Two Sisters

By T.K. Murphy

This is a tale of two sisters- Carla and Laura who grow up in a small farm in rural California. The older sister Carla goes to college and leaves for Sothern California, where she marries an ambitious young man and they climb the social ladder together. The younger sister marries the boy next door, who moves in with her and they run their farm together. The sisters grow apart and the only thing holding them together is their dad.

Then disaster strikes for the older sister. Their dad passes away first and the economy pulls the rug from underneath her feet. Grief stricken and lonely, she has only one place to turn - her sister’s place. The sisters reconnect and along with the help of the other members of the family, Carla finds her footing and heads back into the world. This soulful tale deals with love, loss, death, grief, sorrow, falling down and picking yourself up again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: KAI Publishing
• Release date: Aug 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466183339

T.K. Murphy

T.K. Murphy enjoys writing novels and short stories. Writing has always been my passion.

Book preview

Two Sisters

By T.K. Murphy

Copyright 2011 by T.K. Murphy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, contact T.K. Murphy.

First Smashwords Edition released: August 2011

Cover design by: streetlightgraphics.com

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dad

The Breakdown

The Journey

Two Sisters

The Extended Family

The Job

The Family

About the Author

Dad

CARLA WALKER LIVED in Southern California, in Malibu to be exact. Her sister Laura lived close to Woodland, CA, with their dad, her husband and their three children on a farm. She and Laura grew up in that farm. Woodland is a small town, just north of Sacramento—the Capital of California. It is an important agricultural area and is on the Interstate 5 corridor that runs from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. Their father was Carl Hansen, a farmer. Carl had inherited the farm from his father and ran his family farm with his family. Carla was the smart one and did exceedingly well at school and went to community college and then state college and moved out. Laura never graduated and married the farmer’s kid Tom Rutgers next door. They had three kids and helped run the farm.

Carla had gotten an internship with a bank and never looked back. She moved up the ranks and moved across the country several times and was even posted in Europe for a short while. She lived in Malibu, Los Angeles County. She worked for one of the big banks in Los Angeles, where she had met her husband Sean Walker. Sean worked in the same field as her and was the Vice president of a smaller financial firm. The two had bought their dream home in Malibu and did not have kids. Both were busy and loved their vacations and travel and just could not imagine having a kid to fit in. Malibu is a huge city and includes a very varied terrain. The beach houses can be at sea level or slightly higher and then the hills rise abruptly and can easily reach a 1000ft or more. House prices vary widely depending on location and some houses away from the celebrity enclaves can be rather affordable-for the not so wealthy. Carla and Sean had always wanted to own a home in Malibu. They went there ever weekend to surf and eat and loved the feel of it. The drive to their office would be bad, not just the actual distance, but the horrendous bumper to bumper Los Angeles traffic. But as the housing boom started to take off, they felt they would never be able to buy one if they kept dithering. They finally took the plunge and bought their own house and were so proud of it. They invited Carl and Laura and the family and Sean’s family and their friends.

Laura came by for the house warming and wondered what the fuss was all about. The house did have land—just about half an acre. But it was small, when compared to their farmhouse. Their Grandpa had built that house on his own on 200 acres. The farm house w as almost twice as big as this. It doubled as storage for grain and for mechanical parts too, back when grandpa ran a repair shop too. But their father just farmed and had planted orchards to cut down on the work. For the price of this house, you could buy a farm, equipment and livestock –thought Laura. But she knew better not to bring that up with Carla. This had always been Carla’s and Sean's dream, to buy a house in Malibu. That is all they ever talked about and Laura never got it. She loved taking care of the farm and after their mother passed away, her dad really depended on her. They lived together, as Sean’s father had remarried after he had divorced Sean’s mom. They had split up the property among the family and Sean got a piece of it that joined Carl’s and they took care of the whole farm. They did not travel much and Laura raised a few goats, pigs and chicken to supplement the farm income. Both loved the farm and their three kids. Occasionally they went camping in the nearby Sierra Mountains or the Cascade mountains up north. Carla’s life seemed like a fairy tale to them.

Carla and Sean were so happy when they signed the papers. They couldn’t believe their dream was coming true. Their father made fun of them being neighbors with movie stars and they all laughed. Soon they had to leave and Carla and Sean got on with their normal life. The commute was horrible on weekdays and often, they took the scenic 1 highway to downtown where both worked. It took hours for the round trip, but this was not uncommon in Los Angeles. Carla planted a small garden and started to enjoy her life. Weekends were the best, as they could hit all their hotspots and home was so close by. The mortgage was worrisome, as they had taken out one of those exotic loan products—the first 5 years, they had an interest only payment and then it adjusted to a market rate interest plus the regular mortgage. Both were working in the financial field and had given out or were in charge of the group that had given out so many loans of a similar nature that they did not even blink. Carla was a bit worried, as her dad had raised them to be very careful with money and she was afraid that they could not afford it after five years, but Sean had convinced her otherwise. Their firm specialized in this and this appeared to be the new norm. House prices were going up by almost double digit percentages every year and they felt they would be priced out forever of their dream. So they signed the deal and really enjoyed it for a while.

Carla got a call that she had been dreading for a while. Their father who had been battling kidney disease for a long while and had taken a turn for the worse. He wanted to see her. Laura and Tom had taken care of Carl very well. Laura drove her dad to the hospital for his dialysis treatments and stayed with him in the hospital and helped him in any way possible. But Carl always had a soft spot for Carla, even though she barely made it to the farm once a year. Carla was always his favorite, the apple of his eye and Laura and him had long arguments over this. Tom tried to intervene and asked her to let it go, but Laura always got angry at her sister. It seems like nothing she did ever measure up to the princess Carla. Her city life and her wonderful house in Malibu and her condescending attitude to her, drove her crazy. Yet she was the one taking care of dad, driving him to his appointments, cooking, cleaning and doing all the work and they only seemed to be fighting. But Laura had a good heart and never withdrew care, just kept fighting with Carl whenever he talked about Carla. Carl had gotten really sick, a couple of times before, but this time it seemed serious. Carla drove up on I5 as fast as she could. It is a very fast freeway, past the urban areas and if one drove 80-85 mph in the fast lane, one is usually tailgated by people asking you to move over into the slow lane. The slow lane though had a lot of trucks who are supposed to drive at 55mph-the car limit is 70 mph. But the trucks routinely go 65 and the cars 80 or more. As a result, there is a lot of zig zagging and weaving of cars trying to get in and out of the slow lane and trying to overtake the car in front and trying not to be struck behind a truck.

Carla arrived in a few hours and her dad was barely conscious. He had already been on dialysis for a long time and now had so many other problems. He had been to the ER numerous times and Carla had come up quite a few times. She was thankful for Laura taking care of him, though she never mentioned it. She was always used to being the princess and having Laura do all the work. Even when they were young, her father always gave her a pass on the farm work, as she always got good grades in school. If she graduated, she would be the first girl in their family to ever go beyond high school. There was supposedly a male who had graduated several generations ago in Europe-but no one else after him and most definitely not a girl. Carl loved his two girls and with the world changing around him, he wanted his daughters to go to school and get a job. Laura barely passed each class and then fell in love with Tom next door. Carl was not happy with the choice. Tom had seven brothers and sisters, out of the same father, but different mothers. Tom’s father John was a philanderer and had a thing for the ladies and rumor had it that he had several other children spread across the land that he did not even know of. When he finally divorced his fifth wife and Tom’s mom, he was in his eighties and decided to sell part of the farm and split up the rest. By that time, Tom was deeply in love with Laura and were engaged, so he gave Tom the piece of land that was adjacent to the Hansens and he decided to move, but died in a few months. Tom’s mom moved to Nevada with her share and nobody heard of her again. Tom married Laura and treated her dad as family. Carl eventually came around and accepted him as a son and they became good friends, with Laura being the one fighting with him nonstop. But as the years rolled by and as Laura realized she was not going to have dad around forever, she calmed down and matured a bit. But she still didn’t like Carla. She couldn’t understand their bond and why Carl’s face lit up at the mere mention of Carla. He was so proud of her and her achievements and never complained about the fact that she only made it here once a year. She did call him and talk to him and that made Laura even angrier, as her dad seemed to float on cloud nine every time Carla called. The two kept talking and fighting about it, but she loved her dad and took care of everything. She cooked special meals for him, because he couldn’t eat certain foods and even changed his adult diapers when he was bedridden for a month. Then of course Carla would drive up in her shiny convertible and stay for a day, not do any work, just coo all around him and he would be so happy. This would set her off and she and Car would have a fight and usually Carla left without lifting a finger.

Carl was barely conscious in the hospital room, when he managed a smile on seeing Carla. He felt his strength ebbing away and he could see Laura make a face and almost laughed, but couldn’t muster the strength to laugh out aloud. He had lived a full life. He had two lovely kids, grandkids and everyone was happy with their lives. Laura reminded him of his wife Elsie, a very hard worker, but had a mouth on her. Carla reminded him of his favorite aunt Gracie on his dad’s side. She was very industrious, sweet and very loving. He missed her when she moved away, but he was very proud of her accomplishments and never imagined that his daughter would be living in a house in Malibu. He had visited a few times, but had gotten sick the last two years and now felt the strength ebbing out him. He knew his time had come to say goodbye and could feel it in him. Carl drifted off to sleep, never to wake again. They kept him in life support for a while, but then eventually decided to unplug him. Sean drove up for the funeral and Carla stayed for a while. The death hit her hard and she really did not know what to do. Her daddy was the person she always turned to for advice and the one person she could talk freely as a person. She called him a lot and he just made her feel safe. Sean was a go getter and was always trying to one up the condition. Born in Los Angeles, to a middle class family, Sean always wanted to be the elite. He always wanted to be ahead and be on the top and didn’t mind borrowing to keep up appearances. He called it advertising expenses. He felt that you had to keep up appearances, in order to advance in life, by getting invited to the right events and meeting the right people. Carla was a lot more grounded, but she had a burning ambition too and they felt the same way about life. She worked for a bigger corporation, so she didn’t have as much pressure as him. But she played along.

Carla felt so utterly lost, as her dad was the only one she could have heart to heart conversations with and now he was gone. She loved him a lot and felt somewhat guilty, but she couldn’t visit him in the last two years. She felt queasy when she saw him physically deteriorate. She much rather remember him the strong, tough man, than the crumbling falling apart heap of skin and bones. She called and talked, but rarely visited him the last two years—except when he had to go to the ER a few times. Laura took care of him and she knew he was in good hands. She had never dealt with death before-human death. Her mom had passed when she was on a school trip and her grandpa and grandma had passed away in an accident. This kind of slow, lingering, drawn out death scared her. She couldn’t deal with it emotionally and so just talked to him on the phone. Carl didn’t mind and enjoyed their talks, listening to her rants about people in the office and occasionally turning the conversation back to their lack of kids. Carla just said they didn’t want any and that they had four dogs-all rescues—who they considered to be their kids. Carl was old school and couldn’t understand how dogs could be a substitute for kids, but he knew he wouldn’t get very far with her and usually changed the subject, until the opportunity presented itself again. Laura on the other hand, he could tell anything and he did and they often had fights, with Tom playing the mediator and both running to him and complaining about the other. Tom was a quiet man and loved his family and just brushed it off. He really just went about his business and took it one day at a time. He had lost contact with his siblings and his mom. Most had sold off their property, either to him or others and had scattered and he only met them occasionally. This was his family and his home and he was content with life. Lovely wife who did all the work at home and took care of the kids and helped with farm chores and nice old father in law who really did not interfere in the farm chores anymore. Carl usually took off for a few days every month and went camping or visiting Carla and the two of them got along fine now.

Sean came back from work and was very tense. Sean was a gorgeous man-blonde, blue eyed and 6’4" tall. He was groomed impeccably and always dressed and drove the most expensive cars. He loved Carla and with two incomes and no kids, they had a very lavish lifestyle. He had grown up middle class—his dad worked as a technician in one of the studios and his mom worked part time at a grocery store. He always had a burning desire to succeed and hated his middle class lifestyle. He tried out modeling and acting. He had snagged a commercial or two, but wasn’t very successful and was a good athlete, but not excellent. He got a real estate license and started selling houses and entered the market at just the right time. He became very successful. Then the real estate crash happened in the 80s and he joined another firm as a consultant and worked his way to the top and was the VP of the firm now. He met Carla during a business meeting, when he was wining and ding the company to get their business. The two had gradually fallen in love and after five years together, got married. It was a dream wedding, conducted