6: Second-hand Embarassment

The lady was wearing a mesh pink tutu skirt that almost touched the floor and white ballet flats, a loose white shirt was tucked in the skirt and she wore her black hair in a high ponytail, her cheeks were in a shade of rosy pink and her upturned eyes look sharp with mascara on.

“My name’s Harriet, my mother left this house to me," I said in a dignified tone. 

She might have not believed me because her pink lips twitched but her sharp expression doesn’t change.

I offered my hand and she looked at it for a second before accepting it. "Hello, then." 

“Blake?” The door swung open and the man that talks softly earlier gazed at us.

“Yes?”

“You’re still here.” He just didn’t ignore Tiffany's answer, but he pointed at my presence like it was a big joke for him that I’m still here.

I gave him a frown and straightened my posture. “Why should I leave? This is my house.”

The man closed his eyes firmly and ran a hand through his wavy hair before seriously looking at me. “I already told you this, kid. I hate to repeat myself but because of your birdbrain that doesn’t understand my words, I would say this again: This. Is. My. House.”

“No!” I protested, and glowered at him grew bigger, “I’m not going to leave this house! This is mine, this is the only thing that mom left me!” My eyes sting as I looked at him and shouted those words.

He didn’t just know empathy, he even insulted me. The farmhouse was the only thing I can have, my siblings have half of our house and Richard doesn’t want me near mom’s belongings. The redness on the back of my neck reflected it too well: Richard doesn’t want to see me again. So even if he called me kid and birdbrain. I’m not leaving this house. I hope my determination send him enough signals.

“Uhm… Hari, right?” Blake spoke, I turned to her and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, she looked fidgety, her forehead creased and continued talking, “I guess you found the wrong house.”

What? That stop me from functioning. I froze on my spot and my tears dried from my eyes.

I thought I heard the wrong words, I thought I became deaf and could only hear the loud thump of my heart as Tiffany showed me outside where a small swing was surrounded by white roses, tall weeds, and lavenders and she pointed at a small house on the back side of the garden. “That’s the house you inherited from your mother.”

It looks like a cottage house with an A-frame roof covered in vines and dark rubbish, there’s a small table and a sitting area on the porch with cactus, succulents, and snake plants and a string of pearls hanging plants that made the exterior of the house unidentifiable because of it reaching and almost covering the whole exterior of the house.

“H-How?” I can’t form the right words to say, the wooden planks of the house look so unsteady that one step will make the house crumble, the horror on my face was enough for Tiffany to understand, I imagined the house falling into pieces when I step my feet on the porch.

“This is the house your mother left, I learned that after I heard you claiming the other house, I need to tell the truth, but as you can see, nobody lived here for almost a decade or two and when we settled on the big house, your house is already here. There’s no way that the house you inherited is the first house you saw. I can guarantee you that this is the house you’re looking for.”

The fact that Tiffany talked to me like a saleslady wanting to sit from all the standing and forced smiles she made from the customers that claimed they were interested in whatever she was selling got me. Her face is so small, white, and smooth, she’s a lady that enchants me to understand her claims to the best of my ability. I’m one of those customers who agree with whatever she’s selling.

But still don't buy it. 

“By the way, who’s the man with you?” I could have said the arrogant and sassy man, but I held my tongue and put my hands together, turning my back to the house I was going to inherit. Here I thought mom prepared me a place to start before she was gone.

The dejection washed through me and I wanted to sulk and cry in the corner, this was the truth about my life. I thought I could live a life in the middle of the woods away from my half-siblings and stepfather who hated me enough to want to crush me in his palms every time he saw me.

“You don’t know?”

That got my attention, I turned to Tiffany who was a few steps behind me. I thought I could just run away from all of this so I started walking not knowing that Tiffany didn’t, so I gave her my full attention and tried to erase the pain on my face. I was told that I am a ‘smiling face’ but now I know that what they meant to say was ‘smiling idiot’, I don’t show the pain in my face or the stress I’m feeling, I always made sure to put my smiling mask on whenever I’m outside so that people won’t know, because they wouldn’t care how I feel, they wouldn’t bother to sympathize or empathize. They only know themselves.

“The first house is the house of the legendary wolf. The man you met is the legendary wolf.”

I want the ground to open and swallow me whole. Didn’t I exchange sharp sentences with the legendary wolf earlier? I did, right? Oh, holy heavens, I’m sure as hell I went one step closer to death.

Her small graceful laugh cut me out from over-dramatizing things. “Take a step backward, Harriet.”

I’m still in shock from what I learned and followed Tiffany’s instruction out of veneration.

“Now you’re one step away from death,” Tiffany beamed happily that I thought the sun shone at me for a second.

Her shoulders heaved from her chest but they slumped back when she noticed I didn’t smile nor appreciate the joke. “No, I’m just kidding,” she took it back, walked to me, and held my wrist.

It’s not my intention to break her smile, I just can’t, I got the nickname smiling idiot for a reason but I can’t curl up the edge of my lips and my eyes for her, not when I remember the legends about how the legendary wolf annihilates his own pack. Anyway, I'm still in doubt about the stories passed through the lips of people, I don’t believe in that, but I guess your own interpretation of things changes once you met the real thing and even get mad at him.

“Come with me in my room, I’ll explain it more clearly to you.”