They say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life. But it wasn’t my wedding, or the happiest day of my life. The happiest day of my life was when I got to leave my wretched mother’s clutches. No, this wasn’t a happy day for me. My name was Chris and it was January 25, 2011 was the day before my sister’s wedding. You see I was the kind of person adults would point to and say to their children “you don’t want to be like that guy”. I was the guy they pray not to become, but also to stay away from. I wasn’t a guy who attended fancy parties or prestigious events. I didn’t belong at weddings. I should never have gone.

My sister was the only person who believed in me. She was the one who bailed me out of jail. She was the one who paid my debts. She was the one who lets me stay at her house when I didn’t pay the rent and got evicted. My sister was the only one in this world that loved me. Mollie was my guardian angel.

January 24, 2010, the day before my sister was to be married I was 300 miles away in New York without a car. My car was in the impound lot. Legally, I couldn’t get it for another month. I had no idea why anyone would want to go pay to get a gray, beat up, piece of cr** 2001 Toyota four door. Anyway, I had to go get it but I needed the money that was required to get it out for gas. Without my car I was not going to make it to Vermont for the wedding. So I just went and stole it from the lot like I always had. It was my property to begin with, so I felt obligated to “return it to its rightful owner”.

Five and a half hours and one hundred dollars in gas later, I arrived at my sister’s soon to be in-laws house. Looking around at the place, I couldn’t believe that she would be willing to leave New York to move to the middle of nowhere for that guy. The house was in the woods, up in the mountains, miles from civilization and it was only like 500 square feet. I had no idea how these people lived in this shack. I thought to myself “this is the place I’m losing my sister to.” Without Mollie, I was going to be completely on my own for the first time in my life. To be honest, she’d been the one constant in my life; the one thing that kept me in control. Speaking of control, that place was full of it. I could tell by the yard, those people were the typical stereotypical control freaks. I dreaded going inside that house. I felt claustrophobic just anticipating it. I was debating whether or not to go in when my sister came out to greet me in her fuzzy pajamas and pink t-shirt. Well there goes my chance of turning around without anyone noticing I thought. Maybe I could have come up with an excuse for having to leave, but it was too late, she was at my car door. Deciding after all she’s done for me I can at least meet my future relatives.
My sister pulled me out of my car and hugged me saying “I missed you so much. You should move out here, it’s really nice.”
“I don’t think it’s for me. Why don’t you just come back to New York with me?” I said.
“This is my home now and I am going to be happy here with Vince” she argued. “Well let’s go inside, I want you to meet them” she said, in an exited voice as she tugged me towards the house.
I don’t know which was worse, having to meet the parents or my future brother in law. Just meeting new people had become a day to day task that I dreaded. Everyone I’d met in my life so far had let me down in one way or another; besides Mollie of course.

I pretended to be excited to meet my soon to be relatives. They were even more unpleasant than I had imagined. It was only noon and I had to spend another 48 hours with them before I could leave them and do my best to never see them again. The rehearsal dinner was that night and I had to give a stupid speech. I said before that I don’t belong at fancy things, this included doing fancy things. I was a terrible public speaker. I had put hours into this speech and I doubted that they would appreciate the effort.

I made some small talk with the parents. An”oh really” here and an “I hate that” there. The parents were old and gray. The father Ralph kept rambling on about how in his day he fought in some war, or whatever. But my soon to be brother in law was a different kind of annoying. He wanted nothing to do with me and whenever I tried to talk to him he just nodded and looked like he was in pain. He was a big guy, about 6-2, with a sort of cold attitude. His gray eyes creeped me out. I don’t know how my lovely and bright sister could love this guy. I didn’t like him much. After all he was the one that caused my sister to abandon me, but I put up with him. I didn’t know why he was so hateful. I didn’t know it at the time, but he didn’t like me just as much as I didn’t like him, maybe even more. I was going to have to just put up with him for the two days, and then I would hopefully never have to see him again. I was tempted to teach him a lesson, but I didn’t want to start any trouble. Also, I’m sure he could have easily beaten me up.
It seemed like forever that I spent talking to those boring, obnoxious people. Finally, it was time for us to go to the dinner, where the attention would be all on my sister and her groom. We all piled into separate cars and headed to the restaurant. When we arrived I looked at the ornate flowery room filled with people I didn’t know. As I said before I hated meeting people. I felt uncomfortable with all the new unfamiliar faces around. The open bar would have usually cheered me up, but I was trying to quit drinking. I could sit quietly alone in the back and no one would even know I was there. That was exactly what I did. I sat in the far corner of the room at my own table where no one would notice me. Or at least that was the plan. Some of my sister’s friends that I had met once before tried hitting on me but I wasn’t in the mood I was just focused on making it through the time I had to spend here.

I was listening to the band play when I saw my sister’s fiancé approaching me. I was thinking, oh good here he comes to apologize to me. This should be good, I figured. He looked kind of intimidating; he was carrying two drinks. I hoped they weren’t alcoholic. As he got closer I could see the look on his face and it was clear he wasn’t coming to say sorry. Vince came and sat down and he spoke quietly.

He said, “Here I brought you a drink“, as he handed me a glass filled with scotch.
I tried to explain that I was trying to quit, but he strangely told me it wouldn’t matter.
Vince spoke very clearly, although I had to second guess what I had heard.

“Look, the way I see it, you have two options, you drink this poisoned cup. Its slow acting so it will give me enough time to get away from you, so I’m not suspected.”

I was shocked and confused. I thought it was a joke, so I took a sip. I said “Well how much can one drink hurt?” Trying to be friendly and make light of the situation.

Vince just responded, “Well I guess you don’t even need to hear the ultimatum. But just so you know why I’ve decided to kill you. I’m going to tell you. It’s because you are a terrible person and I don’t want to know you. In order to be with your sister I would have to deal with you, which is not an option so now you will die.”

He got up to leave. I almost couldn’t move but I grabbed his arm. I felt how strong he was as he pulled away. I knew I had no chance of fighting him. So I did my best to try to leave him with a lasting memory of me.
I said “Sit down you coward and listen to what I have to say. Presented with the antidote I wouldn’t take it. I love my sister more than you know. She is the only thing that has kept me going. Now you are the only thing stopping me from going on. How ironic; the person my sister loves would kill me. Again I would do anything for my sister’s happiness, and for some reason you are a major source for that happiness. So I go willingly.”

He just silently got up and smiled, then walked over to my sister and kissed her. She then announced that it was time for dinner. It was time to recite my speech. My vision began to fade a little. I walked over to my place at the main table and signaled it was time for my speech. Holding up my glass I simply said “to you sis”. Then I collapsed. The last thing I saw was my sister. With my blurred vision she looked just like an angel.