Chapter Two

The Crawleys were one of the few very-important-families of Pallow City. After all, Mr. Crawley was–and had been for years–the Mayor of Pallow. His wife, Janette Crawley, was both the epitome of beauty–in other words, she had been a former Victoria’s Secret Angel­–and of selflessness. She was Pallow’s own Lady Diana. While her husband worked tirelessly fixing streets and building bridges, Mrs. Crawley spent her free time organizing fund raising events and charity balls, which were often attended by many of the worlds’ most iconic personalities.

     This year, however, the Crawleys had decided to keep their Forth of July celebration in a less elaborate and extravagant scale. Instead of their usual hundreds of guests, only ninety-six people where invited, all of them close members of the family. Or as close as a crowd of almost a hundred people could be.

     The reason the Scaffolds where in the carefully constructed and handpicked guest list was that, a long time ago, Mr. Crawley and Mr. Scaffold had been friends.

     In elementary school, Nora had been in the same class the Crawleys’ son had been in. It had been during their children’s school Father’s Day celebration that both parents met. Not long after, the few things they had in common led them to a strong friendship–which was based mostly upon golf. It was a happy friendship, but a short one at that, since it only lasted until Mr. Crawley was elected Mayor and his free–golfing–time had been significantly reduced.

     Even if they hadn’t spoken in years like actual friends, Mr. Crawley and Mr. Scaffold had had a few pleasant conversations since the former had become Mayor. And that seemed enough incentive to consider the Scaffolds close friends. Or maybe it was because Mr. Scaffold’s advertising company had grown quite a lot in the last few years, and election–or reelection–time was coming up soon. Either way, the Scaffolds had been invited to what would probably be one of the best parties in Pallow that year. They didn’t care about the reason why.

     “Okay,” Mr. Scaffold said as he turned to look back at his kids. They where almost on Crawley territory and he was taking advantage of a red light to speak to his children making serious eye contact. “This is a very important day, loves. If things go right, I could get an advertising deal that could lead to many other important deals that could put the three of you through college.”

     “You do remember Mimi and I are still in elementary school, right?” Dun said.

     The light turned green. Mr. Scaffold sat back and began driving again.

     “Yeah, well. With the way you talk I would expect you to be at least getting your Masters Degree, so,” Mr. Scaffold replied as he sat back and stepped on the gas pedal.

     “So?” Dun asked, eyebrows furrowed.

     “So, what, hun?” Mrs. Scaffold asked, looking back at her son through the side mirror.

     “Dad said ‘so’. Sentences are not supposed to end like that. It’s wrong.”

     Mrs. Scaffold shook her head lightly. “Do you have some type of Asperger’s Syndrome, hun?”

     “Yes, mom,” Dun replied, smiling.

     “That’s lame,” she joked back.

     Nora shook her head. “This would be alarming to anyone outside our family,” she said.

     “Nah. They’d know we are joking. They always do,” Mrs. Scaffold replied.

     “Don’t be so sure, love,” Mr. Scaffold said. “The other day this man on the supermarket line asked Mimi if she wanted to call Child Protective Services because we were kidding like that.”

     Nora turned to look at her little sister “What did you answer?”

     “That I had already tamed daddy and that he wasn’t getting any desert.”

     Mr. Scaffold chuckled at the memory and Mimi smiled.

     “Nice,” his wife said.

     “Mei you na me bang,(1)” Dun exclaimed with a bright and amused smile. Everyone had grown used to his weird phrases that they couldn’t understand, so they didn’t even bother asking what had he said. He never told them anyways.

     “Nice indeed,” Nora agreed with her mother.

     Suddenly, Dun launched forward in his seat, his face popping between his parents’ seats. “Qing deng yi xia!(2) Is that a house?” he exclaimed.

     Everyone in the car followed Dun’s gaze out the front window.

     On the top of a small hill, surrounded by perfectly trimmed and colorful gardens, stood the Crawleys’ humble abode. You could even see the clearing between the tall trees where the pristine lake probably stood.

     “No, hun. That’s a castle,” Mrs. Scaffold said as she stared at the large house in awe.

     “Mommy,” Mimi’s little voice said. “Can we live in a castle, too?”

     “Maybe someday, love,” her dad said sweetly. “When Dun discovers the cure for AIDS or Nora starts her own super successful law firm or you marry a rich man, love.”

     Normally, that would have been one of the many comments that would have horrified anyone outside the Scaffold family. Inside it, well, it made everyone laugh.

     “Can he be super-duper handsome?” Mimi asked as the car finally came near enough for them to see guests walking through the tall front doors of the mansion as valets took their cars out of the way.

     “Yes he can, hun,” her mom said. “Maybe you can marry the Crawleys’ son!”

     “He’s my age, mom,” Nora said as she rolled her eyes.

     “Well, there’s no age for love, hun. But if it horrifies you too much, he can be your fella tonight.”

     “Fella?” Mr. Scaffold was frowning. “I don’t want my daughter near any fellas.”

     “You just said Mimi could marry one,” Dun said, exasperated by his father’s incoherent discourses.

     “Mimi can, Nora can not.”

     “And why would that be,” Nora said, trying to guess what crazy answer her father would come up with, knowing that it would most certainly not be a serious one.

     “Because, love, you are not my biological daughter so I don’t have enough authority to give you away to a man. Specially not a fella man.” 

***

     “Welcome, Madam,” the tall and handsome young valet said as he opened Mrs. Scaffold’s door and helped her out. His elegant demeanor was kind of funny, considering he had flinched when he had first laid eyes on their unusual car.

     “Thank you,” Mrs. Scaffold replied with a bright smile. She took her time studying him carefully, trying to picture him as a possible husband for one of her daughters. Nora, mostly.

     “Here,” Mr. Scaffold said as he handed his car keys to the valet. “Don’t ever take your eyes off him. He is dangerous.”

     “Who is, Sir?” To give him credit, the valet hid his confusion very well.

     Once Nora was out of the car, Mrs. Scaffold grabbed a hold of her. “Fella,” she whispered into her daughter’s ear. Nora had to admit he was actually quite cute, and that there was something about the uniform that made him even cuter.

     “The car,” Mr. Scaffold said, his tone serious and maniac. “Watch the car.”

     The valet nodded and Mimi tried very hard not to laugh at his nervousness. It was actually funny how the Scaffold parents could make people so uncomfortable. Even Nora was trying to hide her smile.

     “He just likes to run away,” Mrs. Scaffold explained. “Does it quite often, actually.”

      “The… car, Madam?”

     “Yes. The car, kid,” Mr. Scaffold responded.

     The valet suddenly smiled, finally realizing it was all a joke. “Sure.”

     “Finally,” Mrs. Scaffold muttered and pulled her kids away, guiding them towards the door, her husband following closely behind.

     “You do realize that ruined any chance of him being my fella, right?” Nora whispered into her mother’s ear, trying to sound angry but failing.

     “Yeah, well. If he couldn’t tell we were joking and joke back, he was never worth it in the first place. You need a man with a sense of humor, hun. You lack way too much of it. You’ll need someone to give it to you when we are gone.”

     Nora shook her head slowly and the five Scaffolds entered the mansion.

     The fancy decorations and furniture seemed even fancier surrounded by the many guests wearing colorful fancy clothing. It looked like a scene extracted from a movie or maybe a book. To Nora, it felt so foreign yet so familiar. Like everything was exactly like it was supposed to be: perfect, beautiful, and welcoming. And even if she felt at home there, she didn’t feel at home with all those people that knew way too much about her eccentric family. She felt like all eyes where on them. On the strange dress the woman who held her arm and gave her life was wearing. On the little and obviously adopted boy who wore traditional Chinese clothes to a Forth of July celebration. On the short man that had his arm around his way-to-tall-for-him wife.

     “There are the Crawleys,” Mrs. Scaffold said, oblivious of the few people staring that felt like thousands to her teenage daughter.

     “Let’s go say hi,” Mr. Scaffold said. He took the hands of his two youngest children and dragged them in the direction of Pallow’s Power Couple.

     Mr. Crawley looked just like he had for the last ten years he had been Mayor: handsome, way too young for his age, and powerful. Mrs. Crawley looked as ravishing and elegant as Nora had ever seen her. There was just one problem, though.

     “Mom.”

     “Yes, hun?”

     “We need to go.”

     Mrs. Scaffold frowned and turned to look at her daughter, who was beginning to panic. “Why?”

     “Not that I would usually care about things like this, but I’m wearing the same dress Mrs. Crawley is.”

     Technically, it wasn’t the same dress. Anthropologie was too cheap for Janette Crawley’s clothing standards. But the dress she was wearing that night looked exactly like Nora’s, with only a few differences here and there.

     Mrs. Scaffold stopped walking abruptly when she heard her daughter’s words. “Holy shit.”

     “Mom!”

     “Right. Sorry kids. You didn’t listen to that.”

     “They are with dad, mom.”

     “Oh. Right,” she said. “Okay, listen. You need to take the car and go home and change.”

     Nora grimaced. “I didn’t bring my license.”

     “Bollocks. Okay. Then you need to hide somewhere and not let anyone see you.”

     “Wouldn’t that be rude?”

     “It would be ruder to wear the same dress the hostess of the party is wearing, hun. I may have an infrequent taste in clothing, but I do know that etiquette says that this would be way too uncomfortable for her.”

     “Mom, maybe we are overreacting–”

     “Nora, hun,” Mrs. Scaffold said firmly. “Do you know what happened to the last actress that was seen wearing the same dress Janette Crawley was wearing at a party?”

     Nora frowned. “Well… no?”

     “No, hun. No, you don’t. And you don’t want to know, trust me. Now run. I’ll make up an excuse and maybe will let her see you from afar during the fireworks or something.”

     “Okay.” Nora nodded and her mom walked away.

     The eldest Scaffold couldn’t believe her luck. Not only had she managed to convince her mother to let her hide, but now she even had a reason to hide for absolutely the whole afternoon. Suddenly, she could feel the weight of the book she had thrown into her bag before leaving intensifying. And the thought of reading it, hidden away from everyone in the party, made her smile.

Dun's Dictionary:

(1) “Not that great.” 

(2) “One moment please! ”