Chapter 1
Dark brown curls continued to fall in her face, as her tiny hands scooped up gritty cold mud, slapping it together to create a flat, messy circle. She lay it on the grass beside her in line with her previous creations. The girl didn’t pay any attention to the splashing of mud on the new white dress her mother made her wear. She was again in her own little world, playing the game she always played.
“There you are Belvadiere. Just what you ordered, Pancake a la Mode,” the little girl spoke to her teddy, propped up against the nearby tree while pretending to drop scoops of ice cream on the muddy spheres. “Although, I do believe you should have tried the Eggs Benedict I recommended,” she sighed. “Oh well, perhaps next time...”
The little girl’s train of thought was interrupted by someone laughing behind her. Her eyes narrowed while she slowly turned around to see her heckler. A tall boy stood behind her, leaning on a tree, a smirk on his face. He looked a few years older than her, had unkempt dusty brown hair falling into his dark brown eyes, and his skin glistened with sweat, as though he had been in the sun all morning.
The little girl kept her disdainful look at the intruder and cocked up one eyebrow. “And, you are?”
The boy’s smirk seemed to get deeper. “Maybe I’m a customer.”
Keeping her composure, knowing the boy was making fun of her, the little girl scoffed, “I’m sorry, we don’t serve people like you.” She answered, tossing her hair over her shoulder, smearing mud on her cheek, and turning back toward her teddy.
The boy’s smile faded, “what do you mean by that?” He asked her with an angry tone.
She turned back, confused by his change in demeanour. “What do you mean? What do I mean by that? Humans obviously,” she answered while pointing at her teddy.
The aggravated look never left her face, even as his softened. She turned back around, hoping this strange boy would just go on his way. Instead, she heard him taking a couple of steps toward her, “Can’t you just make one exception, I’m really hungry?”
“No, I can’t!” She answered, quite mad now, adding with a mumble, “Especially not hoity-toity, mean boys like you...”
“Ok, maybe one day you will change your mind. Maybe you will have a restaurant that will serve us, humans, too,” he said while starting to turn back.
“I will,” she suddenly said stopping him in his tracks, he turned back to see her now standing up and facing him. “One day I will own a beautiful restaurant, although I’m sure you would not like to go there. It will be for everyone, not just the rich. You don’t have to dress a certain way or be a certain way, everyone is welcome. It will be clean, and comfortable, and people will be allowed to laugh and have fun, and eat wonderful food that I make. The restaurant will be great and I will name it after me!” She finished with her nose high up in the air.
The boy listened with a large grin forming on his face, when she was done with her declaration he seemed to be at a loss for words. Finally, after shaking his head and composing himself he spoke, “And what’s that?”
A crease developed in between her eyes emanating her confusion with his question. “What’s what?”
“The name of your restaurant,” he said with another giggle. “What is your name?”
She turned and swept her teddy up from the grass and began to walk away from this annoying boy.
“Wait! You’re not going to tell me?”
She turned back glaring at him, still angry at his teasing. She was about to tell him no when a familiar voice called behind her from the large mansion they had been staying at for the weekend.
“Marly! Where are you, we are going to be late!” Her mother called with the tone Marly was all too familiar with.
She rolled her eyes and huffed, really not wanting to go to meet her mother’s friends, and frustrated that she revealed her name to this obnoxious kid.
The boy laughed once more, “I think she’s looking for you. I’ll see you later, Marly.”
My eyes shot open and I took in a deep breath, why do I keep having that dream? I asked myself letting out a sigh. I lay there for another five minutes watching the ceiling fan above me slowly turn, while I thought about the dream.
For months now this mystery boy’s face had been infused in my brain, and I didn’t know why. The memory of this boy was so insignificant, yet it continued to play in my mind over and over again. During important meetings, while relaxing with my morning coffee, and now even while I slept. It had to be the most frustrating thing ever, considering I had never met the boy before that, and never met him again after.
I didn’t even know his name, which is surprising since my mother spent every waking second of my existence, parading me around to all of her friends, attempting to connect her disappointment of a daughter to her aristocratic world. Something I was all too happy to walk away from the second I was of age to do so. I couldn’t wait to be off on my own, have my own experiences, and meet new people.
Yet, as I stood in the small bathroom of my studio apartment brushing my teeth, my mind drifted back to the memory of me in my little white dress, soiling it in mud, and my conversation with that boy.
There was something I remembered from the dream that I hadn’t remembered before. The smile on the boy’s face while he said my name, turned five-year-old Marly’s scowl into an immediate shy smile. I liked the sound of him saying my name, maybe I liked this boy at the end of our altercation? I thought.
But immediately after that, my mother had found me, and the look on my mother’s face of her perfect angel splashed with mud, would make the devil himself run scared. I nearly choked on toothpaste while laughing at the sudden memory, and thought that perhaps I should go for breakfast with her to make up for being such a horrible daughter.
I wiped the excess toothpaste off my mouth and popped my earbuds in my ears while speed-dialling my mother’s number. It was early but she would be up, she never sleeps in.
“Hello, Marly. To what do I owe the pleasure?” She answered the phone, sarcasm clear in her voice.
I shook my head at her childish behaviour but remained mature nonetheless. “Hi Mother, I thought you might want to go for breakfast this morning, I have an early meeting with my crew, but I thought we could see each other before that.”
“Well, this is a surprise. I’m not too sure, however, things have been quite busy since your father had taken over Wyndham, and I have quite a few meetings myself, you know how it is.” Mother answered, trying to sound like she was too busy to see me.
“Come on Mother,” I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you could spare your only daughter an hour of your time, you haven’t told me how to dress, or tried to set me up in almost a week now.” I joked.
“It’s been over a week, we haven’t seen each other since I made you get a manicure with me last Saturday,” She was clearly pouting over the phone, I could hear it in her voice.
“There you see, how could we let more than a week go by without driving each other crazy, it’s tradition,” I responded with laughter in my voice. I picked up my briefcase and headed for the door. “I’ll meet you at the usual place?”
“Fine,” she simply responded, while simultaneously hanging up the phone.
I smiled at my ability to break down my mother and always win. The relationship between my mother and I was a complicated one, she tries to continuously force me to be a part of her world, while I do all that I can to push her buttons, distracting her from her task.
We ultimately drove each other crazy constantly fighting, we are close nonetheless. I barely saw my father growing up, the majority of my time was spent with my mother, even if she was trying to mould me into something I was not.
The thought brought a smile to my face as I opened the door to leave. Time to spend my morning on the battlefield.
