And She Died Again ¦✔

~13~ Angst

Since I was born I started to decay.
Now nothing ever ever goes my way

One fluid gesture, like stepping back in time.
Trapped in amber, petrified.
And still not satisfied

Airs and social graces, elocution so divine.
I'll stick to my needle, and my favorite waste of time,
both spineless and sublime.
Since I was born I started to decay.
Now nothing ever - ever goes my way

~Placebo "Teenage Angst"

Like Ana Perla had anticipated, the late morning sun stretched on for hours. There she sat on a rather uncomfortable chair with the most forcefully sweet smile she could muster- plastered on her face as she listened to the tarradiddles she was quite sure the mayor had just made up.

"The Del Rosarios have been of great help to the citizens of Woodwave. And from some trusted sources, I've come to know how much your family contributed to the development of this town, even before it became known as Woodwave. I'm very much pleased to be in your presence Miss Del Rosario," the mayor said.

"Call me Ana Perla," she said lifting her tea filled cup to her cherry tinted lips with the poise and elegance of a hotel heiress. She turned to look at the mayor's wife who was undoubtedly very displeased with how she was easefully talking to her husband. Ana Perla bit back a nasty comment and gave the mayor's wife her most charming smile.

"I understand you are not married?" Mrs Lutherfield said as she struggled to cut the stiff sausage on her plate with her cutlery.

"I understand it has got nothing to do with do you," Ana Perla said, her smile faltering, "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing I just think it's bad for a lady as old you to be unmarried. I married Henry when I was only but twenty," Mrs Lutherfield answered, a stupid smile on her face.

Ana Perla grimaced, she couldn't help the tears that slowly gathered in her eyes, "Don't mind her Ana she's only doing this to get to you," she heard Alicia say. She shifted her gaze to her, the smile Alicia gave her was assuring enough to give her the courage she needed. "Mrs Lutherfield I hate to say this but I think you really lack patience, you should have waited for a while or were you afraid Henry would have met someone as sweet and softspoken as I am?" She knew she had struck a nerve but continued with her little speech, "Patience I know is a great virtue, I wonder how Henry deals with you when you lack this very important temperament,"

"This is outrageous, Henry did you just hear that?" Mrs Lutherfield asked her husband who frantically ate his food, indicating that he wanted nothing to do with their childish drollness.

Ana Perla smiled, "I'm sorry but rushing into marriage is not something I would like to do," she said still smiling. She crossed her slender legs and winked at Ali, who was bent over the table laughing her heart out.

This gesture didn't go unnoticed by Mrs Lutherfield, she glared at Ana Perla for what she thought was a wink directed towards her husband. "I admire your patience, but what of children? I heard old women suffer a great deal during childbirth."

"Then I might as well get ready for that, thanks for the heads up,"

"Well it's never too late," the mayor added with an uncomfortable smile, "You have a rather beautiful house," he observed, steering the conversation from the atrocious topic of marriage.

"Thanks Henry," Ana Perla said, savoring the epicurean taste of the syrupy pancake as it melted on her tongue. It made her feel so alive, like she had nothing to worry about. Brenda definitely knew how speak through her sumptuous meals, and right now what the pancakes kept telling her was that Mrs Lutherfield was a distasteful woman whose eyes were larger than her head which by her observation- wasn't that small. She laughed at the thought and attacked the rest of her pancakes in earnestness whereupon she drunk her honeyed tea when she felt her throat dry up.