The Rainbow Collar

Home Again

From a young age, I was always a quiet kid. My mom would say that I get that from my dad, but I wouldn't really know since he left when I was five. Mom says he never wanted to be a parent, and mom wasn't going to abandon me. She had me shortly before turning 19, and as a young mom she worked hard to take care of me. It was years of them arguing, then making up and loving each other. It was a cycle my mom almost couldn't escape. She finally managed to let him go when she found out she was pregnant again. Safe to say my father freaked out on her. She told him to leave and never come back, and that is the last she ever saw of him.

My sister was born seven months later. Claire was her name; Mom always liked that name. Growing up things were tough at home with Mom, being the sole income of the house with two young children. It was difficult trying to date for her. Not only did she never have time to date, but for the few men that were interested in her, they quickly got cold feet once they found out she had two kids. So, there she was, a young mom, trying her hardest to raise us; give us all that we would need.

Going into high school, I had an early growth spurt, and ended up 6' tall by the end of my freshman year. For a short amount of time, I was the tall interesting kid with short brown hair and hazel eyes - and the good ol' family ass genes, which was easily my proudest feature - but that changed pretty quickly when every other boy caught up or grew taller. Also didn't help that I was so focused on studying, that I often neglected physical exercise. I knew that I had to do whatever I could to gain a scholarship; I was not going to have my mom spend any more money on me. I studied hard; I took any AP class I could get my hands on. Claire was different, she didn't have mom or I's work ethic. She was by no means a bad kid, but she just had different priorities. Well... that is until I graduated high school as valedictorian. I managed to get a good scholarship to the university I wished to attend. When I moved on to campus, Claire started to slack off more and more. Without me there to watch her she started letting her friends influence her a lot more.

When I had finally graduated with a degree in psychology, I finally felt like I could help mom out. I hadn't had a lot of opportunities to see them while I was at college, I was just far too busy with studying. I couldn't wait to see the joy on my mom's face, knowing that her hard work was not in vain. Imagine my surprise when I finally got back home to find things were not as okay as I thought they were.

I had talked with mom over text the past few days to let her know when I would be getting home. She didn't have a lot of time to be on the phone, she was still working hard. So, when I finally arrived home, I was shocked at the state of the house. It looked like the yard hadn't been taken care of since I was last here for Christmas two years ago. Also, I thought that mom would be home, she usually would have been around this time, but her car wasn't here.

Knocking on the door, hoping someone was home to let me in. After maybe five minutes the door swung open, and there stood a pissed off looking teenager; my sister Claire. She got all the good genes from mom. Silky auburn hair down to her shoulder blades. Around 5'4" tall, so not extremely short, but she was petite. While she did exercise regularly, she was more of a couch potato whenever she could get away with it. This caused her to have a good thickness to her, by no means chubby. Like all of the women in our family she had a great ass, which only improved with exercise. Her chest was a little smaller than mom's, I'd say the larger end of a C cup. Somehow, she got dad's striking blue eyes. Also, she never got a sunburn, and she could be in the sun for hours; maintaining a nice light tan. She looked really annoyed that I knocked on the door, she must have been relaxing since she was only in her pjs, which consisted of athletic skin hugging tights, and a short loose blue crop top that draped over her breasts, allowing you to see her under-boob if she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Hey Claire... it's good to see you! Been quite a while." I said, trying my best to sound positive.

"Oh, I see the nerd is back from his fancy school" Claire said, while also rolling her eyes.

"Come on Claire, can't you just be happy that your big brother is home finally?"

"Whatever bro, just don't bother me when I'm in my room, I'm talking to my friends" she said with a haughty tone.

She had always been the more stubborn one when it came to taking orders. Now though, I couldn't believe the way she acted towards me like I was some sort of nuisance. Claire ran back upstairs to her room and shut the door.

Coming into the house and setting down my stuff, I noticed that while not dirty, the house seemed neglected. Almost as if no one was living here every day. Little did I know how right I was. Heading up the stairs to my old room at the end of the hall. To the right of my door on the right side of the hall was my sister's room, and at the start of the upstairs was the master bedroom (aka mom's room). Opening my room, my heart dropped. The room was still furnished, but I didn't see any boxes of my stuff at all. I looked in the closet and only found tons of clothing; most likely Claire's. There were also piles of clothing scattered all over my floor. If I didn't know better it looks like my sister moved my stuff out of the room and used it as a storage for her excessive amount of clothing.

I banged on my sister's door. "Claire! What the hell did you do with my stuff?!" I yelled through the door.

"Fuck off I'm busy!" she yelled from within, loud music muffling her voice.

I tried the doorknob only to find that it was locked.

I don't remember there being any locks on our doors.

Frustrated, I backed off and went back downstairs. I went into the garage, trying to find any boxes with my stuff in them. The garage was far too cluttered, it would take days for me to go through this.

What the fuck is Claire's problem, she never used to be this much of a bitch

. Looking at my phone I saw that it was nearly 6:30, and mom still wasn't home; she also never answered any of my texts from today.

Going back inside to the kitchen, I looked for something to eat. All I could find was the stuff to make a tuna fish sandwich. Making that, I sat at the kitchen table and ate my sandwich while I scrolled through some things on my phone. It wasn't until around 7:30 that I heard the door open, and with excitement I got up and ran to the door.

What I saw broke my heart. My beautiful mother, looked dead tired, hair a mess, and heavy bags under her eyes. Her luscious dark brown hair was in a messy bun with strands of hair poking out in random directions. Her blazer and blouse were wrinkled, and a little worn out; she must have had these for a long time. Her gorgeous figure was still under those clothes, but she looked worn down, losing that vibrancy I had always known her to have. Standing at 5'6", she took off her 2" pumps. Her blouse was unbuttoned pretty low, giving me a good look at her deep cleavage. She had some big DD breasts, at least those still looked healthy. Of course, she had the nice round and thick ass that ran in the family. She was definitely more filled out and curvier than Claire was, which would make sense since by all accounts my mom could be called a MILF.

"Hey mom, are you okay?" I asked, concerned, "have you been taking care of yourself?"

"Oh Zach, you know how it is, always busy with this and that. Have you seen your sister?" she said after coming up to me and giving me a nice motherly hug. Even that hug felt worn down, like she was running on fumes.

"Yeah, I've seen her," I said cautiously, with a look of concern, "mom, what has been going on around here? Why is Claire acting like that, and why do you look so worn out?"

"I'm ok dear, really," mom reassured me, "you know how your sister is, her friends are very important to her, she's only home a couple of nights a week. She's always at some friend's place or another."

"Why is she not helping you with anything? Tell me she is at least contributing money, considering that she is 19 and not going to school right now."

Mom just gave me a weak smile, and shrugged her shoulders, "You know how stubborn she is, and I have always had a hard time reining her in, she always looked up to you. I know that because I worked so much, you had to pick up the slack when it came to watching her, but I will admit that she has been influenced by her group of friends more and more ever since you went to live in the dorms."

So that's why mom looked so tired, she was picking up all of the slack that Claire was leaving behind. From the way mom was dressed, I could also assume that there were many nights when she would just sleep at the office. I was infuriated, how could she neglect our mother like this. The woman I respected more than anything, my best friend.

Mom could see the emotions changing on my face, she put her hand on my shoulder, "Zach it's okay baby. We'll figure something out, my smart college boy; oh, I'm so proud of you!" She squeezed me into a bear hug, "I know you worry about your old mom, but you need to focus on your own life first before you worry about us."

This felt more like the mother I knew, but she was just trying to mollify me, so that I wouldn't lash out at my sister. Ending the hug Mom said she was going to take a shower then head off to bed, she had to get into the office early in the morning.

Tomorrow is Saturday, isn't it? Why is she working herself to death?

Seeing my mother head up the stairs I called out to her, "Mom..."

"Yes dear?" she said turning around to look at me from the top of the stairs.

"I just wanted to say that I love you so much, and that I'm going to start helping you out around here," steeling my resolve while looking into her eyes, "I'm going to talk with Claire, you deserve a break."

Her eyes betrayed a hint of mistiness, as she drew her lips into a line, holding back her rush of emotions. "I love you too dear, I'm so happy you're home again."

She continued up the stairs and headed into her room, shutting the door softly. The house once again became silent, but not completely devoid of noise, as I could hear music vibrating through the walls from Claire's room.

My anger against Claire rose again, burning even hotter this time. I stomped up the stairs ready to give her a piece of my mind. Getting to her door I stopped, remembering that her door was locked, and she would ignore anything I yelled at her. All of that anger drained out of my body, being replaced by weariness. How was I supposed to even approach this with Claire? I went to college to get into the field of mental health. Right here in my own home I would need to figure out how to straighten out her behavior. I went back into my room and flopped onto my bed, thinking on what I could say to her tomorrow; if she was even home. I wanted to be here now for my family more than ever. Thinking back, I almost think I was willfully ignorant of the situation back at home. I never visited as much as I wanted too. Always making the excuse that I had to do perfect in all of my classes. Normally this kind of stress would keep me up, but it wasn't too long after I laid down that I felt my eyes grow heavy with sleep. Before I knew it I was out cold.

Waking up the next morning, my sister's door was open, but it appeared that no one was home. Mom was likely at work, and Claire was probably skanking it up with her friends. I walked into my sister's room, I was shocked by the amount of nice clothing, make-up, and accessories she had in here. This must have been worth far more than mom could afford. Digging through some of the clothing I saw that some still had their price tags on them, and not only that, they also still had the security tags on them.

I cannot believe her; she's stealing these things!

I felt like I let my family down by moving away for all those years. So much had changed, and none of it was good. My sister was slowly turning into a negligent, selfish, bitch. Then my mom was working far too much. Now that mom didn't have anyone around the house to keep things together, the stress was making her fall apart at the seams. I needed to head out and clear my head, I was quickly getting overwhelmed. I needed to come up with a method to understand my sister.

I ended up at the mall, just walking around, trying to relax. Luckily, I didn't have to go job hunting, I already had an apprenticeship with a psychologist that started this Monday. She was a friend of my college psychology professor; I was given a glowing recommendation as his 'best student'.

That gave me the weekend to settle in and confront my sister. Even though I didn't fully know what it was that she was doing with her friends. I did know that their influence was likely poisoning her mind.

I walked around the mall at a leisurely pace, enjoying a soda I bought out of a vending machine. My eyes came upon a rather odd store. There was no one heading in there, in fact it seemed as if they didn't even know it was there.

"Magnus' Mysteries"

the sign above the store said. I decided why not and walked into the store.

If there was one thing that could be said about this store, Mysterious would definitely be one of them. But I think musty would be a better descriptor. The store was long from front to back, but only had about two aisles of shelves full of stuff. Having been to pawn shops and antique stores in the past, this place was not something too dissimilar. Walking along one of the aisles, there were tons of bronze tableware and old lamps that would likely cause a fire right after being plugged in. On the walls of the store were paintings, dingy animal trophies, and weapon racks with rusty old weapons.

Are you even allowed to sell weapons in a mall?

Moving over to the next aisle there were candleholders, bracelets, and necklaces. Different bits and baubles crammed on to these dusty shelves.

Finally heading towards the very back of the store there was one of those glass display case counters that every jewelry store had. The things in the display case actually looked rather nice. They appeared well taken care of and most likely were not junk like the other 99% of the store.

Bending down to look at the different pieces of jewelry and antiques. I noticed there were what looked to be old jade figurines, but these were lewd in nature as they were all carved to look like naked women.

I wonder if these are actual antiques, or if the owner just likes to show off his collection of historic porn?

Moving further down along the case, I spotted a necklace that was clearly the nicest thing in the store. It looked like a choker made out of gold and silver chainmail. There were multiple gem stones attached to it, going all the way around. Seven gems to be exact, and it looked like they corresponded to the colors on a rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. It was somewhat thin like a normal choker would be, dainty; gemstones being about the size of a pea. A golden ring was looped onto the necklace as well, indicating the items were part of a set. I was so enraptured by its beauty that I failed to notice the man standing behind the counter.

"Ahem!" The man cleared his throat, "I see that you are eyeing the prized possession of my collection."

"Oh shi... I'm sorry," I yelped after nearly jumping out of my skin, "I didn't hear you walk up... What is this necklace here?" I pointed down at it.

"That my boy is the Prismium Necklace and the ring is its master," the man said with a hint of awe, "It was made for a Ptolemaic Queen as a wedding gift from her husband."

"Ptolemaic...?" I responded. History was never a subject I had a lot of interest in.

"They were a kingdom post ancient Egypt, a dynasty of the Greeks on Egyptian land," The shop owner muttered quickly, "But enough of the history lesson. What brings you in today young man?"

"I was really just wandering around when I saw your store, when did you open up here? I haven't seen this place before." I responded with a confused look.

"Oh, it was not too long ago..., but enough of that would you like to take a closer look at the necklace?" the man said, already opening the case and lifting the necklace from its stand.

The shop owner held the necklace out to me, beckoning me to hold it. When I finally had it in my palms, I noticed an odd warmth coming from it. It felt like it had sat out in the sun all day, not sitting in a dusty store in the middle of a mall. Something about it felt important, like it was just begging me to take it home. I was confused at this feeling since I was not someone that had any kind of desire for accessories. But right after thinking that, I thought it would look great on my mom's neck. As soon as I had that thought the necklace felt even warmer. Not realizing that I zoned out the old man spoke up.

"It looks like we have a winner!" the old man announced with a wide grin on his face, "it looks like you are in need of this necklace, otherwise it would not have chosen you."

What the hell is this old man talking about? He's clearly trying to give me the hard sell.

"How much?" I asked with clear suspicion.

"For you? Hmmmm..." the man pondered for far too long, "fifty bucks!"

"that's it?"

"Yup, I'm going to give you a discount since the necklace clearly wants to go home with you."

I was floored at how easily he decided to sell it to me, but then again it could just be absolute junk that wasn't even worth 5 dollars. Looking down at the necklace again I decided that fifty dollars was most likely a steal for something like this that my mom would like.

"Deal," I reached into my wallet and handed him the cash. The old man recommended I keep the ring on at all times as the necklace needed a ring bearer to work. This guy was creeping me out, I just thought the necklace and ring looked cool. Giving him a blank stare I placed the ring on my middle finger, where I felt a warmth emanating from it. I gave him an awkward thumbs up and pocketed the necklace, leaving the store immediately after.

I got home in the early afternoon, noticing that mom's car was still gone.

There is no way she is still working on a Saturday.

I sent her a text asking how she was doing and offering to make dinner for tonight. I walked through the front door of the house, and noticed that the loud music was once again banging through the walls of our house. It seemed that Claire was home again, and still she was staying in her room. Walking upstairs to my pretty barren room, considering I have yet to retrieve my stuff from the garage that my sister oh so lovingly removed from my room. I took the necklace out and place on my bed side table along with my other daily carry essentials. Turning my head towards the noise coming from my sister's room, I prepped myself for a conversation.

I knocked on my sister's door. The music lowered slightly.

"What!?," my sister yelled through the door, sounding annoyed.

"I was going to make dinner tonight, maybe that spaghetti we used to eat." I said listening for a reply, "I was just letting you know for when it's ready and you can come downstairs and join us."

"Yeah right, I'm not eating dinner with you guys, I would rather not listen to mom bitch at me about my 'poor life choices'. Just bring me a plate when it's done."

I couldn't believe the disrespect my sister showed us. I was trying to have everyone together to talk out some of the issues. Clearly my sister was not going to make any type of effort to have a dialogue with Mom and I.