“So what did mother have to say?” Luke asked me. He had been sitting on my bed until I entered but now he stood, almost bowing to me as the mastermind of this plot. It of course helped his position that we had pulled off Al’s disgrace as well, but he knew it had been my idea and knew better then to take the credit. Not that the credit was all wonderful, not with Mother angry with me for the time being. At least for a while Luke would probably have to sneak food into me. Mother kinda holds a grudge for a while.
“Mother is annoyed with me of course,” I said in a massive understatement. “It will go away soon enough,” wishful thinking, Ben still wasn’t welcome in our house after what he had done to Mary. Mother like all of us to remember who exactly was in charge. Well it didn’t matter, it would be inconvenient but well worth the honors I would receive from my other relatives, the younger ones anyway.
“So what are we going to do now?” Luke asked. He never can think for himself I don’t think. It’s always questions, every time I talk to him it’s nothing but questions. Well I can’t complain, after all, I taught him to be like that.
“We keep our heads down for a while I think.” I was reluctant to show such weakness in front of Luke, whose respect I had to keep, but well, that was how things were going to have to be. “I am going to be trying to figure out who to go after next,” I assured him. If he got bored or thought I was a dud he might go goodness knows to which of my brothers and sisters and I didn’t like that idea.
Once Luke was gone I sat down with a sheet of paper and tried to plot out what was likely to happen with Al ousted. The family dynamic was going to change, that was for sure. I wrote Ben, Dan, Isabelle and I’s names at the top of the sheet and made a list of people who were likely to ally with each of us. Friendships are fluid in this family and shit according to power.
I was probably going to get a couple more followers out of this one, hangers on who would expect results. That was going to be a pain. I worried about Luke leaving and going over to someone else but he was dumb and easy to lie to so I usually didn’t have a hard time. If I got a few of my smarter siblings and cousins on my side then I would have to think of ways to keep them busy all of the time. That was going to be a real pain. Plans didn’t come out of nowhere like my more subordinate relatives seemed to think, they had to be inspired, and thought up on the spur of the moment since situations changed so quickly. Not one of the fools understood my difficulties.
Since I couldn’t think of anyway to plan for the future without knowing the future I gave up. I had thought I was going to stay in my room for a while until Mother forgot I existed anyway, but after only an hour I was bored. It was time to cement my position I decided. It was time to visit with the other important people in the family. Other then my Mother of course, my Mother had already made her ideas clear.
My first step was Dan’s room, he is younger then I am by at least five years, I can never bother to remember the ages of everyone. Dan’s age makes it easier for me to talk to him; he knows I could shove his head into the wall so he’s always very respectful to my face anyway. I take what I can when I visit his room, pencils, spare change, a picture of that girl he met while on vacation last year, just to show that I can take what ever I want from him, when ever I want. I picked up a deck of cards as he stepped back to let me enter his room, admired them loudly, and then pocketed them. That etiquette out of the way I sat down on his bed and he sat on his office chair and we stared at one another uncomfortably.
To be continued...
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