(no subject)
"I really wish that somebody would explain something to me. I didn't choose to be here and I especially don't enjoy sitting in ignorance while you all talk over my head."
Though only the first still looked at me, all over them stopped for a moment. It even paused me a bit not only because I didn't know how I'd formed those words after being awestruck and also because his words, unlike theirs, seemed much louder, much more out of place there.
Don't speak again. Please. Just take advantage and listen.
After a brief recovery Marta of course had a retort prepared. "Most humans sit in ignorance. I don't see why you should be any different."
"Because he is different, unfortunately, Martie."
Nona touched the tip of her index finger to mine and pursed her lips hopefully. I expected a revelation to shoot from my mind, a hundred images in the speed of a second but nothing. She shrank from the touch.
"You won't do that again Nona." Her sister's chide was understanding yet resolute.
Just let me see him. Something. I've waited this long. If I wait any longer perhaps I never will and I'll just go mad at the thought of that.
"You being mad is what got us here."
"Marta, hush." The only other eyes in the room looked reluctantly painful. Her sister took a deep breathe and nodded, pursing her lips in much the same fashion but with a lot less hope to them. She walked over to Nona, putting two fingers on her eyelinds with one hand and two on her own with the other. As she used the fingers to pull her own closed, she opened Nona's.
Instantly, her eyes shot to me. They didn't have to search at all or focus. I felt her entire concentration pour on me. It was odd, like being doused in cool water with it just washing over me to the point that the sun's beams couldn't have any effect. Her eyes became an aquamarine color of blue and a tear of the same color floated down her cheek as she smiled. "Beautiful. What a beautiful boy." I thought I detected pride in her eyes but I couldn't be sure. She laid her hands in her lap and looked over her shoulders. "Thank you sisters."
"My greatest fear is it will make all of this more difficult."
She looked back at me. "No."
I didn't know if I was relaxed or infinitely frustrated. I locked eyes with her. Just please tell me something.
"If I could, I would tell you everything."
"But tell him anything, you won't." Marta chided.
"No, but there is quite a difference between giving someone the answer and giving him the tools to find it."
"Yes, unnerving aggravation on his part and those waiting on him to figure out how to stick the lightbulb in the socket, and then forever more to even flick the switch."
Ignoring her, Nona turned to her other sister. "Do you remember, when we were weaving, and it frayed? We cut and cut at it but it only dulled the knife? So we had to sew on a new thread and continue. And then how only moments ago we could just barely cut it, trapping us in the middle, here? Middle ground. It won't be abandoning my duties because now we have to sew on another thread to finish it up, only we won't sew it straight on. We'll wait, give it some time to see if it... sews itself."
"That rarely happens."
"Rare means it is possible."
"But you're implying that--"
"Only implying what we know but have never been told. I'm telling you, this is our duty."
"And it only coincidentally flatters your own interests."
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "The best kind of flattery."
"Okay but we do this just like we did the last time and he has to find his own sponsor. I'm not doing it because that's too aggressive for us."
She looked back at me, from my hands to my feet to my forehead and then peered longest at my eyes. "Done. He will."