Hush, Hush: Chapter 14
Jul. 22nd, 2011 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelda_queenZeldaQueen: Omph. I'm very sorry, ladies and gentlemen. I've been bitten by the fanart bug by way of Suburban Knights and between that and my work schedule, I've been MIA for far too long. But hey, you're not here for excuses, you're here for bland and boring plot advancement! And I've got it right here!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 14
ZeldaQueen: Nora returns home, and there’s a lot of pointless blather over how the lock on the front door has “developed a greedy disposition” after that night Patch fucked with it. I’m not sure what the point is, unless Fitzpatrick is implying that Patch can actually spread his assholishness to inanimate objects he touches.
Nora finally gets into the house and heads to the living room, to start a fire in the wood-burning stove. She hears something creaking at the opposite side of the room and naturally, she screams. Thankfully it’s her mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa. Nora works to lower her heart rate while having flashbacks to her stalker in a ski mask. For once in the book, she shows sense and decides to tell her mother everything, in the hope that they can get new locks for the house and have the police keep an eye open.
For no reason at all besides convenience, Nora’s mother chooses this point to announce that they probably will have to sell the house and move
“‘I was going to wait to bring this up,’ my mom said, interrupting my thought process, ‘but I'm not sure the perfect moment is ever going to present itself.’
I frowned. ‘What's going on?’
She gave a long, troubled sigh. "I'm thinking about putting the farmhouse
up for sale.’
‘What? Why?’
‘We've been struggling for a year, and I'm not pulling in as much as I'd hoped. I've considered taking a second job, but honestly, I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day.’ She laughed without any trace of humor. ‘Dorothea's wages are modest, but it's extra money we don't have. The only other thing I can think of is moving into a smaller house. Or an apartment.’
‘But this is our house.’ All my memories were here. The memory of my
dad was here. I couldn't believe she didn't feel the same way. I would do
whatever it took to stay.
‘I'll give it three more months,’ she said. ‘But I don't want to get your hopes up.’
Right then I knew I couldn't tell my mom about the guy in the ski mask. She'd quit work tomorrow. She'd get a local job, and there'd be absolutely no choice but to sell the farmhouse.’”
ZeldaQueen: Like I said, convenience. Nothing comes of this. All it does is serve as an excuse for Nora to not tell her mother that she’s being stalked by someone who is clearly violent and dangerous and probably trying to kill her.
Sure, Nora. You just keep that all a secret. I’m sure your mother would much rather stay in your farmhouse home than have you alive and safe. For heaven’s sake, there’s being selfless and there’s being stupid! Guess which one Nora is?
So yeah, the subject is immediately dropped after that. Nora tells her mother that Vee is doing fine and will be back in school the next day. With a busted arm and a concussion and - oh whatever, you guys know the drill.
The two start a fire in the stove and get hot chocolate and are all snuggly under some blankets, and Nora starts asking her mother about when she married Nora’s father. This would be pretty nice under other circumstances. Thing is, it’s blindingly obvious that Nora is fishing around to see how much like Patch her father was. Really.
First, Nora asks when her mother knew she was in love with her father. Nora’s mother replies that she wasn’t sure it was love until after they were married, but she married him anyway “Because I thought I was in love. And when you think you're in love, you're willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love”. Okay, that coupled with the horrible abusive vibes to Patch and Nora’s relationship is just squicky.
They then discuss the wedding itself, and apparently Nora’s mother found the whole thing very exciting. When asked if she was ever afraid of Nora’s father, her mother says “Whenever the New England Patriots lost”. Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to the trees in the backyard whenever that happened, and their woodshed is still filled up from the last time that happened. *scratches head* Okay then. And I also have to wonder, wouldn’t Nora’s mother at least ask why her daughter would wonder something like that? I mean, I might just be odd but “Were you ever scared of Dad?” doesn’t sound like a question a lot of kids ask, especially if their parents are in a loving relationship, as Nora’s parents apparently were.
We get the clichéd point where Nora’s mother says that she (Nora) takes after her father because they both were clever (I’ve yet to see any examples of that), and then Nora asks if her father was mysterious or rebellious ever. Nora’s mother laughs at the thought of her husband being like that, and finally cottons on to the notion that Nora has something specific in mind with these questions.
Nora debates telling her mother about Patch, because she doesn’t think a description will come out well. She finally vaguely mentions that there’s a guy at school she’s thinking of. When prompted, Nora says that he’s into pool as a hobby and Nora’s mother assumes that by “pool”, Nora means “swimming”. Nora decides not to correct this misconception. Why are these young adult heroines always deceiving their parents? For that matter, why would Nora think that telling her mother what sort of pool Patch plays would be a bad idea? There are plenty of reputable people who love playing pool. My college paid for all commuters to have access to several pool tables. Is Fitzpatrick under the impression that playing pool is another “bad boy” symptom?
Anyway, this conversation is interrupted with a phone call from Nora’s mother’s boss, who is horribly incompetent and needs her to pick up some paperwork from his office to…somewhere. It’s pretty much a vague excuse to get the mother out of the house for an hour.
Nora sits down to do her homework, but of course bringing up the thought of Patch insanely distracts her. She finally quashes the idea of tracking him down at Bo’s Arcade and heads up to her room, where she finds that someone has broken in and completely trashed the entire place. She catches a glimpse of something in the mirror and turns around in time to see the ski mask-wearing creeper in her room. When he sees that she has spotted him, he escapes through the window. Showing more sense than the average young adult heroine, Nora runs back downstairs and calls 911.
Fifteen minutes later, two police officers show up. Their names are Detective Holstijik (and oh how my spellcheck hates that name) and Detective Basso. It’s hammered into our heads how Detective Basso looks like Patch, with the same “Mediterranean complexion, symmetrical face, eyes with an edge”. Guess which of these dudes will be important later on in the series.
They get right down to business and are no-nonsense while Nora tells them what happened. And to her credit, she does try her hardest to remember anything at all to help even though she’s still freaked out.
When the questioning is over, the officers have her lead them up to her bedroom where they find…it’s perfectly in order. Nora is understandably very freaked out by this, especially when the officers note that jumping out the window like the ski-mask person did would at the very least result in a broken leg and that the door was somehow locked between Nora calling 911 and their arrival.
It’s made pretty clear by this point that Detective Basso doesn’t believe Nora. He tells her that it would have been sensible of the intruder to just push past her and run out the front door, and then asks her to think very hard about what might have really happened. Um, is it me or is that really bad police work? He’s basically influencing her thinking, after all.
Nora is sat down and asked more questions, the first of which is, of course, if she has a boyfriend
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, what is up with this book? That’s all anyone ever talks to her about! Although at least this does have a modicum of justification, given how the next few questions seem to be fishing for possible explanations (if she’s ever had any problems with drugs and where her father is, if she lives alone with her mother). At least you could argue that they’re trying to determine if she has some possessive, abusive, stalkery boyfriend. Which she does, but everyone including Fitzpatrick is trying to ignore it.
Nora finally sees that they aren’t going to believe her and give up. Because yeah, they’ve clearly wasted a lot of time and effort going over there, even though Nora in no way gave the impression that it was a frivolous or crank call and clearly believed she saw something. They say that they have things to get done, so they’re going to leave her alone until her mom gets back, at which point they want her mother to give them a call. Wow, that’s really great! Just leave the scared girl all alone where she may or may not be getting stalked!
And thus, we end our chapter with them leaving and Nora wondering how the ski mask dude cleaned up her room in fifteen minutes. Oy
Onward to: Chapter 15
Back to: Chapter 13
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 14
ZeldaQueen: Nora returns home, and there’s a lot of pointless blather over how the lock on the front door has “developed a greedy disposition” after that night Patch fucked with it. I’m not sure what the point is, unless Fitzpatrick is implying that Patch can actually spread his assholishness to inanimate objects he touches.
Nora finally gets into the house and heads to the living room, to start a fire in the wood-burning stove. She hears something creaking at the opposite side of the room and naturally, she screams. Thankfully it’s her mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa. Nora works to lower her heart rate while having flashbacks to her stalker in a ski mask. For once in the book, she shows sense and decides to tell her mother everything, in the hope that they can get new locks for the house and have the police keep an eye open.
For no reason at all besides convenience, Nora’s mother chooses this point to announce that they probably will have to sell the house and move
“‘I was going to wait to bring this up,’ my mom said, interrupting my thought process, ‘but I'm not sure the perfect moment is ever going to present itself.’
I frowned. ‘What's going on?’
She gave a long, troubled sigh. "I'm thinking about putting the farmhouse
up for sale.’
‘What? Why?’
‘We've been struggling for a year, and I'm not pulling in as much as I'd hoped. I've considered taking a second job, but honestly, I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day.’ She laughed without any trace of humor. ‘Dorothea's wages are modest, but it's extra money we don't have. The only other thing I can think of is moving into a smaller house. Or an apartment.’
‘But this is our house.’ All my memories were here. The memory of my
dad was here. I couldn't believe she didn't feel the same way. I would do
whatever it took to stay.
‘I'll give it three more months,’ she said. ‘But I don't want to get your hopes up.’
Right then I knew I couldn't tell my mom about the guy in the ski mask. She'd quit work tomorrow. She'd get a local job, and there'd be absolutely no choice but to sell the farmhouse.’”
ZeldaQueen: Like I said, convenience. Nothing comes of this. All it does is serve as an excuse for Nora to not tell her mother that she’s being stalked by someone who is clearly violent and dangerous and probably trying to kill her.
Sure, Nora. You just keep that all a secret. I’m sure your mother would much rather stay in your farmhouse home than have you alive and safe. For heaven’s sake, there’s being selfless and there’s being stupid! Guess which one Nora is?
So yeah, the subject is immediately dropped after that. Nora tells her mother that Vee is doing fine and will be back in school the next day. With a busted arm and a concussion and - oh whatever, you guys know the drill.
The two start a fire in the stove and get hot chocolate and are all snuggly under some blankets, and Nora starts asking her mother about when she married Nora’s father. This would be pretty nice under other circumstances. Thing is, it’s blindingly obvious that Nora is fishing around to see how much like Patch her father was. Really.
First, Nora asks when her mother knew she was in love with her father. Nora’s mother replies that she wasn’t sure it was love until after they were married, but she married him anyway “Because I thought I was in love. And when you think you're in love, you're willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love”. Okay, that coupled with the horrible abusive vibes to Patch and Nora’s relationship is just squicky.
They then discuss the wedding itself, and apparently Nora’s mother found the whole thing very exciting. When asked if she was ever afraid of Nora’s father, her mother says “Whenever the New England Patriots lost”. Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to the trees in the backyard whenever that happened, and their woodshed is still filled up from the last time that happened. *scratches head* Okay then. And I also have to wonder, wouldn’t Nora’s mother at least ask why her daughter would wonder something like that? I mean, I might just be odd but “Were you ever scared of Dad?” doesn’t sound like a question a lot of kids ask, especially if their parents are in a loving relationship, as Nora’s parents apparently were.
We get the clichéd point where Nora’s mother says that she (Nora) takes after her father because they both were clever (I’ve yet to see any examples of that), and then Nora asks if her father was mysterious or rebellious ever. Nora’s mother laughs at the thought of her husband being like that, and finally cottons on to the notion that Nora has something specific in mind with these questions.
Nora debates telling her mother about Patch, because she doesn’t think a description will come out well. She finally vaguely mentions that there’s a guy at school she’s thinking of. When prompted, Nora says that he’s into pool as a hobby and Nora’s mother assumes that by “pool”, Nora means “swimming”. Nora decides not to correct this misconception. Why are these young adult heroines always deceiving their parents? For that matter, why would Nora think that telling her mother what sort of pool Patch plays would be a bad idea? There are plenty of reputable people who love playing pool. My college paid for all commuters to have access to several pool tables. Is Fitzpatrick under the impression that playing pool is another “bad boy” symptom?
Anyway, this conversation is interrupted with a phone call from Nora’s mother’s boss, who is horribly incompetent and needs her to pick up some paperwork from his office to…somewhere. It’s pretty much a vague excuse to get the mother out of the house for an hour.
Nora sits down to do her homework, but of course bringing up the thought of Patch insanely distracts her. She finally quashes the idea of tracking him down at Bo’s Arcade and heads up to her room, where she finds that someone has broken in and completely trashed the entire place. She catches a glimpse of something in the mirror and turns around in time to see the ski mask-wearing creeper in her room. When he sees that she has spotted him, he escapes through the window. Showing more sense than the average young adult heroine, Nora runs back downstairs and calls 911.
Fifteen minutes later, two police officers show up. Their names are Detective Holstijik (and oh how my spellcheck hates that name) and Detective Basso. It’s hammered into our heads how Detective Basso looks like Patch, with the same “Mediterranean complexion, symmetrical face, eyes with an edge”. Guess which of these dudes will be important later on in the series.
They get right down to business and are no-nonsense while Nora tells them what happened. And to her credit, she does try her hardest to remember anything at all to help even though she’s still freaked out.
When the questioning is over, the officers have her lead them up to her bedroom where they find…it’s perfectly in order. Nora is understandably very freaked out by this, especially when the officers note that jumping out the window like the ski-mask person did would at the very least result in a broken leg and that the door was somehow locked between Nora calling 911 and their arrival.
It’s made pretty clear by this point that Detective Basso doesn’t believe Nora. He tells her that it would have been sensible of the intruder to just push past her and run out the front door, and then asks her to think very hard about what might have really happened. Um, is it me or is that really bad police work? He’s basically influencing her thinking, after all.
Nora is sat down and asked more questions, the first of which is, of course, if she has a boyfriend
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, what is up with this book? That’s all anyone ever talks to her about! Although at least this does have a modicum of justification, given how the next few questions seem to be fishing for possible explanations (if she’s ever had any problems with drugs and where her father is, if she lives alone with her mother). At least you could argue that they’re trying to determine if she has some possessive, abusive, stalkery boyfriend. Which she does, but everyone including Fitzpatrick is trying to ignore it.
Nora finally sees that they aren’t going to believe her and give up. Because yeah, they’ve clearly wasted a lot of time and effort going over there, even though Nora in no way gave the impression that it was a frivolous or crank call and clearly believed she saw something. They say that they have things to get done, so they’re going to leave her alone until her mom gets back, at which point they want her mother to give them a call. Wow, that’s really great! Just leave the scared girl all alone where she may or may not be getting stalked!
And thus, we end our chapter with them leaving and Nora wondering how the ski mask dude cleaned up her room in fifteen minutes. Oy
Onward to: Chapter 15
Back to: Chapter 13
Return to to: Table of Contents
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 06:12 am (UTC)...Critic, you wanna say this for me?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 09:30 am (UTC)So we have a pointless exchange about Nora's parents that's only meant to give justifications for whatever weird crap happens between Nora and Patch later. Like the whole Quil imprinting on Claire in Eclipse had been. Bleh.
I'm more interested in your Suburban Knights fanart remark. Are you making SK fanarts? I wanna see! Will you be showing/linking them to us? :D
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 12:59 pm (UTC)Certainly! :D You can see them on my DeviantArt account, here: http://zeldaqueen64.deviantart.com/ (I'm still doing a few more, but it shouldn't take so much time ^_^)
DRIVE-BY COMMENT
Date: 2011-07-23 05:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 05:51 am (UTC)Looking back at Nora's question to her mom... Yeah, plot convenience that her mom doesn't ask why. I know MY mom would question me if I ever ask her something like that. I mean, asking "How mom and dad fell in love/got married" is a pretty generic thing a kid, especially a girl, would ask, but "Are you ever scared of mom/dad?" is way out of the left field.
Yay! I might actually go do some fanart on my own. Hmmm... Maybe I really should :D The last (and only) TGWTG fanart I did was NChick and NCritic standing in a poster-like thing being all cool and whatnot. Making fanarts for the anniversary movies should be fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 12:28 pm (UTC)Oh, no. That doesn't have any creepy undertones at ALL.
As a note, this book was published in 2009. This book, therefore, was probably written in 2008. Nora's father was murdered a year ago, book time.
2007 was a really, REALLY good season for the New England Patriots. They won 16 games, lost none, tied none. They won the divisional playoffs. They won the conference championships. But...they lost Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants, 17-14.
So okay. I can see a guy getting really mad about his favorite team losing the Super Bowl. I can even see him trying to work out his rage in a constructive way. However--Mrs. Grey says that she was scared of him when his favorite team lost. AND that he used a chainsaw then. Doesn't it sound like she was afraid that he'd go from sawing trees to sawing her?
And if Mr. and Mrs. Grey had such a loving relationship, why does Nora even have to ask if her mother was afraid of her father? Wouldn't most kids be aware of a fear-filled atmosphere at home? Doesn't Nora's question imply that it's possible to truly love someone you're terrified of? And that this can be good and normal?
I'm honestly not bugged by the actions of the police. Well, I am, because they're minimizing and disregarding Nora's fears. But, sadly, cops do that. They don't always take calls about stalking or domestic violence seriously. They should, but they don't. And Nora clearly doesn't think that the way the cops are acting is okay; she's upset with them and their patronizing attitude.
The problem is that despite everything, Fitzpatrick is still presenting Creepy Stalker Boy and Nora as OMG PERFECT PAIRING 4EVAH!!! This, despite the fact that Patch is demonstrably odious and needs to die in a fire.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 01:06 pm (UTC)She asked because she wants to know if it's *normal* for a loving couple to be that way, because that's how it is with Patch. -_- And between her mother's response and Dorothea's story about choosing to marry the nice guy over the bad boy and being happier for it, you'd think Nora would have picked up the Clue Stick by now. Then again, I get the impression that she's having a mental breakdown by all the stalking and harassing and developing some variant of Stockholm Syndrome for Patch.
Yeah, I know. It just makes me scratch my head because every single person Nora turns to for help - her teacher, the police, and later Vee - all act the same way. They mock her fears, patronize her, and make excuses. You'd think that at least one person would take her seriously or at least humor her. I could see if it was intentional, like Fitzpatrick was writing a story where the girl is getting stalked and harassed and is literally the only sane person in the world and notices it, but of course it isn't supposed to be that way. The only person who DOES show any concern about Nora being with Patch is Ms Greene, and we're not supposed to like her. -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-24 05:37 am (UTC)Unfortunately, Hush Hush is supposed to be a wonderful and beautiful TWU WUV story. Bleargh.
Being scared FOR your loved one is okay, like if they're in mortal danger of have terminal illness or whatever. Being scared OF your loved one is a red alert sign that something is wrong >_____
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 09:58 pm (UTC)This is just depressing. There's this boy who constantly harasses her. When she tries to tell her teacher about it, he laughs at her and dismisses her concerns. When she tries to tell her best friend about it, her "friend" just tells her that she should be happy that such a good-looking guy is interested in her. Nora's father is dead and her mother is barely there. When a stalker breaks into her house, the police dismiss her fears. She's all alone. Everything and everyone in her situation is telling her to "hush" and stop making a fuss, that she really should just let Patch carry on with his despicable behavior.
Which makes the book's title "Hush, Hush" even creepier.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 04:35 pm (UTC)Yeah, some nice imagery for ya.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 05:36 pm (UTC)Also, so you know, I have not forgotten what you sent me. ^^;; I should be done with it pretty soon!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 06:29 pm (UTC)But yeah thanks! I'll be done fixing the entire thing soon so it can be a word document and easier for you XD
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-23 06:33 pm (UTC)I'll send you what I already commented on, about your actual characters and magic system. That's mostly together. ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-25 09:40 pm (UTC)What is so special about that stupid house? What memories, Nora? You barely think about your father and your mother is almost never home. And between actually letting your mother know what's going so that you can be safe and sound and saying nothing, I'd think that I'd go with the former. I know that moving is hard, but you can't enjoy the house and its memories if you're *dead.*
/“Because I thought I was in love. And when you think you're in love, you're willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love”./
Wait a minute. She "thought" that it was love? Meaning that it really wasn't? And instead of recognizing that fact and thus realizing that it wasn't a good idea to get married, she just hung around until she and her husband grew to love each other?
Look, I've heard of people in arranged marriages gradually falling in love with each other, but this wasn't an arranged marriage! Not from what we've heard! Nora's mother had a choice. She had the option to say no. She could have told Mr. Grey that they needed to wait a little more before getting married. But no, she was just *so* in love with him (or rather, she *thought* that she was so in love with him) that she married him right away before they knew that it was love. Funny, I always thought that most couples agreed to get married *after* they realized that they loved each other. Not "Oh, I don't really know where we are at this point, but let's get married and maybe everything will fall into place later" or "Maybe once we get married, he'll finally love me."
Unless Mrs. Grey means that they got married because Mr. Grey knocked her up and it was only afterwards that they grew to love each other.
/Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to the trees in the backyard whenever that happened, and their woodshed is still filled up from the last time that happened./
...a *chainsaw?* It'd be one thing if he was beating a tree with a baseball bat, but a *chainsaw?*
Dear Lord, Nora seems to have inherited her mother's stupidity and her bad taste in men.
/They say that they have things to get done, so they’re going to leave her alone until her mom gets back, at which point they want her mother to give them a call./
It's only *now* that they want to get in touch with her mother? Why didn't they ask for Mrs. Grey before they started asking Nora questions? Why didn't they tell Nora to call her mother right then and there so that one cop would get to talk to her and call her over while the other was interrogating Nora?
And yeah, I'm sure that making false calls isn't a crime or anything. So, they'll leave just like that. Man, everybody in this story is such a moron.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-06 02:10 pm (UTC)Goddammit, why does every person who may be the slightest bit Italian or similar either be sleazy, nasty or just plain dumb?! And the implication that because someone has dark looks, then you're gonna be the designated villain of the piece? I'm sick of this, we're not all bad and horrible people! What, just because Fitzpatrick saw The Sopranos or The Godfather or some tacky B-Movies she believes 'well, all Italians must be like that' because movies never lie, of course! Go to hell, Fitzpatrick, I wonder how you'd feel if I took a dump on your cultural background…
Okay, calming down :D Anyway, the way Nora's mum is talking about her late husband is real sad and creepy. She 'grew' to love him? So she was only in love with the idea of being married and thinking that she'd eventually be swept up in romance? And his temper is definitely the stuff axe murderers are made of, that's for sure :O You know, in a better story, Nora's mother would hear the alarm bells and try and stop her daughter with getting involved with a psychopathic creep like Patch and avoid the same mistake she did.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 10:38 am (UTC)This is hilarious. My brother loves pool and he's about as far as bad boy as is possible, he's a science nerd.
The chainsaw thing is just disturbing. Ok someone my get annoyed when their teams lose (or more likely if they lose something important such as a cup final or get relegated or something) but no sane sports fan would get the chainsaws out.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-09 03:24 am (UTC)I'm surprised he wouldn't get the police called on him if that were the case. I know the neighbors are far away, but you'd think someone would be freaked out by the noise.
A Mother's Love (spite!fic)
Date: 2011-10-09 03:32 am (UTC)You know what this means?
Time for a spite!fic!
******
"Mom, have you ever been afraid of Dad?"
Mrs. Gray stopped cold at the question. She knew she wasn't imagining how lost and frightened her little girl's voice sounded. She turned to gaze at Nora. "Baby, where's this coming from?"
"I just..." Nora was flushed, as if guilty of something. "I just wanna know," the teen finished weakly.
"Not at first," Mom replied, her voice soft. "At first, he seemed a little... intense, but sweet. He was always saying nice things and giving me little gifts. Calling me all the time." Mrs. Gray frowned at the memory. "I was young. Insecure. Lonely. So I fell for the attention he gave me, how he made me feel like the only girl in the world. I thought... given time, I'd love him as much as he seemed to love me."
Nora swallowed hard. "But then...?"
"He convinced me to have sex without a condom. I didn't want to, but he wheedled me into it and I got pregnant. I told him that my parents wouldn't approve of their only daughter being pregnant and unwed, so he proposed. We had a quickie wedding before I started to show, and then you were born." Mrs. Gray tucked a strand of Nora's hair behind the girl's ear. "No matter what, baby, you were *never* a mistake to me.
"But... a short time after that's when the beatings started. I was a young mother, alone and scared, who hadn't known the man she'd married. From the time you were born, I had grown from wary to terrified of him, and learned to avoid him whenever he drank heavily. It was a relief when he died last year."
Mrs. Gray then steeled Nora with a look. "Why do you ask?" When Nora opened her mouth to speak, her mother added, "And don't tell me you 'just wanna know', again. There's... someone who's scaring you, isn't there?"
Nora stared into her mother's open, honest face, saw the lines that aged her prematurely. Her gaze dropped to the bruise on her mother's neck; from an incident years before where Nora's father had attempted to strangle her mother, and the damage had not completely healed.
Nora's face crumpled and she broke down into a sob. Her mother pulled her gently into a comforting embrace.
When the tears began to subside, Nora told her mother everything. About Patch. About her mysterious stalker. Her suspicions that it was Patch doing the stalking. Her fear. How her teachers and friends had laughed at and dismissed her terror as an idle teenage brain hopped up on adolescent hormones.
Mrs. Gray's eyes were dark as a thundercloud. "I've had experience with the police here. They won't help you. But I'll do what I can as your mother." She gently brushed away her daughter's tears. "We'll move to a nice new place in two weeks, sweetheart. Far away from Patch, and we'll start a new life there." Mrs. Gray's glance around the house was cold. "I never liked this place, anyway."
"What do I do for the next two weeks?" Nora asked, sniffling. "I have to got to school and... and... P-patch will be there."
"Go to school, like normal, for next week. Don't go out at night. Stay in busy areas. If you're approached by this Patch kid, or anyone else who seems threatening or is attempting to isolate you, scream 'fire!' and make a scene." Mrs. Gray replied. "Just for one week, you need to hang in there for me. After next week, I'll take you out of school, and you and I will be joined at the hip to finish packing up. Ok?"
Nora nodded. "Mom... I... this is a lot of trouble for me. For you to go through, I mean."
Mrs. Gray smiled sadly at her daughter. "Oh, baby, *you* are not the problem here. No matter what anyone tells you, you don't deserve this and you're not overreacting. And I'm getting you out of here, because I'd be a bad mom if I didn't do *something* about it."
Nora's tears came afresh at her mother's words. "Oh, mom... I-I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, baby. I love you. Always."
Re: A Mother's Love (spite!fic)
Date: 2011-10-10 12:17 am (UTC)Sadly, at least one part of that will turn out to be canon. :(
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-05 11:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-05 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 02:46 pm (UTC)You know, that break was a bit scary... "Apparently he had a habit of taking a chainsaw to... (new line) the trees in the backyard."
Is Fitzpatrick under the impression that playing pool is another “bad boy” symptom?
I'm currently watching MacGyver, and when one of the Very Special Episodes about Troubled Kids comes along, you'd often see the Troubled Kid playing pool. I don't know, maybe she's thinking of that?
Their names are Detective Holstijik (and oh how my spellcheck hates that name) and Detective Basso.
Holsti-what? Is that even an actual name? Spellcheck tries to change it into "Holstein" for me. Or "Holistic".
He tells her that it would have been sensible of the intruder to just push past her and run out the front door, and then asks her to think very hard about what might have really happened. Um, is it me or is that really bad police work? He’s basically influencing her thinking, after all.
Sounds like most Ace Attorney prosecutors (before Character Development, at least). It's often something like, "Witness, are you really sure you saw that? Don't you think *cracks whip threateningly* you saw [something that works better for the prosecution]?"