brandi. (zombiephile) wrote in daiquiri, @ 2009-03-18 18:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | char: eleanor branstone, game: the professors lounge |
General Fic: Memories (Eleanor Branstone)
Title: Memories
Characters: Eleanor Branstone, Piotr Gorski, Samuel Chlebek, Mark Gorski
Setting: Poland, July 2001 - January 2003
Word Count: 1612
Summary: A series of vignettes about Ellie and her first love, Piotr, from when she met him until ... well, the end.
Rating: PG
Author's Note: What can I say? I live to torture my characters. Also, I know it's long; I tried to keep it short, considering it spans a year and a half. Can be considered a backhistory narrative.
2 July, 2001; Monday "You always want to be on good terms with your suppliers, Eleanor." This was Samuel Chlebek's first lesson, as they stood in the kitchen of his bakery, first thing in the morning on her first day. "If you are friends with them, ask them how their families are doing, pay them what their goods are worth, they will give you the very best of their supply, and we want the best for our pastries." Ellie nodded, looking around at the various ingredients that were in their appropriate places around the kitchen. She knew that Samuel -- her grandmother's cousin -- had already been to the market earlier to buy some things, but also that some of the other ingredients were delivered to the bakery every morning. As if on cue, there was a knock at the door that led from the kitchen to the alley behind the bakery. "Ah!" Samuel smiled and waved for Ellie to follow him. "Come, you will have to meet all the delivery people, so that they know you and know that you are allowed to accept the deliveries." He opened the door, and a young man stepped into the kitchen, rolling a few crates ahead of him on a dolly. "Piotr!" Samuel greeted the young man with a smile. "Come, meet my new assistant, Eleanor Branstone. She is my cousin's granddaughter, from London. Eleanor, this is Piotr Gorski. He does delivery for Radek Malinowski, and brings us the best fruit in the country." Ellie's heart actually skipped a beat when Piotr looked over at her and smiled, a crooked smile that pulled up a little more on the left than the right. His hair was a curly mop that fell into his beautiful brown eyes. He was probably only a few years older than she was. "Nice to meet you, Eleanor," he said, standing the dolly on its end and offering a hand to her. Ellie smiled and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, too." 18 July, 2001; Wednesday Ellie was sweeping the floor in the bakery's kitchen while Samuel minded the counter out front. She was trying to keep herself distracted, instead of watching the clock. She had seen Piotr every morning, when he brought the fruit for the bakery; on top of that, he had stopped by again in the afternoon most days for the past two weeks, just to talk to Ellie. Ellie had found herself looking forward to it. When she heard the knock on the back door, Ellie set the broom aside, wiped her hands on her apron, and fussed with her hair a bit as she crossed the room to the door. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ellie opened the door. Piotr was standing there, his crooked smile already lighting up his eyes, and Ellie couldn't help but smile back. Piotr drew his hand out from behind his back; he was holding a vivid red poppy, and he offered it to her. "For you, Elle." Ellie took the flower and smelled it. "Thank you, Piotr." After being called Ellie for her whole life (or Eleanor by her older relatives), it took a bit for Ellie to get used to Piotr calling her Elle. "Elle, would you like to go to dinner with me? This Friday?" Piotr asked, and Ellie felt her cheeks warm up; she was surely blushing. "I- I'd love to," she stammered, which only caused her to blush more. Piotr smiled and stepped closer, then leaned in and kissed her cheeks softly. "You are pretty when you blush," he said. Then he took her free hand and raised it to his lips, brushing a kiss across her knuckles. "I will see you tomorrow morning. Good night, Elle." And then he was gone, out the door and down the alley. 20 July, 2001; Friday Ellie was a nervous wreck. She was waiting for Piotr to come pick her up, and she had already changed outfits five times and redone her hair twice. The poppy he had given her two days ago sat in a small glass on the vanity, and she kept looking at it. Surely he must like her, if he kept coming to the bakery to talk to her, and he brought her a flower, and he asked her out to dinner. "Eleanor! Piotr is here!" Samuel called. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ellie stood from her seat at the vanity and headed downstairs. When Piotr smiled up at her as she walked down the stairs, all her anxiety about the date melted away. 20 April, 2002; Saturday "Happy birthday, Elle-belle!" Ellie opened her eyes. Piotr had placed a cake in front of her, and the glow from the 19 candles in the otherwise dark room lit up his face as he sat across from her. Ellie smiled and blew out the candles, throwing the room into near-darkness, lit only by the ambient glow from the stars and moon outside. After a few moments, when she heard Piotr fumbling around, another candle was lit and placed beside the cake in the center of the table. "Did you make a wish?" Piotr asked, moving to sit beside Ellie, instead of across from her. "I did, yes," Ellie replied, smiling. She kissed him, then added, "But I can't tell you, of course, or it won't come true." Piotr laughed and kissed her on the lips, then her cheeks, then her eyelids. "Elle-belle," he whispered, his breath warm against her skin. "I love you." Ellie was struck momentarily speechless. It was the first time he had said that to her, the first time anyone outside of her family had said it to her. But when she was able to speak again, she knew exactly what to say, and that she would mean it. "I love you, too." That was the first night they slept together. 18 December, 2002; Wednesday Ellie blinked blearily at the white walls of the hospital room. Something had woken her up, and the fact that she couldn't figure out what it was scared her to death. She strained her ears, then let out the breath she wasn't aware she was holding when she heard the respirator still helping Piotr breathe. She rubbed at her eyes, shifting position in her chair next to the bed to relieve the crick in her back. She finally saw what had woken her up: Mark, Piotr's brother, was standing beside her chair. He gestured for her to follow him, then left the room. Ellie cast a look at Piotr; he was sleeping peacefully, or at least as peacefully as possible. She brushed a soft kiss across his forehead, then followed Mark out into the hallway, closing the door softly behind her. "Any new news?" Ellie asked. Because she wasn't family, the doctors would allow her to stay with Piotr in his room, but they wouldn't tell her anything; lucky for her that Piotr's family understood and filled her in on what the doctors were telling them. "No, nothing." Mark rubbed his hands over his face and leaned against the wall. He and Piotr looked so much alike, Ellie's heart squeezed painfully every time she saw him; he only reminded her of how robust and healthy Piotr had been just a month ago, before he was taken to the hospital after collapsing on his delivery route. The doctors had found a tumor in his brain; they couldn't operate, so he was having to endure radiation and chemotherapy. Ellie had hardly left his side since he had been admitted to the hospital, even as his body wasted away and his beautiful brown curls fell out. "No news is good news, right?" Ellie asked, trying to feel some hope, but it was growing harder and harder to stay positive about Piotr's prognosis. "I don't know," Mark said, hanging his head. "I just ... don't know." 3 January, 2003; Friday It should have been raining. The skies should be dark and mournful, to reflect how Ellie felt inside. Instead, it was sunny and clear, completely unexpected weather for early January. Her eyes were dry, though they were red and puffy; she had long ago run out of tears. She stood in the cemetary, huddled inside her thick black cloak, but there was no escaping the cold. Once the funeral was over, Ellie attended the wake at the Gorski home, but she was numb and quiet the whole time, sitting in a chair and only barely acknowledging those who stopped to express their condolences. After a few hours of that, Ellie slipped away to hide in the room that Piotr had grown up in. It was still filled with his childhood things: furniture, toys, pictures, a few books. It was in Piotr's old room that Mark found her, sitting on the bed and crying over an old, worn out, stuffed bear. Maybe it was the grief clouding their judgement; maybe it was because Mark looked so much like Piotr had. When Mark sat beside her on the bed, she collapsed into his arms and let him hold her. They cried together, and when all their tears were gone, Ellie looked up at him through red eyes. He kissed her, and she kissed him back. They didn't stop at just kissing; when they were done, Ellie got dressed again and slipped out. Less than a week later, she was on a plane to France, where she would be working with another chef, a friend of Samuel's. She hadn't really cared where she was going, she just had to get out of Poland, and she never wanted to go back. |