? Why lie to that extent?”

I sighed. “Don’t know if this is it, but it’s like she was trying to make us all jealous of each other.”

“Divide and conquer,” Mel chipped in.

Something snapped. It was inside me, and, by the look on their faces, my sisters as well. I was sitting in the lounge of my mother’s house with two ordinary women I had been told to hate.

“Am I wrong, or are we all fairly normal people who generally get on with other people?”

“Yeah,” both sisters agreed.

“Yet we are always clawing each other’s throats.”

“Fighting” Kylee muttered. “For a resource so scarce, there wasn’t enough.”

That was a beautiful way to put it.

Through all this bizarre revelation, I kept seeing the vase in my mind. The old uranium glass vase that we all fought to have. The one that whispered of love and magic. It had been the focus of all my memories. Dreams and lies were wrapped up in that glass.

“Are you both willing for me to have the vase? After all, I did ask first.” I appealed to Kylee and Mel, hesitation tasting like sand in my mouth.

My sisters pondered. I held my breath.

“I couldn’t touch it,” Mel said.

“No. I don’t want it. There’s so much deception tied up inside it,” Kylee agreed.

I walked out of the lounge, stepped through the doorway, turned and called out, “Come with me. I think this is something we want to do together.”

The vase, such a pretty green, but filled with toxic memories, sat on the top shelf of Mum’s china cabinet, in the hall.

I opened the door and picked up my inheritance. It seemed lighter than I remembered. Was it no longer weighted down with the emotions we had filled it with? Or was I simply older and stronger.

“Let’s go out to the back step.”

Yes, that place where we most often heard the evil whispers. Mum had taken us all, one at a time, to sit on the step. In the sunshine, holding the vase, tracing the patterns cut in the glass, running child-sized fingers over the scalloped mouth, exploring the cavity under the base, we soaked up the words she said.

I stood there, trying to breathe. Trying to work up the courage.

“Please forgive me,” I was crying as I lifted the vase high, then threw it down onto the concrete step.

Glass shattered. Splinters went everywhere.

A hand, either side of me, covered my fingers. Two hands from two women.

“Come on, let’s be sisters and go down the road for a coffee. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” Kylee tugged me away.