Chapter 2: Please ... Beat me up!

“I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, hm?” my mom said from the front passenger’s seat as we drove home. My aunt, who was apparently named ‘Alexandra’ and for whom I was named, sat quietly in the passenger seat beside me, a slight smile on her face as she listened to us.

“Probably a good idea,” I replied, causing my aunt to smirk. I could already tell that trying to think of her as my aunt might take the better part of the rest of my natural life, since she wasn’t more than a year older than me. “Just ... start at the beginning.”

“Fair enough,” mom agreed. “Well, your grandmother had me and I was an only child for a long time.”

“I figured out that much, if you two are genetically related.” I said flatly.

“I’d already married your father by the time my little sister was born,” mom continued, ignoring my petulant tone. “It was certainly unexpected, since mom was at the outer edge of being viable to have children again when Alexandra came along.”

“Well, you married dad when you were twenty-five, so if that happened first, then there’s twenty-six years between you. That’s quite a span, you have to admit.”

“No argument there. Anyways, your grandfather, as you know, was developing very tragic and dangerous mental issues at the time. When your grandmother had another kid against all odds, it triggered something in him and he became violent and abusive. Rather than stay and try to work it out, since he was in a terrifying spiral, mom took everything she could and fled to Europe with my little sister, where he could never reach her.”

I was silent for a few moments.

“It was very hard on me, I admit, because mom didn’t even tell me until after she’d gone,” mom said, somewhat morosely. “She didn’t tell me where they went, for fear that my dad might somehow find out from me, even inadvertently. I was crushed at the time, but I understood, once I knew how bad your grandfather had gotten.”