Wildfire

Nine

Vacant and everything but warm, the empty large room occupied with one remained noiseless as the whispering rain was even louder than quietness. This woman that resembled to be in her early seventies rested comfortably on the large couch in the main room, wrapped up in a thick blanket that prevented the rancorous chill to approach any proximity of her. Her eyes shifted to the sides as a visitor approached her with quiet footsteps, making the room now occupied with two.
With an acute smile budding on her face, the elder woman slid over so that the visitor could sit beside her.
"How's the place been treating you, Marian." the quaking woman spoke to her cuddled-up grandmother.
"How long has it been since you visited me, Asha." the grandmother didn't answer her granddaughter's question.
For once, and when she wasn't around Tahlia, Asha didn't seem agitated. Her skin replaced as her mood remained calmed. Grandma Marian rested her aged hair on her granddaughter's frozen shoulder.
  The two reminisced the things that Asha used to love to do when she was a little girl. She was such a contented girl, after the events that happened fifteen years ago.
  "Your mother would be proud of you," Grandma Marian smiled as she lifted up her cold head, "I wished that she could see the woman that you became."
  Her mother was a topic that Asha wasn't really comfortable speaking about. She didn't get to meet her mother, but she heard and read a lot about her. Loose beautiful words that easily eased a person's mind swept from Marian's lips and slid into Asha's ears when she was a little girl, but she read the opposite of what her grandmother told her from letters that were written by her mother, Eline.
  Letters written by Eline stated the opposite of what Marian spoke to her. From her grandmother's words, Eline was this sweet woman who loved everyone in her life, but she loved too hard. Her downfall was also love, which eventually killed her. Words from Eline's letter admitted to loving the wrong people, but she also admitted to letting go of that love.
  At a young age, Asha's mother was so in love with a friend that she grew up with, a woman that she thought she could've trusted.
  My heart soaked, words written in one of Eline's letters, it absorbed all the unnecessary love that it didn't want to let go. I was so afraid to be alone. I was so afraid to become like my mother that I settled for bleach, soaking in its lethal love with my pain-stricken heart, knowing that it wasn't good for me.
  Asha converted into an emotional woman with years slowly sliding down the cheeks of her face as she sat next to her grannie, having unnerving memories of all the letters that her mother wrote, letters that she kept put away at her house. She gripped tightly onto Marian's hand as her heart couldn't handle the heartbreak and misery that her mother faced when she loved people who hurt her so much.
  "Marian," she called to her grandma, "do you recall Eline writing any letters before she had me, or even after she had me?"
  Gently rubbing her granddaughter's veiny hand, "Not that I recall, but I wouldn't be surprised. She loved keeping secrets from me—especially her father."
  Taking her Anna's precious duty, Asha rested on Marian's covered shoulder, wishing that she could've met her mother before she killed herself.
  During her visit with her grandmother, not one time did Asha get angry. All the letters that Eline wrote before and after she gave birth to Asha was what really brought on her anger issues. It was way before the chaos that happened fifteen years ago.
  Not wanting to cause her heart anymore heart damage from thinking about her mother, Asha released herself from depending on Marian's shoulder, removing herself from the couch.
  "Where you going, sweetie," her grandmother became depressed quickly, "I miss spending time with you. I thought that we were going to have a Dateline marathon or re-watch our favorite drama Murder Mystery."
  "Work," Asha upsettingly explained to her grandmother why she had to end her stay short, "you remember I own a restaurant now. I have to get back there with my fiancée."
  Understanding that she has bills to pay, Marian allowed her to leave, feeling miserable all over again inside.