My Picture Of Perfect Family

My family had always been normal from the outside. I had a loving mother, father, and older sister. We all lived together in a house in a rural part of town. Everything seemed to be well to my sister and I. We were even lucky enough to have au pairs from countries all over the world stay with us. They came from Japan, France, and many other places. The last au pair we ever had was from Germany. She was a young, blonde haired girl from Frankfurt. My sister and I had the best times with her. She would color with us, ride bikes in the driveway, and even read us bedtime stories. We grew to love her so much, and unexpectedly so did our dad. The au pair had arrived in the early summer days. We would go to the beach, play in the backyard, and take in the warm rays of the sun. However, one week we decided to go on a family vacation to the one and only, New York City.

The Big Apple was everything my seven-year-old self expected. It was huge, there was delicious food, and the American Girl Doll store was the most beautiful shop I had ever seen. We had all walked to Times Square and decided to split up to go do our own activities. The au pair went to go sightseeing, my dad decided to go grab some food, and my sister and I went with our mom to a toy store. We all decided to meet up again at a specific time, back where we started. Unfortunately, after running through endless aisles of toys and dolls, it was finally time to go back and meet up with everyone else. The three of us walked to Times Square and sat down on one of the stone benches to wait for the others. The city was as busy as ever, and across from us was this old couple sitting and talking to each other. All of a sudden, my dad and the au pair were seen approaching us, walking together. Suspecting that he had been with my au pair the whole time, my mom stood up and started yelling. She was screaming these accusations that I thought were only said in movies. My dad started yelling back, and as soon as I knew it, most eyes of the crowded New York city street were on us. I turned to my sister and could see through her side bangs, tears streaming down her face as she said, “Please don’t get a divorce, ” over and over again. I then looked over at the old couple seated across from us, and I could only see a look of pity as they whispered amongst themselves while looking back and forth between my sister and I. My dad then threw his coffee onto the floor and I began to cry. I’d always been a copycat of my sister, and this was no exception.

Unfortunately, New York soon dropped from it’s high and mighty place in my thoughts and it turned into a dirty, smelly city full of hate and betrayal. A few months later, it was time for the au pair to go home. I stood at the window waving, almost in tears, as my dad and sister drove out of the driveway, to drop her off at the airport. Once they were finally out of sight, I turned to my mom and she said she had never liked her and that it’s good that she’s finally gone. Little did my mother know that she would never truly leave our lives. Little did she know, that our au pair had most likely never gotten on that plane. A little more than a year later, my parents had officially divorced. They went their separate ways, with the only thing tying them together being my sister and I. My dad had moved out to an apartment one day while my sister and I weren’t at the house. He told us he had moved to Canton and that he was there with our au pair. Although he was gone from our house, he would try to make it seem like he never really left for good. He would come by every morning to wait with me and my sister for the school bus, as well as pick us up after school a few days a week to hang out. My dad had never brought either of us to his new apartment and kept it almost a secret until a few months after he moved in. The three of us loaded into his grey Acura and took about a twenty five minute drive, through roads I had never seen before, to his new house. When we arrived at the large complex, my dad kneeled down next to me and told me some unexpected news that my mom hadn’t even known at the time. He said that I now had a baby half-sister and that I was about to meet her. My mind remained blank for the rest of the walk to his apartment since I couldn’t believe how everything I had ever known was changing so quickly. I felt too young to be able to digest all this new information so painstakingly fast. He took his key ring out of his jean pocket and unlocked the door to his new home, with his new family in it. Right away, my eyes drifted from the lightly furnished living room to the only familiar face in this new surrounding. I saw our old au pair standing in the doorway to a bedroom, holding a baby with the roundest and bluest eyes I had ever seen. She walked over to me to say her greetings and I saw her pass the baby to my dad. It was completely foreign to see my father holding some child, who was now supposedly related to me. I didn’t let this bother me for long as my new stepmother reached down to give my sister and I a hug. I was at a complete loss for words and the only thing that could come out of my mouth was, “Hi Scarlett. I missed you”.

Often times, throughout the years, I’ve wondered if I had made a mistake saying those words. If I should’ve been angry at my dad and stepmom, instead of accepting them so naively because I was too young to understand the weight of what had just happened. Nevertheless, our family had grown, and soon enough I had a little half-brother as well.

On the other side, my mom had moved my sister and I to a new city to start my middle school years, and my dad had gone back to live in our old house. The peace had finally been restored in our seemingly perfect household and we had all found, in some way or another, a happiness in our new lives. It seemed that the sun had finally shined through after a seemingly never ending hurricane. Although this early life experience wasn’t ideal, many life lessons and memories had been created, which is much more valuable than obtaining the nearly impossible title, known as the picture perfect family.