The People of Dewbrook

Chapter Seven

Although Rosemary did not mourn her fate too much this time, Caroline, who was always very aware of her surroundings, still noticed her sorrow. It motivated her to walk over to her and sit right beside her. Hearing her pull the chair, Rosemary instantly turned to face her, completely startled. The other woman observed that she had been wandering through her thoughts, which intrigued her all the more.

"My dear, what could you be pondering this time?" she asked, tilting her head.

Rosemary shook her head. "It is what it always is, without a point and without an end. Amidst all my privileges, what makes me more deserving of grief over a situation many other women have had to face? It is a classic story of our literature, but there, the suitor is a creepy old man, the father is unscrupulous, and the fate the young lady barely manages to escape is horrible. What do I have to complain about then if I have none of those issues? It is not my intent to say that it is not a problem, but I am still rather fortunate. How, then, do I tell my heart to stop aching? How do I tell my mind to be at ease?"

Caroline facepalmed. "I have said everything that needed to be said. Let yourself halt thinking of it and stifle your unnecessary emotions. It will all be fine in the end."

Rosemary let out a deep sigh. "Yes, madam, and I apologise dearly for everything. That reminds me of a question I never quite found the opportunity to ask. If you have had so many affairs with so many different men, how come do you not have any children?"

Caroline choked on thin air, and Rosemary ran to get her some water, returning one mere minute later, which meant that she was running the fastest she could have. Pale-faced, she asked Caroline if she was well after she drank the water, but Caroline told her that, although sweet, her immense concern for others was something she absolutely should lessen, especially in a world such as this, but Rosemary let her mind wander, not caring much to hear her pessimistic philosophy about a world she thought most beautiful. Luckily for her, that ended soon enough, after which Rosemary sat down again and the conversation returned to normal.

Caroline stroked her chin. "So, you asked me why I have no children? There are many ways to put such an uncomfortable thing into words, but I think none suitable, thus I shall resort to the simplest one. My organism will not let me reproduce, which some have told me is karma from God for disobeying Him, but although I respect Him," she said, rolling up one of her sleeves to reveal a rosary, ", remember His commandments, go to His places of worship, and pray to Him at night, I still think such theories are nonsense."

Rosemary's eyes went wide, and she interrupted Caroline just as she was about to say something. "Wait, you said you remembered The Ten Commandments, but in what way exactly? You remember what the seventh one says, right?"

Caroline laughed awkwardly. "There have been worse worshippers of Him, and there always will be. Besides, I look at The Commandments more as a guideline than a strict set of rules I must follow at every cost. At the very least, I admit it, unlike people who say they follow God's every word and then proceed not to do so. 

He said not to murder, but religious people still go to war. He said not to covet, yet a human being cannot help to do so. We refrain from sin, but what exactly is the point if we are going to end up sinning anyway? We cannot run and hide from our nature. See, this is the problem with our modern society, which has as many contradictions as the number of flowers there are in a meadow. 

Moralists always say things like these, things about corruption and redemption and straying from God and karma, which have far more application in fiction than in reality. The real world does not follow any given set of rules, and in trying to make sense of it, they rely upon what has been explored before, believing that humankind was created to bring goodness and progress to this Earth. If that were so, God would have found our results pretty disappointing."