Getting back to the ground floor, I heard a very loud slam accompanied by a very nasty and familiar butchy type voice. “Hey, everyone, I’m HOME!”
I could almost feel the windows shaking at her voice level. It was Pat, John’s older sister, in my family via marriage. She was temporarily living with us after getting evicted from her old apartment for physically fighting with a neighbor. Arriving at the kitchen doorway, Pat waddled up behind me. “Out of the way Johnny, I gotta sit and get some coffee”, I felt an eager push as she forced her way past me.
Such was her way. Pat was around the same enormous girth as my mother, but shorter, so it was best for my health to actually get out of her way. Rudeness and ignorance defined her very disposition. She’d just as soon slap someone out of her path than to wait her turn. It was just how I’ve always known her to be and likely part of why she got evicted from where she lived before.
We don’t choose our family, nor do they actually choose us, we just end up kind of thrown together, either by genetics or marriage, and sometimes via love. Pat’s presence in my house was not because of the latter I can assure you. I despised her, though technically my aunt, and she always disliked me right back. She was a 300-pound force of nature, tossed into my household, by ultimate circumstance. Pat was the female version of Baby Huey, immature, perpetually angry at the world, and the loudest human I’ve ever known. How I despised her, stubborn, large, and obnoxious, yet family by marriage, like an inherited curse.
From "The Hive Situation: A Memoir"
I could almost feel the windows shaking at her voice level. It was Pat, John’s older sister, in my family via marriage. She was temporarily living with us after getting evicted from her old apartment for physically fighting with a neighbor. Arriving at the kitchen doorway, Pat waddled up behind me. “Out of the way Johnny, I gotta sit and get some coffee”, I felt an eager push as she forced her way past me.
Such was her way. Pat was around the same enormous girth as my mother, but shorter, so it was best for my health to actually get out of her way. Rudeness and ignorance defined her very disposition. She’d just as soon slap someone out of her path than to wait her turn. It was just how I’ve always known her to be and likely part of why she got evicted from where she lived before.
We don’t choose our family, nor do they actually choose us, we just end up kind of thrown together, either by genetics or marriage, and sometimes via love. Pat’s presence in my house was not because of the latter I can assure you. I despised her, though technically my aunt, and she always disliked me right back. She was a 300-pound force of nature, tossed into my household, by ultimate circumstance. Pat was the female version of Baby Huey, immature, perpetually angry at the world, and the loudest human I’ve ever known. How I despised her, stubborn, large, and obnoxious, yet family by marriage, like an inherited curse.
From "The Hive Situation: A Memoir"
