So Long, and Goodnight

16. My Way Home is Through You.

Chapter 16
My Way Home is Through You

POV - John

    According to Grandma, she'd found Jane on the floor of the bathroom hugging one of the toilet bowls; retching and crying her eyes out.

    She'd come back looking a little better, but she still had some fear present in her eyes; however she wouldn't explain why she looked so scared.

    I figured that she wasn't going to explain while my younger brothers were around; and for the moment, she just wanted to make sure they had some fun. To take their minds off all the drama that had happened over the course of the day.

    So we continued to play Monopoly, and then went on to play Ludo, Uno, and Cluedo. Every game we played seemed to have some form of cheating go on, and brought with it a lot of laughs.

    We didn't comment on her blotchy face or red eyes, or how she seemed to keep retreating into her own head.

    Is this how I've been acting towards my family? I asked myself, is this what I've been like for the past six months?

    On one such occasion of her retreating into her head, she almost jumped out of her skin when Scott gently touched her arm.

    "It's your go." Scott said softly, "And don't worry. Dad can be scary, but he won't be coming back here unless John wants to see him or until he's calmed down."

    "Thanks." She put down a red three onto the pile of cards, "But I'm not worried about your dad. I just remembered something I didn't want to think about."

    Virgil put down a red switch, handing control back to Jane.

    "Then what are you worried about?"

    "Nothing you need to worry about." She put down another card, "But at the moment, I change the colour to yellow, and you need to pick up some cards."

    Scott looked down, and was close to swearing when he saw what card Jane had put down. It was a pick up four cards, which Gordon and Alan found very amusing, and it meant that he had to miss a go as well.

    He looked like he didn't know whether to laugh along with the Terrible Two, or to cry about what she'd just done.

    "That's just cruel." Scott pouted.

    "All is fair in love and war." She retorted, smiling slightly as Scott picked up his cards.

    "This isn't even war."

    "It doesn't mean an actual war." I told him, putting down a yellow four, "The quote is usually uttered when someone is trying to justify bad behaviour."

    The look on Scott's face was funny. He was staring at me, and looked a bit like a fish as he kept opening and closing his mouth.

     "Where does it even come from?" Virgil asked, as Gordon put down another switch card passing play back to me.

    "It's found in the poet John Lyly's novel 'Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit' published in 1579." Jane recited, almost like she was reading it from a book, "The novel recounts the romantic adventures of a wealthy, attractive young man, and includes the quote 'the rules of fair play do not apply in love and war.'"

    "But the first known appearance of the quote worded 'all is fair in love and war' is in English author Francis Edward Smedley's 1850 novel 'Frank Fairleigh', which is about the life of a schoolboy." I finished, putting down my next card.