althea hobbs. (ahobbs) wrote in midnightremedy, @ 2010-12-18 07:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | althea hobbs |
Who: Althea Hobbs (& family).
Where: The Hobbs Family home.
When: Friday evening. 17th of December, 2010.
Rating: PG+13.
Status: Complete.
Summary: Althea chooses to follow her heart.
"If you leave this house, don't you ever think of setting foot back in it again, Althea Louise. You will be barred." Althea wasn't stupid. She knew what barred meant. She knew that if she chose to follow her boyfriend now, Demelza Hobbs was going to ensure that she never stepped foot in the family home again. If she tried, some terrible thing would happen to her, she knew. One of those horrible hexes the older woman was so famous in town for. Funnily enough, a threat like that would have usually had Althea quivering, begging, pleading her apologies. She would have bowed her head and submitted to her grandmother's decidedly supreme will. However, today, everything had changed. The dynamics of their relationship were forever tarnished. In throwing Dell out of the house, Demelza had destroyed any semblance of a warm relationship the two could have shared. With it, so went her potential relationship with her great grandchildren. Althea didn't care. She had officially had enough. She loved her family. They were her soul, the little bits that pieced her together and kept her sane, but Demelza had crossed the line. She had tried to intercept the other part of Althea's being. Her relationship with Dell. And for that, Althea wasn't going to stand. When she received the message from Dell, she had debated for a good twenty minutes, pacing and fidgeting, trying to soothe the desperate, sooky cries of the children who longed for their father. When she finally came to a stop, her mind was made up. She was going to join him. At the apartment. She didn't care how tiny it was, or run-down. She was going to be with him, and with their children. "You're mad," Demelza crowed, her wrinkled eyes wide with incredulity, disbelief. It was always unexpected that Althea would disobey her elders. She was the youngest. The baby. The angel who always did the right thing. Time and time again, though, she proved them wrong. Coraline. Percy. And now this. But did they ever learn? Their regular bouts of surprise said no. "I'm not mad, Demelza. You crossed the line." And that, of course, set the older woman off into a frenzy of ranting and raving. "You don't know anything about the world. You're stupid, young, running into the arms of anyone who'll have you! Including that werething. I'm not havin' it anymore, Althea. Stop." "We love each other, Grandma. Don't you understand that? We're in love." "What would you know about love? You're too young to have any of that," Demelza spat back, her cane clenched tight in her little fists, eyes narrowed on her youngest grandchild. Althea, before she knew what she was saying, was meeting the other woman in the middle of the room, her shoulders shaking, her lips thin with anger. "And what would you know about love, either? Did you have it with Grandpa? The drunk? The sailor, the one who wanted to take you all over the world? Or what about Paul Muller? Oh, yes, grandmother. Don't think I don't know about that!" The moment the tirade left her, Althea's shoulders sagged and she instinctively cringed, expecting a blow from her grandmother's cane. However, what she received instead was a slap. A great, dramatic, stinging blow that sent her head reeling to the side, fireworks exploding in a flurry behind her eyelids as she registered the pain. That? Sealed the deal. She wasn't staying anymore. Not here. Not with this wretched life-ruiner of a woman. Clutching her face, Althea pushed past Demelza without a word and made for the bedroom, grabbing Cora gently by the hand as she went. "I want you to hurry up, sweetheart," Althea muttered hurriedly, leading her to the closet. "Grab everything you have and bring it to the bed for me, won't you? All of your stuff. Clothes, toys, everything." "Mama, that'll take days," Cora wailed, only to be shushed into silence by her mother. Althea gave her daughter a severe look and an insistent nudge, pointing the girl in the direction of her toy-box. She had to get everything together. She had to leave before Demelza recovered enough to stop her. It didn't take her long, really, when she thought about it later. To pack their things. To leave behind her childhood home. She had packed three suitcases -- one for their clothes, one for Cora's knick-knacks, and the smallest one was reserved for momentos. The memories she wanted to keep, should the rest of her family follow Demelza's suit and refuse to speak to her. Still, Althea didn't have any regrets when she left the house for the last time, Percy in a sling on her hip, Cora lagging behind her. She wasn't aimless; she had a future ahead of her. Admittedly, it was a little murky, but Dell was still in it and that was what mattered to her the most. |