Chapter Two: Flora on the Floor
1198 Words
Joy
I put my hands on my hips and stared down at the woman on the floor. She was kind of posed, like a little mermaid on a rock.
Flora on the floor.
I giggled out loud.
“Are you alright, darling? Joy! How can you laugh? Flora could have been really hurt!” Daddy chastised me as he helped his girlfriend to her feet and led her over to a chair like she was made of glass.
My best friend Alex says that sometimes we have to love someone, because they are family, but we don’t have to like them. That’s how I felt about my Dad. He wasn’t nice to my mom. He said mean things and he made her cry. And he never had time for me, either. Before, when he still lived in our house, he was always working. Now, it seemed like he only cared about Flora.
Flora was not family. I did NOT have to love her or like her. “It was just an act, Daddy,” I said, unmoved by Flora’s fake tears. “And she’s not even a good actress! I didn’t push her; she just wanted me to get in trouble. That’s not very nice Flora! It’s my birthday! You should try to be nice to me on my birthday.”
Mom snorted behind me, and then tried to cover it up with a cough.
“Oh, Daddy! I have something to give you!” This seemed like the perfect time to give him the surprise.
I ran to my room to grab the envelope with the very special document that Alex had helped me write. Because it was supposed to be very official, I had written his his name on the envelope instead of just “Dad.”
“To Mr. Kevin Jackson,” Daddy read out loud, with a quizzical look. He seemed to have forgotten to be worried about Flora. He ripped open the sealed envelope and pulled out the piece of construction paper inside. “What’s this?”
I rolled my eyes, “Just read it!”
He squinted at the words I had painstakingly copied with my new markers. “Declaration of…Divorce?” His brow wrinkled up in a frown. “Joy?”
I made a rolling motion with my hand. “Go on. Read the rest.”
“I want you to divorce Mommy right away so that she can marry Mr. Ezra Falcon.” Daddy lowered the paper and looked at Mom angrily. “Who the hell is Ezra Falcon?”
“Umm,” Mom was making a funny face, like she didn’t know if she should laugh or shout. She knew perfectly well who Ezra Falcon was. But she didn't know that I wanted her to marry him.
“Mr. Falcon is Alex’s daddy!” I answered for her. “He’s a nice man!”
Daddy slammed the paper down on the table, “So this whole time you’ve been pretending to be so innocent, you were already seeing someone on the side, Kristen?”
Mommy lifted her chin. “So what if I was? Do you think you are the only person who gets to see other people? Don't be a hypocrite, Kev. You are the one who brought your side-piece to our daughter’s birthday party!”
Just at that moment, the doorbell rang. I ran to answer it, knowing it was either Grandma Jackson or it was my best friend. When I yanked open the heavy door, Alex stood there holding a gift bag with a lot of multicolored tissue paper erupting from the top. He was a skinny boy, with a thick thatch of curly black hair. His dad, Mr. Falcon, stood just behind him wearing a very nice suit. He had long hair, but he always wore it in a neat ponytail at the base of his neck. He had a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that made him look very smart, and he wore a pendant around his neck, a shiny black stone carved into a howling wolf.
"Hi, Joy!” Alex smiled. He was missing two teeth on the bottom. “I brought your present!” He wiggled his eyebrows, not at the gift in his hands, but at the man standing behind him.
“Yay! You’re here! Hurry up and come in!” I grabbed Alex by the arm and dragged him inside. Mr. Falcon followed. It wasn’t the first time they had been to our house. Alex and I had play dates all the time.
“Daddy!” I said excitedly. “This is Alex’s Daddy, Mr. Falcon.”
Daddy stood up and glared at Mr. Falcon, but Alex’s dad was way taller and larger. Mr. Falcon just politely stuck out his hand, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Jackson.”
My father swatted Mr. Falcon’s hand away rudely. “You have some nerve!”
Ezra Falcon just lifted an eyebrow, and turned to greet my mother. “Hello Kristen, I’m sorry we are late. Something came up at the last minute at home.” He glanced between Daddy and Mommy. “Is everything okay?”
Mommy cleared her throat and smiled. “Uh, everything is fine. We were just about to take the cake to the dining room, right, Sweetie?”
Mommy carefully lifted the cake and carried it to the big table. I think she just wanted an excuse to get away from the kitchen. It felt awfully small and crowded with all those people in there. Especially Mr. Falcon. He took up a lot of room.
He was big, but he wasn't scary. Alex’s Daddy was a good dad. Even though he was an important businessman, he always, always had time for his son. And when I went to play at Alex’s house, he treated me like I was Alex’s sister. He joked that we were like “two peas in a pod.”
Alex didn’t have a mom.
But I had the best mom in the world.
So we came up with the perfect plan. My mommy would marry his daddy, and we would share our parents together. We would be a whole family, and we would not only be best friends. We would be a real brother and sister.
But first, I had to get Daddy to sign the Divorce Declaration.
That’s how they did it in the movies.
I thought Daddy would be happy with the idea, too. He could go away and marry Flora. Everyone would get what they really wanted.
But instead Daddy looked very, very angry. His ears were red, and his eyebrows were practically touching over his nose.
Just as Mommy started to put the candles onto the cake, the front door opened again. It was Grandma Jackson, Daddy’s mom. She wore a pink pantsuit and a big pink hat with flowers on the rim, the kind that rich ladies wear to horse races. She had on a big pair of sunglasses that she pulled off dramatically.
“What’s going on here? Why is everyone so tense?” She narrowed her eyes on Mommy. “What have you done this time, Kristen?”
- Writer
