Daimones - Book 1 of the Daimones Trilogy. Booktrope Publishing Edition

Laura

Unstable Stabilities

Our property included an adjacent cottage we used for when family and friends came to visit us. Mary showed Laura the place and gave her the keys. Laura held them to her heart. "You'll never regret to have me. You rescued me."

Annah cheered even more when Laura said that and rushed to hug her. Laura hugged her back and closed her eyes. Although there were no more than ten years, maximum, between the two girls, they hit it off quickly. The young woman fascinated Annah, and Laura probably thought of her brother who would have been about the same age as our daughter.

After dinner that evening, we all took Annah to bed. Laura promised her she would be there the next morning, and for the days to come. "You will be my little sister and I will be your big sister if you want."

Annah smiled, happy. "Would you teach me to roller skate?"

"I'd love that. We need to make sure you get the proper equipment, then we will hit the roads. You'll learn in no time. You'll see."

I felt a sweeping sense of gratitude toward Laura.

We tucked Annah in, and the three of us went to sit downstairs on the couch. I lit the fire. Mary wanted to know about Laura: her past, her ideas, what triggered her and what made her happy. Laura glanced first at Mary, then at me. She lowered her eyes and, with a sigh, she opened up.

"I was raised in Italy. My mother is French and she met dad in front of a steaming dish of spaghetti all'amatriciana. 'Hot as a volcano and as spicy as our love,' Dad used to say."

I exchanged a smile with Mary as I took my place on the couch.

"My infancy was nothing but ordinary, surrounded by love, care, and family values. I was an only child for twelve years, then my little brother was born, somewhat unexpectedly." She paused. "I miss him."

Mary reached for her hand. "You don't need to continue."

"No, I want to." Laura reassured us. "My dad is...was a university professor of philosophy." Laura eyes got bright with tears, reflecting the dancing colors of the cracking fire, tears that were like the dew on our blue iris on late summer mornings. She had changed to past tense as she was talking about dead people.

"Mom was a midwife. In high school, I became passionate about Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud in particular. There was a time when I almost only read Freud."

Mary started to get interested. I wasn't particularly into humanistic studies, only math and physics, but Mary loved the arts, philosophy and literature. She changed position to get more comfortable and more apt to listen carefully, as if she needed to shut out body signals to focus on what Laura said.

"Together with philosophy, art history was my favorite subject and, in high school, I learned to truly look. I've always liked the whole history of art, in any period: ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque...a certain taste for surrealism that was accompanied by philosophical interest. I think I made my dad proud. Paul, my brother, was mom's darling, and he looked up to me for everything. He always asked me to explain what dad meant when he talked philosophy." Laura paused for a long moment, then she smiled.

"The very first time, he asked me what 'fisolopy' was..." She sighed, fighting some inner demons and her hands trembled. Before we could say anything, she changed the subject.

"Over the past three years, I've come to know about the great music and composers thanks to some friends...one in particular. He liked haute cuisine, too." She paused again, and her eyes lost the inner brightness they had before, as when a dark cloud hides the sun, promising rain and cold and shivering.