Seven

Alone in my room, I sit. The clock says 6:00. Sigh. Time for dinner. I get up and head for the kitchen. My sister passes me in the hall and I think she says, "hi". It's the first time I've seen her in a week, she's never here.

I walk past the fireplace that hasn't been used since Christmas. There's a family picture of all of us, on when I broke my arm in seven places back in January, and then one of just my sister in a school portrait.

In the kitchen, I smell meat, tomatoes, and garlic. My favorite… spaghetti. I set the table and wait for my mom to appear from the cellar.

My dad comes in from the garage with grease all over his hands. He must've been working on Kate's (my sister's) old car. "We should have it fixed up by fall," he says as he washes his hands in the sink. "What all do you have to do to it?" I ask. "Well…" he starts as he dries his hands "the fender is still bent and the engine still needs a lot of work, the driver's side is still pretty banged up too."

Just then, my mom comes in carrying some canned green beans and olives in her arms. She sets them on the counter and gets out the can opener. One by one she opens them. She asks dad, "how's the car coming?" Before my dad can answer, the noodles boil over and he quickly comes to the rescue.

Minutes later we are sitting at the table quietly munching our dinner. My sister is absent yet again… big surprise. Mom is staring fixedly at the milk bottle, not reading the label because it's facing me. She's thinking about tomorrow. Memorial Day.

~ * ~

I remember one year we took a family vacation and went to this amusement park. Kate and I dared dad to go on the roller coaster with us and he went. And got sick. Kate and I laughed about it the whole way home while dad got a lecture form mom about how he ate a corndog and chili fries before the ride… blah blah blah. We have a lot of good memories like that.

We hardly do anything like that anymore though. We haven't since Halloween when Kate and I went trick-or-treating and we refused to take the candy the people gave us, we made quite a few enemies doing that, and got some of the ugliest looks! I don't know why… you don't let some random person hand you a piece of fruit at the supermarket. That's why you do it yourself, right? It might be bad and when you get bad candy that's it, it ruins it forever. Oh well, you only live once right?

Time for bed, I get changed and crawl between the covers. Sleep comes.

I wake up and get dressed. Mom is making bouquets for the graves we will be visiting today. Seven bouquets. I hate that number. We load up in the car and drive to the cemetery where we visit the graves of Grandma and Grandpa Nelson, Grandpa Hilton, Georgette Hilton, Thelma Harris, Uncle Jared Nelson and the last one pains me the most. A stone in the ground that owns a name. My sisters name. Kate Nelson. Kate Nelson died January 7th, she was in a wreck, a seven car pile up. Seven people died. On every Sunday (the seventh day of the week) Kate comes and visits me. The only survivor had her arm broken in seven places.