Teach Me How to Love

Rule 11: Accept Being Wrong

~Accept Being Wrong ~

"Tell me one thing Irene." My mom, Cassandra, pressed her ear against the door. No footsteps were heard. Meaning Irene Simmons was listening by the door. This woman was no longer the mom I had known. She is now Cassandra, a complete stranger.

"Do the children know the truth?" She asked. The words seemingly were pulled from her chest by a rope. Her words hung in silence until a soft sob escaped Irene, presumably.

"No, I couldn't do that to them," she gasped out as a round of sobs followed her response. A small thud on the door sounded, as if Irene had laid her head on the door.

"They deserve to know," Cassandra whispered. Tears glistened on her flushed cheeks.

"You aren't in the position to dictate what I do and don't tell my children!" Irene yelled defensively. All the strength of that statement was taken away by the heart wrenching sob that escaped seconds after she replied.

"I may not be able to make you tell them, but I will tell them," Cassandra threatened, pounding the door to emphasize her point.

"They'll hate us both. Please don't," she pleaded softly. Cassandra put her soft palm onto the door. Then slowly she let it slide down the wooden surface until it lay limply by her side.

"I'm sorry." Tears rushed down her drawn face. She took my hand and pulled me away. The sound of Irene wailing made me hesitate, but had no visible affect on Cassandra.

Her hand relentlessly tugged mine to get me to follow her. At first my confusion from the previous events muddled my thoughts so much that I couldn't even tell where we were going. Eventually though I recognized the route as one that led to the local cemetery.

Soon enough the tall iron fence loomed before us, allowing the souls to rest in peace and far away from the rest of the world. This might have been effective had there not been a gate, a very rusty gate, but a gate nonetheless as an entrance. It required no key or code to enter.

Cassandra pushed forward and shoved the gate hastily open not even bothering to hold it open for me. Something my mom surely would've done. I stopped the gate from closing with my elbow and then entered. The gate closed with a bang, but I was oblivious to the sound for all of my attention was focused on two figures.

They were stooped over the ground. One was practically lying on the ground as tears racked her body and the other was kneeling on the wet ground as dignified tears ran gracefully down her face. Rachel's black dress stretched to cover her body as she lay on the ground. Whereas Abigail's black dress clung loosely to her body and flowed over the ground in silky pools of fabric.

Beneath them, upon closer inspection, was a grave. A grave that read: Matthan Simmons 1971-2012 beloved husband and father. May he finally rest.

"Abigail and Rachel," Cassandra demanded strongly, no remorse for interrupting their private moment with their dad, most likely, was shown.

The two girls snapped out of their stupor of sadness and whipped their heads over in Cassandra's direction.

"How did your dad die?" she demanded. A strong commander had replaced my fragile mom. She swept her tangled hair to the side to keep it from blowing in her face.

"Car crash," Abigail spit out with such venom that you could've mistaken her for a King Cobra.

"Are you sure, darling?" she asked in a voice that would make one doubt that 2 plus 2 equals 4.

Abigail, though, being Abigail didn't even miss a beat in her response. "I'm not sure who you are. But I can tell you this, I know how my dad died." Anyone with an ounce of intelligence or sympathy would choose to back off at this point. Cassandra didn't though she pressed on.

"The only reason why you are confident right now is because you are speaking from ignorance," Cassandra drawled out. Before Abigail could interject she continued "I would like to fix that by enlightening you."

"Who are you, first off?" Rachel asked tentatively. She had been sitting quietly and wiping her tears as this scene unfolded. After all I'm positive everyone was wondering what the answer to that was. Both Abigail and Rachel turned their heads towards me as if I would know. Which I obviously did.

"Matthew won't know the answer," Cassandra said stiffly. Her eyes, calculating my expression of shock, stared deep into my wide eyes.

"Then who will?" I asked a stab of pain went through my chest right where my heart lay. I couldn't help, but feel self conscious of the multiple pairs of eyes that were staring at my broken body.

"Me." Cassandra turned her head to face something way off in the distance. "Follow me. There is something you should have seen a long time ago," She said while she walked solemnly over to another grave. Her posture became slumped as she got closer to the grave.

When I was finally close enough to the grave I saw the inscription. It read:

Elena Woods 1978-2013 beloved sister and mother. May she finally find happiness.

"Who is Elena Woods?" A sinking feeling grew in my stomach. Yet my denial fought off the likely possibility.

"Your real mother and my sister," Cassandra said. And then heart breaking sobs were wrenched from both of us. Death surrounded this place. Two lost their dad, one lost her sister, I lost my mom, and everyone else buried in this cemetery left someone behind in this cruel world.

___________________________

Author's Note: Ahhh what happened to Matthan and Elena? Did anyone of you expect that? Sorry for the cliffhanger. I hope you enjoyed.

-WrittenDreams3

~Questions~

If you can travel anywhere in the world where would you go?

Personally I can't choose. I would love to travel the whole world.