The Five Houses

• Allegra Rodriguez, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

When I woke up I wasn’t really sure of where I was. I got wasted the night before and I switched between five houses so you could understand my confusion. I managed to remember how legs worked and stumbled into a very hippy looking living room. That meant, unfortunately, I was at my Aunt Bertha's house. I was taken aback as I saw a huge behemoth basically rolling towards me. It was Bertha, or as I liked to call her ‘The Bog of Eternal Stench’. The thing I hated the most about that house was the fact that it was full of hippies that didn’t “believe” in deodorant. Even though she was about the size of Violet Beauregard, she was too quick for me to escape. I felt like I was about to pass out when she hugged me. But I owed her, so that meant I had to do whatever she said. I owed everyone in my life. My dad, my mum, my ex, Bertha and my brother, Jake. He was the only one that didn’t want money. He wanted me to go somewhere far away from our family. Something that would probably never happen.
My parents split when I was eight, which was a good thing. I swear, they were going to start the next great depression. It’s bad enough that they were unsatisfied with their lives but they felt the need to share their misery with the rest of the world. Throughout my entire childhood Jake was the only person I could rely on. So I left Bertha’s and headed to his place. We’ve always had a good relationship and he’s always tried to help me financially. But to ask him for money was out of the question. He was in the middle of a divorce, asking him, knowing that he’d say yes, would just be wrong.
I made my way over to his house. I pushed the buzzer to let him know that I was at the gate but I got no response. So I did the dumbest thing I could have done and climbed the fence. I reached the top, right as the gate opened. I looked down and saw Jake’s face looking up at me. I could see him laughing in his car. My attempt at a graceful landing off the fence looked more like chicken trying to fly. Jake had taken the hood off his car, so I dropped into the passenger seat. As I got in he said that he had something to tell me. He had won in court, he and his wife were officially divorced and he got $480,000 out of it. Then, he said something else. He had paid off all my debts. All my debts. Roughly, I owed about 28 grand. I had only made $248. Everyone had been paid what was owed, except my brother. With my $248 I got a ticket out of that place. I had finally got my life back.