Morning all. It is April 30th today. That’s right, we have made it to the end of April. April is one of those months that is both a hard slog and always manages to evaporate fast. Far too much crammed into a thirty day space. Every Year. But April is ending and let’s see what can be made of the last prompt of the month. Timers set for fiteen minutes and lets see what comes out.
Interesting. Not quite where I thought this would go.
Thursday, April 30th: Plans were made.
“Plans were made,” Sarah said. April stared back at her. She knew the drill Sarah made plans. Sarah expected others would go along with them. April usually did. Tonight was different.
“I have other plans for tonight,” April told her.
“Cancel them,” Sarah demanded without bothering to ask what they were. April felt something inside herself harden. Still she kept her tone even and her face set into apologetic lines.
“I would if I could, but unfortunately I can’t.” April said.
Sarah’s scowl deepened. She was not used to being told no. She was used to everyone giving her what she wanted, demanded, without much of a thought. April waited. Seeing the scowl she knew exactly what was about to happen, could predict her sister’s next words.
“I’m telling,” Sarah said before turning and stalking off.
April sighed. As the baby in the family, Sarah was the darling of the household.
April had been born when her parents were first married. Had in fact been the reason they got married. Neither of her parents were really ready to be parents. Much of her childhood she was passed over to her grandparents, who truthfully hadn’t really wanted to take a second turn as parents. They were responsible, but irritated. By the time Sarah came along, her parents were ready to actually be parents and with Sarah their grandparents got to be actual grandparents instead of being the responsible party. There was a five year gap between them but it might as well have been a hundred.
‘At least I am no longer living here,’ April thought as she always did when she was called home. She left at eighteen and no one seemed all that troubled by letting her go. There was no fanfare and in fact the weekend she moved out everyone had been attending a cheerleading event for Sarah.
Once she left, she stayed gone. She never returned.
Sarah never left. She was twenty and unlike April who was encouraged to leave as soon as her high school diploma was in her hand, everyone seemed to be terrified Sarah would leave them behind.
In truth April rarely thought about her family until she was called home for something. Usually it was something involving Sarah. She had been asked to attend Sarah’s events when the whole family needed to be there as a show of support. Those were becoming rarer as they grew and many people forgot that Sarah had a sister. They were far more common when there were still people around who remembered April existed. Lately it had been calls for money that came in. She had been asked to contribute towards things Sarah desperately needed. Her parents were the ones who called and they usually managed to get April to cave. Tonight was different. Tonight her plans couldn’t be changed for Sarah’s whim no matter how much the others wished it.
Ten til Midnight 