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Maggie Jones (mother_maggie) wrote in haunted_roads,
@ 2008-07-27 15:59:00

Entry tags:

maggie, sophie

Week Twelve: Friday
Who: Maggie and Sophie
Where: Starting outside Sophie's school
When: Friday Afternoon

Time moved too fast sometimes. Other times it seemed to move too slowly. The years that Bastian had been gone had felt like she was stuck in molasses, dragging her feet through the motions of day to day life, trying her best to make Sophie happy but knowing that the girl missed her father and no amount of Maggie's actions could change that fact. The past few weeks though, they seemed to be on a lightening pace.

She couldn't keep up with it. Didn't know what to make of the immense changes that had come so quickly. All she could do was keep her feet moving and hope that she didn't stumble. She wasn't sure she could make it much longer without that stumble.

Extra shifts had been handed out to Maggie like they were candy, apparently there was a bit of a staff shortage too many pregnancy leaves all coming at the same time. Must have been something in the water. Maggie couldn't complain too much about the extra hours, money was always something that their family needed, especially trying to keep the bar up and going. Expenses never seemed to stop adding up. But the extra hours didn't help the situation at home.

She didn't like to think of it as a... situation, but she wasn't entirely sure what else to think of it as. A change in circumstance? A change in the way she had to view the world? Knowing that things... no beings she had never thought to be real were very much so... it fundamentally changed a great number of things. Almost too many things. Despite all that it did change there was one thing Maggie was determined not to let it change and that was their family. She prayed every night that it wouldn't, that they could somehow sort through it all and make sense of this new world. But she knew that prayer alone wasn't going ot manage it.

She had to make certain that it didn't. She knew that talking with Sophie was the only way and once that hurdle had been crossed a small amount of peace had settled into Maggie's heart. Things were far from simple and far from certain but it was the small things that were what mattered to Maggie. Knowing that Sophie had accepted this... change in the person that her father was meant a great deal to Maggie. It wasn't easy for her, it sure as hell wasn't easy on Bastian but knowing that Sophie was finding her own peace with the idea went a long way to curing those nervous motherly worries.

Of course that didn't last long with a teenager. The message that she'd received from Sophie that she wanted to talk had sent a whole new flurry of those through her. Overreacting... perhaps but it was one thing for the mother and daughter to talk another to receive the request (that she didn't put out first) from Sophie. The topic... a mystery. Left her mind entirely to wander which wasn't always the best thing despite the fact that Maggie trusted her daughter. She wouldn't be a mother if she didn't have the ability to think of the worst.

So even before the final bell rang at Sophie's school she had her old worn volvo parked directly in front of the school. She was waiting for the students to come spilling from the doors including her daughter.

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felonious_punk
2008-08-01 02:01 am UTC (link)

To Sophie's thinking, Maggie didn't know how not to worry. It was how she was wired. And she was sure that, right now, Maggie was fidgeting, trying hard not to give in to the bad habits most people caved to from nerves. Smoking, nail-biting, heavy drinking. Maggie had never gone in for any of that. Though she did pace, and Sophie had noticed her tapping her leg a time or two, occasionally caught her biting her lip. She even saw her twirl her hair. All such harmless nervous habits. Some might even be considered good for you.

If pressed, Sophie might admit to causing some of that stress on purpose, just to see how far she'd go. Like now, when she told her they needed to talk. She might have given her some detail and saved her mother a whole hell of a lot of needless worry. But where would be the fun in that? Besides, Maggie really did need to learn to relax. But then, Sophie had been telling her that for years. Doubtful she was going to listen now.

Not that she didn't actually believe Maggie definitely had reason to be anxious right now. Life, their life, was a wee bit fucked up. But it was their life, the life they got, and they got to deal with it. As best they could. At least they had bastian back.

Was all a matter of keeping shit in perspective.

Maggie's way of dealing, or so it sometimes seemed to Sophie, even if unfairly, was to take on extra hours at work. More hours meant less time to deal, to face the facts, and to have to think about them.

So they didn't face them, instead they tiptoed around like Daddy's bright shiny fangs were some giant elephant in the middle of the room. And Maggie, sweet, devout, Maggie, prayed every night to a God that may or may not exist and that may or may not be listening, but yet who did nothing to prevent Bastian from being turned into something that, oddly enough, could be killed by any object that reminds his poor tortured soul of said God.

Secretly Sophie wanted to pray too, she just thought there was something extremely weird about doing so. After all, if God cared so damn much about Bastian Veniamin, or Maggie Veniamin, and if he listened to anything she asked... then why had he let Bastian be turned into a vampire? And why had he let Maggie suffer all these years? Sophie knew her mom might harbor some martyr traits, but she didn't really think Maggie got off on it, In fact, no... she knew she didn't. Her suffering was real, Jon's pain was real. They'd all suffered too damn much and somehow Sophie didn't expect that it really had come to an end.

Regardless, they did still have to go on with their lives. Now that Bastian had come back, it made doing so both easier and more difficult.

Acceptance letters from several of Sophie's favorite schools now lined the bottom of her bag, the latest of which had been torn in half and crumbled into a ball before ending there. Sarah Lawrence, Warren Wilson, even Hampshire... all excellent colleges, but all were now too far away. Before Sophie might have chose one based on that fact alone. Even if her true favorite was somewhat closer, at least on the same coast, though still not a weekend visit away. Pitzer was everything a girl like Sophie could want in a school, and they too had wanted her. It was their letter which she had reacted almost violently to, their letter she'd torn up just before texting her mother.

But it was another school's letter entirely that she now held in her hand as she stood among a copse of trees in the school yard and watched Maggie pull up in that ancient Volvo. The final bell had yet to ring, but when it did, Sophie moved forward, ahead of the crowd. The cigarette she'd been smoking was pulled from her lips and snuffed out in the curb as she pulled open the door and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Thanks for coming."" She offered a lopsided grin in her mother's direction. "Didn't know if you might actually be at work again."

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mother_maggie
2008-08-06 05:17 pm UTC (link)

Maggie was hardwired to worry. She couldn't argue with that statement even if she wanted to. While it could be a... irritating trait of hers it was always born from love. Her worry almost always directly correlated with her care. Not that Maggie didn't spread that care and concern far and wide, but her family had always come first there was no questioning that fact. Even if the worn soles on her shoes rather wished she wasn't always quite so concerned. Pacing was good for you... exercise of some sort. That was certainly one justification.

Perspective was right. Always could be worse. It as a mantra that Maggie liked to remember made it easier to face the painful and challenging hands that they were being dealt in life. But They had each other now and that was far more than they'd had for many years and Maggie would always count that as a blessing.

Just as she was counting Sophie's acceptance of it as a blessing as well. It had been hard for Maggie. Not to accept Bastian, but rather to accept this new vision of the world. That was far tougher than understanding the fact of Bastian's return. But she'd worried about the burden that would place on Sophie. Worried even though her daughter wasn't so much a little girl anymore but rather an young woman. Just steps away from that true test of adulthood.

Admittedly, it was hard for Maggie to remember that all the time.

Like now, when she had a bit of a knot in her stomach and she couldn't help but wonder what it was that Sophie wanted to talk about. She knew Sophie was a smart girl and that it wouldn't be her making any of the same mistakes her mother had made... though Maggie had never considered them mistakes. Yes, she'd been young and yes perhaps moved too quickly into a family but she'd never been more happy than when she was with Bastian and Sophie. There were other worries though, too many things if Maggie let herself think about it. Which she tried not too. Maybe she just wanted to spend some time with her mother. It was possible.

Maggie's lips thinned ever so slightly as she watched Sophie stub out her cigarette before she got into the car. Not a word was said about the habit even though Maggie didn't care for it. But she knew what battles to pick and that had long ago ceased to be one that Maggie could win. Instead she just waited for Sophie to take her seat and buckle up.

"Of course I'd be here if you asked." Maggie said as the parking break was released and she glanced over her shoulder at the traffic. "I'm sorry I've been working so much. Marlena is due back from her maternity leave next week so it should get better soon." Clicker on, Maggie merged out into traffic, well eased the old volvo into it was a better description. "So where do you want to go? Are you hungry?"

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felonious_punk
2008-08-10 12:22 am UTC (link)

Sophie should have asked, or insisted, that she be the one to drive. Somehow her impatience seemed tripled when it was Maggie behind the wheel. Always so very very careful. Yes, it was all a part of that worrisome personality. You bet it was irritating, in every way. But Sophie just had to remind herself that it was what mother's did. Not all mother's, but the thing that made Maggie such an awesome mother was also what made her such a worry wart. in fact, Sophie sometimes justified... to herself, or to her grandfather (who didn't believe it anymore than Sophie did), that most of what she did was for the soul benefit of giving Maggie something to worry about. After all, if Sophie was a perfect angel then Maggie would have to worry about other things. Like where was her missing husband? Shit like that. Sophie had been a stellar distraction the last few years.

At least she'd done her best to be . Heh

And all of those personality traits that Sophie so loathed? She also loved and respected the woman behind them. She just wished she wouldn't let the world walk all over her. Like the fucker that just blew his horn and cut them off. "Asshole!" Sophie was out of her seatbelt and out the window, flipping him off in a matter of seconds. Of course, just as quickly, she was settling back into the seat and slipping the seatbelt back over her. "We should totally get that guys information so Dad can explain to him why it is he should be more polite on the road. Just sayin..."

See? She could be accepting? She could even try to see the positives of the situation. Every situation had them. All a matter of perspective. Yep.

She shrugged when Maggie explained the worked situation and asked if she was hungry. "Maybe you should just quit. Yeah, I guess. Cyber Dogs?"

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mother_maggie
2008-08-11 12:55 am UTC (link)

There was a reason Maggie didn't offer to switch seats with Sophie. Not that she didn't want her daughter to get more practice driving... it was just better for all parties if Maggie wasn't necessarily in the vehicle at the same time. The floor boards didn't enjoy the ghost pedal pounding they received. The arm rests didn't appreciate the nails that could dig in on those corners. Wasn't that the natural inclination of most parents when their children took up the wheel of the family car. The only thing that kept Maggie from truly losing it was the tank like nature of the Volvo. Thank God for that.

Sophie had done an excellent job in giving her a few more things to focus on rather than just the fact that Bastian was missing. But it wasn't always bad. In fact there were many things that Sophie did that Maggie was proud of. Her individualistic nature was one of the things that Maggie was most proud. Even if it did have the tendency to make her worry at the very same time. Oh and she'd be sure not to mention those things she was so proud of if it might ruin Sophie's well earned reputation.

Maggie merely sighed and shook her head as Sophie angled her body out of the car and screamed at the person in front of them. "Buckle up Sophie and there are assholes all over the world you'll just lose your voice if you try and tell all of them that's what they are." Maggie replied simply, and that was her philosophy. It did her no good to get angry over things like that, if she did... she'd just be angry all of the time and that wasn't how she wanted to live her life.

She angled a look over at her daughter. "Will not get Bastian to threaten people for minor road infractions. Now if you get mugged... or if there's a boy who needs to reminded of his place, feel free to enlist your father." She finished with a little curl of her lips upward into a smile.

"Quit..." Maggie looked over at Sophie, a confused expression on her face. "I don't think that's an option, not to mention that I do enjoy the work." Everyone just needed to not be pregnant at the same time. Maggie gave her head a nod as she turned left at the next light. "Fine with me. How was school today?"

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felonious_punk
2008-08-11 01:55 am UTC (link)

Maggie was a total freak like that when Sophie was behind the wheel. And she'd totally believed that maybe Maggie had done lost it, until she had the experience of riding with a friend that was an even worse driver than she was. After that she teased Maggie a lot less seeing as she'd done the exact same thing. Was instinct, pure and natural. Still, it just was weird, when she thought of it, Like... of course she knew stomping the floorboard was not going to do a damned thing to get the idiot in the driver seat to settle down.

But Sophie was sure she was a better driver than that girl had been. Maggie was just being Maggie's worrisome self.

She figured there were quite a few things that she hadn't completely screwed up, and that she even did well. She knew Maggie was proud about that, and might be proud of a lot more if Maggie had been more open about it. It was the things she just blew off altogether, and her attitude. Yeah, yeah... she knew all this. The same shit she got from her teachers, the counselors, and every single adult she knew. "Blah blah blah," they said. "Play the conformist game," was what they really meant. "Pick up your suit and tie here, drop off your soul to collect your first paycheck, and have a nice day Citizen 12877621487."

Was she the only one who saw the truth? Well no, not exactly. And that was why The Stepford Wives. Not that everyone they played to had the same ideals. Many of them were still conforming, just to a different machine was all.

Sheep. So many fucking sheep. And all all too happy to be that way.

"Yeah well..." She was buckling up again, slumping slightly. "Least I won't feel like I laid down for them. Most assholes are that way because no one ever stands up to them." She knew the type. Just like people in school stopped fucking with her when they realized she wasn't going to bend over for them.

Luckily, she still had the energy to exert all that anger. In fact, she felt like she still had plenty left to give.

She was ready to huff a bit, roll her eyes, and then Maggie gave in with some minor restrictions, and even a smile, and Sophie had no choice but to return it with a smile of her own. "I can already think of several that need to be reminded of that." Nevermind that it had nothing to do with what Maggie had intended, more just... Sophie thought they were pompous airheads with way too much muscle.

She kind of thought that might be the response, and so, she let it drop. Kind of late in her life to be giving her the guilt about how she was needed at home, even if she was. Sophie wasn't little anymore, after all, and that cookie-cutter life was way out of their reach. "Alright, I guess." She put her feet up on the dash and fiddled with a rip in her jeans. "School's school. So how was work?" She changed the subject, putting it right on Maggie. Let her talk about herself for a change. After all, wasn't it a more positive topic, given that she "enjoyed her work".

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