Thicker than Water by Rett MacPherson Read Free Book Online

lint-ball free.”
    â€œAnd I will be in an insane asylum drooling all over my nice new white suit.”

Six
    My sister, Stephanie, arrived at the Gaheimer House at precisely nine o’clock the next morning.
    We only met a year ago, my sister and I. She was the child of an affair my father had. I hadn’t been real keen on the idea at first. Well, actually, I had wanted a sister all my life. It was my father’s neglect in telling me she existed that bothered me. To be even more precise, it was the fact that he knew her, he had a relationship with her, and he had kept her from me. That was really the thing that had hurt me. Once I got over that, Stephanie and I bonded like … well, long-lost sisters.
    And I forgave my father because he had finally forgiven himself.
    But the great thing was, I had a sister! Somebody who was more like me than anybody I’d ever met—except she wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as I was. Give her time.
    â€œGood Lord, you really are pregnant,” I said, smiling at her bowling ball of a belly. Stephanie is a bit taller than I am as well as five years younger. That hardly seems fair, I know. Being half sisters, we don’t really resemble each other that much. We both have our father’s hazel eyes, but that’s about it. Our similarities are more in spirit than in body.
    â€œYup,” she said and rubbed her belly.
    â€œBut I just saw you like three weeks ago and you didn’t look … so … pregnant.”
    â€œI know, the kid just suddenly grew,” she said.
    â€œHow’d the doctor’s visit go yesterday?”
    â€œThey’re ninety-nine point nine percent sure it’s a boy. Either that or it’s a girl with three legs,” she said.
    â€œCool,” I said. “Matthew will have somebody to get into trouble with.”
    Stephanie laughed as if I were joking.
    â€œNo, you don’t understand. Matthew is going to need all the help he can get against Mary.”
    â€œOh,” she said. “Right. What was I thinking?”
    â€œWell,” I said and sighed. “I need you to start by going through the boxes I’ve got lined up on the kitchen counter. I just want you to make piles, like utilities, private papers, legal papers, that sort of thing. Then all I have to do is look through each pile and see if there’s anything I need to keep. When you’re done with that, you could take all the dishes out of the kitchen cabinets.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œOther than a handful of things, I really don’t need the dishes here. I mean, this was Sylvia’s home. She lived here. I won’t be living here. I just need a few things to use when I’m working.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do with the things you’re not going to keep?”
    â€œWell, there are things throughout the whole house I’m going to have to get rid of. Like I need twenty sets of sheets? No,” I said. “I’m going to give some of it to some charities up in north St. Louis. Then I’m going to have a rummage sale or something, and with the proceeds I’m going to set up a fund of some sort in Sylvia’s name.”
    â€œWhat sort of fund?” she asked as we began walking back toward the kitchen.
    â€œSylvia was Catholic,” I said, “so I might set up a scholarship in her name. You know, if parents want to send their child to a Catholic school but can’t afford it, the Sylvia Fund would pay for the child’s tuition.”
    â€œYou think you’d have enough money from one rummage sale to do that over and over?”
    â€œProbably enough to do it a few years,” I said. “And who knows? By then I’ll have all our finances worked out. I could probably continue to pay it.”
    She nodded. “Well, I’ll get started.”
    â€œI really appreciate this,” I said.
    â€œNo problem,” she said. “I don’t get to