Samantha (Unfinished Short Story)

The letter was unexpected.  Thomas hadn’t heard from his sister since she’d moved to Los Angeles almost a decade ago.  He’d assumed she’d done well for herself since she’d only written once a year around Christmas for the past nine years.

He fiddled with the crisp envelope, observing its off-white color and his sister’s mangled handwriting, before ripping it open to reveal what appeared to be a torn page from a notebook folded once inside.

Thomas,

By the time you receive this letter, I’ll have arrived in New York.  I was laid off from my waitress job (yes, I’ve been working as a waitress to pay my bills because I haven’t landed a part yet) and I haven’t been able to afford my rent for the past four months. I’ve been living at my boyfriend’s ever since, but we had a huge argument last week and decided to end things.  I just don’t think LA is working out for me anymore, so I’ve decided to come back to the city.  As you can probably imagine, I can’t exactly afford a hotel, and the last thing I want to do is let Mom know she was right all along.

So, I guess I’ll get to the point of this letter…  I don’t want to impose, but I’m afraid that’s what the conclusion of this letter has come to. Can I please stay with you just for a little while until I get back on my feet again? I think this will be a good opportunity for us to bond again.

Give me a call when you get this. My number’s on the back.

            Sam

Thomas flipped over the letter and sure enough, her number was scrawled on the back.  It never occurred to him that his sister wouldn’t make it as an actress.  After all, she’d been acting in school plays and musicals since she could walk and talk.  Though, perhaps it was the support of their father that had kept her going.  When he passed of complications with his heart, Sam had flown back to New York for his funeral and kept mostly to herself, saying an estimated three words to he and his mother.  She had brought her luggage with her, and after the funeral commenced, she’d taken the first cab she could find to JFK.

Maybe she had been on a downward spiral since.

Thomas picked up his iPhone and dialed the number, drumming his fingers against his kitchen counter top.  The sun’s rays illuminated his modern one bed, one bath apartment on the Upper West Side.  A floor-to-ceiling window in his living room boasted a view of the horizon of Central Park, where locals accompanied by their dogs and tourists from all over the world enjoyed the scenic views and warm air.  He meandered to the window when her voice rang through his ear.

“Hello?”

“Sam, it’s Thomas.  I just read your letter.”

“About time.  I’ve seriously contemplated calling up Teri… You know, the bitch who single-handedly ruined my life in high school, just because I know she still lives in Manhattan.”

Thomas smiled.  His sister was never short on humor.

“Well, you won’t have to do that because I’ve got a pullout couch with your name on it.”

There was a pause on the other end.  Thomas watched a boy and who he presumed to be his father bike past his building.  He turned away from the window.

“You’re serious?”

“I would never let my sister be homeless,” he said. “Come by when you can, I’ll be here for the rest of the afternoon.  Around seven, I have a dinner date.”

He could envision her eyes popping at the mention of a girl. “Do tell me all about it later.  I’ll be there in an hour.”

He chuckled, “See you soon, sis.”

*

“It’s a lot bigger than I imagined it would be.”

“I assume that doesn’t bother you in the slightest?” Thomas shut the door behind Sam as she entered, noticing the lone suitcase in her hand.  “You definitely traveled light.”

She set her suitcase down next to the couch and collapsed onto it, “I ended up having to sell a lot of my stuff to afford rent for the last few years.”

“And you never thought to ask mom for a little help?”

She rolled her eyes and sat up, sitting on her hands and kicking her feet back and forth like an impatient little girl. “Of course that thought crossed my mind, but I could never tell let her tell me ‘I told you so.’”

The unspoken battle between them was clearly nowhere near its end, Thomas decided.  He reached into his wine cabinet and pulled out a Pinot Grigio.

“Care for a glass?”

“You know I’m not one to turn down a drink.”

Thomas pulled out two glasses, opened the bottle, and poured them each a glass.  He handed it to her and watched her relish in the first sip.

“That’s perfect,” she said, setting it down and patting the spot next to her.  “Sit down, little bro.  I need to hear all about this girl you’re seeing.”

Thomas rolled his eyes playfully and took the seat next to her, placing his wine glass on the coffee table in front of the couch.

“So… what’s her name?”

“Lauren.”

Thomas found it odd that she was the one asking him questions when he assumed he had far more questions for her.  He watched as Sam’s hazel eyes glistened at the mention of his girlfriend’s name.  She flung her blonde locks over her shoulder and clapped her tanned hands together.

“Is she cute? Older? Younger? Where’d you two meet?”

“What is this? Twenty questions?” Thomas smirked, picking up his glass and taking another sip. “If you must know, she’s twenty-six, so she’s a year younger, and stunning.  And we met at a coffee shop in Brooklyn.”

“Sounds like a keeper,” she said.

Thomas unlocked his iPhone and pulled up a picture of he and Lauren taken three weeks prior. “We went to see ‘The Elephant Man.’ She might love Broadway even more than I do.”

“Definitely a keeper then,” Sam said, sipping her wine.

“So what happened with your boyfriend?”

“On top of being a self-righteous asshole, he happened to cheat on me with not one, not two, but three other girls... all of them barely legal.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I mean, he’d been cheating on me with them for a while, and I was too stupid and caught up with all my financial shit to notice.”

“You can’t blame yourself.  The guy was obviously a dick, and you know you deserve better.” Thomas put his hand on Sam’s shoulder.  He’d wanted to comfort her, but perhaps it had come across as awkward, unexpected contact, as she shrugged his hand off.

“It’s fine, really.  I left him behind and I’m across the country now.” Sam was on her feet now, pacing the small living room.  “I have time to get back to my roots, back to the person I was before I met him, and back to the person I was before the sad reality of an aspiring actress in LA getting rejected at every audition came to be my norm.”  

Thomas looked at the clock on his phone and jumped to his feet. “Sorry to cut this short, sis.  I’ve got to get ready for my date.”  Admittedly, he could’ve given his sister more time to vent, but the conversation had become too uncomfortable for him to muster.

Sam watched as Thomas made his way towards his bedroom. “Anything I need to know before you leave?”

“Oh, right.” He stopped in the hallway and ran a hand through his short brown hair. “Just fold the couch in half, release it, and then it will turn into a bed.  There’s plenty of food in the fridge and I’ll be back around ten at the latest.”

“Thanks, Thomas. I really can’t thank you enough.”

Thomas smiled weakly. “Like I said before, I would never let you roam around the city with no place to go.  Oh, and I promise I won’t let mom know you’re here, though she has made an unexpected appearance every now and then.” 

“And that translates to?”

“Don’t worry,” he grinned, “she stopped by last week.  I highly doubt she’ll come by for at least another week or so.”

“Good, that gives me time to find a perfect hiding spot.”

Thomas chuckled as she shut his bedroom door.

*

Being an investment banker had proved to be a wonderful job for Thomas.  He made far more money than he knew what to do with and was able to treat he and his girlfriend, Lauren, to dinner once a week, occasionally accompanied by a Broadway show, or two.  He loved that Lauren could keep up with his constant thinking and his above-average vernacular and intellect. 

Sam’s visit reminded him of just how polar opposite the two were.  Despite her being five years older than he, she often spoke and acted like a girl in her early 20s.  She was more of a wild child than he was, a sorority girl and a partier in college, while he stuck strictly to academic clubs and avoided fraternities and parties like the plague.  He’d made his fair share of connections while studying at Harvard, then subsequently Columbia Business School, which had helped him land his coveted job on Wall Street.  Though many might say his job was unexciting, Thomas found it rewarding and genuinely enjoyed coming to work everyday.

It was a shame, he thought, that his sister had had a very different experience.

*

“Hello is this Jake O’Dell? Yes, hi, it’s Sam… Sam Johnson.  Yes, I just saw that you’re hiring and I wanted to see if I could schedule an interview with you for the job.  Uh huh… yes, I’ve done a few short films and commercials in LA. I can actually send you my resume.  Fantastic!  I can come in anytime tomorrow.  8 AM is perfect.  Thank you so much.”

Sam hung up the phone and frantically searched her computer for her resume while simultaneously jotting down the job details and her interview time for tomorrow.  Her ringtone went off while she was still typing and she paused when she saw that the incoming call was from an unknown number.  She hesitated momentarily, then answered it.

“Hello?”

“Samantha, it’s your mother.”

Sam froze, biting her lip and mouthing ‘shit.’ She stood up and began pacing the room, as she often did while on the phone. “Mom, hi.”

“I was just calling to see how you were doing.  I’m afraid it’s been nearly four months since I received a letter from you.”

“Yeah, well… just been really busy with work and auditioning like crazy.”

“We all know it’s about more than just that, Samantha.”

Sam brushed off the question.

“Have you spoken to Thomas recently?” Her mother asked.

“Yes, actually.  I think we’re as close as we’ve ever been.”

“That’s good to hear. I was actually planning on stopping by his apartment tonight.  I like to surprise him with some home-cooked dinners every now and then.”

Sam froze, her gaze darting to her opened suitcase in the middle of the living room floor with clothes sprawled everywhere. “Oh, uh, he told me earlier that he was going out with his girlfriend tonight, so I doubt he’s even home.”

“You two spoke today?”

“Yeah, we just got off the phone a couple hours ago.”

“Well, I’m already about five minutes from his apartment and he gave me a spare key, so I’ll just leave the food in his fridge if that’s the case.”

Sam bit her lip and twirled locks of her hair nervously in circles around her finger. “Um, okay then. Listen mom, I’ve really got to go. I’m not supposed to be on my phone at work… bye!”

She hung up her phone, tucked it into her back pocket, and immediately began stuffing all of her clothes back into her suitcase.  A door next to the bathroom turned out to be Thomas’s closet, so she stuffed her suitcase inside and situated herself in the corner, behind a row of elaborate suits and pants.  She closed the door just as she heard the front door open.