Wonderful | wicked | book 2/3

Elphie

Nessa politely hands me back the photo and I put it to the bottom of the pile.
She looks off out, I'm unsure why, I don't think asking her will get me anywhere so I decide to just keep my concerns to myself.
I glance over at Albert, he's holding another photo and he looks rather interested.
"Is this Nessa?" He asks, showing me the photo, I nod and he seems to analyse the picture even more.
I'm unsure why he asked that, if the child isn't green it's bound to be Nessa, she's around two months, wearing a white summer dress and a matching white sun hat.
It's a rare picture of Nessa, before Frex started to cover her legs up, before they stopped being red and crooked.
Something I never told Nessa was that she did use to use her leg braces, but she doesn't remember.
When Frex first took her to a doctor, they recommend to use braces to straighten out her legs as they developed, once they were straight we stopped using them.
During that time Frex put Nessa in longer dresses since she was under the age of one, they wouldn't look odd and he could cover up the braces since they looked out of place.

Albert suddenly turns the picture to Nessa, who looks horrified at it, she snatched it away and looks tearful, I want to intervene but I'm anxious to make either one of them angry (or angrier).
"Why did you have to get these god forsaken pictures out!" Nessa barks, shoving the photo back into the box.
"They're not for him to gawk at," she snaps, saying 'him' as if Albert was a parasite.
"Nessa?" Albert whispers, sounding concerned, I'm surprised he's not started to shout back, people tempers don't usually last around here.
Nessa sees that there's still some pictures of her as a child out on my lap,
"Put those disgusting things away!" She cries, I do as I'm told.
Albert leans forward from the sofa, Nessa pushes herself backwards in response.
"I...I need a drink," she splutters "I have a headache."
Nessa turns herself around, to face the kitchen counter, luckily Glinda already poured us all some glasses of water and they're resting on the side.

Nessa goes over to the table, I hear the wheels of her chair running against the marble floor of the kitchen, she picks up the glass.
I begin to slowly place the pictures back into their box.
"Nessa there's nothing to be ashamed off," Albert says, trying to be reassuring, but I know from experience that it's not going to help.
"Stop looking at them!" Nessa shouts, then screams suddenly.
Albert jumps up towards her, I watch, unable to help, as her glass slides out of her hands and shatters on the kitchen floor.
Nessa begins to mumble incoherent apologies and moves her hands towards her wheels, but her hands are suddenly jerked forward as Albert protectively pulls her away from the kitchen.
I can see the irritation growing like vines upon her face, she hates when people intervene without asking.

Suddenly the lounge door opens and Boc rushes in, panic spread across his face.
"What happened?" He gasps,
Albert and I look at each other, I open my mouth to speak but my words escape from Alberts mouth.
"Nessa dropped a glass, no ones fault though." He says smiling weirdly at Nessa.
Box smiles out of relief that no one was hurt, I would go over to him and ask for his advice but getting up with my foot bandaged is so much work.
Instead Boc offers to clean up the glass, which I allow for obvious reasons, I'm in no shape to be crawling over the floor and Albert is too busy irritating my sister by persistently asking if she's okay.
Which she claims to be but I'm not buying it.
"Where's Fiyero?" I call out to Boc, he lifts his head and points to the patio doors,
"Gardening," he replies, scooping up shattered glass and placing it into the bin, he then grabs a thin cloth and begins to soak up the water.
"And Glinda?" I ask half expecting her to be outside with Fiyero,
Boc thinks for a moment,
"At the Emerald City, I believe" Boc reply's after a while.
Wow, the Emerald City, I haven't heard that name in a while.

Boc finally finishes clearing up the shattered glass, he then gets up swiftly and makes his way towards the door.
"Wait!" Nessa calls frantically, pushing herself after him "I'm coming with you."
Albert stands up abruptly and looks as though he wants to follow her but thinks better off it, instead he comes back over and sits beside me on the sofa.
"Is she alright?" Albert asks motioning towards the door.
"To be honest I don't know," I say solemnly, staring down at the box of photos in my lap, I would go and put them away but there really is no need.
"What's wrong with the pictures?" Albert asks, sounding more curious.
"She's embarrassed, she doesn't like the way she looked as a child, it reminds her too much of Frex." I mutter, I don't call Frex my father anymore but I still have her to call Albert my dad, I don't think I'll ever be ready for that.

"Elphaba, is there nothing you can do to help her?" Albert asks, he looks down and grasps his hands together, his eyes flickering from side to side.
"Not anymore," I say bluntly, I have explained to him what happened, but I get how it's confusing, I don't fully understand.
"Albert, are you going back to Shiz when Nessa goes?"
Albert ponders deeply for a moment, he opens his mouth to speak but let's it hand open for a couple seconds before answering the question.
"I feel I must, but I won't go if you don't want me too."
Now I have my own pondering to do.