Bittersweet

It was just a day away from being my 18th birthday. I was sitting with my younger sister Melanie in our room. A room the both of us now shared due to our stepmother turning my room into her office. We prefer to call her stepmonster these days. See, our dad passed away a few months back while away at war, and things just have not been the same since then.

It was a cloudy February day when the news of my father came. It’s as if the weather was foretelling the devastatingly dark news that was awry. I will never forget that day, a Saturday. The knock came at around noon to deliver the horrific news, just as we were having brunch. My stepmother was startled as she was not expecting anyone. She glided out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the front door, still dressed in the prior evening’s negligee. As she did so, my sister and I followed but stood back in the kitchen doorway to see who it was. As soon as the door opened my stepmother fell to her knees and let out a shrill that shook the whole house. At that moment, we stared at the soldiers looking down at her sympathetically and knew that our father wasn’t coming back. My sister and I started to cry out loud while holding each other in the tightest embrace ever. It was our worst nightmare.

It feels like as soon as my father passed away my stepmother became what we now call a stepmonster. She never was a very pleasant person to begin with, but things had gotten even worse now. I don’t even think she ever truly loved my dad to be honest. She just wanted to be an army wife and enjoy all the perks that came along with it.

She stormed in one day from running errands and decided that she would need my room for her office as she would be working solely from home now. “Melody!”, she yelled up the stairs at me to come down. “What is it?” I unenthusiastically replied from the top of the stairs. “Uhh, so rude! Anyway, I will need you to start moving your things into Melanie’s room immediately. I will be using that space as my office for now.” My eyes got wide in complete disbelief at what I was hearing. “What?! I can’t move in with my younger sister I need my privacy and space! You can’t have my room! That’s so unfair!” “Oh hush girl, you will be just fine! That room is big enough for the both of you. Now quit your complaining and get started moving your belongings as I said!” Overhearing the commotion, Melanie came flying out of her room “Wait, what?! Melody cannot move into my room; we have to have our own space!” “Now now girls, calm down. I will not hear another word out of you two about what can or cannot happen in MY house. We will be moving soon anyway so it shouldn’t be for too long. Now run along and get to it!”

“I’m not going anywhere with you”, I muttered under my breath as I stormed back into my room and slammed my door. Who did she think she was? Just stripping me of my room, MY ROOM! I was so mad but did as I was told because as she said, it wouldn’t be for long and plus I had bigger plans. What she didn’t know was that I had talked to my aunt Mary at my dad’s repast about moving to Pennsylvania where she lived and possibly going to school there. I had some money saved up from my after-school job but still wanted to get more stable before moving on my own. My aunt was so nice and said that we were always welcome to stay with her for as long as we needed. That was all I needed to hear in that moment, my mind was made up! There was nothing left holding me back here in Virginia now that my father was gone. I wanted a change of scenery, a breath of fresh air. Most of all I needed to be far away from this stepmonster who thought she would control my every move. I was turning 18 and taking my own life by the reins, no buts about it!

So, as I sat in my room that day, I decided to tell my sister of my plans to pack up and head for Pennsylvania the day after my birthday. I didn’t want to bring it up to her any sooner because she could tend to get really antsy. Of course, she was ready to go and had a million and one questions as I knew she would. So that night we stealthily started to get our things packed and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and was excited for my 18th birthday! Our stepmonster was busy in her office when we walked up to her door letting her know we would be out all day for my birthday. ‘Oh, that is today”, she said dryly while looking at her desk calendar. She dug down by her feet where her handbag had been sitting and shuffled around a bit before saying “Here, happy birthday” while handing me $100. She looked back down at her laptop and started typing away. “Thanks”, I said as I turned around and headed out for my day.

We hit the mall and carnival before returning home that evening. When we got back our stepmonster wasn’t home. I got situated and went into the kitchen to make my birthday cake that I had been talking about making all week. I was excited to bake my own cake. Once my cake was done, I put my candles in and stared at my creation. It was a triple chocolate cake, nice and moist with chocolate icing and chocolate shavings. My sister sang Happy Birthday and I started tearing up, as my dad crossed my mind. My sister noticed and asked what was wrong. “I just miss dad, I’m ok.” “I miss him too” she replied starting to look down. “Alright let’s eat some cake!” I said, swiping some icing off the cake and onto her nose. We giggled and got our pieces of cake. It looked so good and tasted just as good too. We got ready for bed and just chilled in our room for the night. A few hours later my stepmonster had returned home and was now in bed. I brought her up a slice of cake I had put aside for her and stood by as she told me how good it was. “Enjoy, good night” I said as I turned around to head back to my room with a smile on my face. I slept great that night, knowing the day I had ahead of me.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready to head out to the train station. My sister was already down the stairs and halfway out the door as she was super excited to get going. I walked down the hallway and stood in our stepmonster’s doorway and saw the empty dessert plate still on her nightstand. Her foot stuck out from beneath her sheets like usual when she was in a deep sleep. I went in and stood closer to her bed and yelled “BYE!” as loud as I could. There was not a single stir, not a breath to be heard, no reply. But I wasn’t expecting any…I smiled. The deed was done.