Another Beauty and the BEAST story

Chapter II

Gabriela stood a few meters away from me, dressed in a fancy red and black dress, spinning a matching sun-umbrella on her shoulder, and waved at me. Her black hair was on top of her head in a complicated hairstyle that could not be comfortable.
Behind her, her tiny friend Stella carried the rest of Gabriela's clothes, pushing her way-too-big glasses up on her big nose constantly. Gabriela was the daughter of a famous hunter around these parts, whom is said to be able to kill every beast that existed in this universe, and given her fathers successful job she had earned great respect and ranking in the society of our small provincial town. And for some reason, she had caught interest in me and my "crazy" mother.
"Jack, darling, where have you been? I've been looking for you! I've been meaning to ask you something," Gabriela said way to loud, and Philippe snorted disapprovingly behind my back. Me head agreed, but I didn't say anything out loud.
"I've been helping my mother-," I started to explain, but almost bit my own tongue off as Gabriela stepped in way to close and winked her eyelashes at me. In my stupidity, I forgot to hide my book away properly in my satchel, that hung behind me on Philippe's fence. My eyes darted towards it, and Gabriela noticed.
Before I could grab it, she took hold of the book and flipped bored through the fragile pages. My whole body trembled.
"How can you read this? There's hardly any pictures!" Gabriela exhaled and threw the book away into the paddock. Philippe, my trusty big horse, noticed and darted away, to catch it with his mouth a few moments before it landed in a puddle of mud. I exhaled relief and praised my thanks to Philippe in my mind.
"You don't always have to have pictures to enjoy a book, some people use their own imagination," I reminded Gabriela and stepped a pace back to get away from her and closer to my horse and my book. Philippe walked warily towards me, eying Gabriela suspiciously.
"It's not right for a man like yourself to read. Soon you'll be getting ideas and imagining some adventurous life that does not exist, and go crazy like your mother," Gabriela mocked in a playful tone. I frowned.
"My mother is not crazy!" I hissed at her. Gabriela waved my silly resistance away with her umbrella.
"Jack, it's about time you forget those shameful books and start thinking about more important things... Like me, for example," Gabriela said in an overconfident voice and winked her eyelashes at me once more, and I resisted the urge to vomit all over her shiny shoes. "How about you and I go for a stroll through town, and maybe look at all the hunting trophies my papa has brought home to our tavern?" She offered with a glittery smile.
"No thanks, I have to help my mother finish her machine before the convention next week," I explained and took another step back.
"Yeah, she needs all the help she can get, that old crazy woman," Stella stepped up and said. Both of the girls started laughing loudly.
"Hey! Don't talk about my mother that way!" I burst out, spitting the words at them. Behind me, Philippe laid his ears flat against his head in his most aggressive grimace and snorted angrily at the two girls, obviously feeling my rage.
"Yeah, Stella! Don't insult Jack's mother!" Gabriela quickly added before slapping the little girl over the cheek. Both of them backed away from Philippe's gritted teeth though, and I made a mental note to give him an armful of carrots later tonight.
"My mother is not crazy, she is simply to smart for you to comprehend!" I continued, just as another explosion went off in the background. Gabriela and Stella started laughing loudly again, and I turned my back towards them and rushed back to my house.
"Mother?" I called in the opening to the basement.
"It works! It works! Jack - IT WORKS!" My mother exclaimed somewhere inside the smoke welling out of our basement. I waved some of it away, to find the machine mother has been working on steaming and chugging like an engine should, chopping up firewood and throwing it onto the pile in the back of the room.
"Mother! This is amazing! Now you can win first prize on the convention! I knew you could do it!" I said and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. We both laughed and danced around in the small area, temporarily forgetting the hateful words said outside a few minutes ago.
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My mother left for the convention that same day, saddling up on Philippe with her invention being carried behind him on our old carriage. I waved them off as they set off down the well used dirt road that led out of our little town, stretching out in between fields and forests. I even managed to thank Philippe for his assistance earlier with Gabriela, by complimenting him and giving him lots off carrots.
A few days passed, and I took care of the little farm, the chores as familiar as the small little indents on the wooden pillars staking the roof above our heads, where Mother had marked my height since I was born. I cleaned the house, fed the animals, watered and cleaned our little field of unwanted weeds and watered the flowers surrounding our house. I took the sheep out of their paddock to eat on the grass field on the other side of town, letting both them and me get som exercise. And when I had done all of those things, I sat on the railing of our porch, my back leaned against the pillar, reading. Occasionally a few people would pass by, ask a few polite questions and then make their way towards the town. Without Philippe to ride, the trip to the bookshop took longer than usual, so I only went once during those few days.
The owner of the bookshop was a small little man with big glasses and little hair still growing on his head. Despite his age, he was one of the most alert persons in town, and I liked him a lot. Not only for letting me borrow his books without any sort of payment, but also for not judging me, or ever thinking that I was strange or unwell for my fantasies or lack of interest for marriage.
But then one day, when I was comfortably tucked down in our rocking chair, standing in the corner of the living room, it knocked on my door. It was a firm knock, so I imagined it would be a man.
Boy, was I wrong.
Opening the door I was met by Gabriela, standing outside flashing her most flirtatious smile at me. She was dressed in white and had a bouquet of flowers in her arms. I raised my eyebrows at her, and before I had the chance to say anything she invited herself into my home and sat herself down on one of the chairs by the dining table.
"Good morning, Gabriela. What a pleasant... Surprise," I moaned and closed the door, not noticing the crowd of people hiding behind the vegetation in front of my house. The chickens cackled outside in their usual way.
"Well, I'm just full of surprises, dear Jack," She pauses for a second, watching me anxiously standing on the other side of the table, not wanting to sit so near her.
"You know, there's a lot of young males who would love to be in your shoes. This is the day your dreams come true!" She exclaimed, pausing only to watch her appearance in the mirror hanging on a nearby wall. I looked down at my feet, feeling satisfaction rage in my bloodstream as I noticed I did not wear any shoes. A small victory, but enough to cheer me up a little.
"Oh, what do you know about my dreams, Gabriela?" I sighed at last and threw a longing look out the window at the freedom waiting just around the river bend in the valley.
"Plenty! Imagine this: you coming home to a rustic lodge, the latest kill roasting on the fire, your little wife massaging your feet while the little ones play with the dogs," Gabriela stands up and pushes her face close to mine, grabbing my shirt in her fingers from the other side of the table. "We'll have six or seven."
"Dogs?" I stutter, trying my hardest to hide my disgust at the idea.
"No! Children, of course. Beautiful children that can carry on our legacy," Gabriela says and let go of my shirt. I take a step back when she comes around the table and glares me down with her brown eyes.
"Huh, imagine that", I say, grabbing my book from one of the side tables and brushing of some dust from the worn pages. I make a mark in it before putting int back into the bookshelf, making sure that Gabriela can't hurt it. When I turn back around she comes walking toward me with firm steps. I back away until my back is pinned against the wall.
"And do you know who I will be the wife to?" Gabriela asks and raises one of her plucked eyebrows.
"Let me think," I say sarcastically as she corners me against the wall. She smells like bad and expensive perfume.
"You, Jack!" Once again I resist the urge to cough and laugh at that ridiculous thought.
"I'm speechless, Gabriela... I really don't know what to say," I push out before ducking under Gabriela's outstretched arms and fleeing towards the front door.
"That's easy, just say you'll marry me," Gabriela says as she pushes a chair out of the way to chase me. She pins me up against the front door. I blindly reach for the doorknob with my left hand.
"But Gabriela... I don't deserve you..." I stall while finding the doorknob. With one fast movement I twist the door open, stepping out of the way as Gabriela stumbles out on the porch, loses her balance and tumbles down the steps to land on the dirty trail leading up to our house. Stains now cover her, probably expensive, dress. An orchestra lead by Stella start playing, and the townsfolk start cheering before realizing what happened.
I slam the door in their faces, fleeing out the back door, away from the responsibilities that society has drowned me in. Standing on the field of grass in the back, overlooking the view of the birch forests and the glittering river, my restless heart start to calm down. I sit down in the grass, hiding my face in my hands, wishing for a way to escape it all. A few sheep, including a small newborn lamb, walks up to me and start to eat around me, the sound of their teeth chewing the grass calming. The lamb lays itself down beside me, with its small fluffy head in my lap. I pat it affectionately behind its ears.
"Can you believe it? She asked me to marry her! Me, the husband to that boorish, brainless... Monsieur Gabriela, can't you just see it? Monsieur Gabriela, her little husband. Not me, no sir, I guarantee that I will never agree to marry someone like her!" I say to the sheep. They chew in agreement, the little lamb breathing warm air on my hand as it falls asleep. I continue to pet it, slowly calming down.
Little do I know of the events taking place, not too far, from where I'm sitting.