Chapter 31: Gentle into that Late NightEvery morning. Every morning. You guys are pains in my nebulously existing rear, you know that?""Who are you taking to?"
"The gnomes! They get in the rows of Ariel's garden every morning!""I'm sure Dante doesn't mean it..."
"Oh, 'he' means it alright...His desire for suffering...""Mom brought most of these home, they wouldn't want to hurt her!"
"You assume them to be creatures of loyalty, like you or I. And in this, you are deathly mistaken. Their ceramic hearts know only evil.
...By the way, Princess, what are you doing out here?""...Teaching the gnomes to talk."
"GAAAAAH!"speaking of Mom's garden...
Someone's getting into trouble! Mom scolded Gabriel for eating those tomatos for what felt like forever -- Mom upset is so rare, it was worth remembering.
But I can't stop and watch that today. I got the feeling...It's just a sense... That something's up with Ross. The town has been changing a lot recently, with the movie studio moving in and all...
But even though he was home when I left, by the time I reach his house, no one's there. I guess I shouldn't worry.
But then I get a call from a guy asking if I wouldn't like to get famous for a painting. I'm not exactly sure how a painting makes one a celebrity -- maybe he melts it with some sort of turpentine and uses the pigments to power a celebrity-generating machine, perhaps in the form of a white dwarf star? Is THIS why famous people are stars?
So I hand it off.
"Thanks. I'll be sure to pass your name around town as a great artist."...What? What was that! That is a distinct lack of stardom!
And then I get a call from an agent, saying I've made a name for myself and he wants to cover me.
"Cover me with what? Is it fudge?"
"...Ms. Aster, we'll keep in touch. Just do what we say, and you could be somebody."...I thought I was somebody.
Am I not somebody? Or am I disembodied, but with some sort of psychic power to make me seem tangible?
...
Or... Does he mean I'm not 'real'?
I drive back home thinking about that, and worried, walk down towards the nursery.
The kids have taken to playing with one another, since they've finished all they need to right now. The two look so
The two of them are just so sweet and innocent that it completely derails my worries... Except...
That voice talked about himself (or maybe it was herself?) as a 'we.' That's a little weird for a single person to do.
I'd ask Mom what she thought he meant, but...
She and Daddy are enjoying the hot-tub, followed by even more 'enjoying' the hot-tub. The two of them really are as in-love as they were when they had just gotten married.
The day passes like that, quietly. I hear Uriel saying something like,
"Hey, Elaine. I think Ariel may have left a few plants unattended to before breakfast -- mind taking a look-see?" While I'm painting.
That's why no one noticed it right away; unused as we are to thinking about anyone but Mom in the garden, and anyone gardening late at night, that we weren't looking there.
"...You know, this feels... Kind of... Nice.""What feels -- Oh."
"Oh. Oh no.""I've had a good life...But I was still looking forward...To learning more recipes. To seeing my grandbaby --""...How dare they!"
"Please...Please, a little longer...""...""Say something, you rat-fink! Anything!""..."He didn't even look at her -- his unknowable eyes were fixed at some point beyond reality, like the eyes of a doll.
All he did was cut her down with his scythe like a stalk of wheat, and she was gone.
For a moment, it was like she had never been -- the air where she had stood warped into the perfect vacuum. Aunt Elaine...
She never found true love. She spent her final years so quietly...
She only really left one thing to her name, one thing that marked that she ever really existed, from the moment she was gone.
And he was the first one to feel the wrongness in the air, and rush out onto the lawn.
"Mom..."He was the one who cried out by the garden in the night.
"...Please... Let's give everyone just a few more hours of thinking that everything's Ok...""I'll help you...Arrange things."
RIP
Elaine Joy
Beloved Mother and Friend
Always Followed Her DreamsThe silence doesn't last very long. Even the animals figure out that the nice old lady who filled their food bowls is gone.
But I can't concern myself with Gabriel or Echo (even if I love the fuzzballs.)
Because...As much as I've needed people... Tonight's the first night I feel like someone needs me.
His eyes are red-rimmed, even as he clutches in a sob. I hug him, and feel it under his skin, that clutch of feeling crowding jaundice yellow and bruise blue into his throat, even as I snuggle my head into it.
"...She was the person who gave me a place in the world... The first person to tell me I was wanted..."He mutters.
"I'm sorry."
'I'm sorry. I need you, and I'll say it every day...Even it's worthless.' I think it into him, hoping that the psychic powers I always thought were in the water seep through my filiments.
"I never cared about my birth mother because s-she...""She was real," I finish for him. I lead him by the hand out to the deck, where we can sit. Above us are the stars.
"...We exist in a closed universe. Nothing can enter, and nothing can leave. Even when the stars aren't visible, they're just hiding behind the blue sky."
I pull him near, and hear at last that gasp of tears.
"Nothing leaves, because we exist in that universe. Your mom isn't gone; she's only went to circulate among the stars."
"...You think she's watching?""Absolutely. The stars have eyes. Point her out to me."
We spend a while, taking his mind off of it, talking about things like that. I meant what I said, though. Really.
Mom came to mourn the moment she woke up. She cried for hours, distraught. I thought she'd have been ready...
"I never should have talked her father into this, Uriel...""She would have died the same. Really.""I should have worked harder to make sure she was happy. There should have been something I could have...""Honey." My dad stops her.
"She was happy. She loved our family. Come here.
Everything is alright, OK? So keep smiling for her. Stop crying, silly woman."
"I swear to you, it's gonna be OK. (I hope. A little longer, Grim...C'mon.)"We spend the day taking solace like that, and remembering Elaine.
That evening, I decided that we weren't just going to sit there!
The mysterious man/men on the phone suggested that we go out dancing at The Grind, one of the new clubs that's moved into town. I just thought it'd be good to enjoy an evening out.
This time, we leave Evanthe at home to watch the toddlers, but she and Mom and I will have to have a girls' night out one day.
I bring Reed close; we skip the drinks and just begin tearing up the dance floor, drinking in the spotlight.
Mom...Maybe overly enjoys her drinks.
"Wooh! You go, Ariel honey! Ha-ha!"...I do not know how Uriel managed to get a drink, but even he seems caught up into the spirit of it.
"Oh, you think that's nice? Ha! Let me show you something, Mister Featherweight!"
"No one wants to watch you dance!""Oh, Uriel, dearheart...Don't say things to my husband that just aren't true."Life is short. Even though nothing can ever leave, nothing can stay 'real' forever, either. I wonder when the moment will be, when even the immortals cease to be 'real'?
Will it be soon? Something about Elaine's death made me think of that.
All Mom and Daddy can do is dance like there's no tomorrow.
I'll get the immortal stats up in the morning, but first... A few words for Elaine.
She was the quiet one: the one who, with the exception of her drama in love, never stuck out her head. She spent her days in incredibly boring pleasure after her retirement, and she seemed more than happy to just quietly tend to matters around the house. She was a good, hard worker.
I only really left out one moment in her life, just for lack of screenshots: in retrospect, I regret it. At work, she had a friend. And one day, she had a wish to kiss him (this was after Reed had come into the family). So I invited him to the diner after work... And asked him if he was single. And then, to my sorrow, he was not. And that was the last time Elaine had a wish for love, snuffed in the bud like that.
Farewell, Elaine. I'm sorry you couldn't see some of the Late Night content I installed right before this chapter. And I'm sorry we never did find you a man. Goodbye and thank you.
