Fan Fiction |
by Hibiscus
“How come you haven’t introduced me to your family?” Daniel asked Tuesday as they sat beside the beach. She was making a sandcastle, concentrating deeply, lips pursed. At his words, she paused and crinkled her eyes.
“You want to meet my family?” She asked, a trickle of sadness pulling down her mouth.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
Tuesday got up suddenly, abandoning her half-built sandcastle.
“You don’t have to abandon your work, you’re almost done.” Daniel said smiling.
“The tide’s coming in soon. It’ll reclaim it anyway.” Tuesday replied and they walked over to his bike.
“Take me home and I’ll introduce you to my family.”
They drove over to Tuesday’s house. It was a small, shabby house, barely standing. The yard was overgrown with weeds and the paint was peeling.
Tuesday slipped her hand out of Daniel’s and led the way to the front door. At the door, she put a finger to her lips and opened it. She slipped in and held the door open for Daniel.
“This way.” She led Daniel into a room at the back of the house. It had only three walls, the last wall had fallen down due to disrepair. The backyard was as overgrown as the front and there was a woman digging in the dirt.
“That’s my mother. She doesn’t see me.” Tuesday nodded at the woman.
“What do you mean? Of course she sees you.” Daniel said.
“No, she doesn’t.” Tuesday looked up at Daniel. “You don’t believe me? Okay, watch.”
Tuesday walked over to the woman and stood in front of her. The woman didn’t look at her.
“Ma?” Tuesday said.
The woman made no response. Tuesday touched the woman’s cheek. The woman had no reaction.
“See? No?” Tuesday called. “Okay. Now you go stand in front of her.”
“What?” Daniel hesitated. “I don’t want to frighten her.”
“You won’t. She’s only scared of spiders. Not people.”
Daniel walked over to the woman and stood in front of her. She immediately looked up and started cooing. “Oh, pretty boy!” She got up and reached out a muddy hand to Daniel’s cheek. Daniel watched in fascination as she made to touch Daniel but before she could, the grass rustled and her attention was snatched away.
“I don’t exist in her world.” Tuesday said quietly, staring at her mother. She turned to Daniel.
“Her name is Ruby. My mother’s name, I mean. She used to sparkle brilliantly. Her beauty drew in men as though she were the ocean and they the water. She married her husband early and was madly in love with him. But she caught my father’s eyes. My father was an evil man. He raped my mother. Her husband left her and her daughter when he found out that she was pregnant with me.”
“She carried me within her self for nine months but I don’t exist in her world.”
Daniel’s hand found Tuesdays and he held on tight. She was talking so calmly, so detachedly as though she was talking about someone else, a stranger.
She turned and smiled at him.
She led him from that room into another, where a pretty young woman sat on the window sill, her arms wrapped around her burgeoning belly, eyes staring out the window.
“That’s my sister, Amelie. She’s going to have a baby. My grandmother says that she has a committed a sin for lying with a man before marrying him. And the baby is a sin. But how can a child be a sin?” Tuesday asked.
Daniel found himself at a loss for words.
“She sits at the window sill for hours, waiting for the man she loves. He told her he was going to the city to find a job and once he was settled, he’d come get her. This was 7 months ago. Now she pulls petals off the flowers, asking them to sacrifice themselves to answer her questions about whether he loves her or not.”
Suddenly a loud voice started scolding someone in the front yard. Tuesday peeked out of the window and tugged Daniel away, out the back door and into the alley. They stood watching as an older woman with a bag full of groceries stalked into the back kitchen, still muttering to herself about irresponsible people.
“That’s my grandmother. She always has a line marring her face. She is the one who makes sure Amelie and Ruby eat.”
“What about you?”
“She doesn’t care for me. She says that the contours of my face are those she doesn’t recognize. That my blood is of the man who destroyed her daughter’s life and so she can’t bear to see me. The most she can offer me is a roof.”
Tuesday smiled again, a curious, removed smile.
Daniel put his arms around her, his eyes were prickling with tears he wouldn’t shed and his heart was breaking for this girl, who had managed to survive despite her circumstances. She was a curious little thing and he gathered her close as though trying to make up for the hurt she had suffered, the lack of warmth and love.
Tuesday pulled away, looking surprised.
“You still want to be with me? I’m damaged, a product of a hideous act, how could you love me?”
“You had nothing to do with your parents, Tuesday. It’s not your fault that they didn’t see that God had offered them something beautiful even from something horrible. I will love you as long as I breathe and even after that.”
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Author's Note: Coming up next, Kettle, that toe curling scene and Sway, the makeout scene you were waiting for.