The Family by S. E. Green

Author:S. E. Green [Green, S. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

NYLA

Three Years Earlier

No repercussions came, not as Nyla expected. Paul did not physically or verbally chastise her beyond the original morning he found her and Ava in the same bed.

Ava, though, stopped talking to Nyla; stopped looking at Nyla; stopped everything involving Nyla. The rejection came worse than anything Paul did.

The bond Ava and Nyla shared didn’t fade, it combusted. Nyla paid the price multiple times over with Ava’s complete and utter avoidance of her. Unfortunately, it did nothing to deter Nyla’s feelings. She loved Ava and felt convinced, with time, Ava would come back to her.

While she waited for that to happen, Nyla threw herself into gardening. She spent as many hours as possible in the greenhouse. It reminded her of the endless days and nights she stayed tucked away with Karly. Nyla felt invisible.

Summer rolled to winter. Nyla turned twenty.

Many things happened.

Randolph lost interest in Beatrice and focused all of his attention onto Carrie, now seventeen.

Beatrice and the child she had with Randolph moved into the bunk room.

Carrie and her child moved in with Randolph.

Paul began a new obsessive routine of washing Ava’s long hair, combing it, smelling it, and wrapping it around his neck, his arms, and his head.

Paul also became fixated with their furniture. Why do we need such frivolous things? We came here to get back to the basics. All we seem to do is accumulate more.

What accumulation? They existed with the barest of necessities. Then one day Paul announced all of the pine furniture would be broken down and made into firewood. They kept mattresses, the picnic table to eat at, kitchenware, and cushions for the living room. That’s it.

After that Paul became fanatical with privacy. Privacy leads to secrets, he said. Secrets lead to deceit. Deceit breaks down trust. Trust is all a family truly needs.

He asked Mark to remove all the doors in the house.

With all the rooms fully exposed, everything became open and free. At any given time, Nyla would see someone on the toilet, in the bathtub, in a room getting dressed, or…being intimate. She tried to ignore, to not see or hear or listen, but the absence of doors made it difficult.

She never once tried to ignore Paul and Ava’s lovemaking, though. She looked forward to those nights and to listening to Ava’s soft moans sifting across the hall.

Yes, no doors save for one. The room Mark built onto the back of the house contained a door, with a lock. Paul held the key to that lock. No one saw inside. Paul announced It’s there should we need it. No one questioned him, out loud at least.

Though Nyla lost weight during the months of being on Paul’s half rations, she hadn’t—according to him—lost enough. So, half rations continued.

On one January morning, months after everything happened with Ava in the top bunk, Beatrice stepped into the greenhouse. Nyla acknowledged her entrance with a tiny smile. They had lived together for two full years and rarely held a conversation. All of

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