Sisterhood
POV: Olive
“You just don’t get it.”
“What don’t I get? What exactly am I not getting?” I asked, my foot trailing over the water’s surface. Wondering how soon would be the last time I did this. Feeling as if this might truly be the last time I sat in this spot, under the sun, feeling the cool on my feet and the breeze at my back.
And the deep sinking feeling in my chest, at the reminder that this small peace was temporary. A comfort I wouldn’t have when I left. Not that there was much comfort at home to begin with.
“That you’re hurting mom by acting all sad and upset. It’s not fair to her.”
“Fair to her?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Pausing in the ripple making with my feet. “I’m allowed to have feelings about this. Unlike you, I’ll be under the same roof as him.”
“Only to because you failed to get married.”
“That’s not my fault. Plus, the only reason you’re married is because it was arranged. We can’t compare each other just because I’m in my twenties now.”
“You should just let mom arrange something for you too.” Marley sighed. “You know, getting a placement at the Market for someone young is extremely difficult without an apprentice. Especially a female.”
“So she can lie to my future husband that will just end up annulling the marriage when he realizes my medication messes with my menstrual cycles? They can hang me for that in this region, even if it’s not my fault for concealing it. I can’t risk what mom would make, a faceless marriage where it doesn’t get communicated. Something you know she might do just to save face on the women’s council. I’m not risking that.”
“Just stop having bad days then, Olive. Stop taking your medication or whatever and actually get out of bed when you’re told. Duh.” my sister replied with a heavy eye roll.
I wanted to scream at her immediately about how that wasn’t even remotely possible. How I couldn’t explain the over whelming exhaustion or the heavy disappointment in myself and the world around me. At the restless, worthless thoughts that tried to eat me alive.
Or when I felt the opposite.
While my condition didn’t exactly put me in the highlight of the marriage market, especially where arrangements were concerned. It did likely exclude me as a future Marked. Something that in my youth had relived my mother, but over time making me grow to resent her.
Realizing that the only reason she was glad for my theoretical exclusion wasn’t for my safety. But instead, for her image and reputation. Not that her theories had any real merit.
The further we grew apart over the years. the more she wanted an excuse to disown me. Her latest endeavors, of pushing me out of the house, was acquiring a husband for herself and my sister. Something that only solidified how much she wanted me to leave as soon as possible. Knowing the council might relocate me if she managed to get pregnant. As well as her late night discussion with her husband in the kitchen.
“At least I can rest easy, her soul isn’t filthy, she’s just mentally ill.” My mother sighed. “She really is a precious angel sent from god.”
“Time will tell with the moon.” Her husband had stated, dismissing her words. “It’s disgraceful to your family that she won’t settle down. She makes a mockery out of other makers in the Market Trudy. Every parent wants to think they’re above this dark cloud, but generationally speaking; don’t you think your family is overdue?”
“Overdue!? Why, if we continue as we have, I imagine more family members will be accepted to the Celestial city. If you really thought there was a stain on my girls’ souls, you wouldn’t have married me.”
“I married you because you’re incredibly sexy, and our goals mutually align. Your girls are a non issue to me because of their age and our laws.”
“I can’t just kick out Olivia on the street Nathan, I’ve told you that from the start.”
“If you don’t, the law will if you get pregnant. I don’t need to remind you of that. We’ll need our space for the baby without a young woman disrupting our environment.”
My mother, hadn’t argued that. She had been one of the strongest voices on the community to put the law into effect. Many woman agreeing before it went to the main council that it was dangerous.
While men sighted, it was because young women were emotionally unstable, and highly unpredictable around newborn infants. Women knew this was actually because in the past when young impressionable caregivers were stationed in homes; it led many men to temptation while their wives attempted to recover. Conversations that were never had with men outside of the female only meetings.
In exactly three days, men and women across the globe on both Undire and Celestial side would be Marked under the special moon. A handful at best in every providence. An event that took place every thirteen years to people between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five.
Once marked, any and all that were considered damned were handed over to the Undire. A trade that kept the peace. Sacrificing a few damned souls for the pure.
Only, I didn’t feel the same as other people on the subject. Knowing how many people would be here after it was all said and done. How many of them were truly corrupt, damned souls that would sit and judge others as quickly as they’d take from them.
Part of me wishing I could be Marked just to escape this hellish torment of pretending to be something I wasn’t.
“Are you and Henry planning on having children immediately?” I asked after a long silence about my medication. Tucking my feet back onto the dock to let them dry.
“Oh yes. If we start right after the wedding we may be able to miss the Marked Gap entirely. They’ll miss both moons. It only makes sense, otherwise we’ve already agreed to opting for placement children. I just really hope to have one of my own that’s safe from the reaping. I’ve heard it hurts less when a placement child is taken instead of your own, but I really want my child to have siblings.”
Everything about what she said had my stomach rolling. Knowing about placement children due to status was one thing. Willfully acknowledging you had a placement child that might be taken away? Something about that was cruel.
They were already children who had been displaced for various reasons, being adopted into new families shortly after birth, but never revealed their birth origins. A practice that was very common. Especially if someone didn’t want to raise their own blood.
I already didn’t fit into the perfect family picture, so thinking about another child not born into a family. One that could be so easily dismissed or abandoned. Making it hard to imagine how I would have been treated, if I had not been biologically related to my mother and father.
Far worse is what I could only imagine.
“Yeah, makes sense.” I said hollowly, trying not to think about how a child might feel about their sibling being ripped away. Especially if they were the only comfort they had, much like my own sister. It was practical to have siblings, and survival. “That way they have someone to play with.”
“Exactly!” She trilled with joy, as if I understood her completely. “Are you going to file paperwork to move out?”
“I won’t know until after next week if I can. I head to the hills tomorrow to get clay for my piece. I might be there overnight. If I can make something beautiful enough, I can be a maker and have my booth at the market. I know you guys think it’s a waste of time, but I’d be in control of my own life for a little while.”
“I really still think you should just settle down, and wean off your medication. You deserve children and a real home of your own. Not some little shack or apartment they shove you in to just dry up and die over time.”
“There are more joys in this life, than having a big house or children.” I replied firmly, though my tone was gentle. An argument we had had many times in this very spot.
Our spot.
Whenever we had hard conversations, we had them by the pond. It was because, back when our father had been alive, that had been our escape when our parents fought. It’s where we hold each other, played with frogs, drew, read- and everything under the summer sun.
Now that we were older, and she no longer lived with us; I frequented it alone often.
“Just, make sure you’re back in time. I don’t want to be alone when everyone gets Marked.” A tinge of fear coloring my sister’s voice.
I knew how she felt. This would be one of the last trials we would end up facing together. One that we weren’t sure if both of us would make it out of.
The odds may be in our favor for numbers, but the curse didn’t discriminate or become choosy when it came to effecting families either. It wasn’t unheard of for siblings or cousins to be Marked in the same family. Something that many in our community looked down upon. A stain on your family name for thirteen years when it came to trades or even family marriages.
“I will. Do you have your cross?”
“Yes, make sure you have yours close. You know what will happen if you don’t have it on you.” My sister warned, her hand going to her throat. “My friend Shauna admitted to not having it on her the other day at mass. I just about had a heart attack for her.”
I nodded, my own hands nervously pulling at my fingers.
In the last two years, there had been a new law for the Raguel county. Because there was so much land between us and two Celestial cities that also hugged a boarder; we always had stricter laws. It didn’t help that we also had more people which also meant more opinions.
This one was meant to not only ensure devoted worshipers that belonged in this section, but also to hopefully ward off some of the evils that came with the coming moon. Our area having a habit of spitting out some of the highest numbers the last time Marked appeared.
Something that made the entire process extremely dangerous.
There were some very public disagreements in recent years about the Marked and how they should be dealt with. My mother and her new husband being some of the loudest voices. Especially on the fact that they openly seemed to feel that if someone Marked quietly disappeared, then better for the rest of us than handing them over to the Undire.
Our family was one of upstanding citizenship, lineage and devotion to the Celestial city, with three of our family members since the war serving there. We had to uphold our standing in the community by all means. So when our father had died, mom had lost a lot of sway even among the other wives that influenced many of the female policies that were separate from the men.
With mother’s remarriage, there was one goal in mind since it wasn’t exactly a romantic marriage. While they still may have children as god’s intent was within mother’s child baring age, their marriage had strictly been for political reasons. The hope was that they could pass a bill with the Celestial city before anyone was marked.
One that was so special, it was one of the laws that would be quietly put in place for the public’s safety and later revealed as something occurring naturally all along.
The Marked were too dangerous to live, and it had been far too long since the Angels been swindled into a peace agreement to hand over their kind. Growing their armies by the day, the more of them we continued to send.
No.
The safest thing, was to snuff them all out. Something that, while, I wanted to join their ranks. I also agreed with.
Unlike the general public; I knew how dangerous the Marked really were.
Sometimes wishing I had the ability to covet such a power.
Even if it meant eternal slavery torment and a world of other terrible things in the Undire.
