Dear Laura

Chapter 1

Dec 22, 1994.

My 18th birthday. I woke up to the early rays of the winter Sun falling on my face, struggling to bring some warmth to my ice cold cheeks. It had been months since we had little to no gas in the small town of Bougainville and sleeping in fur coats and two pairs of stockings every winter night had become the new normal. But the part I hated the most about it all was the ice cold water that would sometimes freeze in the taps and after minutes of standing in the washroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around my torso, I would simply have to dress back up and go to school without a shower.

But today I would not complain, because today was my birthday, perhaps the warmest day of the year for me. I jumped out of bed, toppling over the vase of fresh chrysanthemums from the side table in my hurry. I bent over to catch it half way to the wooden floor and would almost have if it weren’t for the ugly rat that peeped out from the hole in the wooden floor and then jumped back in upon seeing me.

“Holy shi-”, I screamed and climbed on top of the table. The vase had successfully crashed creating a mess of broken petals, leaves and water on the floor but thankfully did not shatter. It was an antique piece and I definitely would have been in trouble for breaking it because aunt Nell was very particular about the few precious items she owned in her house. And very proud of them too.

“What the Heck are you doing up there, Laura?” Aunt Nell yelled from downstairs.

I could hear her climbing up the stairs with her unique stride. When I was a kid, I used to play a game of guessing who was coming upstairs by the sound of their footsteps. Aunt Nell always walked with a thump, thumpidy, thump and then a pause before she continued at the same pace. She limped slightly and climbing the stairs became exceedingly difficult for her with every passing year. Uncle Thomas would climb them with a loud THUMP THUMP THUMP, then he would always pause at the top step before thumping all the way down. I never knew why he ever came up in the first place. Little Nathan would barely make a sound as he’d silently walk up the stairs and I would have to be very attentive to catch him before he could creep up on me and scream loudly in my ear. Little rascal, loved scaring me out of my head. Sometimes I miss his brown pug eyes and his old man like laughter echoing in the house. When Uncle Thomas left the house nearly 13 years ago, he took him along. None of them ever came back.

“Nothing Nell, was just getting out of bed really,” I replied cheerfully, hoping she wouldn’t kill me on my birthday.

Her head finally popped in through the door and her perfect scowl was replaced by utter horror when she saw the mess by my feet as I had finally climbed down from my sanctuary.

“How many times have I asked you to be careful with that vase, Laura! Do you realize how-”

“Yes, Nell, I do realize how precious and antique that vase is, and it was gifted to you by Sarah Thomson from Prince shire in the 1980s and they don’t make these anymore. I’m sorry, it was an accident, and do you know there’s a rat living right beneath my floorboard?”

“It is an old house Laura, there are rats living everywhere. That is no excuse to be clumsy,” she rolled her dark brown eyes at me and picked up the vase from the floor.

“I’m taking this with me. And you,” she turned around to face me again, “better come downstairs in 15 minutes after cleaning that mess up. I’m not going to be baking your birthday cake all by myself, no missy. My brittle bones cannot stand to work for this long anymore.” She started to walk out of the room and then paused as if she just remembered something. “And oh, your parcel has arrived,” she smiled and left.