Chapter Ten
If you thought the description of the outside of Aunt Reva’s house was enough to make you go, ‘WHAT THE HELL!’ then you never had the chance to go inside of it.
To tell my Aunt Reva that she was a hoarder would constitute a swift knock upside the head with whatever was within arm’s reach. But this was how my Aunt kept her place. Yet despite the clutter, it was like going into an antique store, everything in its place…so nice and neat. She would constantly dust her trinkets that she had gotten over the years and even though she had way too much, she would sometimes go into her attic or basement to bring up more things of nostalgia.
When I came over after going home to change my clothes and all, I had decided to bring a bit of a peace offering for Aunt Reva. Something I knew she could never live without…a twelve pack of Pepsi and two packs of Pall Mall Gold cigarettes.
“Well, look who is here. I was running low on my cigarettes thanks. Come on in. Now I want you to go into the attic and get the boxes that say ‘Photos’ on them. There should be about four of them in shoeboxes.”
I looked at her as if she was crazy and most thought she was, but deep down, I knew that she was only doing this because she was lonely. Remember I said that none of my family wanted anything to do with her and her antics. But they knew how she was and of course, they should have been able to accept her for who she was. I really doubted that they would go along with it but I had planned on talking with my dad. Something had to give.
Looking up at the attic door, I just stood there, just staring at the damn thing because I knew that I had to go up in there to get her damn boxes. Now, why I hated attics had to do with something that happened to me when I was about nine years old. I went to visit my Uncle Max and his family which included my cousins Max Jr., Maryanne and Noel. Out of all the family members I had, these three cousins were probably the worst. They were nothing more than troublemakers from the first time we ever played together. These three had a way of manipulating people into doing their dirty deeds. I was their one and only ‘chump’ to where they would get me into situations where my Uncle Max or his wife Sonya would yell at me. But this all came to a head on one visit that summer. I had been there for about three days even though my visit was going to have me there for about a month.
“Hey cousin, come here,” Max Jr. told me as he had been in the hallway when I had made it up the stairs. “You want to see something really cool.”
“Sure,” I told him as he soon walked down the hall a bit further and grabbed hold of the rope that was coming from the ceiling. When he pulled it down, a row of stairs came down right along with it.
I was thankful that I was far from it because if I hadn’t been, my head would have been lopped off and I wouldn’t be telling you this cockamamie story in the first place. Going into his back pocket in which he had a large flashlight in it, he turned it on and motioned me to follow up behind him which being the naïve person that I was, I did along with Maryanne and Noel. When we got up there, it was dank and very dusty which for someone with allergies like I did at that time was hazardous because I would end up having a sneeze fit if I was any place like this for a long period of time.
There were a lot of boxes and we went into some of them, pulling out clothing that were dated from back in the forties and fifties along with pictures and other things. I was having a lot of fun digging into the boxes even though I was sneezing from time to time from all the dust flying all over the place. But after a while, I noticed that each of the siblings was conspicuously leaving. First, it was Maryanne who said she had to make a phone call. Then Noel said he had to run to the bathroom to get me some tissue to blow my nose. It was like ten minutes later that Max Jr told me, “Let me go and get us something to drink and see where the others are, I’ll be right back.”
In my defense, I really wasn’t paying much attention to them because I was enjoying myself playing dress up with some of the clothes I had found. But when he left, it took me a minute to realize that he had closed the door and when I heard a snapping sound as if something was being locked. Immediately I went to the door, trying to open it but couldn’t and that’s when I knew I had been locked in there. “Hey, hey, Max, you locked the door!” I shouted while standing there, waiting for someone to say something but no one answered me. “You guys, open the door!” I began banging on the door, trying my best to open it by pushing it but it just wouldn’t budge, no matter how much I tried pushing it. Then that’s when it happened, what every girl in a horror movie would dread when faced with a predicament such as this….the lights went out and darkness was all around me. Now, for any other person this would have been a time to panic because it was dark as hell, I couldn’t see a damn thing in front of my face since there were no windows whatsoever. That’s when I remembered the flashlight and scurried around to see if I could find it where I had last saw it. Thankfully, I was able to find it and when I tried to turn it on, it flickered a bit, trying to stay on, and then it went completely out. I tried shaking it to jiggle the batteries inside, so it would stay on.
That shit didn’t work.
This is when it really started to get even scarier as I tried to continue opening the door, I heard something that sounded like a moan and groan from over in the dark corner of the room. “Alright you guys, the game is over. Open the door now!” I shouted as the sound got louder and the groans.
I could continue on but the end of this craziness known as my life ended pretty badly for me but funny for my cousins. They got their asses whooped to the point that they couldn’t sit down at all….LITERALLY and I ended up going back home where it was safe but I never was able to go up into an attic, much less down in the basement…ever again.
But today, I had to be a big girl and just grab those damn boxes and bring my ass on down again. Opening up the door, I could smell the dank as I took a deep breath while making my ascension towards the darkness.
“There is a light switch on the side so you can see up there!” Aunt Reva called from behind me.
I got to the top and moved my hand along the sides trying to find a switch somewhere. Thankfully, I found it and then there was light. Looking around, I found two shoeboxes, then another and eventually, the last one. I felt grateful to get the hell out of there even though I was somewhat able to tackle my fear.
Honestly, that’s the last damn time I’ll do that.
“Oh, you found them, good. You know I would have gone up there but of course my hip.” She had made some of her famous ginger punch which honestly I could only handle one glass of the stuff. It was as if she had made the concoction a month ahead as the potency was on an entirely different level. “Come and sit on down here, I made some punch.”
Sitting down next to her with the boxes, I took the tall glass she handed me and took a sip of it. Even though she had put ice in it, the stuff still burned from all the ginger she used.
“Too much ginger huh?”
“Just a bit.” I coughed but she smiled while opening up one of the boxes and I saw some of the photos that she had. I went in one of the other boxes and saw pictures that were old, turning yellow along the edges and looking a bit torn. I saw pictures of people that were long gone but looked very happy. One picture in particular that I came across was of a bunch of people, sitting at a table covered with glasses of half-filled drinks and ashtrays filled with cigarette butts. “Is this mom and dad?” I showed the picture to her.
She smiled. “Yeah, that’s your mom and dad that was me and my third husband Rodney and some of our friends. We used to go to this club back when Rodney and I were living in New York. We would go and listen to the jazz bands playing all night. Your dad and mom were great dancers. They even won some dance contest from time to time. Now this picture here…” She handed me a very old black and white picture of a woman sitting in a chair, she was very beautiful with her hair pulled up high and pinned up neatly and wearing a dress that looked as if she was wearing a corset underneath it.
I could only imagine how uncomfortable one of those things was but the look on her face made her look as if she was content and confident.
“This here, is your great grandma Eleanora.” She glanced on the back before flipping it back to the front again. “She was forty seven in this picture. I don’t know when this picture was taken though but this is her.” Handing it over to me, Aunt Reva continued looking through the box some more, picking out a photo here and there, telling me the story behind each one.
It was wonderful getting to know more about people that I never even knew about.
But of course, things can only be wonderful for so long.
“So, are you messing with that guy still?”
“What guy?”
“You know who I’m talking about. That man you are fucking with.”
“Auntie.” I sighed. “I am not having sex with that man for Christ’s sake. I wish you would stop saying that.”
“Well, with a man looking like that, there is only one thing you would be doing with him and that’s fucking him.”
“Auntie, come on now—”
“You act like you don’t say fuck. So seriously, are you getting with that man?”
“No, I am not Jesus Mary and Joseph will you get off my back about him.”
“Just do me a favor, don’t mess with that man. He’s nothing but trouble.”
“So how am I going to get my demo done?”
“You can get that done, just don’t jump your ass in the bed with him. I know what I am saying about him.”
I tried my best not to laugh because I knew Aunt Reva had a screw loose somewhere in that head of hers. But of course, I played along as we continued looking over the pictures and talked a bit more.
After I left her house, I decided to go by the music shop since I fell in love with one of the songs Aunt Reva had played for me. She told me it was my parents favorite song by Billie Holiday called “Summertime.” I had planned on singing this on the demo tape as a change of pace from everything else I had been singing. When I called my mom to check up on her she was ecstatic when I told her about it. “You know me and your dad sometimes still dance to that song.”
“Oh really, well when I heard Aunt Reva play it, I really loved the melody and I found myself singing it. She told me I needed to put that on my demo and I said I would.”
“Wonderful, oh I forgot to ask you, how was dinner with Charles and Simon?”
“The steak was delicious and the dessert, my God, Simon made me one to bring home, it was so good with the ice cream.”
“What was it?”
“Caramel Croissant Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream,”
“Just the sound of it is decadent enough. I hope you saved me some?”
“I can’t promise you if I can, because it is way too yummy to share.”
“Even with your own mother?”
“Even with my own mother.”
“Damn it, must really be good then.” We both laughed but of course.
Then I had to be a bit serious with her. “Mom, I was wondering about Aunt Reva and how no one else besides me will have anything to do with her.”
“Well, you know your Uncles. She was the only girl amongst all those boys growing up and she has always felt as if she was their protector. Even after the fact that they all got married, she was the one who had cooked their food when they were young, she was the one who helped them with everything. She saw their wives as competition. Even though she was married, she was constantly in our business twenty four seven. You think it was bad since you’ve been born, you don’t even know the half of it. Why are you asking about all this?”
“I was just hoping that for at least one time, you all could at least get along. I think she’s lonesome for you all. She had me come over today looking for photos in the attic. I could see in her eyes when she was looking at the picture with all her brothers and her when they were teens. It looked as if she was about to cry almost mom, it was real sad.”
There was silence on my mom’s end and I knew she had been thinking at that moment. “Let me talk with your dad or better yet, will you be able to come to church this Sunday?”
“I was hoping to rest a bit this week, plus I don’t know if Anthony is going to need me to come by to check on things with the demo or what.”
“Well, I tell you what, if you get the chance, why not come by afterwards for something to eat. That way, you can get the chance to talk with him a bit about how you feel because you know he will listen to you.”
“That sounds good. I’ll talk with you later then. I’m going to get another bite of that pudding.”
“Tease! Bye girl.”
“Bye momma.” I laughed.