Loving and Leaving Him

Chapter 8

I held the needles in my hands. They were my grandmother's they were the only thing she left behind. Today I was to learn how to knit and these were the only needles I wanted to use. Malory who was the only one in the family who knew how to knit had been begging me for months to let her teach me. I had always looked at my grandmother's needles as a sad memory now I was to make a new happy one with them.

"Okay Lacy to start you need to make a knot, like this." Malory had her own pair of knitting needles which she had gotten from Mother for Christmas the year we had left. The yarn she used was old and limp with age almost all colour had washed out leaving it a faded shade of pink and mine a dim purple.

"Now you want to cast on, it's really easy just watch me." I watched as the yarn came around Malory's small hand just barley grazing it. She picked the yarn up with her needle and in less then thirty seconds she had multiple stitches casted on.

"Now you try." Malory gave me a hopeful smile I repeated every step as she just did I took a bit longer and had multiple attempts until I had my stitches on. Malory carefully instructed me slowly on how to knit I was happy with the outcome of a small purple towel.

"Perfect Mels birthday is coming up! She loves purple!" 

"Especially light purple I'm sure she'll adore it Lace." Malory continued with her piece as I started to clean up the space around me. Our home was small but It was a good small cozy even. The large common with wooden walls and floors was where we spent almost all our time. This one room was a kitchen, dinning and living room all in one I loved the house but to others it was a mess.

"I miss our old life." Malory stared concentrated on her work but still talking to me.

"Well it was quite extravagant but you wouldn't remember most of it anyways... when we left you were only a child." I picked up one of Amelia's homemade dolls.

"Oh I remember a lot of it Lacy. I can remember the smell of fresh pastries in the morning when we sat down for breakfast. I remember the big giant bed I used to sleep in and how it felt like I was on a cloud. The beautiful garden outside with the tropical flowers and mazes of hedges I would get lost in on purpose just for a excuse to be out there. But the one thing I can really remember is the way the people looked at us when we walked outside into the city to do a speech or charity. The way their faces would light up no matter how old they were or if the were as poor as church mouse or as rich as the King we gave them hope. But we let them down now look they're homeless beaten and starving." Malory's happiness faded as she spoke facing our country's reality through her words. 

"So you do remember a lot. You know yesterday I asked Tuck if he remembered anything he told me that he remembered a dragon named Henry in our basement."

"Well I don't remember any dragon living under my feet so it must have been his secret." Malory's happiness came back to her you could see it in her face as it lit up. I let out some laughter so did Malory.

"It's late I'm gonna go to bed, so five more minutes okay." I told Malory then turned my back to her and headed up the tight uneven stairs.

The next morning was a hectic one filled with chaos. Today was my parent's anniversary their twenty second one to be exact. Every year we do the same thing Me and my siblings wake up extra early to make Mom and Dad breakfast in bed then we each give them small gifts. My favourite part though was the party which in spite of being in the middle of no where we still manage to pull off a delightful get to gether with the friends we have here. 

"Ace can you help me with his please." I turned to see my eleven year old brother who still called me by the name he tagged me with when he was a baby.

"Oh someone has been working on his manners." I smiled since unlike Me, Timothy, Malory and Marlee Tucker and Amelia had their edict lessons cut short so their manners where not as proper as they should be.

"Yeah Ma and Pa are gonna be impressed I'm gonna use them all day just for them!" Tucker said proudly I let out a small laugh and bent down to his height to help him tie his present. 

"You know Tuck you really should call them something a bit more proper just in case we go back to royalty. If the cameras caught you talking like that they'll eat you alive. You are really smart start acting like it okay?" I didn't mean to sound snooty but it did anyways luckily my words went right through Tucker's head.

"Guess what Ace! The world used to be divided into seven boundaries called continents! There was North America and South America, that's where Gillia is now. Then Europe which was their neighbour also present day Van Hall land. Then there was Asia which shared this really big landmass with Euorpe so that makes it Chang now. Then there was Africa which is now Carbon and the trading grounds which used to be a land called Australia! But the strangest thing is there was also two other landmasses called Antarctica which disappeared." Tucker's voice trailed off as his imagination got the best of him.

"Did you ever find out what happened?"

"What?" Tucker's mind snapped back to reality.

"Antarctica what happened to it?" I handed him his now wrapped present and smoothed his shirt out as best I could.

"Well I found this out from one of Pa's old books the date said it was from two thousand and thirteen which is pretty old. It said that the polar ice caps as they called them were melting from something called global warming but then it said that we had it under control. But then I looked at another one from two thousand and twenty it said that Antarctica melted in two thousand seventeen this is also what caused the war that brought us the royal kingdoms. In just seven years two huge chunks of ice melted Gillia used to be one big landmass it's also caused Australia to shrink now it's just trading grounds because it's so small. The water level rose so much whole islands disappeared!"

"I can see how this started a war. I also know that the war was actually started by protesters then the United States tried to pull in a environmentalist as president not to mention Russia had started war with the same country only a few years before!" I stood up and dusted my skirt off which was a habit I had after I stood up.

"I want to be a historian when I grow up!" Tucker said enthusiastically.

"If Dad had his way you would be a prince and future king all your life." I told my brother who would probably be the worst King since his mind was anywhere but where it was supposed to be. 

I walked with Tucker up the stairs and opened the door to find my family the people I loved the most gathered together in a hug. Tucker pulled me into the huddle I felt the warmth of a dozen hands protecting me. With my family I felt safe together we were strong but if we were alone that was a diferent story.