Sunday, February 10, 2008 Who: Ophelia and Iris (NPC) Where: Ophelia's room When: Afternoon. What: Ophelia's biological cousin has some news.
Ophelia sat on her bed with a book in her hands and music playing, reaching for dried fruit every once in a while. Her father suggested that she eat heathily and she tried to take his advice. She finished her homework a while ago as well as her workout for the day, so she was proud of herself. A song she liked started on her iPod, which was even better, lifting her spirits. A knock on the door sounded and Ophelia only heard it when the person knocked again. It could be someone for Kindle, or Simon, so she bookmarked her page and hurried to open the door.
A tall, curly red-haired woman stood in front of her and smiled. Ophelia blinked and paused until she realized it was rude to keep someone waiting. The stranger beat her to it, though. "Hello, are you Ophelia Harrison?" she asked. Why on earth would someone ask her by her full name? Maybe Ophelia was in trouble.
"Yes. Hi," Ophelia answered, somewhat embarrassed now. "Do I have to go anywhere? I just need a second to put on my shoes." She was nervous, otherwise she would not have started blurting random things.
The red-haired woman frowned for a second, and then her smile returned. "Oh no, you don't. My name is Iris Sindon and I am your cousin." That took a moment to process. Cousin? Ophelia had met all of her cousins, although she only had four and they all were in their twenties.
She stepped back to let Iris into the room, closed the door behind her, still confused. "Are you my long lost cousin? I swear I met all of mine," asked Ophelia. They sat on the bed.
"Definitely." Iris clasped her hands in front of her in what had to be a nervous habit, as if she had something difficult to tell her afterwards. "I'm your biological cousin. My father is Mark, your uncle. This is so awkward." She pushed her hair off her shoulders and twisted it into a ponytail. "I have no idea what the best way is to deliver news like this. I mean, I heard by accident, when Aunt Naomi was talking to my dad and he said your name."
Ophelia had difficulty breathing in a normal fashion as she listened to her supposed cousin talk. Iris was a stalker, who somehow discovered she was here and wanted to get to know her before she dragged her somewhere to eat her flesh. This was overreacting, she knew, but all she could manage was, "Oh. But how --?" How did her parents get her, she wanted to ask.
Iris seemed to know what she meant. "My dad said Aunt Naomi gave you to her friends because she was young and couldn't afford a child. He also told me that you had your own life and I shouldn't bother you, but I wanted to find out about you because you're only two years younger than me. My cousins on my mom's side are like five and eight."
This woman, Naomi, had given Ophelia up to people and not contacted her for sixteen years. It was like Simon and his father, bad in a different way. Ophelia loved her parents and things might have been worse for her, so she should be grateful. Right? "Oh." She sounded like a broken record. "Sorry, I don't really know how to take this. It's really big news." Her voice waivered as she was on the verge of tears. "How did you find out about this now and not earlier?"
"I don't know," Iris said after a slight pause. "Maybe because this is the first time Aunt Naomi's getting married. I found out before I left for college - University of Massachusetts - about that and you, so it was the perfect time to look for you. It's horrible you're not invited and I wanted to change that."
Ophelia had no idea how it became even worse, but it had. Her throat swelled and she took a slightly painful breath. Married? Her cousin made effort to find her and she seemed like a nice person, but Ophelia was not sure she wanted to go to her biological mother's wedding. "That's really nice of you," she managed to say, "but I don't know..."
Iris frowned. "I am so sorry to just come here and throw all of this at you. I should have eased you into it somehow." She reached into her handbag that Ophelia hadn't noticed until now and pulled out a gorgeous silk scarf, yellow with white flowers and a green trim. "I hope this makes up for my awfulness a little." Ophelia smiled and took it, thanking her warmly.
Maybe it didn't fix things for the most part, but she had a potential new friend in her biological cousin. "Tell me about yourself," Ophelia said and listened intently as Iris began to speak.