Violas Ravings

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Bones wished his mother would just go away.  He was ashamed of her voracious behavior, vying for attention; wanting so badly to be an Elder that she would have gone to the lengths she had; stealing a poison and trying to pin the blame on Mus. The attempt to slow down the search for the traders by holding back the cloth Baneberry had sent with her seemed like nothing now, considering that her theft of the foxglove had made it impossible for Fern to save Ocean. It could almost be called murder!  Granted, he would have gone soon at any rate, but she had helped hurry him along.

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 To try and understand the absurdity of what went on in that malicious, absurd brain Violas possessed was beyond him.  Had she actually thought she could become an Elder?  The idea of that befuddled, pathetic creature making life changing decisions, as the Elders were sometimes required to do was ludicrous.  Absolutely incredulous.  Unthinkable!  She had the mind of a fruit fly and the empathy of a rabid wolf.  The more he thought about it the more he wondered; could that have been the only reason she had stolen the foxglove?  He shook his lowered head slowly in defeat.  He just didn’t know.

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Then trying to pass on the blame to Mus.  Poor Mus, suspected for days of the theft, was just a pitiful creature whose life had not turned out the way she had wished it would.  But now that Perri was back, they seemed to be mending fences.  Bones felt confident Perri would spend more time at home.  Mus, after giving him that terrible rash had seemed contrite, regretting her impulsiveness, even before he had left.  She had seemed truly worried about Perri when she saw just how bad his skin condition had deteriorated on his return, and spent hours pampering him.  She’s never be the greatest mother, but at least she seemed to by trying now.

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Meanwhile Viola was thinking about her own situation.  All the stored up anger she had simmering on her back burner all the years her husband had been alive was coming to a boil now that her damper was gone.  It was bound to erupt at some point.  Especially when she thought on how things had played out.  Didn’t look like they were going to make her an Elder.  She wondered if some of those same ingrates who she had shared her girlhood with, remembered her checkered past.  She’s been mighty popular with the boys, she thought, a glimmer of a smile slithering onto her lips. Yes, if a girl was willing to go into the bush with one of the fellas, she became very popular indeed.  She’d had her fun, stealing the boys from the other girls.  But she’d never caught the man she’d really wanted.  It had been Raven she was after; tall, dark, sleek as a seal was Raven.  Confident Captain of his own ship.  But he’d kept himself apart from the others, even back then. And when she had worked up the nerve to flirt with him, he’d laughed!  Called her names that still made her furious; and in front of all the others.  Said he wouldn’t go near her if she was the last female left in the village!  Called her names she couldn’t repeat!  That’s when things started turning on her.

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She’d become pregnant and all those boys had disappeared, denying any involvement with her. She could feel that kettle of anger rising again just thinking about it, her cheeks red with boiling blood, her shoulders tightly raised, elbows straight, knuckles clenching until they were white. Her feet were glued to the spot with fury.  How dare they desert her like they had.  She puffed out her cheeks and hissed. Then she tried to swallow the bulk of her anger without success. She didn’t really knew who Bones’ father was, but it sure wasn’t Syn, that poor naive sap who she’d tricked into marrying her; one of the few boys she hadn’t lured into the bushes.  She hunched her shoulders forward, lowered her head and cringed. Better Bones didn’t know that.

 

But Raven would pay, she thought, full on angry now. He’d rejected her and humiliated her.  She smiled coldly, the smile of a raptor eyeing up its prey.  Her posture slipped into a predatory stance.  He’d pay alright.  Malice was practically rolling off her in waves as she thought of how things would go.  She’d knew she’d never get to Raven directly, but she could get to who he loved.  Not his wife, Phlox.  She’d left him and it seemed it was for good this time. Poor choice Raven had made there.  No; she had her choices.  There was his ship, and there was his bird, Blacky.  That damned bird he loved so much.   Her smile was malicious. She laughed, a laugh that was brief and brittle, like ice breaking off a cliff. Foxglove worked on animals too, and there were lots of ways to disable a ship. She looked more like a hunting wolf than the pathetic little woman she was right now.  Yes, Raven was in for a treat. She hadn’t given back all the foxglove.  She’s get the last laugh!