FORTUNE: A FREENBECKY STORY

Chapter 34 👵🏽

She trembled as she knocked on the door. After a couple of minutes someone approached the door and it opened slowly. A woman was standing in the doorway with her eyes wide. She recognised Becky and Becky recognised her.

"Becky?!" She said.
"Aunt Mind?" Becky replied
"Come in!! What are you doing here? Did your Ma send you? You didn't have to come we just moved in yesterday and we know you guys have been dealing with a lot" she continued

Becky walked into the house shocked to see her family. She quietly sat in the living room looking around.

"Do you want a drink? How's your Ma? And Richie?" She continued
"Ah uh, fine" Becky replied

Becky's Aunty Mind was actually her second cousin but she was much older than her so she called her Aunty.

Mind brought in a tray of drinks and set them on the table as her grandaunt entered the room. Her grandaunt lit up when she saw Becky and walked straight over to Becky to give her a hug and a kiss.

"Which one do you want?" Mind asked
"Urm.. aunt Mind... I'm not here to visit.." Becky said

Mind took a seat next to grandaunt and said "what's the matter? Has something happened?"
"No but..." Becky hesitated

Becky pulled out a genie essence from her pocket and held it up infront of both of their eyes.

Grandaunt began to wear a worried expression.
"What's that?" Mind said
"Well urmmm... it's hard to explain.. I—" Becky said struggling to get her words out

"It's a piece of Marlin's essence" her grandaunt interrupted

Becky looked over at her grandaunt.
"Uh, yeah, it is" Becky said
"Can you give us a moment Mind." grandaunt said

Mind stood up and scurried into the kitchen. Grandaunt stood up and sat next to Becky then placed her hand on her lap.
"So you know?" She said
"Uh, yeah" Becky replied

Grandaunt sighed, "I'm so sorry"
"Urmm.. it's okay, I'm trying to find the rest of Marlin's essences. Ma said that if we unite all of his essence we can stop the curse" Becky replied
"Yes, I've tried before" she replied
"What do you mean?" Becky said

"Years ago, when my mother, your great grandmother, was still alive and we were still little girls - she explained the curse and told my sister and I that it would kill her and every third generation first born daughter, so my sister's granddaughter. You. We both chased after a way to stop the curse. At first we tried to find all of Marlin's essence but could not. So we started to research and experiment on the 4 essences we did own. We started a research company with a university friend, with the purpose of breaking the curse. A few years later my sister forced me to stop the research." Grandaunt explained.

Becky was taken back. She leaned forward.
"Why?! And why doesn't anyone in the family know about it?" Becky asked
"Well... the reason she instructed me to stop the research is because she decided it would be better for the rest of her family not to know. Our mother lived her short life knowing that she was going to die young. She didn't want that for the rest of her family. She had given up. She wanted to let things happen as they were going to happen because knowing about it seemed more painful than chucking it up to fate. So I promised to do the same." She concluded

Becky clenched her fist. She was conflicted about that answer. She wasn't sure if knowing earlier may have changed anything but she felt slighted.

"You said you had an essence? That's why I'm here. I tracked it." Becky said bringing out her machine
"Uh yes, I do." She replied

Grandaunt looked at Becky's essence tracker.
"Wow, this is smart" she said "you remind me of her, my mother, she had so much more to offer the world than she was allowed to"

Becky sat up in the chair. "Grandaunt, can I have it? The essence you own?"
Grandaunt did not reply. She got up and went into a back room while Becky waited.

After a few minutes she reappeared with a similar bottle to Becky's in her hand, carrying Marlin's essence. She held it out to Becky and Becky reached out to grab it.

"On one condition, once you're able to break the curse, you have to stop using it" she said
"Okay" Becky replied
"I mean it, genie magic is dangerous, it can do scary things to people influenced by it or in possession of it, promise me you will only use it to break the curse"
"I promise" Becky said

Becky exited the house and entered Baitoey's car. She did it. She had 6 out of the 7 essences needed to bring her Da back. She knew where the last one was. It was with Freen. She knew she had been dismissive and unfair to Freen the last time they saw each other so was sure that Freen would not be willing to help her.

They drove home silently as previously requested by Becky and when they arrived back at Becky's family home Becky jumped out of the car.

When Becky entered the house all the lights were off. Ma and Richie had already gone to bed. The only light that remained was the one coming from her room.

As soon as she entered her room she saw Irin waiting for her inside. Irin jumped at her and gave her a long and warm hug.

"Get off me" Becky said
"No" Irin replied
Becky relented
"How did you get in here by the way?" Becky asked
"Richie let me in" Irin replied
"I'm sure you loved that." Becky said
"I thoroughly enjoyed it" Irin said
"Sicko" Becky said

After a few more seconds Irin finally let go of Becky. "I'm going to wash up" Becky said

Irin was not phased by the walls Becky had put up. She was just about the only person outside of her family that Becky knew she could not fool with her protective walls. Irin had known her since they were both toddlers, there was no fooling her.

When Becky emerged from the bathroom she walked over to Irin immediately.
"what did you need to tell me?" Becky said
"Well... I'm not sure if I should or not but since I guided your impressions of her previously I think it's the right thing to do" Irin began
"Right... what then?" Becky said

"When you were in London Freen came to see me" Irin said
"And?" Becky asked
"Well she told me something" Irin continued
"What?" Becky replied
"She's not exactly what I thought she was, she's not the player she used to be it seems" Irin said
"Spit it out Irin" Becky insisted

"She told me she was head over heels in love with you" Irin concluded