Warm UN-Welcoming!

As the airplane landed in Broken Bow, Jamie’s heart filled with dread. “It might be so bad”, she tried to reassure herself. She tried hard to be optimistic, but gave up the very next second. “Who am I kiddin’??” she said as she got off the plane. “Excuse me?” asked the stewardess. She probably thought Jamie had said something to her. “Oh, umm…” Jamie hesitated; she didn’t realize that she had thought aloud. “I said g’bye!” she said and smiled, or rather tried to smile.

Jamie was not feeling one bit cheerful. She was NOT looking forward to seeing Aunt and Uncle. She had spent the summer with them, and had been miserable throughout. They were financially as well off as the Parsons, but their lifestyle had absolutely nothing in common with them. Jamie believed there was no love between Uncle and Aunt, and wondered if there ever was. They didn’t live happy lives, and she was constantly appalled by their narrow minded thinking and stingy ways. She wished she had someplace else to go, but there wasn’t any. This was her closest bet to a ‘home’, and she felt grateful that she had atleast them to turn to, even if she hated being with them.

Aunt didn’t seem particularly joyous when they met in the arrivals lounge. Soon they were headed home, where Uncle was waiting for them. Jamie hoped he would be at work, so she could go to her room and avoid seeing him tonight. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. Uncle wasn’t a man of many words, and she always felt weird around him. Their conversations were few and punctuated with many awkward silences. She never knew what to say to him. This time, she was almost afraid of seeing him. She knew he wasn’t happy that she going to be at their place again. “I really wish I had someplace else I could go”, she thought to herself. She missed Ashton.

“I’m not going to be weird”< she told herself. “I am grateful that I can stay with them, and they should know that”. Uncle was waiting at the door. “What took you so long?” he inquired. Jamie felt as if he had looked right past her and directed the question at Aunt; thereafter the conversation took place between them. Jamie felt instantly sucky! She didn’t acknowledge me at all, she thought. What’s his problem, anyway?! She wished she could go right back to the airport and fly back to California, to the Parsons. “How was your flight?” asked Uncle. “Okay…” she said. Uncle mumbled something to that, but Jamie wasn’t paying attention. She wanted to speak to Ashton, and had decided that she’d go to her room and call him. She looked at the time and suddenly realized that he was probably in the middle of his daily teleconferencing session. “Perfect!” she said.

“You like lima beans??” asked a quite surprised Aunt. They had been talking about dinner, and presumed Jamie was listening. Little did they know that she had drifted off into her own thoughts, “Yeah, sure”, Jamie said. “I have to stop thinking aloud!” she thought, “Maybe I can fall asleep before she serves dinner, that way I can escape the gastric torture”. She hated beans.

Jamie took her bags and went into the guest room, which was her room in their house. She pulled out a can of diet coke, and sat in front of the computer. She maintained an online diary and tried to write in it as often as she could. She put on some music, on very low volume, popped the soda, and started typing her heart out.

Soon enough, there was a knock on her door. “Hey, I can’t work with the music”, Uncle said. She could tell he was trying to be nice. “I’m sorry, I’ll lower the volume”, she said. “How about if you just turn it off?” he asked. There was a pause. “Alright”, she said and he was gone.

Jamie stared blankly at the computer screen.