Thursday, January 05, 2017

Everliving: Day 4

Word Count: 24,023

Summary of Events:
Bethania sat alone watching her cat sleep and thought about a variety of things that related to her sister's upcoming birthday. Quique, laid up because he couldn't walk with his crutches or sore foot due to the storm and its effects on the ship, was carried to the dining room to have a discussion about the Fountain of Youth. Bethania was watching the dancing at her sister's party when her cat came and found her, so she talked to her cat a bit . . .

Excerpt of the Day:
""The most important question, however," Bethania said. "Is how did you get out of my quarters?"
Esperanza yawned and Bethania couldn't help but smile. Esperanza was, as far as she was concerned, a dear friend and companion, even if she couldn't talk.
Sometimes it was just nice to talk, and not to have someone reply and carry on the conversation, or take it to someplace she didn't want it to go, or misinterpret what she was trying to say, much less be scandalised when she vented some of her true feelings about things that were better kept to herself anyways.
Bethania stroked the soft, silken, striped orange fur and watched the party, feeling a little bit better than she had before, even though she still had no desire to dance, in comparison to Maristela, who was getting set to start her third straight dance.
If Bethania recalled the program correctly their father would be making an appearance at the end of this dance go give birthday greetings to Maristela publicly, as he always did, as well as presenting her with her gift.
After that everyone would present their gifts and the dancing would resume until the latest of hours when finally the last of the guests were thoroughly exhausted by the effort of all of the dancing.
She watched Maristela, dancing, her face full of joy, and she felt a pang of sadness; she was just a year and three months older than Maristela, and yet she was so down and morose, while Maristela could hardly see a fault with the world.
Part of her wondered if it was because she was the elder child, and that, following Eugenio's death, for a time, despite the fact that she'd been two years old at the time, she had been official heiress until Salomón was born, and then, despite his, Ignacio, and Vincente's deaths, she hadn't been heiress since, and thankfully Rafael had been in good heath and brought no cause for worry.
On top of that, there was a year's worth of stress over suitors and pressure from her father to be married and a mother already — even though she was more than certain that her mother had been older when she was married, as had even her father, and all the rest of his wives.
Generally, though, she had been rather pragmatic, sometimes even annoyed at Maristela's carefree ways, but being the older child could cause that, as could the fact that they'd been motherless from a young age, and there was the possibility that she'd felt duty-bound to be the mother her sister had lost.
Bethania sighed as the dance finished and all of the dancers cleared the floor, with Maristela — flushed and smiling — coming up to the head table with select friends that had been permitted to sit at the table." 

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