[/PTab={background-color:#f0f0f0;width:530px;height:290px;padding:10px;padding-top:0px;margin-top:-6px;}]
this is not a fairy tale
It was an unfortunately blustery night when she made her entrance into the world. Aoife had prayed and prayed it wasn't so, as she clutched her huge belly and walked around aimlessly. She hated the rain - it was stupid to hold onto something like this, she knew that, but she hated the rain and she did not want the baby to come into the world when the wind howled and the rain pelted against the window pane. It wasn't right - Aoife wanted so much more for them than that.
But it never seemed to matter what Aoife wanted. She wanted a family, but they were dead. She wanted a
husband, but where was he? While she twisted and screamed, she did it alone, like she always did.
All the while the rain continued on
~~~
WHO TAKES LONGER TO GET READY?"Oh me, definitely. Bea might take way longer in the shower, but I have my routine."
~~~
"She's beautiful."
"Thank you."
Silence descended between the two, and the baby girl fussed a little in Aoife's arms. The gentleman at her bedside smiled fondly.
"Does she have a name yet?" he enquired after another moment.
Aoife thought for a second. "I was thinking Viola?" she said eventually.
"A fine name," the man replied, and Aoife finally allowed herself a little smile of her own.
"Thank you," she said again. "And thank you for coming - you needn't have come all this way, Father."
"Wouldn't've missed checking in on such a lovely lady as yourself," the priest replied, his eyes crinkling ever so slightly as he smiled. Then he sobered a little. "I didnt like to think of you in hospital all by yourself."
Aoife considered this for a moment. "It's alright." She looked down at the bundle in her arms. "I guess I'm not so alone anymore."
~~~
WHO IS MORE LIKELY TO TRIP OVER?"Bea, unfortunately."
~~~
"You'll take good care of her won't you?" Aoife asked, trying her utmost to stifle the shakes that wracked her body.
Viola didn't really speak all too much in the presence of strangers, but if she did she would have told her mother she was frightened of the lady. Her teeth were yellowed and crooked, and her fingers long and spindly.
Like a witch, Viola thought to herself. A scary witch. And mammy wanted her to go with her.
The dainty three year-old hiccuped quietly - she'd already run out of energy for more tears. Aoife turned to her then, crouching down and grasping tightly around her daughter's arms.
"You'll be a good girl for Mammy?" she asked softly, trying to catch Viola's gaze from where she was staring at the ground. The girl nodded, eventually - glumly - and Aoife's eyes prickled painfully with unshed tears. "It'll only be for a little while, little bird," she said quietly, and left a gentle peck on Viola's head.
The witch took Viola's hand in her clawed grasp, and the little girl barely even noticed the woman's painful grip as she watched her mother walk away into the night.
~~~
WHO SMELLS THE BEST?"Bea. Those long showers do their job."
~~~
"No-one's coming for you."
Viola stubbornly ignored her. She was five, and though she was smart enough, she didn't really like to speak around Eimear. She was a rat - a rat with a bird's nest of tangled brown hair and a mean sneer - and anything you said to her made it back Mrs O'Thomas.
"Did you hear me?" Eimear sneered again. "You can wait out here as much as you like, but there's no-one who wants you. That's what Mrs says."
Viola knew different. She didn't know what exactly, but she knew that there was someone coming - she'd known it for as long as she could remember anything. It was the only thing that she did know for certain. Someone warm and light was coming. All she had to do was be good and they would come.
They would come.
~~~
WHO'S THE ONE TO GET RID OF THE SPIDER?"Bea's the Gryffindor! I hate spiders."
~~~
There was always a buzz when there was a stranger at the house. Sometimes a stranger being there meant someone was taken away and given a family. Naturally the children were abuzz - they strained to hear, but careful as always to not be seen. Ears pressed against doors, leaning over staircases.
"It's a man," one said, peaking over the bannister.
"I think he's a muggle," another whispered, shock colouring her voice.
Then, finally,
"He's asking about
you."
All eyes turned to Viola, and suddenly she was allowed her opportunity to listen at the door.
"Sir - I just - " It was Mrs talking. "I don't know whether it would be appropriate, given your...differences -"
"I barely understand what that means," the man's gentle voice replied. "All I know is that I was asked to be here, and I made a promise to take care of her, and I will."
Viola knew then - she knew before she saw him walking out that door an hour later, and she knew before he took her hand gently in his and looked at her with kind blue eyes - this was who she'd been waiting for.
"Haven't you grown since I last saw you?" he said, and the crinkle of his eyes when he talked made her feel safe. She didn't know what to say, so she smiled.
He smiled back.
~~~
WHO TAKES UP THE MOST ROOM IN BED?"Probably Bea, but it's fine. I sleep up curled in a ball so I'd barely notice if she did."
~~~
The little girl's favourite thing to do with Father Bennett was to go on with him on his calls around the village. Father Bennett, and his little bird.
It was different, to feel welcomed and cherished in so many people's homes, and she found that she rather liked it. Sundays were her favourite - she got to wear her best white dress with the lace trim, and her shiniest black pumps with the buckles, and she delighted in the way the locals would dote on her in it.
She'd take Father Bennett's hand, and she'd smile sweetly, and all seemed to the little girl to be right in the world.
A few years later she'd take his name, and it seemed to be just fact to her and everyone who knew them that he was her Papa, and she was his daughter. It had been the good and godly thing to do, to take in a sweet little orphan like that - even if none of the village knew the whens, wheres or whys she had come into his life. They had gossiped about it, to be sure, but the priest's absolute silence on the matter had never even given a hint of it away.
And as far as they could tell, the little girl didn't seem to know either.
This was her world, and whatever had come before had been lost to time and the untouchable recesses of childhood memory. All she had were glimpses - hints of things she might have known - and the pretty little bird charm on a silver chain, that her Papa had given to her and told her that it was from her mother.
~~~
WHO SAID 'I LOVE YOU' FIRST?"That's a...very personal thing to ask."
[/PTab={background-color:#f0f0f0;width:530px;height:290px;padding:10px;padding-top:0px;margin-top:-6px;}]
[/PTab={background-color:#f0f0f0;width:530px;height:290px;padding:10px;padding-top:0px;margin-top:-6px;}]
[/PTabbedContent={width:550px;background-color:transparent;height:300px;padding:0px;border:0px;margin-left:-3px;margin-top:-20px;text-align:justify;color:#332F28;font-size:10px;}]