What The...?

What The...?

         “What the hell, Tommy?” she asked tiredly, staring at an unopened blue box of twelve Kool-Aid Singles.  “Why would Grandpa leave me a box of Kool-Aid?”

         Tommy shook his head and his shaggy mane of tawny hair flopped around his tanned face as he shrugged his broad shoulders, “I have no clue, Tam… why would he leave me a bottle of pills?”

         The brother and sister sat at the small, scrubbed wooden table in the kitchen of the house that they’d grown up in with their recently departed Grandfather, Joseph Carruthers.  They were still in the dress clothes that they’d worn to the funeral, both looking equally miserable and confused. 

         They’d said their final goodbyes to their ninety year old grandfather with a beautiful ceremony and hundreds of fellow mourners, all of whom, it seemed felt the need to comfort the only two surviving members of the Carruthers family.  After the ceremony and obligatory luncheon served by the ladies auxiliary at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Tommy and Tammy had dutifully met with the trustee of Joe’s estate… that had been an hour earlier.  Now they sat, staring at their ‘inheritance’ as it sat on the old table, bewildered and unhappy.

         “I knew his dementia was getting worse, but really this is crazy,” Tammy sighed as she plunked her elbow on the table and dropped her head into her hand, causing a wave of long tawny hair to fall forward in a curtain.

         “Tammy, he was getting weird, but this… this I just don’t understand.  Mr. Davenport didn’t even have any idea why this bottle and that box were the only things Grandpa left us.” Tommy said as his pale green eyes glared at the offending bottle of little blue pills.  He scowled and muttered, “Viagra… really?”

         Tammy snorted as a fit of giggles struck her and she looked up at her brother with dancing emerald eyes, “Well, Grandpa probably knew you were a manwhore so he was trying to keep you in business.”

         “Ha ha, very funny,” he glowered at her.  “Then what’s the point of Kool-Aid?  That shit’s nasty!”

         “I have no idea,” Tammy sighed, her humor dying rapidly.  “I’m going to bed though, my head hurts.”

         “Yeah, me too.  This sucks.” Tommy grumbled.  He stood, as did his sister and he pulled her into a hug, before teasing her, “I’m glad you got something as crappy as me.”

         “Thanks, butthead,” she muttered with a fond smirk.  She was glad to be with her brother, glad that they could still tease each other in spite of losing the last parent figure they’d ever known.  Grandpa Joe had raised them after their parents had died in a car accident twenty five years earlier when Tommy had been eight and Tammy, six.  Grandpa had always been constant in everything he did from raising them with a firm but gentle hand to grumbling about the government and how they ripped everyone off with their taxes.  The siblings parted and retired to their old bedrooms.

˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞˞

         Tammy stared at the ceiling for a long time.  She was exhausted, the pain and sorrow of losing her Grandpa and the long flight from Shreveport, Louisiana had taken their toll, but she couldn’t sleep.  As she tossed and turned she tried to figure out… to understand the significance of a box of Kool-Aid.  She could almost hear Grandpa laughing himself silly at their disbelief regarding his final gifts to them.

         It was well after midnight when she rolled her eyes and left her childhood bed.  Stepping into her slippers, Tammy tugged on her bathrobe and tying it as she padded down the stairs to the kitchen.  She yanked open the refrigerator door and pulled a bottle of water out.  With a sigh, she sat at the table and stared at the little blue box that was huddled next to a small, fat, brown pill bottle.  The little blue pills were visible and the label was covered by a handwritten tag that read “Viagra”.

         Tammy pulled the box of Kool-Aid over and slid her finger under the sealed flap.  She opened the box the rest of the way, her mind on the idea that she’d toast her Grandpa just once with the nasty concoction that was Kool-Aid.  Her jaw dropped and she couldn’t stop the scream that escaped her. 

         Tommy appeared on the stairs quickly and somewhere in her mind, Tammy realized that he hadn’t been sleeping either.  She gasped for air, feeling dizzy and shocked.

         “Tammy?  What is it?  You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Tommy cried as he rushed to his pale and trembling sister.  Without speaking, Tammy reached a shaking hand into the box of Kool-Aid and extracted a tight roll of bills.  At first glance it looked to be hundreds, but when she looked closer she saw the number 1000 in the corner.

         “Oh hell!” she breathed, unable to comprehend what her eyes were seeing.

         Tommy reached for the pill bottle and popped the lid then sat hard in the chair next to his sister.  Tipping the bottle, he caught an identical tight roll of bills.  He swallowed hard over his surprise and removed the rubber band. 

         “That wily old fox!” Tommy exclaimed as he recovered and looked at his sister.    “He found a way…

         Tammy looked at Tommy and a smile lit her features as she finished, “…to avoid paying the taxes!”

Writer's Cramp entry May 1, 2013

Word count: 900 words