Our Forbidden Love 2

11

2017, Oceanum Villa, Records Room
"Sit down please Weedy, I wanted to tell you something," said Piper, gesturing to the chair across the table. Newly, thirteen-year-old Weedy moodily slumped into the chair, her messy, unbrushed hair fell forward covering her eyes. She wished she was anywhere but the Records Room with her mother to 'talk'. Whenever her mother wanted to talk to her it was never about something good.
"Your father's a human-" Piper began, but Weedy interrupted.
"So, I guess that explains why he's never come to visit you and I," she paused briefly before throwing her hair out of her eyes and said, "wouldn't it be amazing if someone could grant that power, like they could make a merfolk a human and a human a merfolk? That would be amazing."
"Yes, it would be," said Piper, her voice displaying no emotion. "Can we get back to the story now?" Weedy had developed a very bad habit of getting sidetracked though it was mostly around her mother and the rest of the Government, particularly Walter. "Your father is a human... and so is your twin."
"Twin? I have a twin?!"
"Yes, his name's Alexander but your dad and I agreed to call him Alex as a nickname," Piper explained pulling out a Manila folder from the box next to her and giving it to her daughter. The name on the front read Alexander Stonal; The Stonal Child. Weedy opened the folder and couldn't help but feel surprised at the little amount of information there was about him. Weedy had read many of these files over years but none of them had been as small as this.

Born Alexander Fred Stonal on the 19th of June 2004 to Fred Stonal and Piper Pillars in Oceanum Villa.
Conceived by breaking the law known as the unbreakable law, (getting pregnant and giving birth before the tattoo of marriage is given) and also breaking the law of having sex with a human.
No fated talent, though some generational telepathy may be present.

That was it. Usually the files included all sorts of things like diagrams of family trees, an explanation of their relationships with other merfolk and sometimes even descriptions of their appearance. His had none of that. So little was known about him and Weedy was determined to find a way to get to the surface and meet him to find out more information to add to his file.
***
2019, Oceanum Villa, Records Room
Piper was alone. In such a large world, she was still alone. Her son was in Australia with no way of contacting him; her soulmate and would-be husband lived with him; and her daughter, the twin of her son, was just reported dead. Piper was understandably beyond upset but also deep down, she was ashamed. What had she done as a parent to lead her daughter down this path in life? And the worst part, she couldn't ask her anymore.

Piper moved through the centre aisle in the Records Room until she came to the row of 'P'. She turned down that row and continued along it until she found her family's box which she carefully took down from the shelf. She flicked through all of the folders in the box, and found her daughter's at the very end. Her heart ached with sorrow and broken love as she carefully took the folder out of the box and watched the folder in front of it, her mother's, Violet Pillars, fall backwards, taking over the place of Weedy's. Piper put the 'Pillars' box back onto the shelf and carried Weedy's file as she moved back out into the main aisle travelling up the alphabet to find the 'D' row. Eventually, she got there, and took down the box labelled 'Deceased in between 2000 and 2020'. Before putting the folder in the box, she opened it and telepathically copied the file's information into her head so that she could rewrite the file after she'd put it away. Then Piper slid the file into the box, where it fit alphabetically and sadly put the lid of the box back on, memories of her daughter flooding back to her brain, her eyes stinging with tears that had not yet fallen. Then she summoned a table to appear in the centre aisle.

When she got there she took a seat and began rewriting Weedy's file out twice which tore her heart apart piece by piece. After she was satisfied with the rewriting of the files she labelled another two manila folders with her  daughter's name, one in black ink and one in red. Then she slipped the files inside them and got rid of the table. Then, Piper moved back down the centre aisle to reach the 'P' row and added the red inked manila folder in the 'Pillars' box behind Violet's file which was also red inked. Then Piper took the black inked folder up to 'C' and kept moving down that row until she found the 'Causes of Death' subsection. This was where things got a little complicated. The subsection title started with a 'C' but most of the causes of death listed did not start with 'C' and had to have connected boxes under the correct letter. A connected box meant that all files were instantly duplicated and appeared in both boxes making it easier for the Data-Keeper to find them.

Piper found the box she was looking for, but had tried so hard not to look at the label. She took it down from the shelf and slid her daughter's folder in the correct spot in the box. This box went alphabetically by surname, the family group boxes, of course, went by first name because everyone had the same last name. She slid Weedy's file in between Nicholas Pighart's and Caitlin Pimms' files. Surprisingly, this box was quite full compared to the other causes of deaths, which was a bad reflection on the city. Piper fought back tears as she accidentally read the label off the front of the box. Of course, she'd known what box it was, she was the Historian from the Government, but seeing the seven-letter-word written on the label of a box that she'd just put her daughter's file into seemed to really smash Piper's heart into a million pieces.
Suicide.
Weedy was gone.
***
2019, Oceanum Villa, Government House
"Well, when the younger merfolk learn of our Government system, in our schooling system, they'll have to learn about Weedy, won't they?" asked Binah, new to her Government position only just after her age of 'adulthood'.
"I guess so," mumbled Piper, not wanting to talk about her deceased daughter anymore than she had to.
"Well, what will we tell them?" asked Whitney.
"She went to the Sea Witch," stated Cameron.
"There is no Sea Witch," Lucas reminded him.
"The citizens don't necessarily know that," Cameron said. "She went to the Sea Witch, wished to be human to find out more about how humans lived but then she was caught by," he looked around at the Government, "by Rhylee, Peace Keeper." Rhylee was only at their age of adulthood, one of the youngest members on the Government, it surprised them that Cameron had chosen them.
"Alright then," agreed Rhylee. The rest of the Government nodded their agreement too.
***
2021, Oceanum Villa, Records Room
"That's where she's gone, Piper. To see him," Walter said, storming down the centre aisle of the Records Room to reach Piper who was sitting at a table, writing a file.
"This is going to go exactly as we hoped," she replied, smiling at him at the same time she passed him a folder. He took it from her and instinctively opened it to read it.

Born Starley Ellen Star-Bub on the 13th of March 2005 to Sandy Star-Bub and Walter Star-Bub.
Conceived through Jasmine Dun-Hill's IVF equivalent due to Sandy's infertility.
Fated talents are the same as her mothers, healing, correspondence with sea creatures and manipulation of water.
Relationships include: Bubbles Margaret Star-Bub (sister), Sandy Star-Bub (mother) (deceased), Walter Star-Bub (father), Coral Parker (Godmother).

Similar to Alex's file, Starley's didn't contain as much information as some other files in this room.
"You'll have to update that soon though," Walter said, handing back the file.
"Why? What's going to happen?" asked Piper.
"I can't tell you that, besides, you can look for yourself."
"You're a natural Reader though, you have the best abilities out of the pair of us."
Walter shrugged and decided to take a seat next to Piper and leave the Reader and talent discussion to rest.
"Why do you wear your ring on that finger?" Walter questioned. Piper shrugged.
"Well, it's not like Fred and I are ever going to get married are we. And what, how old am I? Forty-nine? So I've known him for about twenty-six years and I'm still waiting for the proposal."
"Yeah, I know who gave you the ring but why that finger?"
"It's a human thing, they wear it there when they're married. It's just a reminder for me that I still have Alex up there."
"Ahhh, I see," said Walter, nodding.
The room was left silent for a few minutes. The only noise that could be heard was the moving of the water currents in the building.
"Walter," Piper said, getting his attention, "do you ever wish Sandy was still here?"
"All the time. Every second of the day," he responded instantly.
"Yeah, well I'm the same with Fred," she said.
"Fred didn't die, Piper. He's still here. Sandy's gone forever. The girls don't remember her. But I do, right down to the first time we met, when she was surfing at the beach and I was breaking the rules of my homeland to go and watch her."
***