Message From Home

Posted on 02 Mar 2018 @ 2:23pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

721 words; about a 4 minute read

MD 104 - 23:00 hours



Amaranai had returned from visiting Lirha in her quarters to find Charlotte on the couch in the living area of their temporary quarters.

"It's late, Charlotte," Amaranai said. "What are you doing up?"

The younger girl didn't answer. There was a datapad in front of the girl and she was staring at it.

"Charlotte," the older sister began. "What's wrong?"

Still, Charlotte didn't speak, but she slowly turned to face her sister. She then looked back to the datapad and tried to speak but nothing came out.

Amaranai moved to the couch and sat down next to her sister and then picked up the datapad.

-----

Amaranai,

Though we do not speak anymore, it would be rude to not inform you that our mother passed away after a having a heart attack. Though I am certain you don't care enough to grieve, you should at least tell Charlotte because she was adored by mother and you know that. You will not have read this message, I am sure, by the time of the funeral, and I do not expect you to return for it, but I know that Charlotte will be missed.

Father was as expected, sad for a short amount of time, but knowing him, he has already lined another woman up to keep him company until his own inevitable death. I just pray that it's someone older than me.

Despite our differences over the years and your inability to understand our family, please take care of Charlotte so she can return to us in time.

William

-----

Amaranai put the datapad down and looked at Charlotte. She could see the girl was trying to process everything that had been said in the letter. Amaranai wasn't even mad that the girl had read it. What she was mad at was how blunt William was in the message.

"Charlotte," she whispered. "How do you feel about the message?"

"They . . ." she started. "They want me back."

The girl started to cry, no longer holding any emotion in.

"I can't go back! I don't want to go back!"

Amaranai placed an arm around her sister to soothe her but Charlotte pulled away.

"No!" Charlotte said. "You can't make me feel better by just putting your arm around me!"

She stood up.

"Why do they feel the need to keep me under their control? Why can't they just leave me alone?"

Charlotte moved to her room and fell onto the bed and started sobbing.

Amaranai considered going to the girl but changed her mind after standing. She picked up the datapad and began writing a response to her brother.

-----

William,

Please disregard any sentiment that could be interpreted from this message. I thank you for informing me of mother's death and I wish you and the rest of the family a speedy recovery from your one day of grieving.

As for Charlotte, thank you for the sarcastic reminder that she is in my care now and not yours. At least she'll be taken care of instead of simply ignored and pushed aside for no one to pay attention to, not even you.

I do hope that this message finds you in pain and suffering, though, knowing you, you've already moved on just as father has.

I wish you luck in staying out of jail for the foreseeable future, though I'm sure father has seen to that more than you wish to count.

Amaranai.

-----

With the message written and sent, Amaranai moved to the replicator to get a drink. She was going to need something strong in order to get the bad taste of her family out of her mouth. They were horrible people in person, but she couldn't believe how horrible William could have been in writing. He didn't care about their mother and he didn't care Amaranai at all. He just wanted Charlotte back because she was a child that had run away from the "glory" of the family. Glory that had gotten Charlotte arrested and led down a path that Amaranai was almost unable to pull her back from. The letter would do its job and if not, at least the Galileo was going to be far enough away that the family wouldn't be able to get to her.

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