03 ] Diva , Tae
The last time Tae had been to visit her parents,
they had just got a dog to replace her. Apparently, wealthy people owning
poodles was officially ‘out of fashion’. Their new West Highland White Terrier
looked mightily comfortable sleeping in her bed. Yes. I said in.
The worst part about it was that Tae had begged
them for a pink poodle for years. Now, of course, she shared her current
lodgings with the Kiss Kiss Bandits and our docile Bombay cat Sierra, whose vacant
copper eyes bore into her with every movement she made, watching and judging.
What a kick in the face – to want a dog for so long, end up with a cat, and discover
that the place she’d just left now has a dog.
Queenie,
the new princess of the household, haughtily trotted out of her special kennel to
meet her with its little nose in the air. To be honest, why they let it sleep
in Tae’s bed if it had a kennel, I have no idea. The small canine sniffed her
with suspicion, and then proceeded to ignore her.
“Mutt.”
Tae muttered, fiddling with the ends of her hair uneasily. In her family,
reunions were never pleasant. For her.
Suddenly,
her mother flung open the front door wearing a dress too fancy for indoors and
shrieked, “Chaaaaawntaaaae!” for the
whole road to hear, rushing across too-perfect-to-be-real grass in pink fluffy
slippers. Tae no longer tried to escape the bone-crushing hug, instead she
stood stiffly and accepted it. As infuriating as her mother was, she had that
special, comforting smell of home-baked cookies, the type that were warm and
gooey in texture.
“Sweetheart.”
came her father’s calm voice.
He
stood on the doorstep with a hand outstretched, motioning impatiently for them
to come inside. His hug was lumbering and awkward; Tae was used to this. She
once told me her parents were too up their own asses to behave like proper
parents. At the time, I’d just exchanged a quiet look with Carmela and said
nothing. Coming from generally loving families, we always felt awkward when
other people dissed their parents.
“We
obviously have a lot to talk about,” her father continued, leading her into the
enormous sitting room. “Come on then, don’t be so glum. Sit down.” he urged,
sitting down himself and pulling her mother to sit beside him.
Anyone
who saw the state of Tae’s house would think she was completely insane to leave
at all. A large, cream coloured manor with a mint green roof and a front yard
the size of a football pitch. Even Queenie’s kennel was one of those
custom-made things that was an exact replica of the house. I didn’t know people
still bought those.
“Look,
I’m not here to kiss and cuddle, sorry to burst your bubble.” Tae told them,
struggling to keep her irritation under control, which was always ten times
harder in the face of her prudish parents. “Why did you cut off my allowance?”
