Eddie on the Edge of Everything

2: The Aunts from Hell

My parents named me Edwina Eversby, Eddie for short. They got the name Edwina after the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble. He was known world round for his discovery of other galaxies and expanding our understanding on how big space really was. He paved the way for future scientists to dream beyond the stars and question, "Are we alone in the universe?"

I thought of that question many times as I sat in my room flipping through my dad's old books on constellations and planets. Their pages filled with notes of his observations. My favorite note of his was on the page about the solar system. My dad had written, "Someday when I become an astronaut, I will fly beyond Pluto, dance on the stars, and surf on nebula clouds." I chuckled every time I read it. He knew from an early age what he was going to do as an adult. I, on the other hand, had no clue.

Beside my bed, I kept a picture of my parents; their smiling faces soothing me to sleep on those rough nights when the lightning flashed and the wind shook the empty house. I missed them. It was hard to believe four years had passed since the tragedy and still I hear the explosion and feel the heat upon my freckled face. My red hair had gotten frizzier and my nose bigger, but I was still the same sad girl just eleven years old, my twelfth birthday only two months away.

I thought after my parent's death I would go to live with Nana, but the judge presiding over my future chose my aunts as my guardians. They were two people I had never met or even knew existed probably because they lived in Louisiana, far from my childhood home in Florida, and as the judge put it far from all the memories of my parents.

"Getting away is perhaps the best thing for you," said the judge as he made the final call. He looked down and flipped through some paperwork. "And come a few years she won't even remember her parents," he whispered thinking I couldn't hear. But he was wrong. A child never forgets their parents.

Soon my bags were packed and I was off to live with my aunts, Vicky and Vera. To think the judge thought my aunts were decent people who cared deeply about their poor orphaned niece. They only wanted me for one thing, the money my parents left behind.

"You will sleep in the attic," they said as I entered their home with my suitcase. "And you will always remain quiet as a mouse. There will be chores to do. A list will be left on the table every morning. You will start on them after school before dinner and your homework. Unlike your parents, living with us will not be free."

"Aren't you taking my parent's money," I responded.

"Good lord," said Vera stamping her large foot. "Did we not say to be silent? That sharp tongue will be the first thing to end in this house."

And that was my first meeting with my aunts. Evil aren't they? Well weekends were the worst.

"Edwina!" They would chant from their couch. "Edwina!" I would hurry down the stairs.

"What is it Aunty Vicky? What is it Aunty Vera?" I asked looking at their humongous bodies sprawled out and sipping cola. I thought of them to be the two ugly stepsisters from Cinderella made flesh and unable to find a prince. Vicky raised her sagging face and snarled at the sight of me.

"The yard needs tending, Edwina," said Aunty Vicky nabbing a pair of scissors off a table full of coupons with her long painted nails. She shoved them into my hands. "Go trim the grass and cut away the shrubs against the house."

"With scissors?" I said.

"Uh did I stutter?" asked Aunty Vicky, sarcastically. "You're too young to use a lawn mower, and hedge clippers are too dangerous. You could hurt yourself. We only want to keep you safe. That's all."

"Oh, Vicky," said Aunty Vera not glancing from the tv show she was watching. "You are giving her the wrong scissors. Here use these."

"Safety scissors!" I cried. "You can't be--"