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 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:59 pm
__Part 16
"I should learn howta read."
Fiore made his proclamation to a house empty of anything but a fish and two rabbits. His mother had gone to work - and possibly to kill a few people with her kitchen knives to amuse herself - and Leonora had gone out to investigate a fascinating dead thing in a ditch with the family dog. Fiore had not wanted to go see the dead thing.
His rabbits, Lola and Lulu, looked up at him with patient liquid eyes and wiggled their noses.
"I should," he said to them, tugging meditatively at his hair. "Don't you think so?"
Lola nibbled at her scrap of lettuce. Lulu scratched her ear.
"Let's go ou'side," Fiore said, pointing resolutely to the door. He picked up the rabbits and marched outside with authority. Because his rabbits rather liked him, and were more patient than most, they allowed his clumsy handling and didn't even mind when he tripped and fell on them.
"So," Fiore said, after returning into the house for the fish Georgie, a Jello cup, a glass of juice and then a scrap of paper and a crayon. "Lets find words so I can read them."
He looked around for words. The grass was green, the tree was tall and bore interesting chestnuts, and the flowers were pretty. But none of them had words. Fiore sighed. Maybe this would be more tricky than he thought. He sat on the grass that had no words, sipping his juice and watching as Lola hopped sedately towards a slightly shabby bleeding heart shrub and nibbled at the leaves.
It dawned on Fiore that just because one couldn't see the words of a thing, didn't mean it didn't have any at all.
"Tha's vurry smart," he said to himself, slightly surprised. "Mumma would call me a know-it-all."
Or a noisy little b*****d. He rather preferred 'know-it-all'. He took up his scrap of paper and examined the shabby bush with a critical eye.
"Heart plant," he said clearly, pointing at it. Lola nibbled one of the pink, heart-shaped flowers meditatively, blinking her liquid eyes at him.
"So....H....uh...U....no, no...H, A, umm umm....H, R...um. B, U, T, V, I. Heart-plant."
It actually spelled Hahrbutvi, but one had to gloss over these details. He turned to Lulu and watched as she ate pansies, and daisies, and the seeds from the great tall sunflower Leonora had helped Fiore plant some weeks prior.
He pointed to the pansies with his crayon. "F, A, Y, Z, E, Z. Pan'nies."
At the daisies. "D, U, E, Z, I, Z. Dizzies."
At the sunflower. "Z, O, P, N. Sunny."
Beaming with pride at his newfound intelligence in the art of writing, Fiore scrawled the letters across his piece of paper. It was very wiggly, and very pretty - he was so glad he'd picked his green crayon to write in! The words were run together and quite impossible to read.
"I am a goo' writerer," Fiore said to the rabbits, to the flowers, and to his little fish. None gave a reply more than a few patient blinks and nose wiggles, a petal falling, and a series of small bubbles, respectively.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:31 pm
__Part 17
"Is this a stra'berry?"
"No."
"Is this a stra'berry?"
"No, Fiore."
"Is this a -"
"WILL YOU PUT A SOCK IN IT."
Fiore looked up at Natalia with doting eyes, and offered her the mostly broken seashell.
"It's pretty," he said. "Izzit a stra'berry?"
Nati took the shell and threw it over her shoulder.
"Fio. Please. Go bother someone else."
"But-"
"NOW."
Supposing it would be safer not to test Mama's temper further, Fiore gave Nati a peck on the check and toddled off further down the beach, splashing a little ways into the surf.
"You did promise him you'd pick strawberries," Leonora said coolly on the beach towel beside her sister. Nati snorted and rolled onto her stomach, flipping a page of her magazine.
"I just told him that so he'd shut up," she said. Leonora huffed and swatted at her sister.
"You're horrible."
"Mmhm."
"That's not nice," Jesse snorted, leaning over to see what Nati was doing. He then turned, "SY! FIORE IS HERE!"
"FOOOOOOOOOO'!"
The red-haired boy flew over a nearby pile of rocks, landing hard on his face and not caring as he ran to his friend, blood dribbling down his chin.
"Tch. A lifetime of disappointment will build character," Nati drawled, looking up at Jesse with a wry smile. "Long time no see, darling."
Leonora was not taking Jesse's sudden appearance so calmly.
"CHRIST ON A BIKE, YOU'RE HUGE."
"Leo. Shut up and go hunt for crabs."
"But-"
"CRABS."
"Fine, fine, going."
Fiore jolted and tripped over his own feet, landing face first in the water. He got up spluttering, and bolted over clumsily.
"SY SY SY YOU BLEEDIN' HIIIII~"
And then he proceeded to tackle Silas to the ground.
Jesse laughed.
"No need! No need. I know I'm big." He invited himself onto Nati's towel, ankles crossed.
"What's been up with you?"
Silas giggled and flailed a bit, nuzzling his Fiore's cheek and shoulder.
"HI! YOU GROWED TOO!"
"Ugh, don't let her hear that, then she might come back and then I'll have to take her home with me," Natalia sighed, pushing her sunglasses up her nose again. "Up with me? Ha. Plotting to murder parties who shall remain nameless, the little runaway man-slut."
She ground her teeth for a second, then shrugged it off and sat up with her wry smile.
"Where've you been? I hope not in prison, you're just too pretty."
Giving Sy a peck on the cheek - hey, Leo let him do it, clearly Silas would too - Fiore sat up and brushed the sand off his face.
"I got big'n strong and I even beat Leo in a fight. Righ' Leo?"
"No!"
"She jus' sayin' that 'cause she's mad I won" Fiore whispered conspiratorially, looking deeply proud of himself.
He decided not to mention it had only been a pillow fight.
"Believe it or not? Courting," Jesse said, crossing his arms behind his head. The man stared up at the sky, eyes glazed and faraway. Aww, it was so cute when enormous mutants were in love.
"Ooh!" Sy said, "I never beat'd anyones! I ress-ul wif Hor-a-sho, tho'."
Nati immediately thought it was a joke, but bit her tongue to curb the laugh that would have come out when she saw his face. Aww, how...uh. Sweet.
"I'm happy for you, Jesse," she said after a beat, uncharacteristic sincerity in her tone. And then it was gone. "So. Which team are you swinging for?"
"Ress-ul?" Fio parroted. "Whass that?"
And what was more, what the heck was a Hor-a-sho.
"Fio, don't eat starfish."
"Wasn'!"
"Was. You spit that out 'fore I tell Nati."
Fiore hurriedly spit out the starfish, wiping his mouth and looking up at the clouds innocently.
Jesse just laughed. Hard.
"What the Hell, Nati?! What the HELL?!"
Sy sighed, resting his head on Fio's chest.
"Is when you roll 'round n' play rough!"
Nati just grinned.
"Dar-ling, I don't know what you get up to when I'm not around to look after you. One must assume certain things."
Fiore nodded hard, even though he still didn't quite understand. Eh, Mama would probably explain. Or tell him to shut up and go away. Either or.
"You shoul' come over mah house," he said. "Mama? She, she gave me a room? And it's big. An' my bunnies and my fishie live wi' me."
He paused.
"I thin'...I thin' Lulu ain't a girly-bunny," he said, thinking. " 'Cause Lola's got real fat. Leo says she gonna pop babies soon. And then Mama'll eat 'em."
"Just because I'm a sailor doesn't me--OH ********>" Jesse laughed and leaned over, grabbing Nati by both sides of the face and kissing her roughly before propping his torso up above her, grinning.
"I play for that team, sweets."
Silas gasped. Fio got a room of HIS OWN?! How novel!
"Can I had baby?" he asked, propping himself up, "Bunnies fuddy."
"HNNF!"
Splayed out on her towel, Nati stared at Jesse in absolute shock. Then she burst out laughing, wiping her hand carelessly across her lips.
"I'll keep it in mind so I can keep myself available as the rebound," she said, patting Jesse on the cheek.
"If Mama don' eat 'em," Fiore said solemnly, looking over his shoulder at her. "Or Leo. Leo don' li' bunnies."
"Oh, I do too," Leo said huffily, dumping a bucket of water over Fiore's head and making him squeak. The girl grinned and picked a snail out of the boy's hair, chucking it like a baseball back out to sea. "I don't like all the presents they leave everywhere."
"They don' leave pe-sents," Fio said with a small frown. "They poo."
Jesse laughed and flopped back to the towel.
"How thoughtful of you."
Silas looked to Leo, sitting up and glaring.
"Be ni'e," he warned.
"I aim to please," Nati said dryly, opening the small cooler by her head and pulling out a beer. "Want one? I stole 'em from work, so it's not the store-bought s**t."
Leo arched a brow and her tail lashed.
"He's my brother," she said plainly. "I'm bigger."
"Is," Fio said, nodding hard and raising his arms above his head. "She's li'...this big."
"And I love my Fio, don't I, you lil' sonuvabitch?"
Leo scooped Fio up in her arms and squeezed him, making the boy giggle before tossing him - gently - into the surf.
"AGAIN!"
"Oh, Hell yeah," Jesse laughed, holding his hand out.
Silas frowned, face twisting and eyes welling with tears.
"DADAAAAAA!"
"Oh, Christ. WHAT, SY?!"
"LEE-YO SAID A BAD WOOOOORD."
"...SY. DON'T BE A TATTLE."
"BUT DADDYYYYY!"
"...oh, good Christ."
Nati yawned and passed Jesse a beer, twisting the cap off her own with her teeth.
"Leo!"
"What?"
"What'd you say?"
"I didn't ********' say nothin'! Ain't my goddamn fault he don't like swear words!"
"Clean it up, you're around corruptibles."
Fiore, shuffling around in the water indecisively, cleared his throat.
"Scooz me,"
"I didn't say nothin'-"
"Scooz me-"
"Yeah, I bet not-"
"SCOOZ ME!"
Leo turned to her little brother.
"What?"
Fio cleared his throat again and blushed faintly.
"Heck," he said, looking aghast at his own daring.
Silas, bursting into tears, stood and ran to his father collapsing against is chest. Jesse rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around the toddler, sipping the beer. Sy lived around constantly-spewing "******** and "s**t"s and "damn"s. There had to be another reason. The man shook his head and looked to Nati.
"Thanks, Howie's booze ain't so goo--ohgod."
Never before had he seen such an innocent 'corruptable'. Heck? Seriously. Adorable.
Both he and his child began to laugh. They had the same smile.
Looking relieved that his tactic had worked, Fiore skipped over to Jesse and Silas. Skipped.
Nati groaned, shook her head and took a deep swig of her beer.
"Boy's gonna get the fairydust beaten outta him one of these days," she muttered, regretfully.
"I found you a sta'fizz," Fio said, holding the creature out to Nati expectantly. "I founds it."
Nati looked at the starfish, unimpressed, then back at Fio. The boy looked so radiantly happy with the gift he was giving his mommy.
"...aah, you little twerp," she sighed, taking the starfish and giving Fio a peck on the cheek. "Go play. Don't get eaten by seagulls."
Fio glowed, then tugged at Sy's hand insistently, trying to drag him back to the water.
Still giggling, Sy stood and followed Fio back to the ocean. All better!
"And you asked me what team I play for?" Jesse snorted.
"Only because I had to be sure," Nati said dryly. "I know full well what Fio's gonna be when he gets old enough. Hell, I was dumb enough to name him 'Flower'. I sealed the boy's fate."
Watching him play in the surf, splashing Leonora and piling little presents of seashells and gull feathers in Sy's hands, Nati took another swig of beer.
"I was not meant to have children. How the hell'd I get stuck with two of the little creatures."
Jesse shrugged, taking a long swig of beer.
"Neither was I," he said easily, "but lookit us now."
Sy giggled, accepting the presents happily.
"Remind me to get those feather from him later. ********' gulls. Diseased bastards."
Nati finished off her beer and toyed with the bottle, running her finger along the inside rim and sucking the droplets off. Yeah, look at her now. Saddled with two kids and pining after a complete b*****d. Ugh.
"Hmn? Oh, yeah. Beach-pigeons," she said belatedly. "Just shoot 'em with a pellet gun. Fifty points if you get 'em through the eye, y'know."
She laughed at herself, chucking the bottle into the sand by the cooler and getting a fresh beer.
" 'Course Leo hates it when I kill things, dunno why. S'all meat, and she never bitches when we have burgers'n s**t like that."
"Leooooo~"
"What?"
"Lookit!"
A dead jellyfish had washed up on the sand. It looked like a sad, greenish-blue blob, and it was almost begging to be poked with a stick.
"Th' o-zan sneezed. It's o-zan booger."
Silas giggled.
"No! Is...dellyfith."
Jesse sighed.
"Some people're just more compassionate when they SEE things die." His head rolled to Nati then and he gave her that wide-eyed, knowing look.
"Boyfriend problems?"
Fiore looked utterly confused.
"O-zen sneeze out peenah butter'n jelelly?"
He looked around expectantly for a peanut butter fish.
Leo just sighed, and poked at the dead thing with the cheap plastic shovel that had come with the cheap plastic bucket currently being swept out to sea.
"Bet it's poisonous..."
Nati grunted and took a long swig of beer.
"That pathetically obvious, huh?" she drawled, looking disgusted with herself. "I hate the b*****d."
She sighed before she could stop herself, and took another drink.
"On occasion. I hate him on occasion."
"I gueth sos," Sy nodded. Hey, it made sense to him! He then turned to Leo, "Dey is. Is sqwishy, but 'ting bad." It sounded like he had found out the hard way...
"Yeah," Jesse said, giving a weak half-smile, "Wish I could say I knew the feeling." Oh, Danica, he had always loved you.
Leo grinned like a devil and waded after the bucket, returning and shoveling the dead creature into it.
"Grand. I gotta boy at school keeps pullin' my ears," she said, scooping tentacles into the bucket. "This'll fix 'im."
Fiore, who had no concept of revenge or week-long school suspension for attack with dangerous dead animals, continued looking for peanut butter fish. Darn it, he was getting hungry, and the ocean had better sneeze him out a breadfish soon as well.
"Yeah. I need someone to be bitter with me," Nati said dully. "God, I pity me."
Sy blinked.
"No, not fix. Hu'ht."
Back on the towel, Jesse sighed.
"Oh, I know bitter. I know bitter well. Just not at significant others."
Leo's ears set flat against her skull and she sighed. Boys. They never understood.
"That's the point, ain't it?" she said. "Splat, right in th' face! It'll get 'im good."
Nati emptied half her beer bottle, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.
"Significant other," she said, drawing out the words. "He uses me as a quick ******** and I let him, the b*****d. But I always think he's gonna stay, y'know?"
She sighed, tousling her hair harshly and pulling at it in sudden aggravation.
"Take my advice, never fight'n ********. It doesn't lead to anything aside from pure utter melodrama."
She downed the rest of her beer and threw herself back on her towel, staring resentfully at the sky.
Silas raised a hand to his mouth, giving a scandalized gasp. Oh no! Causing pain on purpose!
Jesse nodded.
"One day, you'll find a real good man. Can't introduce you t'any...but some day..." Oh, and how he would have loved dating this girl, had her boyfriend not been in the picture...before Evie of course.
Leo gave a cackle of laughter like a hyena, raising bucket and shovel to the sky in malicious victory. And then dropped the bucket on her head.
The jellyfish came out.
"CRAPINNAHATONAPITAINJULY."
Fiore watched his sister throw herself into the ocean yelping like a scalded puppy and sighed.
"I lo' my Leo," he said with the air of a tolerant parent. "But sometime she too silly."
Nati snorted, and with a grin leaned over and gave Jesse a kiss on the cheek.
"You're sweet. I think I'll keep you," she said. "Now be a dear and scrape the jellyfish off my sister's head."
"NATIIII I DID SOMETHING STUPIIIIIID-"
"Well ain't that just the news of the day."
Jesse snorted.
"Not my kid." And he sipped his beer.
"O'no!" Sy yelped, looking horrified, "Lee-yo!"
"Can't believe I'm related to her," Nati said, ears laying flat against her skull in irritation. Leo was making a fantastic racket, and finally emerged spluttering and coughing from the water. She walked woodenly onto shore, her expression traumatized.
"Leo?" Fiore asked timidly.
Leonora blinked, then shook herself. Water sprayed all over the place.
"That. Was. AWESOME."
Nati ********' brain damaged little runt."
"Did you SEE? It, it was on my face, and then, then I was all like AHH FACEMELT, but then it was like shlllrk and it just melted off my face, but not like facemelt, it just kinda went and dissolved and I never wanna do that again ever."
Fiore sighed with relief, and resumed digging around for seashells.
"She fine. Dun worry."
Sy blinked.
"Oh! Otay." And he joined Fio inhis search, digging up a little blue shell that spit out a little brown tongue.
"Fo! Parr-wink'l make face at me!"
Jesse snorted.
"Pour some vodka on it. It stops the burning. Tastes pretty good too."
Fiore gasped. How rude!
"Not ver' nice," he scolded. "Mean parr-win..wih...wibble. Parr-wibble."
Leo hadn't heard the advice, seeing as she'd already dived back into the water in search of more jellyfish - or perhaps to wash the remains of the first one out of her hair. Nati sighed and rolled her eyes in an all-knowing older sisterly sort of way.
"Don't bother, she likes getting hurt. She thinks it means street cred or something," she said boredly. "Probably 'cause I come home beat up all the time."
She snorted derisively.
"Eh, monkey see, monkey emulate and get its paw chopped off for stupid tourists."
Sy frowned at the little tail, wiggling his finger...and one of its tentacles went back in! Oh my! This was a strange shell-creature!
"Woooow."
Jesse just laughed, shaking his head. He finished his booze and put the bottle in the sand.
"I'm just glad Sy isn't choppin' his own fingers off."
"Slimy," Fiore said, wrinkling his nose. "Ick."
"Just you wait," Nati said dryly. "He'll be grown up and pulling stupid stunts like skateboarding off the roof in no time. What's a lost finger when you have all those convenient bones to break in your body?"
"Nuh-uh!" Sy said heatedly, defending the little creature, "...well...otay. But keep oshun clean!" That was what Dada said, right? They eat the icky green stuff?
Fiore frowned, looking at the little creature.
"O-zan bigger," he said doubtfully. "How s'posed t'keep clean?"
Really. What a pointless little creature. Sure, Sy liked it and that was all well and good, but come on. It was a little brown turdy-creature. Fio would have bet good money - well, alright, some animal crackers and an apple juice - that this parr-wibble or whatever it was couldn't so much as to an interesting trick.
"Make it ro' over, p'ease," he said politely.
Sy looked down at the little thing and put it in his palm. It rolled back into its shell and he flicked it across his hand.
"There. Ro'."
Fiore cheered and actually started clapping.
"Yaaaaaaay!"
Oh yes. Very easily amused, Fiore was.
Sy then pointed at the little upturned thing.
"'tay!"
And it didn't move.
"Good parr-winkl!"
Utterly amazing. Incredible, even. Fiore had never seen such a good performer, and he watched television.
"Speak!" he bubbled, wanting a turn. Logically there was no response. "Umm...p'ease?"
Silence.
"Heck."
After a moment, though, the periwinkle emerged from its shell and rolled over, blowing tiny bubbles in the little pool of water in Sy's palm.
"...is that count?"
Fiore sighed. And he'd been so certain the creature would have had such a lovely singing voice.
"Better'n noofin'," he said regretfully. "...hee hee. Bubbly."
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Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:43 am
__Part 18
{Now that you're on the way to learning to write Fiore, you must now convince your protector or your family to help you increase your vocabulary. You need to be read four books, each with a different topic or theme. It doesn't matter how long they are or how complex, so long as you learn one new word from each.}
"Scooz me."
"Yeah?"
Fiore looked up at Natalia with a trace of shyness, holding a stack of books he'd purloined from Leonora's room in his arms.
"Um...I knows you got t'day off from the cook-place, but...."
Natalia took a sip of her coffee and shifted on the couch, putting down her own book.
"You want me to read to you?"
"Yes p'ease."
"No."
Natalia returned to her book, sniffing indifferently. A few minutes passed and she looked up again.
"Fiore, I'm not in the mood. No. Go ask Leonora."
Fiore shuffled uncomfortably.
"Leo an' Kibeth wen' ousside to go play," he said. "An'...an' I wanted you t'read t'me. P'ease."
Natalia sighed, mouth scrunching to one side.
"...alright. Alright, ya little b*****d, c'mere. What would you like to read first?"
Fiore's eyes shone and he smiled wide as he jumped onto the couch with Natalia, rifling through his books.
"Um...um, this one!"
Natalia looked at the cover and sighed.
"Alright. Why am I not surprised."
It was "A Little Princess". Not at all surprising.
"Alright, runt."
Nati cracked the book open, starting to read. She choked on the word as Fiore snuggled against her, expression adoring. She looked at him in surprise, then cleared her throat and started reading again.
It took a few hours to get through "A Little Princess". By the end of it, Fiore had absorbed the story like a sponge and was thrilled by it.
"Whass grievance mean?"
"S'like...a grudge. Resentment."
"Ooooh...nex' book!"
Green Eggs and Ham. Alright, that was better.
"Whass goat mean?"
"Fio, for heaven's sake...it's...uh. An animal. Kinda like a sheep. 'cept it's meaner."
"Ah. Nex' book!"
"Fer the love of...how many d'you have?"
The Black Cauldron.
"Dammit."
That one took a longer time. Leonora and the dog had come back by the time Nati was finished reading it, sitting on the floor and watching with curious amusement.
"Whass cauldron mean?"
"Fio, it was the main part of the book."
"I know tha'. But...whass it mean?"
"It's a big pot. A really, really big pot."
"Oooh. Nex'-"
"I know. Next book. Fio, this is the last one, alright?"
" 'kay!"
It was a loose issue of an X-Men comic. Natalia raised her brows at Fiore, then shrugged. Hey, at least it was short. Leo took a good look at it, then winced.
"Um. Nati."
"What."
"That's my copy'a the new X-23."
"Yeah, so?"
"It's...kinda..."
Nati flipped the book open.
"...did she just kill a man with a fork?"
"Eheheh."
Nati sighed.
"Cripes."
That one was trickier to read. Nati had glossed over the deaths in the first two by saying the people involved had just gone to sleep or gone on vacation. This one had pictures.
By the time it was finished, Nati was cringing. Marvel was certainly running out of ideas.
"Whass weapon mean?"
Leonora snorted. Nati sighed, yawning and stretching.
"Something people use to hurt each other."
Fiore nodded, looking fit to burst with happiness at the ten or more hours he'd gotten to spend with Mama without fear of being yelled at or ridiculed.
" 'kay. Iss late now. Ni-ni, Mama."
Fiore hopped off the couch and toddled off to bed all by himself. Nati blinked, looking a little put-off.
"What, that's it?" she said. Leonora looked at her with maddening superiority.
"You're always mean to 'im, Nati. What else did you expect? He doesn't know how to act around you."
Nati ******** off."
Leonora shrugged.
"G'night."
Nati sat on the couch and fumed for a bit, looking at her own book lying abandoned on her lap. She picked it up, and then threw it across the room.
"Whatever."
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Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:20 pm
__Part 19
It was threatening rain outside. The air held a heavy note of cloying humidity and uncomfortable static in the breeze, making the whole evening unsettling. It was a good night to stay inside. It was late, by most people's standards. Leonora and Natalia had gone to bed sometime earlier. Fiore, however, had found sleep to be difficult. This was unusual, all things considered. He liked going to bed early. That meant he'd be able to get up early in the morning fresh as a daisy, as Leo had put it.
He sat quietly in the living room, watching the uncomfortable sickly orange sky roil. He could feel the air pressure shifting like a miasma across his face through the open windows. He shuddered a little, and hugged his seal plushie to his chest. He didn't like this. Not one bit. He was deeply considering going back upstairs and seeking comfort with Nati when he heard footsteps outside, pacing back and forth on the porch. Fio froze. Leonora had warned him about strangers. He clung tighter to his seal, a strong whiff of lavender coming off him in his distress. What if the stranger wanted to...to give him bad candy? Or ask him to find his lost puppy? Leo had tried so hard to teach him not to talk to strangers, but it was awfully confusing.
Fiore gulped, and shuffled through the dining room, kitchen and sun room until he reached the front door. The knob was jiggling, and he could see a silhouette through the window in the door.
"Oh," Fiore breathed, frightened. He wasn't brave, not like Leo, and certainly not like Natalia. He couldn't say boo to a butterfly. He cringed and backed away, wishing very hard that he'd stayed in bed.
The sound of breaking glass made him cry out and run, and the door creaking open made frightened tears spring into his eyes.
"Kid! Hey, hey, chill!"
Suddenly Fiore was being picked up and roughly handled. He squeaked, clutching his seal to his chest as someone awfully familiar held him awkwardly.
"I just wanted to see Nati," Caul said, voice hushed.
Fiore, ever gentle, always patient, never angry, glared reproachfully at Caul.
"You made her cry," he said tartly.
Caul winced almost imperceptibly.
"I usually do. Now shut up. If you make a sound...one sound... I'll make the black-eyed boneys and the liver-sucker and every other beastie you never heard of come up from out your bed and needle you in your sleep."
Fiore started to quake, eyes shining with tears. How could someone Nati loved so much be so horrid?
...well, there was that question answered right there, wasn't it.
Caul tucked Fiore unceremoniously under his arm and crept through the house, dog-ears swiveling at every creak and groan the old house emitted. He went up the stairs silent as a shadow, pausing in front of Leonora's door to make sure she was still sleeping. Going further down the hall, he gave Fiore a warning glance before pushing the Natalia's door open.
Nati lay under a heap of blankets as usual, asleep. There was a half-finished bottle of beer and a book lying facedown on the night stand; clearly she'd been reading before nodding off. Caul put Fiore down and sniffed at the beer, ears setting back in mild disapproval.
"No Jack," he said under his breath, shaking his head. He bent down low, lips just grazing Natalia's cheek. One hand plucked with longing at the blankets, clearly wanting to pull them back and touch the body underneath.
He stayed that way for a long time.
Straightening finally, Caul lightly touched Nati's face one last time before turning on Fiore.
"If you ever tell her I was here...if you tell anyone I was here," he growled. "I'll kill you."
Fiore, no matter how often Nati picked on him, had known she would never hurt him. He knew quite clearly that Caul was not like his mother at all. He nodded mutely, shivering as though he was freezing, hugging his seal in a paroxysm of terror.
Caul slipped past him and went downstairs. Fiore heard the faint click of the door.
Laboring to breathe normally again, Fiore gave his sleeping mother a fleeting look before retreating to Leonora's room. He pushed the door open and scampered inside, practically leaping onto Leo's bed and burrowing under the covers for comfort. Leo jolted awake, startled.
"Fio...Fio, whazzamatta?" she asked groggily.
"Ba' d'eem," Fiore muttered, hugging his sister tightly and shivering. "Jus' a ba' d'eem.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:07 pm
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:56 pm
__Part 21
"Mama?"
"Yeah?"
Fiore looked up at Natalia warily, wondering how he should go about speaking with his mother. Caul's threat was still very fresh in his mind, and he didn't care to gauge how Nati would react. He caught her barely-tolerant expression and stood a little straighter.
"Stop bein' mean t'me."
Natalia blinked.
"Come again?"
"Yer mean t'me. An'...an' thass not what mommies are s'posed to be to they fam-lee. Yer s'posed to love me. An' stuff. But yer always mean."
Natalia stared very hard at Fiore. The boy didn't have the spine to say an impolite word. How was he finding the nerve to stand up for himself?
"Fiore..."
"Don't yell," Fiore said quickly. "I...I'm sorry. Nev'mind."
He turned on his heel and tried to skitter away, stunned at his own daring. He'd approached Natalia with the intention of trying to explain Caul's visit, but that...those horrid rude words had come out instead! He'd probably hurt poor Mama's feelings, and now she would be even angrier!
Nati swooped down and picked Fiore up before he could get away. She felt him stiffen out of fright, and wriggle a little in a slight panic. She sighed.
"I'm a really ******** bad mother, Fiore," she said to him bluntly. "I know I'm mean to you."
Fiore's eyes filled with tears and he sniffled. Oh, she was angry with him...
"And I'm sorry."
Wait. What?
"Buh?"
Nati, ears folded flat against her skull, gave Fiore a weary look.
"I'm sorry I'm mean to you, Fio. I'm...not a very nice person. Sometimes I forget I have to be nice to family. Y'know?"
"Er..."
Nati sighed.
"I love you, you little twerp. Now shut the hell up and give me a hug already, cripes."
And she brought Fiore close and actually, without reservation, hugged him. She'd never done it of her own free will before.
Fiore, in total shock at the hug, took a moment to collect his wits, and then threw his arms around Nati's neck in a loving stranglehold. She loved him? She loved him!
"I love you too, I do, I do a lot, I love you Mama-"
"Pansy," Nati said, giving Fiore a kiss on his cheek and hugging him tighter, ignoring the food burning on the stove.
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:31 pm
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:38 pm
__Part 23
Leonora and Fiore sat out in the backyard, listening to the white noise of the distant ocean and the cries of gulls. Leo was reading a comic book, and Fiore was diligently tending his tiny vegetable patch, carefully watering a stand of cherry tomatoes.
"...Leo?"
"Yeah, Fio?"
"If...if I tell you a secret, will y'keep it?"
Leo looked up from her book in puzzlement. Fiore sounded serious, which was pretty unusual.
"Sure...everythin' okay, Fio?"
Fiore hesitated, then shook his head. He set down his watering can and sat down next to Leonora, wringing his hands in growing anxiety.
"Iss a ba' secret. I coul'...I coul' get in t'uble."
Leonora was instantly on the alert.
"Did someone hurt you?" she said curtly. "Because if they did, they're gonna be lacking teeth. What happened, Fio? Who hurt you?"
"No no no!" Fiore said, eyes wide in alarm. "No one hur' me. Not...not yet. Bu'...he...he said he woul', if I told someone."
"He? Who's 'he'?"
Fiore gave an unhappy sigh and held his head in his hands. A strong burst of lavender scent hung around him until it was like a miasma.
"...Caul."
"WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU."
Jumping in fright at the fury in Leonora's voice, Fiore grabbed her arm and dragged her back down to sit beside him.
"He didn't do nothin', Leo! Lissen!"
Swallowing hard, Fiore looked every which way but his sister, gathering his courage.
"He...he snuck into th' house th' other night. And he went to see Mama, when she was sleepin'. An'...an' I saw him. An' he said that if I tol' anyone he'd come t'visit, he'd...he'd..."
Voice cracking, Fiore burst into tears.
"He'd what? Fio, honey, tell me," Leonora said gently, trying to wrestle the blind rage at Caul into submission. "Fio..."
"That he'd kill me," Fiore sobbed. "An' he meaned it, Leo, I know he did! P'ease, p'ease don't tell! I know iss a secret, but I hadda tell SOMEONE and now..."
Fiore kept on crying, and Leonora hugged him close, shushing him.
"It's okay, Fiore. I won't tell, I promise," she said, kissing and gentling him. "I promise..."
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:34 pm
__Part 24
Hey, the lavender child is ready to grow up, too! Well, that's just plain awesome. He, too, has been asked to attend a birthday party, but this time it's for a relative of a friend or neighbor. Unfortunately he doesn't know much about this person, only that they're in their early twenties and seem to enjoy outdoor activities. He'll need to go shopping to find a gift, and compare at least five different items that he may think the person will like.
"So, you know what you're gonna get him?"
"I think it's ******** either way. Who the hell invites a kid to an adult birthday party. They must be ***** offering my opinion."
Fiore, perusing the store shelves with a meticulous air, looked up at his sister and mother patiently.
"I's tryin' to pick out p'esents," he said. "An' if yer not gonna help, please shoosh."
Nati stared at Fiore, ears comically perked straight up.
"Did you just tell me to shut up?"
Leo snorted.
"Looks like he did, ******** off, he said the same to you."
"Shoosh, p'ease."
Fiore looked at his invitation. It had been an all-encompassing sort of thing; the whole family was invited, but to make him feel included it had been addressed to Fiore personally. Charming, if one overlooked its oddness. It had specified that the birthday gentleman in question had a fondness for the outdoors, so small gifts of the athletic persuasion were advisable.
"Hmm."
Nati, being as cheap as she was when it came to others, had volunteered a whole thirteen dollars for presents.
So, of course, they were in the bargain section.
"This..."
Nati snorted as Fiore picked up a can of tennis balls, and gave a grunt of pain as Leonora elbowed her sharply in the vicinity of a kidney.
"Shut up, he's doin' good," she said. Nati clicked her teeth at her sister in reply.
Fiore scanned the shelf carefully, and brightened at the sight of a canister of golf balls.
"This too."
"Boy, that sure is a lot of balls you're giving him, Fi-OUCH."
"Shut. Up. Nati."
Not noticing as Nati and Leo began swatting and wrestling with each other in the aisle, he tucked the two canisters under his arm and grabbed a fancy fishing lure, admiring it.
"Hook-fishy..."
Rooting through the piles of merchandise, Fiore gave a crow of delight and pulled out a croquet mallet.
"Smashy hammer-thingy!"
"Fio," Natalia said as she spun in circles, trying to get Leonora off while her little sister tried to strangle her. "One more thing, that's- AUGHK -that's it-"
" 'kay, Mama," Fiore said, utterly focused on finding that last perfect gift for his next New Friend. He dug, rooted, and burrowed deep into the racks before emerging at last, his face aglow with pride.
"Per'feft."
Leo squinted through a black eye.
"Not bad."
Nati coughed and massaged her bruised throat, trying to get air back in her lungs.
"Eh. It's okay."
It was a set of brightly painted horseshoes, complete with posts.
"Di' I do good?" Fiore asked, his armful of discount treasures cradled in his arms as he looked up expectantly at his family.
Nati sighed, shaking her head tolerantly.
"You did good. Now let's cash out and go already, people're starin'."
Presents  Canister of golf balls Canister of tennis balls A fishing lure A croquet mallet Pre-packaged horseshoes game
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