{"id":288,"date":"2014-06-13T11:34:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T15:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/?p=288"},"modified":"2014-06-13T11:37:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T15:37:26","slug":"rafealmost-healed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/2014\/06\/rafealmost-healed\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafe–Almost healed."},"content":{"rendered":"

This comes after Rafe has been dragged home, wounded. This scene takes place as Rafe is sorting her things getting ready to go back to the front.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou promised.\u201d Jenna had never whined in her life, and she didn\u2019t now. She snarled. \u201cAnd now you\u2019re leaving. Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafe continued sorting through the rubble dumped in the middle of the bed. Piles to be given away were taking shape and she was repacking as she went along. She had been snarled at before. Commanders did that. The best commanders knew when to listen. For an instant she considered conciliation. But she set sisterhood aside along with the red embroidered shawl she had found at the bottom of her rucksack. \u201cThis can go to Fiona,\u201d Rafe said as she folded the wrap and laid in yet another pile on the bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? Not trying to buy me off with frufru?\u201d Jenna folded her arms, wedging them between her breasts and swollen belly. \u201cYou did that before. And I believed your lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was it that sent her straight back to childhood? Rafe fought the urge to look around for Ma to pop up in support of her favorite daughter, singing that hated mantra Look at your poor sister. You\u2019re older; you should know better. She supposed it was true, now. Finally. Only Jenna had never been the poor sister, and Ma was long gone. But, still, Rafe was older with all her experience on the line. She knew to keep her eye on the target, to predict where the feints would lead. \u201cYou are right. I promised you and I promised Ducky. I meant it when I told you I would be back. I meant it when I gave my pledge with the necklace. And I meant it when I gave Ducky the bag I made. Circumstances change, Jenna.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafe remembered her sixteen year old self formally saying good-bye to her childhood under the drooping willow. It had been years since she was young enough for such play. Even Jenna was starting to get too old. She would be apprenticing soon, and, of the three of them, only Ducky would be left. He, of course, would have brought his own group of friends.<\/p>\n

Rafe poked through the memory of that last picnic by the river to see if there was anything that would help her now. They had all been so young. She had been called \u201cRafaella\u201d then as much as \u201cRafe.\u201d She could think of only a hand-full of people in her life, the one away from Riverside, who even knew her birth name, and fewer who would ever use it. But in that moment on the bank she had been Rafaella for the last time.<\/p>\n

Jenna had been the one to organize the food. Rafaella and Ducky had hauled the basket and rug to the drooping willow tree beyond the bend. Ducky removed the cache of stones and set them in little shafts of sunlight, adding to the glittering pirates\u2019-lair effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jenna opened the basket and doled out the bread and cheese. She poured the stolen wine, un-watered, into a single cup they would share. She raised the cup and took a sip. \u201cTo your Sojourn.\u201d Rafaella reached for the wine, but Jenna didn\u2019t release her hand. \u201cAnd to the pledge you will make.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat pledge?\u201d This was so typical of Jenna, always looking for something more. Couldn\u2019t she just say \u201cfarewell\u201d and be done with it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are sixteen.\u201d Jenna waited, eyebrow raised, until Rafaella nodded. \u201cAnd you are leaving to go into the world, as is your right.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Again Jenna waited and again Rafaella nodded, thinking how much she would enjoy not to feel like a minion to a nine-year-old. She tugged at the cup, but Jenna tightened her grip.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut what about my turn? What about my right to leave and learn? What about my right to adventure?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about it?\u201d Rafaella had replied, dropping her hand from the cup. \u201cYou\u2019ll go. You\u2019ll make your mark on the Memory Oak and leave.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd who will take care of Ma? Who will take over the smithy?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBa has apprenticed Boyer. He\u2019ll take Ducky.\u201d She noticed her brother sneaking a piece of cheese from her dish and smacked his hand. With his eyes fixed on his sisters, Ducky\u2019s other hand started wandering toward Jenna\u2019s plate. \u201cBa would even take you, if you wanted. You\u2019re stocky enough. Why trouble me with this? I\u2019m leaving. I\u2019m going to soldier and win a fortune. You can do the same.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of us needs to take care of Ma and Ba, and take over the smithy when the time comes. Ducky is useless.\u201d Jenna\u2019s free hand slammed down on Ducky\u2019s tiny one, filled with her cheese. \u201cAnd Boyer is not family. It has to be one of us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThen you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not come back after seven years? You\u2019re good at fine work. You can tool leather. Give me a chance to see if I like it away from here. You could run things as you like. I wouldn\u2019t be here to boss you around. I\u2019m sure you\u2019d like it better that way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rafaella looked at her sister, Jenna, shining face like the new dawn, blue eyes, and rosebud lips, the favorite of Ma and Ba, and the focus of Rafaella\u2019s discontent. Jenna looked like an angel, but the face masked a will of iron no one would ever mold into anything she did not want to be. Rafaella nodded to herself. Riverside would be a very different place without Jenna. And besides, most sojourners returned after two or three years.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou will leave when I return in seven years?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course. Don\u2019t you trust me? C\u2019mon, we\u2019ll pledge together. In seven years you will return to Riverside and I will leave on my own Sojourn.\u201d Jenna took a sip of wine and passed the cup to Rafaella.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rafaella drank, watching Jenna over the lip of the cup. \u201cI will return in seven years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jenna took the cup back and filled it again. \u201cTo your Sojourn, Rafaella.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRafe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jenna\u2019s smile beamed and she drank. \u201cTo your Sojourn, Rafe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you never returned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo I didn\u2019t. Until now.\u201d Dust motes hung between them as Rafe snapped a shirt in the air before folding it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-three years later. And you wouldn\u2019t have come home if you hadn\u2019t been dragged. And now you\u2019re going away again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafe looked at her sister without heat. \u201cI was in the middle of something. As were you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat difference would it have made? Ma was ill and dying. You were pregnant. You would never have left and that was part of the pledge, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou knew that? Or did you just figure it out?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it. Both things.\u201d Rafe remembered the twofold joy at hearing of Jenna\u2019s condition. Her perfect sister had made a mistake, and she would be the one trapped in Riverside. Briefly Rafe had considered returning to her mother\u2019s deathbed. She had decided to let that be Jenna\u2019s duty, too. Rafe had wanted a kind word, forgiveness, an apology from her mother when the woman was still alive, not when she was fearing for the next life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hated us that much? You never even thought to say good-bye to Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Hate had nothing to do with it. I hadn\u2019t been away long enough. If I had come back here it would have been the same. Even with Ma dead. You would still have tried to be the boss of me. Old habits and all. It\u2019s different now. We\u2019re both different now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re still going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. But I am not leaving. You or Riverside. I am returning to my life. My place in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafe picked up a clutch of five silver bells she had fastened to Flasher\u2019s bridle when they were on parade. \u201cTake these for the baby. Tell her about her auntie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell her what I know. Which isn\u2019t much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be back to tell her more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This comes after Rafe has been dragged home, wounded. This scene takes place as Rafe is sorting her things getting ready to go back to the front. \u201cYou promised.\u201d Jenna had never whined in her life, and she didn\u2019t now. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,31,17],"tags":[32,48,71],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-rafe","category-transitions","tag-fiction","tag-flashbacks","tag-rafe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Gnw9-4E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beeberrywoods.com\/FiberEtc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}