The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (42 page)

             
“Brynna can handle anything, Maura, and you know it!
”

             
“I know that you think so. Where did this sudden change of heart come from? A couple of days ago, you were screaming that you wanted her to die. I do not agree that you should have said that, by the way. I never told you that I feel that was far too har
sh.”

             
“Why are you so ready to excuse what Dad did? Back home, when he treated her like that, you’d always excuse it and you’re doing it again!”

             
“I told you, what Brynna did was absolutely, undeniably wrong. He was acting out of anger…”

             
“It wasn’t out of
anger!” I exclaimed and the bowl I was holding shattered in my hands despite my loose grip on it.

             
“Violet Mae!” Maura reached out and pulled the shards from my hands, cutting herself in her haste to dispose of them before my father saw.

             
“It wasn’t out o
f anger, Maura. He has always done this. She should run away. If I were her, I’d run as far away from him as I could!”

             
“So, what, are you going to run away now?” Maura asked as she held a paper towel to the cut on her palm. I watched her blood soak throug
h the pure white of the towel, billowing outwards to the very edges like a visible plague.

             
“He doesn’t treat me like that. But if he did, I’d be gone. Maura, you’ve never stuck up for her. She needs you to defend her.”

             
“Brynna doesn’t need anyone to defe
nd her. She’s a Viking woman. She always has been, even as a small child. When she still lived at home, I tried to keep him calm so that he wouldn’t hurt her. She’s older now and can handle herself. If I tried to handle this for her, especially with how st
rained things are between us, she would tell me to butt out in colorful terms and that would be the end of it.”

             
“Elijah is angry. He said he wanted to kill Dad.”

             
“That was worrisome the first time he said it all those years ago.  He’s said it too many ti
mes since and it has lost its effect.”

             
Her cavalier attitude towards this whole situation made me want to claw out my hair and scream at the sky. Now that my father was showing her the slightest bit of attention, even his abuse of the girl Maura had alway
s thought of as her daughter wasn’t entirely wrong, at least not in Maura’s narrow view.

             
Our mother never would have tolerated it, despite what Brynna might have believed.

             
“Our mother was a permissive parent.” Brynna said behind me and I turned to see
her lying on her back in the grass, a cigarette burning in the hand whose back was pressed to her forehead. I stood up and knelt down beside her. She brought the cigarette to her lips and took a drag but her eyes never opened beneath her sunglasses. I trie
d not to look at the dark black bruise on her slightly swollen cheek.

             
“How did you…”

             
“I just did.” She replied through a sigh, “You are worried about me. You needn’t be.”

             
“Brynna, you’re older now. You don’t have to tolerate him. I change my mind about
James, okay? If you want him, go be with him. Just don’t let Dad hit you anymore!”

             
“James lied to me and I will not forgive him for it. You know better than anyone just how intolerable I find those who lie. Dishonesty is for the weak. You know how I scorn
weakness.”

             
Well, she was back to normal. I knew, deep down, that those especially complex sentences and sentiments were the result of her desperate attempt to hide her true feelings. I didn’t call her on it, though I should have. Perhaps if I had exposed
her created ruse, she would have been spurned into action.

             
“I do not even know where he is, so even if you did tell me what you believe my words are masking, I would have no course of action.”

             
“Brynna, stop it!” I exclaimed angrily. I covered my ears as
though my secret thoughts were
tumbling out of them, moving across the space between us, and whispering to her.

             
“I cannot help it,” She replied dully, “Your thoughts are very loud. Can you hear mine?”

             
“No,” I shook my head, feeling like crying all of a
sudden, “I haven’t heard yours since that first time right after Miranda...” A shudder passed through me and I reached out to grasp the hand she had rested on her stomach. She startled at my touch but hid her surprise immediately.

“Brynna, you’ve never had
a weak moment in your life. Why are you being so calm about all of this? Why are you letting him treat you like this?”

             
“It was one instance of a pathetic man utilizing his superior physical strength to get his point across. He could not do it with harsh
words the way that I can. He can only use his hands. It is pathetic.”

             
“What does that have to do with anything that I just said?” Tears were leaking from my eyes now. I couldn't understand what was wrong with her.
             
“I am not going to run from one I deem
insignificant. He does not scare me. He is an annoyance and an inconvenience but nothing else. In fact, I find his appointment as leader of this band of ragtag survivors to be incredibly entertaining. I do so want to see how it all plays out.”

             
“You miss J
ames! That’s why you’re being like this!” I accused her before putting both hands on her face and shaking her slightly. Instantly, she pushed my hands away. After sitting up, she pointed at me.

             
“Do not mention his name to me again! I will not tolerate bei
ng betrayed! I had every right to know the truth about him from the very beginning. Instead, he lied to me! Do not bring him up again, Violet!”

             
She jumped up, straightened her tank top and her shorts and huffed off.

             
I put my face in my hands and cried. T
hey were the first tears that I would shed on Pangea. Many more would come over the years, but the tears that streamed down my face that day were among the most painful.

             
They came when I realized that my sister was losing her fight. It was being stolen fr
om her by our father, whom I loved tremendously but hated at the same time for what he was doing. I could not stand his violent treatment of her or the way she was beginning to submit to it. I wondered briefly if she was punishing James in her own way by a
llowing herself to suffer. If she was in pain and he knew it somehow, his guilt over being unable to protect her would drive him insane.

             
No,
my mind told me gently,
She’s punishing herself for getting so close to James.

             
For once, my inner voice was right
on the money.

             
The conflicting emotions were far too complicated for a girl my age. Through them I could see one solution, clear as the Pangean morning:

             
I had to find James.

XXX

             
I set out later that afternoon with my small backpack slung over my should
er. In it, I had packed just one bag of dried bananas and half a bottle of water. I didn’t assume that I would be gone that long. Maura was distracted because she was trying to entertain Penny, who was growing bored with having nothing to do. Sure, she had
made friends with some of the other kids. They kicked a soccer ball around the open space several feet to the left of our collective campsite and they built dirt mounds for people to step in. But she missed the comforts of television and swimming in our p
ool. They were luxuries she had grown used to that no longer existed. I could certainly sympathize.

             
I didn’t assume that it would be hard to find James. However, after an hour of searching, I sat down in a particularly soft looking patch of grass and put
my head on my arms. The smell of some sort of meat wafted over me; I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. A group of people whose origin I could not name right off were cooking up meat taken from an oversized rabbit whose skins now adorned the outer wall of
their tent. I grimaced but then almost shrugged. Just because I couldn't stand to eat a cute rabbit didn't mean that other people wouldn't, if eating said rabbit would ensure their survival.

             
I had asked many people if they knew where James was, only to be
told that my description was too generic and could fit anyone. I would try to tailor it to specifics when I addressed the boy who was now walking in front of me.

             
“Hey!” I called out and he stopped walking. He turned to look at me in curiosity.

             
“Hey. Are
you lost?”  He asked, and I was stunned by his beautiful green eyes.

             
Stay focused, Violet,
I urged myself.

             
“No. I’m looking for someone. His name is James Maxwell. Have you heard of him?”

             
“No,” The boy replied and with genuine remorse in his voice, he
added, “Sorry.” He went to keep walking but I jumped up and hurried after him.

             
“Maybe you’ve seen him. He’s about 6’1, muscular, with brown hair that he keeps gelled so that it looks messy but it’s really styled. That's really the only way that I can desc
ribe it...”

             
The boy chuckled softly.

             
“What is he going to do when his hair gel runs out?”

             
It was a valid question but a random one.

             
“I don’t…” I started to say but then I shook my head slightly and brought us back to the topic at hand, “He has dark bro
wn eyes. He’s really sarcastic and funny. He has a goatee slash five-o-clock shadow thing going on. Is any of this ringing a bell?”

             
“Good-looking guy?”

             
“Yeah.” I nodded, “He’s really good-looking. He’s kind of a prick sometimes, too. Maybe you’ve run int
o him?”

             
“James, James…” He turned the word over on his tongue as though taste-testing a foreign food. He looked up at the blue sky, squinting slightly in the bright sunlight. “I really feel like I know who you’re talking about. I ran into a guy the other
day who helped me fight off some assholes trying to steal my water. He fits the bill. I was so freaked out, though, that I don’t remember what he said his name was. He was looking for a fight though, by the look on his face.”

             
“How many days ago was this?”

             
“Two.”

             
Two days had passed since Brynna had told James to leave and never come back. Perhaps he had been so heartbroken by her abrupt dismissal that as he walked along, looking for someplace to settle down, he had stumbled across this boy being robbed a
nd used the opportunity to relieve some of his stress. It made me sad to think about, despite the fact that I was still angry at him for what he had done to my mother and father. My anger was doubled when I thought about how he had lied to Brynna. She was
so distrustful already and he had given her a reason not to trust him or anyone else. I did not want to ponder, even for a moment, the implications such a lie presented for her. Would she ever trust him or any other man again?

             
In thinking about that, my h
eart sank as a new revelation gripped me. Even if I found James, Brynna wouldn’t care. She had exiled him from her life and once that happened, there was no coming back. Her stubbornness would never fail her. Even if she wouldn’t admit it, I knew that Jame
s had hurt her deeply. She would not leave herself open to being hurt by him again.

             
But I had to find him. I had to get him to make her snap out of her submissive daze. It had driven me half-insane but while she was with him, she was even sassier than nor
mal. She was the strongest I had ever seen her. I needed James to awaken that strength in her. At the very least, he needed to help her find it again. The rest she would do on her own.

             
“We talked for awhile, this guy and me.” The boy continued, and I noti
ced for the first time that he had a slight accent. I couldn’t peg exactly where he was from just by listening, though. “After he got my water back. He really hurt those other guys. But they’ve been doing this to a lot of people.”