Heirs of love

Development.

"Aaron, doesn't it disgust you to be kissing this woman in the middle of the school bus in such an inappropriate way? That doesn't seem like an act of God to me." I tell him in a wry tone and both he and the girl he's kissing roll their eyes.

Of course, I have to make religious references, since Aaron loves them.

"Stick your tongue up your ass, Rain, or go suck your boogers..." Aaron replies to me in an obfuscated tone, and the teacher turns and gives him a broad lecture.

I laugh as I listen to him, I have achieved my goal. I've won to get him messed up....

We both arrive at school and each one takes his side, the class goes by with absolute normality, my classmates still don't know what is happening in my family... Nor do I want them to know.

This ends and Aaron is still angry with me for the episode on the bus. So, we go home in complete and utter silence. He doesn't want to talk to me, and I don't want to talk to him.

I've been reading all the rest of the day after back from school and lunch, Aunt Hilary hasn't arrived yet, but it shouldn't be long before she shows up with her wilted face to yell and scream and ask for things.

I realize that I am really in love with everything about the Jurassic era, and all the animals that inhabited it, although to be honest, as much as I read and investigate about prehistory and everything Jurassic, I still find the most incomprehensible the f*****g humans and their strange manias of judging everything that does not correspond to what they consider correct.

I watch Mrs. Jimena all the time as she cleans Mom, from her ears, wipes her body with a wet towel, brushes her hair that in other days was almost as precious as that of the detestable cousin Hilary. And I realize that it is quite unfair what is happening to Mom, people who I consider good have a hard time, and people who I consider to be terribly detestable and who should be right in an insane asylum for the way they act, as if they were insane, are out there being as successful as it is possible for a person to be.

Not even if I turned a hundred years old tomorrow would I forget how much I hate dad for abandoning us, really the only consolation lately is to look at Mrs. Jimena, she is an admirable subject and worthy of admiration.

After being bathed, as the daily thing, I am aware that it doesn't take long for the horrible and abominable cousin to arrive, so I approach Mrs. Jimena and ask her a question I have been wanting to ask her for days:

"Jime, excuse me if I'm being nosy or gossipy, but what do you think of my cousin Hilary, do you consider her a respectable person?" She opens her eyes wide for a moment that almost makes me think I imagined it, runs her hand through her short blonde hair, and finally clears her throat and says to me:

"Well, Rain, my darling... I wouldn't consider you gossipy or a bad girl ever, just a very curious little girl with a rather large eagerness to ask questions catching one out of the blue, but without being too 'strict', my verdict on Miss Hilary won't surprise you much, she is rather inconsiderate and finds it hard to give deserved credit to the work of others, she only considers herself and the few things her little Rain allows her to do for others, she magnifies them as if it were something no one else could do. I hope you never repeat this conversation no matter how upset you get to be with her, remember that she is my boss, and I need this job very much, I have a little girl smaller than you who depends on the salary I get here for taking care of you and her mother, ok?" She explains me carefully and her gaze falls on mine, holding it.

I interrupt her curiously:

"Oh, you have a daughter? I didn't know that, why don't you ever bring her with you? I could use some company for me at home, Arón keeps locked up in his room, he only comes out happily when stupid Hilary arrives, and that's when I'm the saddest and most annoyed" I confess with a jaded tone, I can't contain it.

He answers me with a pitiful face: "Nothing would make me happier than bringing my little Nandan with me to work, I enjoy this job very much, besides being well-paid thanks to my absolute discretion about your mother's condition, that's why your father trusts me" Jimena throws, and I realize that she blushes.

I attack her as if she had hit me in the head....

"My father? Have you ever met dad before, or do you even know where he is right now? Aron told me that you were recommended by a nursing agency that Hilary hired, although I already suspected that she would never pay for something that is not for her use or enjoyment." I reply with annoyance.

She takes a wide breath of air and looks at me with a worried expression, again.

"Rain, don't get mad, but this is a very personal and adult issue that although I am certain that you are a great and very mature girl, you are not yet old enough to understand the issue, don't question me or think that I am doing it for wrong, I am just fulfilling a contract, ok? In the future, you will possibly understand my situation and decide to put yourself in my place, ok?" It's a hell of a thing trying to understand the adult world when you're your age.

I think about it carefully, if I dedicate myself to press Jimena for information on how she and my father know each other, or why dad decided to hire her and not someone else, I run the risk of her providing me the information and in case it's a grave case that makes me lose my sanity and claim Aaron, I would lose the job, and she already told me she has a daughter.... Later I will find out on my own what everyone is hiding, for now, I only think about getting insistent so that he brings his little girl to our house. I have a thorn around this information, I feel that my father and this woman are hiding something, but turning on her right now, won't bring anything good.

"I have to do a couple of things, Rain, have a wonderful day. " Jimena tells me and leaves without further ado.

I decide to walk to the kitchen, to make myself a frappé, until what?

I'm distracted from my plans by some strange screams coming from Arón's room, I tiptoe up to his door... Strangely enough, it's locked, I think about whether it would be wrong to put my ear to his door to get an idea of what's going on in there, I decide to do it because what if he's in danger?

I leave my internal struggle about whether to bring my ear closer or not, and I do it, after getting close enough I hear women screaming, a girl is in there, she screams words like 'whip me' 'give me harder, you bastard' and then she stops screaming and starts to emit little screams like the cat of the lady upstairs when I accidentally step on her tail. I'm left wondering what that's all about, and I can't help but feel a little confused and at the same time engrossed with everything going on in there, it's crazy that I can't understand it.

I get closer again, I hear footsteps in his room, and now knocking, oh God what could be happening in there for knocking to be heard now, I'm still confused, and I don't know if it's appropriate to inform Jimena about it, it's not part of her job to take care of whether Aaron brings girls into the house, or to deal with Arón's enemies in case a fight is happening in there. I think the best thing to do is wait a bit for Hilary to arrive and risk being called a tattletale and nosy, but it's the only option I have, to give the scoop to my psychotic cousin who will possibly give me a reprimand for worrying about my brother.

I keep hearing the same noises, the girl's voice cracking a couple of times as she repeats to him:

"Ahhhhhhhhhh, that's how I like this to happen. Give me, please".

Give what?

The mood of adults is so strange all the time!

He finally speaks up and yells in an aggressive voice:

"You're a dirty little slut, tell me you're my dirty doll if you want me to take you where you want to go".

She pleads with him:

"Ohhhh yes, please, touch me, possess me and of course I am whatever you desire".

I am even more confused than when I started to hear the noises, I can't imagine what could be going on in there.

Could it be that Aaron is blackmailing her, and she just wants to go home, and he's making her say everything he wants to hear, is his ego that big, he really is a real jerk? And a pig, the things he's forcing her to say don't even make sense... They lack logic, being honest.

I go running to my room, even with the noises I had to witness, and processing everything I heard, I change my clothes and wear one of the dresses mom liked the most, I gather my hair in a perfect ponytail on the highest part of my head and even put on a pearl bracelet that a friend of dad's gave me on my birthday number eight, at that time I was so happy. I do it all to make a good impression on Hilary, so she can listen to me when I ask her to go to Arón's room and verify that he has a girl in there and what kind of situation is going on. Just as I am looking at myself in the mirror to leave the room I hear Hilary's heels getting out of her car, I hurry to wait for her in front of the door to tell her how beautiful she looks, that always puts her in a good mood, occasionally I do it so she doesn't load me so much with insults and reproaches.

Before she finishes getting off, I can hear her mumbling in response to the compliments of the neighbor's gardener who tells her in a thousand different ways how beautiful and radiant she looks today. I guess she has come wearing one of those too-short dresses that show her butt and then some.

"Hilary you look gorgeous today, your heels are so chic" I tell her in a singsong tone.

She replies with a superior smile as if I were a cockroach and she were a person. Damn self-centered smile.

"Thank you very much Rain, you look better today than other days, but since you invoked beauty, where is my dear Arón's good and beautiful one? I have seen in the mall some shorts that would suit him to a T for this summer". She throws out with sympathy, one that doesn't seem like her own.

I answer her rather quickly, I can't miss the opportunity in front of me.

"I think Aaron is in his room with a kidnapped girl hurting him, I was telling him to say that she is his dirty b***h and other kind of derogatory adjectives that do not seem to me the right ones to address a lady, excuse my indiscretion, but I am not lying, you can go and approach his door, if you want to check that it is true and that I am not exaggerating, I already know that you do not trust me". I state seriously and proceed to shrug, rarely does anyone trust me for my genuine ability to lie or be too honest, in me there are never in-betweens, no matter how hard I try to make them take place.

I wait a few seconds and plan for her to emit a scream typical of Hilary's personality like 'Rain, you're a gossipy piece of s**t, ten wasted years of parenting with you have your parents'.

Until I wait and wait, and all I have before my eyes, is Miss Perfect going into a rage... In a way never considered.

"Rain, I need you to obey me, go to your room and don't come out of there, where is Jimena?" she asks me between screams and screeches, as I look at her face I notice a vein sprouting in the middle of her forehead.

I decide to answer very calmly. It feels good to see her so angry, it makes her features look sloppy.

"Auntie, of course he's taking care of mom".

She makes a gesture with her eyes that tells me to go to my room but right now, and that's what I do... She's so angry I think she might challenge me even for breathing, and I don't want a beating.

As I go to my room, I listen to everything in silence, I see my Rihanna posters stuck on the wall, for a moment I think if when I grow up I will be as pretty as her... Although my pale European skin, my oval face, my straight and undefined hair denote that it will be the opposite. Only my body could resemble hers, possibly I have the money to make it into an attractive one.

I give up my wild thoughts about the future when I hear Hilary's furious screams from the next room, it must be a whole TV scenario going on.

"Aaron, open the f*****g door for me right now and get the f**k out of there with whatever promiscuous slut has dared to crawl into your bed, I already know you're with someone and they better get out or I'm going to break the door down this f*****g instant and you don't want that to happen, I'll give you a second". Hilary yells at him and I can hear it clearly, her voice sounds authoritative and very low, nothing like her usual.

It's Hilary, talking that way to her beloved Aaron, her favorite!

She has to be very angry to be shouting like that. And all of a sudden, I hear her incessantly kicking at the door and Arón nothing to open it for her, I start to worry, as Hilary starts to sound more and more hysterical.

"Aron, I am the only one who can be in there whenever I feel like it, not some little girl from your school who wants to be big and know what you need, she is never going to understand you, don't be so stupid to fall for that kind of trickery". Hilary yells at her and I can clearly hear every single accentuation and shock she has left in that statement....

My mind is chagrined to hear such a confession, and I can't quite figure it out for sure.....

Is my life all this time, and all the little that is left in it, a fallacy?

Is this a bad dream that lacks common sense?

Why is my brother with a woman and our cousin is so furious and tells him that only she can be there?

Apparently, what's going on between them is quite clear... And I... I've been too innocent not to notice what was going on under my nose, it's aberrant and I don't know how to interpret it.

Isn't family love never supposed to mix with the desire to be in the room that adults show as innuendo in cartoons?

Apparently, in my brother and cousin, it doesn't happen in that traditional way. Or is that what they are clearly leaving me to interpret.

How will I be affected by their immature play?

Does my father know and that's why he abandoned us?

Did my mother know before she became a vegetable?

Here we go, with unnecessary secrets being a cloud!