confusifying | wicked | book 3/3

Elphie

"Don't pout, losing looks terrible on you!" I chuckle merrily, Boc sticks his nose in the air.
"Cards aren't fun when you constantly win Elphaba." Boc grumbles, Albert nods in agreement.
"Here here!" He cries jovially, throwing and arm around my mothers shoulder.
"We don't even know that she's won yet!" Glinda pipes up "we still haven't seen everyone's cards."
Mother clears her throat and throws her cards down upon her lap.
"Well she's beaten me." Mother sighs, though she tilts her head towards my sister and gives her a gentle smile.
Glinda places her cards down gently.
"Well I..." Glinda babbles, realising that she hasn't beat me either.
"Well done my beautiful wife!" Fiyero cries, I let out a loud shriek of laughter as he throws his arm around my waist.
"We have a winner!" My husband cries.
Boc scowls once again.

"I knew she'd win." Boc grumbles "again."
From my sisters bed I hear a soft chuckle, I turn to check on her well being and notice that she's smirking slightly.
"Nessa?"
"I don't think you've won." She mumbles, a frail grin across her face, "because I certainly have."
Nessa lays her cards down on her bedding and sure enough, her cards beat mine by a substantial amount.
"Ah! Nessarose has won!" Albert cries merrily.
I sigh deeply, smiling kindly at my sister as I do so.
"Turns out you may not be the best!" Boc jeers.
"Oh how the mighty have fallen" my sister whispers to me, she's still smiling but she looks ever so tired and feeble.
"True true." I respond to my sister "well done Ness."
My sister nods happily and closes her eyes for a second, shakily breathing in the icy air from the open window.
Nessa always makes us keep the window open at the moment.
It doesn't bother me too much but I wish it wasn't as cold outside.

The cold weather can't be doing my sister any good, I'm just hoping that she doesn't contract her yearly flu, at least not now.
I know that when my sister is finally allowed out of bed that there will be no stopping her from running rampant but she's a grown woman and understands the risks that she takes.
One by one my family members leave the room, mother because she will simply start to cry if she's in here for too long, Glinda because she has work to attend to and Fiyero and Albert have left to begin to cook our dinner.
Finally Boc leaves to get some sleep, Nessa looks sad to see him go but at the same time she sighs a little out of what appears to be relief.
"How are you feeling Ness?" I ask once the room has settled down a bit more.
"Just very useless," she chuckles emptily "I long to get up out of this bed, I want so badly to go outside."
I sit closer to my sister and raise an eyebrow.
"You'll catch your death in this freezing cold." I fret, my sister sees the anxiety in my eyes and holds onto my wrist gently.
"I'm not really living in here." She sighs, turning her head towards the window.

The outside air is freezing and the room isn't much better, it feels as though winter has seized the room in its icy grip.
"I know you worry so, sister." Nessa whispers, smiling softly at me "but I'm alright, I promise you."
I don't believe her, I can't believe her.
Though I want to, I want to trust her with wearing appropriate clothing for the blistering cold, but she could be wearing several layers of clothing and she's still become ill.
I can remember some years when we were children when her yearly flu nearly killed her.
Or at least she seemed so close to death that it truly was a sad and dismal sight.
I'm still very much able to visualise the deep bruised circles that would materialise around her eyes due to the lack of sleep, she just didn't look right all together.
"If father we're here I'd be staying in bed for the rest of my days" Nessa comments to herself.
"True, that is painfully true."
Nessa looks aeoundbthebroom, as if she's surprised that her family aren't here despite being gone for a fair amount of time.

"I didn't notice that everyone left." My sister mumbles absent mindedly, "I thought that..."
My sisters voice fades away, I can tell she's confused.
"Nessa when was the last time you slept? As in properly slept" I bark.
My sister thinks for a moment, the fact that she even has to question it is worrying to me.
"I slept for the entire afternoon." She whispers "it's all I can do."
My sisters voice trails away again and she closes her eyes gently.
I wait anxiously for a moment before I hear her breathing steadily, she's asleep at last.
I stay by her bedside for at least ten more minutes before leaning my head out the window to give myself a bit of a break.
The cool air strokes my face and pulls tears from my eyes.
It's getting considerably colder each day, though Oz's winters have never been kind.
There's usually always snow and it's more unusual when there's not snow than when there is.
As a child I cannot remember a single Christmas where it didn't snow, every time it did, father made it apparent to take Nessa out to the town centre and allow the Munchkins to see her little face light up when she felt the snow on her tiny nose.
Father would take her out in the most beautiful of thick, lined coats.
Nessa never worse gloves as a young girl, she would get so angry if she couldn't touch the snow and feel it's blistering cold against her fingers.
It was always understandable and Munchkins would line up to see her squeal in excitement when she saw the snow.
She would beam from ear to ear, wave her hands about excitedly and her little wheelchair would rock upon the uneven ground.
It really was a heartwarming sight.