20.2 Another Wedding

Spring 1998, Basílica

Mae felt like she was melting. Even though the last month had been cold for the average spring, the temperatures had risen too high during the last days. Mae was glad she had chosen a light dress in the last second before leaving. The men had also taken off their jackets, and some even their ties.

On her left side, Herbert discussed the latest baseball season with Leroy. 

On her right side, Linda talked in science chinese with Frank. They didn't look bored, but maybe it wasn't boring if you actually understood that language. 

Opposite to her, Delilah and Diana discussed about potty training while Diana tried to stuff some food into her daughter.

And Mariella was playing somewhere with Bella out of her sight.

She looked over to the other table, where she saw the others discussing heavily, and talk insistently to Rosa. She noticed Francesco was gone.

She chuckled. Mae pitied him somehow.

"I have to use the bathroom", she lied, and then and got up.

She was bored to death here. 

The bathroom was refreshingly cool, opposite to the outside.

Mae looked at herself in the mirror. Last week, her sister had asked her if she knew what she wanted to do.

She still didn't.
She still hadn't managed to tell Herbert anything. Instead, she had secretly switched back to contraception.
Secretly.

She knew very well that this couldn't go on like this. She had to pull herself together. 

She sighed, then washed her hands and went out of the bathroom. 

On her way back, she almost ran into Francesco.

"You had enough of being exhibition object no. 1?", she teased him.

He chuckled, while turning off his cigarette on the floor. 

But his face turned serious quickly.

"Mae...", he started slowly.

"Don't." she cut him off. She didn't need any excuses.

He looked at her, as if he tried to figure out what she was thinking.

"Are we okay, then?", he asked after a few seconds.
"Don't worry", she confirmed.

She leaned on the wall next to him. There were like thousands of things swirling in her mind. And about a thousand things she wanted to say. She didn't know where to start, so she didn't say anything after all.

He leaned back too, and took a deep breath.

For a while, noone said anything.

"Francesco?", Mae heard Rosa's quiet voice. "I think I have a headache... could you bring me home?"

"...Sure", she saw him answer, when she looked to her side.

"Good bye, Mae", he said to her before they left.

She pulled up a smile.

Mae leaned back on the cool wall. She was glad she hadn't said anything. It was no use talking about what had happened in the past. He was married. He even had a kid, from what her friend's had told her. He had moved on. 

And she had her own problems to solve.

So she pulled herself together and moved on.

Cracks

19.11 Retrospective - The toy

A glimpse to the past

This was why Diana hated to go play outside. There were always those big boys, picking on her.
She usually tried to hide from them, but this time they caught her, and they had taken Boo away.
And most likely Daddy would be angry with her, too.


A shadow fell on her.
"Why are you crying so much?", a boy asked her.
She stopped for a second, and looked up to him.

He was big, and he looked angry. She was scared of him, too.

Still sobbing, she pointed to the local bullies group, which threw Boo to each other.
The boy sighed.

"Will you stop if I get it back for you?", he asked her then.
Diana nodded, and sniffed up her nose.

Maybe this one wasn't a bad one. He turned around and left towards the group.

"Those bullies have a big mouth, but they're pussies." Another boy appeared now. He was a bit smaller, and much less scary.
"Look, that one is crying", he laughed.

"I'm Leroy", he said towards Diana then, "and you?"
"Diana", she mumbled.

"Here" the first boy returned. He held Boo in his hand. His nose was bleeding.
Diana snatched Boo, before he could get bloody, too.
The boys were not bad, after all. She decided to stick to them, maybe the bad boys would leave her alone then.

18.1 Graduation

Winter 1998, West residence

Linda finally arrived home. Today had been a hard day. She finally had had her hearing about her doctorate thesis she had submitted. The examiners had been harsh on her, and even though she was more than well prepared, she had needed sometimes to think about their questions.

She was just glad it was over.

Now she looked forward to just relax, maybe take a bath, and read some fiction for a change.

But when she opened the door and started the lights, the room was packed full.

"Congratulations on your Doctorate!", about twenty voices cried out.

"Oh my!" Linda was definitely surprised. "Mae, what's this?", she asked her sister.

"A graduation party for you!", Mae replied cheerfully.

"How did you know I'd pass?", Linda asked her.

"Come on...", her sister said, "You're maybe the smartest person I know, and you work like crazy! There's no chance in the world you wouldn't!"

Maybe that was a bit exaggerated, but Linda still felt flattered a little bit.

"Let me guess – you even got maximum points?", Mae asked then.

"Uhm... yeah", Linda admitted shyly.

"I knew it!"

"Congratulations, you sweet little scientist!", now Brian went forward, and kissed her gently on the cheek.

"Thank you!"

And then Delilah. "Congratulations, Linda! I'm so proud of you!" She hugged her tightly.

"Thank you, Dee!"

"Congratulations! Want a Margherita? Leroy made some, they're quite good!", Diana said to her. It seems everyone wanted to talk to her now.

"Thanks... ", Linda said, taking the glass.

"What did you work on?", Leroy asked her, "Dee said something with plants?"

Linda wasn't used to so much attention.

"Yes, I got some alien plant samples from the SRC. I sequenced their genome code", she explained.

"Really?! So you managed!", Frank said. Linda distantly remembered she might have told him once something about her doctorate work. But she wasn't sure how much anymore, or when it was.

"That plant still gives a big head ache to the astrobiologists at the SRC!", he continued.

Ah yes, he worked there, too.

"Hey Frank, shut up with the nerd talk!", Paolo interrupted him now. "Others want to congratulate her too!"

This was gonna be a long night, Linda thought.

But she was happy.

A haunting past

13.4 Leroy Cage

Spring 1997, The Mudhole

This saturday Delilah had sent Leroy with his friends to dance. She told him he could use a break, too. At first he had hesitated to leave her home alone with the baby, but she assured him she would be fine, and now he was glad he had listened to her.

Mae was there, too. At the party for his son, Leroy's friends had gotten along really well with her.

So they ended up going out to the night club together.

Mae was about to get married, and of course she had to talk about it a lot. Leroy remembered the time before his own wedding, Delilah had been the same.

"You really want to do all the food alone?", he asked her, knowing from his own experience working at a catering company, that it took a lot of effort to prepare so much.

"I have to show off my cooking skills!", she laughed.

He was curious to see how she would pull it off.

And Mae had spontaneously invited them all, so he would.

Just when he wanted to say something again, he saw his brother storming in.

"Get out, we have to talk!", Frank snapped at him.

The same second they were in front of the door, Frank shot at him: "Why did you give my phone number to that woman?!"

Ouch.

Leroy knew it might not have been a good idea, but she had asked so nicely.

"She called me just earlier! And why did you even call her?! You did, no?"

Frank was really angry.

Leory guessed his brother had thrown down the phone the same second he heard her voice, and rushed here.

"Well, I wanted to tell her what has happened so far" , Leroy tried to explain himself.

"She's our mother, so deserves to know...", he tried to continue.

But Frank interrupted him.

"She deserves nothing! Look, if you want to play happy family with her, go for it, but leave me out of it, okay?!"

Then he left.

Leroy knew that his brother wasn't on good terms with their mother... well, if you wanted to put it in a nice way.

But Leroy didn't expect he would still hold the old grudges.

On the other hand, Frank had suffered from her... bad side much harder than Leroy himself.

Only much later, when he was older, and they were taken long time to foster care, Leroy had understood that his brother also had always tried to keep the worst from him.

Somehow Leroy had forgotten of that, until now.

Leroy didn't want to dance anymore.

12.1 Baby Party

Spring 1997, Cage residence

Delilah had given birth a week ago, and the Cages had invited everyone over to their new house for a party, when she could return home from the hospital.

"Hey, you two! It's nice that you could make it! We have a few guests already, come in!", Delilah greeted the sisters, brightly smiling, when they arrived. 

She led them directly to the stroller in the living room, where the baby was watching curiously the environmenet.

"Booh booh! You're awake, Mikey?", she made some funny noises to the boy.

"Ohhh, he's adorable!", Mae purred.

Linda found the baby looked the same as any other baby she had seen so far. But she didn't want to be impolite, so she expressed also some delightful phrase.

Delilah was ravishing over him.

"He sure gave me some sleepless nights, though!", she told the sisters.

"I bet it is not easy taking care of a baby!", Linda replied.

"It sure is not! But he is my greatest joy!", Delilah admitted, taking him out of the stroller and rocking him softly.

Linda had heard words like this from every mother she had met so far, but she didn't really understand the logic in that.

But then she guessed it must be similar to how she felt with the alien sprouts in the lab. Those had given her a lot of head aches too, but she loved taking care of them when they finally started to grow.

On the sofa in the living room they met Madeleine and Jesse.

"Good evening! Thank you again for the invite to the party last weekend!", Linda said politely.

"Hello! Glad you enjoyed it!", Madeleine replied cheerfully.

"Sorry I missed it", Mae said. "I bet the home made punch was delicious."

"Oh, Linda told you about it?", Madeleine's face glowed.

Linda didn't.

"Apple cider and pear schnapps was quite a... unique combination", she said to her sister.

She saw Mae make a face of disgust for a second, and had to laugh.

"Oh - " Delilah cried out. "Sorry I didn't even offer you a drink yet!"

She pointed over to the open kitchen. "Leroy made some cocktails, please help yourself!"

In the kitchen were also Frank, and a women Linda thought she saw on the wedding, sitting on a big table.

"Hello Frank!" Linda greeted him, feeling a big smile appearing on her face. "I think you didn't meet my sister Mae yet", she added.

Mae and her had paid a visit to Delilah in the hospital, but they had only met Leroy there.

"Thank god this is better than that yucky combination the Sanfords made you drink last week, Linda!", Mae burst out, after trying Leroy's Margherita.

"Glad you like it, Mae", Leroy laughed.

"What did they do to you?", Frank asked her in playful horror.

"Just some terrible home made punch that offends my gourmet sister", Linda laughed now too.

"You never mix those two!", Mae insisted.

"I think we haven't been introduced yet", the other woman said then.

"I'm Diana!"

She looked really nice, Linda thought.

Diana looked like she wanted to say something else, but was interrupted by Delilah, who brought a lot more people with her.

"Hey guys! You're late!", Leroy greeted them.

"Congratulatios to the new father! And happy sleepless nights!", the black haired woman said to him.

Everyone laughed.

This evening promised to be more fun than the one last weekend.