“Ugh Rose, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel so crappy lately.” Rose stopped dusting the end table for a moment to stare at her sister laying on her bedraggled old blue futon with the stuffing poking out of it.
“Are you sure it’s not the two packs you smoke every day? Look, I’m not gonna pay for your medical bills if you have lung cancer or something.”
“It’s not that kind of sick…and will you stop dusting my furniture! I don’t need you to be my housewife! I’d probably be a pretty sucky husband.”
“No, you’d be perfect. You sure act like him, laying around all day. But seriously, what’s wrong with you if it’s not a black lung?"
“I told you already! It all started when I touched that little girl’s hand! I haven’t slept in a week! Ya think she’s a witch or something?”
“Oh yes, I heard the devil likes to have six year olds do his bidding, especially at carnivals.”
“I think she was seven.”
“Oh right, because you read her mind. Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis?”
“It’s telling the future! Not reading her mind. Am I crazy?”
“Same difference. And no, you’re not crazy, you’re just extremely untidy. Ugh! I swear it gets worse every time I come here! Just because you never married what’s-his-name doesn’t mean everything goes down the drain!” After a moment of stifling silence accompanied by the faint swish swish of the feather duster, Rose continued.
“Shouldn’t you be at work, Miss Lavender?” Rose emphasized the name in a way meant to tease her sister and erase the words that mistakenly spilled out of her mouth just moments before.
But Lavender was staring at the untwisted turban, her fingers exploring the cotton polyester mix and her mind exploring the deep recesses of memory. Her thoughts alternated between the recent memory of the images that invaded her mind after touching that girl’s hand and the more distant past. John, Johnny. He was her high school love. It was kind of clichéd, but true. But she hadn’t been pregnant or anything; she had that bit of luck over Sally James; that hussy had to drop out of school. It still hurt thinking about him, how he left her two weeks before they were supposed to get married. Damn it! Rose had to bring that up. Rose had a husband, a few kids and a plastic covered couch. She had a midlife crisis, complete with hallucinations and possible premonitions of the future. Maybe Rose would be willing to trade.
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