Honeysuckle | M.A

Chapter 2: Breakfast On Newspapers

From the brown paper bag, she put a honey glaze covered bread and a honey lavender macaron on each paper, she was careful with this as the macarons were soft and crumbly and could easily fall apart because of how fresh it was.

She passed them around and kept one for herself. While her mother fed Nancy, Jaroldine picked up her bun.

It was glazed with a thin layer of hardened honey, so if you were to tap it gently it would have a hard sound. As she tore it apart the glaze cracked and the aroma of soft bread wafted the air, she immediately stuffed her face into it. The honey gave it a sweet sensation that melted in her mouth and the fluffy bread disappeared on her tongue, inviting her to have another bite. It was perfect.

The honey lavender macaron was a pale, natural purple colour, it had a dried lavender gently placed on top and a drizzle of sticky honey. As soon as it grazed her teeth, it crumbled, and she was forced to eat it all at once to stop it from crumbling everywhere. It was light, decadent, floral and sweet, a bite of utmost delight.

And so the Anne family sat in Nancy's room, huddling over the sick sniffling youngest Anne daughter, and eating fresh, crumbly, honey pastries on newspaper pages. It was a simple life, but it was more than enough for them to be together.

–

Jaroldine sighed as she put Little Women under her pillow and made her way to the kitchen to start helping her mother out with dinner. She had spent the entire day reading Little Women, which was heavily annotated and highlighted starting from the second chapter on. She dearly thought she would love the person who had annotated this book so carefully, the annotator paid good attention to detail and thought wisely. They reminded Jaroldine greatly of herself.

Though she wondered if there could have been 2 people who had annotated it, as there were 2 different handwritings, a shaky, thin one and the other stunningly cursive and neat.

The book was comforting and delightful to read, the lives of 4 simple girls with peculiar interests and peculiar styles, living in a town that cared little for them at times, made her smile, and reminded her of her own life, about how much she had to be grateful for. The little details that were pointed out by the annotators were beautiful and she was reading slowly to savour it.

For dinner, Jaroldine and her mother prepared stuffed chicken. A whole chicken smothered in butter and a honey glaze sauce was stuffed with a mix of mashed potatoes, cream, onions, basil leaves, and a wonderland of herbs and baked till golden brown. The smell filled the house and the steam escaping from the open window of the Anne house reached the Lin Forest and was deliciously comforting and inviting, even Nancy could smell the delightful scent of creamy potatoes and baked chicken through her stuffy nose.

"I'm going to see if Nancy is up to come sit with us," Andrea said to Jaroldine before making her way to Nancy's room.

"Father!" Jaroldine called to her dad as she was setting the plates around the table, smiling with the assumption that he would come running from his and her mothers room. He had been waiting for dinner for a while now.

Silence.

She furrowed her brows and called again, and just as she was sitting down away from the doors of all their rooms, her father walked into the kitchen, sweating slightly, but with a smile on his face nonetheless. He sat down and licked his lips, staring hungrily at the steaming chicken oozing with cream and potatoes that sat in the middle of the table, waiting for Andrea and Nancy to come.

Her mother walked out of Nancy's room holding Nancy's hand who was walking and rubbing her eyes with her spare hand in a night robe.

"Sleeping beauty is up." Maurice said, though he seemed more excited that he could finally dig in, and Jaroldine had to admit, she was too.

Her mother put a good portion of food for everyone and sat Nancy on her lap. Jaroldine immediately dug in and her shoulders rested immediately, it was delicious, and Jaroldine couldn't help stuffing another bite into her mouth before getting the chance to finish her first one.

"So, dear, your birthday is in 2 weeks! Aren't you excited," Her father began, smiling at his daughter with a full mouth.

"Um. Yes. I've been meaning to talk to you and mother about something." Jaroldine said, shifting uncomfortably as her shoulders tensed up again.

"What is it dear? Someone you'd like us to invite!" Her mother asked excitedly. Jaroldine hadnt mentioned anything about marriage for the last month and Maurice and Andrea had been nervously waiting, she thought this was it.

"I don't want to get married." She blurted out, her chest rising and falling as she looked nervously between her parents.

"Excuse me?" Andreas' mouth was ajar in shock.

"W- I- I don't understand? But-" Her father began, a sorry look on his face.

"Father, mother, do not act as if it's of the utmost disobedience that I don't want to get married the moment I'm 18."

"Sweetheart, we've already told you this. In Geromel women get married at 18, that's our most important rule, and as we do not have a leader it's important we stick together, to stick to our rules. We have warned you before, no one has ever-" Her mother began.

"Then I can be the first. Please, mother, I don't want to."

Her mother and father cared nothing but for her safety, and the memories from almost 2 decades ago came into their minds when their daughter said this. Her brown eyes looked pleading, worried.

Maurice shook his head and Jaroldines eyes began to brim with tears.

"Do you not know why this village was created?" He said quietly. "Because of this. For your own safety, darling, please, this is the most important thing about Geromel. This is Geromel. I just want you to be safe."

Jaroldine stood up abruptly from her table, Nancy, who had fallen asleep on her mother made slight movements but stayed asleep.

Jaroldine took a deep breath and muttered a goodnight before rushing to her bedroom. She sat with her head in her knees and began to cry softly.

She had been thinking about it for months, she was scared of how scared her parents were, anytime they spoke about her 18th from when she was a little child, they seemed so insistent to make sure I knew I had to do this. And it scared Jaroldine, why was it so important? Could it have been the reason for the Schism almost 2 decades ago? Did a girl like her rebel and face the consequences?

Jaroldine knew about the schism. That there was a disagreement on a rule that Benjamin changed and so a group of people decided to hike across the Lin Forest and start a new village that kept that rule in place. Benjamin was the leader of Germolaine, the town that still existed on the other side of the Lin Forest, but he was also a good friend of Maurice, and Maurice spoke so highly of him, so she wondered, why did they come here? What was the rule change that pushed even her mother and father here? Was that even the reason they came?

She had no escape now. Not even at home. Only the lake where she swam and bathed and that dusty book wouldn't talk about her getting married.

At that thought, Jaroldine stuck her hand under her pillow and felt around, her crying stopped immediately.

There was nothing there. The book was gone.

(word count: 1876)