Beautiful Bedlam (2 page)

“Maybe, you’re the Andersons’? God knows they’ve got more than enough cats to keep Mrs. Anderson busy whilst Mr. Anderson goes out to play.” She remarked dryly. Sienna lived in a small town, small towns meant everybody knew everybody else’s business no matter how private and intimate the details may be. What Sienna didn’t get was how each time Mr. Anderson was caught cheating on his wife, his wife gladly accepted yet another cat as a peace offering. She shook her head. She didn’t think she’d ever understand the concept of marriage. She looked down at the ugly little creature that was staring at her intently with those big creepy eyes. It rolled its eyes as if it were listening in on her erratic inner monologue.

“
Seriously
? Did you just roll your eyes at me?” Sienna asked brusquely and picked the cat up before her and glared at it with wide eyes. She glanced around at the empty street. The front door to her house was still left wide open. Her parents were to busy yelling and cursing at each other to realize she’d slipped out.

“How come no one else is around when weird things happen?” she asked in a high-pitched excited voice as she turned back to face the ugly feline. The cat just meowed and Sienna knew if it could, it would have shrugged along with her. “

So, what are you a boy or a girl?” she asked curiously. The cat just stared at her with dull bored eyes.

“What?
Now
you’re shy?” Sienna retorted sardonically before lifting the cat higher in to air trying to determine its gender. She could barely see anything in the dim lighting. “A girl! Or…a boy? Wait a minute…have you been…
neutered
?” she asked her voice dropping down to a low whisper on the last word. The cat let out a yowling cry in response with its face tilted upwards dramatically. Sienna put him back down in her lap and stroked its back. “Poor guy.” She said softly. First, the leg, now the genitals, this cat could not catch a break. She sat on the floor, leaned against the tree with her new friend and faced her house, her home, the only home she had ever known and watched in silence as it came crumbling down right in front of her. From the surface, her family seemed pretty damn normal, perfect even. She had one set of parents, never been divorced or even separated, a lawyer daddy, a hot trophy wife Colombian mama, older twin sisters in college, a cute little ten year old sister, a nice house complete with a white picket fence and a rose bush.

She could see her parents through the window as the curtains were still possibly due to the fact that her mom had been up all night with a glass of red in her hands, pacing and pacing around driving herself crazy waiting for her father. She could see their dark figures moving animatedly, her mother’s hands on her hips, her father yelling with his hands raised. It was just another night at the Rivers house. Dinner always came with a show, a show that was slowly reaching closer and closer to its inevitable expiry date. She could see Annie’s small figure beside the giant window in the upstairs bedroom, her small tired eyes taking everything in. she saw movement. Her father ran up the stairs, probably straight past the twins. Sienna only took this as a sign of retreat. Her mother had clearly won this battle.

“They weren’t always like this, you know. They used to laugh. Now they can barely be in the same room as each other without setting the other off.” Sienna said softly and shivered in the cool night air. The freaky looking Sphynx looked up at her and gazed at her with his big blue eyes purring lovingly. The damn thing was growing on her. She quickly wiped the traitorous tear that seeped out her glistening green eyes and laughed in spite of her self shakily.

“Yeah, I know, what you’re thinking. Get over it. Everybody’s parents fight. Everybody’s parents are divorced. You’re sixteen years old; you hardly need your mommy and daddy to hold your hand anymore.” Sienna whispered with a wry self-deprecating smirk trying as always to make light of her situation. It drove her sisters nuts. Whenever anything terrible happened, she was always the first to resort to laughter. You could understand why Sienna’s mother didn’t exactly allow her daughter to attend any more family funerals. She heard more yelling, more feet stomping down the stairs, more cries. It was a wonder the neighbors weren’t up yet wiping the dust off their blinds with their eyelashes with sheer delight.

“I don’t know. Its just sometimes it feels like I’m screaming on the inside. I’m screaming to the world, I’m screeching right in to the abyss, I’m crying, kicking, dragging my feet all the way to oblivion and not a soul on earth can hear me…sometimes I feel like I’m already dead.” She said numbly her eyes staring out pensively in to thin air, her voice rang heavy with the echo of truth.

“Ow!” she yelped as she felt a set of very sharp claws dig in to her arm. She jumped back, throwing that cat off her along the way. The Sphynx landed perfectly safely on its three legs and looked up at her patiently as if it were a pink Yoda with anger management issues.

“What is wrong with you? No! Bad kitty! Scratching is
bad
!” Sienna reprimanded irritably and frowned at the sight of her bloody arm. She never had a cat before. She wondered if she’d need a tetanus shot. ‘
Do cats give rabies? Or is that just dogs?’
she wondered to herself. The cat was clearly feeling sorry and purred and meowed adorably and licked Sienna’s ankles.

“You know what, I was going to call you Mr. Wrinkles but clearly you’re more of a Sméagol!” Sienna sighed and put her hands on her hips looking at the curious creature below. She couldn’t help but smile at the hairless thing. Where it lacked in beauty, it clearly made up for in brains.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, Smeags. I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. My life could be a lot worse.” She remarked considerately with a small tilt of her head.  

It was as if the universe had heard her utter those words aloud because the second they passed her lips, Sienna’s father, Phil, came rushing out of the house with his car keys and suitcase in hand complete with her mother running out after him. They hadn’t even noticed her in amidst all the drama and the chaos.

Her father was still smartly dressed in his usual work attire of a crisp white shirt that now looked crumped and beaten down along with his tired exhausted face, his charcoal grey khaki pants just seemed to wear him down even further. She looked nothing like her father. Thankfully, she got her mother’s good genes, which were just about the only good things about her. He was a man of average stature, below average looks, unbecoming outward appearance and an absolutely outstanding heart of gold. Usually he was of fair pink complexion, which contrasted greatly with his balding dark hair and brown eyes. Yet, tonight they were both disheveled, pale faced and strung out. Perhaps it was the lighting but he seemed to have more flecks of grey in his hair, more lines on that crowded forehead. He looked perfectly apt for what he was at that moment, a man who had given up.

“I just…I need some time!” he yelled as he yanked open the door to his black SUV and threw his jacket in to the passenger seat.

“TIME? TIME?
You
need time?” her mother scoffed instantly.

“You’re nothing but a waste of space loser! Go! Like we need you anyway!” Maria screamed spitefully with tears continuously streaming down her beautiful face. Sienna knew she didn’t mean that. Or maybe she did? She probably didn’t even know if she meant it. She had her white terrycloth robe on over her pajamas, had her long thick dark hair all down her back, with not a smidge of make up on yet she still managed to look better than most women half her age did with a full face made up in considerably better lighting. Her mother, especially when angered, which was almost every day now always resorted to cursing and swearing in rapid quick fire Spanish. Maria Rivers had come to this country when she was sixteen years old. Twenty-five years later and she had still not lost the bite of the Colombian accent.

“Dad, stop! What are you doing?” Meredith asked frantically as she hovered outside the front door. In her parents’ twenty-year marriage, none of the girls had ever witnessed a single argument between their parents up until a month ago. Almost every night resulted in bickering, point scoring, nasty remarks then by the end of dinner (if her father bothered to show up) screaming, shouting, tears, smashing of random ornaments and glass objects. They had always sent the girls to their rooms by then. So, for them to witness the true volatility behind the relationship their parents once had was both telling and damaging to the girls who had not expected this. They had all hoped it was just a phase, a bump on the otherwise perfectly untarnished road. Maybe it was a midlife crisis? She was pretty sure old people got them a lot. And there was always menopause…that would explain a lot.

“Girls, go back to bed.” Phil sighed as he saw the twins standing by the door, crying.

“Where are you going?” Sienna asked abruptly. Her voice rang out in the long awkward silence immediately grabbing hold of everyone’s attention. Her father looked at her first with bewilderment as to what she was doing across the road in the middle of the night all by herself then his face faded to its former depressed setting except this time he had the decency to look slightly ashamed and guilty. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. He was already sweating profusely probably because he knew what he was doing was so wrong.

“Sienna-“ he winced as he said her name and looked as though he was about to apologize. The apology never came not because he had changed his mind about leaving or because he was feeling indifferent, no. It was because her mother as always cut him off quickly.

“What are you doing out here?” she snapped angrily and gave her a look that was enough to strike the fear of God in to the hearts of even the most unbelieving of men. The fury was manifest in those smoky dark eyes of hers. Sienna looked down to her feet and all around her only to find Smeags gone.
Traitor
.

“I-“

“You what? You what? You’re running away as well? Like your coward father? Why don’t you aaaaaall just run away?” she shouted loudly elongating all her vowels never ceasing to irritate her husband furthermore. God. He could not believe he had put up with that voice for so many years. He actually felt grateful he was starting to lose his hearing. There was nothing more bittersweet and often cynical than a good old silver lining.

“Keep your voice down.” Phil hissed as he noticed some lights flickering on in the neighbors’ households. Maria just crossed her arms and was quite literally seething with anger.

“Have you been sleepwalking again?” Phil asked softly, his tone gentle and kind. His father voice was remotely and was at polar ends to his recent husband voice.

“Of course not. She hasn’t done that in years! Not that
you
would know.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m the one who even found out she used to sleepwalk! I’m the one who used to tuck her in at night. I’m the one who-“

“Oh here we go! The big crybaby! It’s always about you! Eres un abuson! Do you see how selfish your father is?” Maria asked sardonically to Cora and Meredith waving her hand at him. They said nothing in response. Phil clearly took this as a sign to leave. He quickly got in to the driver’s seat and started up the engine.

“What are you doing? Don’t be so dramatic.” Maria shouted incredulously. She stared at him with wide eyes as if she believed he was only baiting her this entire time. What did she expect? Ashton Kutcher and a bunch of crewmembers and a little red devil to pop out and tell her she’d been punk’d? Phil looked to his rearview mirror and began reversing out of the driveway.

“Dad!” Cora yelled but for some reason stayed rooted to her spot as if she were unable to move. It was as if none of them were. They were all pretty much in shock.

“Phillip! Phillip, wait. Wait!” Maria ran over to the moving vehicle and tried to pry open the doors which he conveniently locked.

“Mama, stop. You’ll hurt yourself.” Sienna said worriedly and came to her side.

“I’m sorry! Just let me explain!” Maria cried through quick and heavy sobs but he wasn’t having any of it. He didn’t even look at her as he reversed all the way back on to the street.

“What did you do?” Meredith whispered echoing all of their thoughts but that was for later. Now, the situation at hand was trying to get dad not to run mom over as he leaves her. A situation she never thought she’d ever be in but fate’s a fickle bitch. The neighbors at this point were definitely very much awake and she could hear them rustling about and saw a couple of their porch lights turn on. “Is this really happening?” she heard Cora mumble tearfully before retreating back indoors as if she couldn’t bear to witness seeing her father drive away in to the distance presumably forever.

“Dad, just stop the car.” Sienna shouted exasperatedly and ran her fingers through her dark locks. He didn’t seem to notice or even care. He just looked forward and shifted gears. “Dad, wait.” Sienna’s voice broke on the last syllable. Her father looked up at her. His eyes filled with a deep sadness Sienna was only just coming to know and shook his head slightly.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t even keep up with the lies. Its too much.” He said aloud in his car, just loud enough for her to hear it.

“Fine. Go! Go!” Maria screamed and broke down in to a fresh set of tears and punched the car twice before it swerved away from her and tore its way down the road and out of their lives. Sienna felt her heart shatter in to what felt like a million pieces. She wanted nothing more than to hide in bed like Annie, or retreat back in to the house like Cora, or even have the guts to be angry at her mom like Meredith yet somehow Sienna, the unstable one, the self-proclaimed black sheep of the bunch ended up trying to console their neurotic controlling theatrical mother. What only added salt to the wound was the sight of her mother running after the car. Sienna grabbed her arm and steadied her, which was surprisingly easy to do. Not so surprising when Sienna realized just how drunk she was.