Dinner is Prompt-ly at Eight - 4. K

K

“I said throw it all in the dumpster. That shit’s not part of my life anymore.”

Benny looked at Clive with surprise. It was rare K used such language, especially in regards to her parents.

“We thought you’d be interested,” the tall, striking, brown haired man said setting the box on the table. “I’ll toss it if you’d like but they must have kept it for a reason. There must be something in there you can use.”

Clive’s impassive face told Benny nothing. His toad-like lips were pressed into a perpetual smirk so there was no telling what he was thinking. K was pointedly not looking at him. She was applying mascara and looking intently at the mirror in her dressing room. Her hair was wrapped in a net and K glanced over at the wig on an antique stand to her right.

“Whatever it is, I’m not interested. That house is my past. It’s a journey I’d rather not take,” K said. She picked up the lipstick and carefully applied it smacking her lips as she finished.

“You could at least look at it. Benny took a risk getting it. With the wedding today, he thought you’d appreciate the effort. After all, they were your parents,” Clive growled. Benny watched as his sociopathic lover tried to use reason to get to their boss.

Clive gave Benny a shrug and nod to leave the box, a dusty somewhat tattered thing, there on the table. Benny nodded and followed Clive as he left the room. It wasn’t their affair at this point. K would probably throw it away but that wasn’t their call. Whatever lie within it was between K’s dead parents and her. K had barely shed a tear after the police shot their way into the house. She’d always been respectful of the heads of the crime family but it seemed there was no love lost with their passing.

K heard the door shut and she sighed. It wasn’t easy keeping those two in check but they were the best the family had. Sometimes the decisions they made were downright idiotic, but they always got away. Her dad appreciated that. Benny and Clive could almost miraculously finish the job, though it was usually quite a messy affair. “Dear old fucking dad,” K whispered to the mirror.

With her parents gone, she could really be herself. Her sister’s wedding would be a kind of debut into their world for K. The rest of the family may not like the transformation but they didn’t have a choice.

K wrapped the robe around her body a little more tightly and stood up from the makeup table. She stared at the box Benny dropped off and thought of how stupid they were for stealing it. Her parents’ house was a crime scene and this was her sister’s fault. Lorraine had gone on and on about the idiotic tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Benny, the sweetheart that he was, had decided they needed to retrieve something from the house.

“Why this?” K asked the box. “I’m almost over it and they had to steal this.”

K knew what was in there. There was a little yarmulke and a copy of the Talmud with her, well his name on it. The name Kane Julius Goldstein was etched in gold on the black leather cover. Kane was dead and gone. K sighed, again. She opened the box and rifled through the contents.

At the bottom was a small blue handkerchief, it was monogramed with ‘his’ initials. Kane was gone now, well, not entirely. One small part was still there but K could conceal that most of the time.

“I’m not a balding middle aged Jewish man anymore,” she announced to the wig. K grabbed it and pulled it onto her head.” She looked into the mirror and appraised her transformation. “Yep, that little effete weasel is gone.”

K smiled and turned back to the box. She pulled the little blue silken cloth from it and carefully folded the corners of the box back shut. She’d give Lorraine this as something old, something blue, and yes, something borrowed. She wanted it back. This would be the last little link to the fucking man she’d once been. Her parents were gone so now she could be herself. K would never have to masquerade as a man again. She could now be the goddess she’d always felt was inside her.

K picked up the phone after pulling on her dress and fastening it carefully. “Benny. Bring the car around. We have a wedding to go to.”

It was time to make her entrance and take over her birthright. Karen Goldstein would now be in control of the family and the Enterprise. She felt a tear begin to form as she thought of her mother and father’s absence. Quickly, she caught that droplet with the handkerchief and cleared her throat. It was good they were gone. Now she could live and Kane would be no more.