Up in the high three-thousands of 145th Avenue, an exclusive district of the city as displayed by the sprawling single-storey mansions set behind burglar-decapitating spiked iron fences, lay the thirteen-hundred square feet of prime estate owned by the eminent Jelphes.
Michaela Jelphe fidgeted on one of a handful of sun-loungers by the side of their modest pool. The book she was trying to read for her undergraduate course disinterested her. Michaela's imagination was being wrestled away by that day's disturbing events. She dropped the book to her side and flomped on to her front, letting her shoeless feet sway idly in the humid evening air, and gave in; her mind would not let her settle until she once again re-examined what had happened.
The Jelphes had driven out to the members-only Hillcrest recreation park for a family tournament of tennis. Her father had announced the match would be 'girls verses boys' and so, all dressed in an unstained white uniform that bounced the summer sun in eye-blistering rays, her father and step-brother took up opposing positions across the court from Michaela and her step-mother, Therese.
Therese had come into her life when she was still grieving over the break-up of her nuclear family and Michaela was consumed with bitterness at way her loving and devoted mother had divorced and departed along with her two younger brothers who she'd adored. For reasons never quite fully explained, she had been left behind like unwanted garbage. Therese was blameless in her parents' dissolution but she became the focus of the young girl's misery when she married her father and moved in to their sprawling, opulent home; bringing along her snotty little twerp of a son had only compounded her crimes.
As Michaela grew into a pubescent teenager, her loathing of Therese also grew. Michaela was short and podgy and spotty and felt like a lump of maladjusted play-doh when compared to her tall, elegant, flawless step-mother. Unlike this despised interloper, Michaela had curves in all the wrong places.
Therese tried incessantly to help style Michaela but whenever she stood next to her step-mother, Michaela appeared to be a hideous frump clad in used dishcloths. Today, dressed in the compulsory white outfit, Michaela felt like a ping-pong ball in comparison to the effortlessly beautiful woman beside her.
During the match, Michaela had been utterly distracted by her step-mother; the way she flowed athletically across the red clay court, the way her bronze hair caught the wind as if starring in a shampoo commercial, the way her svelte limbs flexed and tensed, her fat-free tummy, her round rigid breasts, her tanned skin... her pouty lips that opened easily and often into a wide smile.
Mostly, however, Michaela was mesmerised by her step-mother's perfectly smooth long legs; Therese glided like a gazelle on the savannah. Michaela always became acutely aware of her own physical failings when she was in proximity to this Amazon.
The distracted girl had muffed yet another shot and her father had yelled out a patronising encouragement while her step-brother sneered. Therese had strolled over to pick up the missed ball.
"Don't worry, Micki," she'd said, "It's just a game. Just have fun."
Michaela had frowned, enraged. Why did she have to be so nice all the time? The bitch.
"Sure, Mum," she'd snarled, "So this is what fun looks like."
She'd started using the word Mum when she was going through a heavily sarcastic period and she always made sure it was dripping with acid when she spat it. What amplified her rage was that her saintly step-mother was never goaded into joining in the hostilities, it was always one-sided. Therese would just roll her eyes, shake her head and laugh it off.
The trouble was that Michaela hated feeling this way; she hated the way she spoke to Therese and she always felt awful afterwards. Not too long ago, her step-brother had been causing a fuss in the kitchen over some imagined slight; the tyrant had been shouting and swearing and Therese had placated him until he stormed off, slamming doors as he exited in full dudgeon.
"He's such a dick," Michaela had observed once his drama had died down.
"Don't call your brother that," Therese had chided gently.
"He's not my brother. My brothers live in Atlanta."
There'd been a weighted pause, this being a touchy subject.
"Go on, say it!" Michaela's rage had risen unbidden, "Tell me that's where I'd be if I was wanted."
Therese was always flustered when caught in the full beam of Michaela's spite.
"You, you are wanted-"
"Not by the person that matters."
"Your Daddy-"
"Was stuck with me! Like a bad debt! Go on, say it!"
"I... he..."
Michaela's face had burned crimson in the blue morning light, reflected in their platinum kitchen; her fingers had tugged on her frizzled mess of untameable hair. Therese had sat down next to her at the breakfast counter, quiet and serene.
"I would never say anything like that. I seem to hurt your feelings a lot but it's never intentional. And anyway, I don't think that's true. You are wanted. Your father and I love you deeply. Your mother-"
"Don't talk about her!"
"You know?" Therese had adopted a let's-change-the-subject tone, "I don't think you like Jefferson much but boys sure are hard to like at his age."
"He's as stupid as his name."
Therese had coolly ignored the insult, "If I was an observant person, I'd suspect that you don't really like boys at all."
Michaela had felt her step-mother's warm palm rest on her bare thigh and it'd provoked a volcanic confusion.
"You don't know anything about me! You're just some cooze that my father is screwing until the next cunt comes along!"
Michaela lay on the sun-longer remembering the shock that had, just for a moment, wrecked her step-mother's beautiful face, a distorted portrait of the inflicted wound. She closed her eyes and groaned at the sight that was etched permanently in her mind. Afterwards the remorseful girl had cried into her pillow, hating herself and everyone. Poison, that's what she was. Poisoning everything she touched.
Her painful recollections were interrupted by the wide patio doors swinging open. Orange light spilled out into the summer dusk. Her parents were hosting one of their tedious parties and she heard the dreamy whisps of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique seeping out accompanied by sloshing voices spouting tittle-tattle. Therese stumbled out of the doors and, walking arm-in-arm with another woman, came unsteadily across the sloped expanse of lawn.