My Mom died quite suddenly and unexpectedly of a hospital infection about four months ago, but that, if you can believe it, wasn’t the worst thing.
Nor was the fact that her younger sister, my aunt, took up with Dad less than two months after her death.
The worst was yet to come.
It started on a dull evening- I just had supper with my aunt and Dad, barely tolerating her bright friendly chatter about school. I went upstairs to my room as soon as I could to “do my homework”. I stared at my laptop screen, pretending to look at my assignment, but in reality I was swimming in grief and missing Mom. I couldn’t concentrate on anything since she died.
I minimised the assignment tab, and looked at the photo I used as background. It was taken a few years ago- a happy family occasion, my Mom and aunt sitting side-by-side, so like yet unlike, my dad next to Mom and I was leaning against him. All of us were smiling, Mom had both her arms stretched out around her sister and her husband.
The chatbox in the bottom left-hand corner of my screen began flashing. I was mildly surprised- it was an older app that no one really used anymore- I had been meaning to delete it.
And then, I froze.
Mom’s little image blinked in the chatbox. And then the words popped up. “Hello Thelma. It’s me, Mom”.
Fear gripped my throat. I knew it must be some hacking thing or stupid error but I was paralysed. I turned round and glanced at my bedroom door- it was closed, although the sounds of TV from the living room still came wafting in. Aunt Claudia had the TV on whenever she was downstairs, even if she was not watching it.
“Don’t be scared Thelma. It’s really me. I found a way a talk to you, my darling precious child. I’ve been missing you so much.”
If this was a hacker’s joke, it was the cruellest joke in the world. Against my will, tears began welling in my eyes, spilling out.
“Oh my darling, please don’t cry. It’s ok. And it’s no use crying anyway. I need you to save that energy”
My fingers still stiff from fear, I managed to type out a response. “Mom? What do you mean? Is that u rlly?”
I could sense her familiar frustration rushing back through the laptop– same as when she felt I wasn’t being smart or strong enough, when she was alive. “Of course Thelma, it’s me. And I’ve come back to tell you something important.”
I had my own important news to share. “Did you know Aunt Claudia moved in last weekend?”
“Yes, Thelma. I know. And this is what gave me the strength to come and tell you. Please be strong. I know you are a strong girl, and you can deal with this- I am sorry you have to. But you have to know. I have to tell you. She can’t have everything- my life, man, house, child”
A different kind of fear took over me. “Mom what do u mean?”
“Thelma, I’m sorry to put this on you like this. I don’t know what else to do. You have to know. Aunt Claudia murdered me”
The bottom of my world gave way as I dropped into a dark hole of dread and fear. I felt as if I had known this all along, all through the past four months, ever since that awful night when Aunt Claudia called from the hospital, where she worked, to talk to Dad. I just couldn’t say it.
“Thelma? Are you listening to me?”
If I had any doubts that the laptop chat was really my Mom, those words dispelled them- I heard them in the exact voice she always used to say those very words to me.
“Yes Mom. But how?”
“She was at the hospital you know. When I went in. She wasn’t on my floor, but it was very easy for her to arrange for me to pick up an infection”
“Thelma?” The door opened and Aunt Claudia poked her head in. I gave a little scream and frantically minimized the chatbox. Aunt Claudia stepped forward. “Oh honey you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you ok?”
Wordlessly I nodded. Aunt Claudia sighed. “Thelma sweetheart, I miss your Mom too, but this moping isn’t doing you any good, it’s hurting your dad, you know. Do you want him to suffer more?”
I shrugged. I couldn’t speak. I looked up at her. The light was odd on her face, she looked more like Mom than ever before, but also not.
“And these clothes, Thelma!” She reached out and touched my black sleeve, and I flinched back as though she had hit me. She frowned and for an instant I thought she was actually going to slap me. But then she smiled and said “I know girls your age like to wear black all over but what do you say me and you have a trip to the mall and pick you up some nice new gear? On me. C’mon sweetheart, it will be so much fun!”
I shook my head furiously. Tears of rage, grief, and fear splatter out. Aunt Claudia began again “Oh Thelma-” but then she stopped and went quiet. I looked up at her face. She was pale and had a horrible expression, she was staring at my laptop.
I followed her line of sight, turning around to look at my screen.
The photo had changed. There was a new photo in background, showing Mom seemingly asleep in a hospital bed, and Aunt Claudia by her side, bent over her.
Aunt Claudia seemed to jolt into life. Her face twisted into a terrible snarl she screamed “Are you playing tricks on me?” and she lunged towards me. I cringed back in my chair, raising my hands to defend myself against her onslaught.
But before she could even touch me, a bolt of electricity sprang out of the laptop, hit her square in the chest and she dropped dead to the floor.
I shrieked in terror.
***
Dad and I had to move from that town- losing two wives in four months isn’t a good look for anyone. Even though the police combed through our statements and the laptop and the electricity up and down- they eventually had to put it down to a freak accident which happened when I asked my aunt for help to get my laptop working.
Dad never remarried, and I never heard from Mom again.