Pink & Purple

Celestine was a selfish girl. She was the type of child mothers loathed, the very kind that fathers prayed against. Though the prettier of two sisters, her sister was soon to be married and yet she had no one to call her own. Little wonder, since no one wanted to be with someone that only thought of themselves.

Today being a Friday, she had planned to go shopping with her father’s money as was her habit, but today, Mr. Thompson put his foot down and would only give her the money if she stayed to meet her soon to be brother-in-law. “What unsightly creature will I meet today” she had thought to herself as she sat cross-legged on the sofa, a cold martini in hand.

She heard the horn as the car pulled into the driveway but remained seated while her parents went out to greet the guests. She hadn’t seen her sister since she left for Europe a year ago. She was more excited to receive the goodies she had requested for than to see Ernestina.

The dreaded moment arrived as the guests entered the living room. For the love of a new Gucci bag, Celestine rushed over to give her sister the most artificial welcome a shallow person could give. She was still in the middle of fake pleasantries when she saw him. That had to be the most beautiful man she had ever seen since her ex-boyfriend Terry.

He had a perfectly arranged set of teeth and dark skin like ebony. His eyes seemed to capture you and tell you a story that you never knew you needed to hear. His Lacoste hugged his frame in all the right places and after undressing him with her eyes, Celestine was sure there was a six-pack underneath that shirt.

She was uncomfortable the rest of the visit. It was like there was this itch she simply could not scratch. How was someone so perfect and beautiful with someone so raw and uncultured as her sister?

As the narrator of the story, I’m not permitted to be biased, but allow me to say that of the two, Ernestina was the one with the degree, she was well read and above all had her own money. But to Celestine, all that mattered was a perfectly shaped nose and a body that men would kill for.

Henry was a bit taken aback by Celestine. She looked nothing like her sister. He had imagined a dark girl with a cute face and shy smile but sitting to his left was something that could pass for an Egyptian queen. Her skin seemed to shine. She had the perfect body and she knew it. He could tell from her glances that she was the naughty kind and wasn’t sorry for it. This was the exact sister-in-law that caused problems and for some strange reason, he didn’t mind it.

Ernestina sat still. The very thing she had anticipated was unfolding before her very eyes. Her sister had that naughty look on her face and Henry seemed not to mind. He kept stealing glances at her and couldn’t keep his eyes off. Ordinarily she should be sad or hurt even; her man was looking at another woman the way he should be looking at her. But for some strange reason she wasn’t any of these things. She felt nothing. Perhaps after 24 years of growing up with this person you learn to grow numb.

Well not really numb but cold. Yes, cold. You tend to grow cold after 24 years of living in your sister’s shadow. Let’s be honest, Ernestina was not ugly. She was beautiful, but if the comparison was to be drawn with someone that looked like her sister, you might as well be comparing a moth to a butterfly.

The thing about growing cold is that soon enough your conscience starts to freeze over until you become something that your very self must fear. Alas, no one ever knows they’ve gone cold until they’re standing over their sister’s dead body. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Celestine insisted upon the young couple staying at the residence instead of the hotel they had earlier booked for privacy. “Oh, come on! The house is big and I’m barely around anyways. Just stay” she had pleaded in her sweet melodic voice.

You see, Henry was a typical man. After turning 30, he decided he didn’t want to be a typical man anymore and here comes this beautiful and successful young woman. Nothing sets a man quite on the right path like an ambitious woman. Ernestina was that woman for him. She was the one that would make him give up his childish ways and focus on building a life and a family. Don’t misunderstand, he had grown to love her. He loved Ernestina. He loved how she took care of him and reminded him of his responsibilities. He loved the balance that her presence brought to his life. Well, okay, never mind, he loved the things her presence did for him.

So here we have a selfish and beautiful sister, a typical man and a cold fiancée. I almost think it’s unnecessary to continue with the story but since I have begun, I might as well finish.

As a child, Celestine loathed physical activity. Anything that would scar her perfect skin was taboo. Ernestina on the other hand loved adventure. She enjoyed climbing things, swinging from things and doing things that eight-year-olds loved to do. It made sense that Mr. Thompson would buy his younger daughter a bicycle, as she was the only one interested in these sorts of things. Of course, as a smart man he asked his oldest if she would want one too. She had scoffed at the idea of riding a bicycle and so he went ahead to get the bike for only his youngest.

The bicycle arrived and boy oh boy! What a bicycle it was! It was pink and purple with a little basket in the front and pink frills hanging from the handles. There was a little bell and beside it a little button that made the wheels give off different colors as one rode.

After watching her sister ride it around the house in excitement, Celestine threw herself on the floor and would not be consoled till the same exact bike was brought to her. She never rode it.

Ernestina had watched her sister rolling on the floor that day and had wished she could bash her head in. The thought had surprised her.

Henry was that pink and purple bike. Have him, she wanted and have him she did. It was really simple. Henry was now madly in love with the older sister and was ready to do anything she wanted. The engagement to the younger had been called off and he had spent 3 months eating out of the palm of the older one’s hands.

Ernestina had buried her feelings. She immersed herself in philanthropic work and expanding her father’s company. She had no time for useless endeavors such as men and she was far too used to her sister’s shenanigans to allow that to stop her. She had goals and ambitions and each would be fulfilled before she turned 30. Marriage to Henry had not been her idea and was simply a welcome interruption. Its removal did not change the trajectory of her life in anyway.

Except to the extent that she had found out that she was pregnant about the same time he had announced his intention to leave her. There was no point trying to keep a man that no longer wanted to be kept and therefore there was no point keeping a child whose father most likely did not want him kept. She had dealt with the matter silently and after her sister had come crying for her blessing, consented to let the two date.

The family had gathered together for dinner after much insistence from Mrs. Thompson. Mothers can sometimes be insensitive and unfeeling simply because they want to spend time with their children. One child could have attempted to kill the other countless times but it didn’t matter, as long as she could spend time with them it was enough.

So here we are at about 8 in the evening at the dinner table in the Thompson residence. Mr. Thompson as head of home sits at the head of the table and to his left is his beautiful wife. Next to her is their successful youngest and opposite of her is their beautiful oldest and her latest love, Henry.

Oh, the things one has to bear. It hurts to imagine watching the man you thought you would marry worship the one who was supposed to be your biggest supporter. Ernestina’s feelings were frozen over. She felt nothing except the cold feel of the fork in her left hand and the knife in her right. The food was tasteless but everything had been since he had left her. Perhaps she ought to see a doctor about that.

As though Celestine and Henry had not completed an exhibition of selfishness and wickedness, Henry took out a ring and went on one knee. Celestine screamed yes. Soon she would be whisked away to Europe and live the life of her dreams.

Remember how I said Henry was a typical man? Well, one of the shortcomings of a typical man is their tendency to risk all their money in supposed lucrative businesses. Without his check, Ernestina, Henry had bitten off far more than he could chew and now he found himself bankrupt and in serious debt to very unforgiving creditors. Celestine didn’t care too much for this news and in true Celestine fashion she returned the ring, having found a prince from the UAE.

Another thing about typical men is their ability to be shameless in the midst of their cruelty. Henry could not find anyone to turn to for comfort than Ernestina, the very woman he had scorned. There he was, in her two-bedroom apartment crying about how he was now not only broke but single.

Indeed, Ernestina wasn’t unfeeling because she felt it. She felt hurt that the man she loved was now sitting before her broken and the love they once had was now sitting before them broken. There was no way they could reconcile. Henry was too in love with her sister for that. She felt something but wasn’t sure what.

Sitting in her Lexus driving to her parents’ home after seeing her broken ex, she was thinking. What was she feeling and why was she feeling it? She could sense anger, but about what and against whom? She could feel sadness but for what reason?

She had arrived at her parents’ home at 11pm that night to see her mother. She wanted to understand what she was feeling because her chest felt like it would explode and she couldn’t bare it any longer. In hindsight, perhaps she should have driven to the nearest hospital to have her heart checked instead.

Her mother wasn’t the one she found. She found a giddy Celestine, fresh from a date with her latest inamorato. The two had gone for a late-night cruise and she was tipsy from having one too many margaritas.

Ernestina felt this again.

“Why did you leave Henry? He loved you” she had asked. Celestine had laughed while throwing off one half of her red bottoms and hopping to the sofa in the other. “What good is a man without money?” she asked back incredulously. The thought of living with a man with no money shocked her.

“I thought you loved him? You told me you did” Ernestina had replied while the other half of the red bottoms flew off. “I lied” Celestine responded with a chuckle.

Ernestina felt it again. She stormed off to the attic. She needed a moment to recoup. The emotions she felt were far too much for her to properly process. Maybe she was starting to thaw. Maybe she was feeling the things she was supposed to have felt all along. Sitting in a lonely corner of the attic was that purple and pink bike that had never been touched.

When a bull sees red, it does something to them that no one really understands. When Ernestina saw that bike, it did something to her that she did not understand. Some 16 years ago she had wanted to bash her sister’s head in and today she wanted to do same.

Not far from the bike was the instrument of the crime.

At this time Ernestina truly had lost her mind because while standing over her sister’s body she called her mother. Right over her sister’s body she had a conversation like nothing had just happened. She left for home leaving behind the body and the red bottoms strewn on the living room floor.

She drove straight home and slept for 10 hours non-stop.

When the police knocked on her door, she admitted she did it. When they heard the story, they understood her motive. In fact, they sympathized with her. Ernestina didn’t understand her motive. Why did she do it? What made her snap? She had killed her sister and wasn’t even sorry for it.

Spending a life sentence in a maximum-security prison really gives you time to think, and after two years, she finally understood why she did it.

She did it because she loved Henry. She did it because even though she loved Henry, Celestine didn’t care. She treated him like she had that pink and purple bike and that was too much for Ernestina to bear. Had the two got married and had children, she could have lived with it but she could not once live with the idea that Celestine destroyed her love on a whim. She would not.

Deep within her, Ernestina knew this was the way the story would end. Deep within all of us, we knew this is how the story would end.