Parallel [ONC 2020] // Shortlisted

Chapter Nineteen

With the shawl pulled tightly around my shoulders, I made my way down the stairs and back to the entranceway where Mother and Father stood looking at Luke. The old grandfather clock which had belonged to our Great Grandmother lay in pieces on the floor and Luke stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking somewhat sheepish.

"What on earth happened?" I asked, relaxing my grip on the shawl and letting it fall across my upper arm.

"Your brother got a little to excited and knocked the clock over. This is why we don't take you anywhere, Luke, you cannot be trusted to behave at home and certainly not in front of other people. We would have been disgraced if you demonstrated this sort of behaviour at the theatre," Mother said.

"It was an accident!"

"An accident or not, you will be staying here. We are going to be late enough as it is. You shall receive your punishment when we return. Harriet, come."

Mother turned and headed towards the door as Father placed his hat on his head and followed her without so much as a word to Luke. Discipline had always fallen to Mother, but I knew Luke wanted Father to say something to defend him on his mistake, but he didn't. I looked from the clock pieces on the floor to Luke who remained sheepish in the corner, not even looking up at me as I passed by him to follow my parents to the carriage.

I reached the door and felt a strange tug at the base of my stomach, something telling me that leaving Luke behind or leaving him in such a way would do far more harm than good. We may not have always agreed with one another and been in more arguments then I care to admit, but I did not want to leave for a fun trip to the theatre whilst he awaited a punishment from Mother upon our return. Neither of us liked waiting for a punishment and he would have to spend over two hours waiting. That wasn't fair.

Instead of joining Mother and Father outside to get into the carriage, I turned back inside and watched Luke. He rocked back and forth on his heels as though expecting something to happen, despite what Mother had said. I watched as he knotted his fingers together, a usual sign that he was a anxious about what was to come, but he didn't seem to notice me standing in the doorway, not that I blamed him. Luke tried to refrain from eye contact if he could help it and it got worse when he knew he was in trouble.

"Harriet! We will be late to the theatre if you do not hurry up! We cannot be late to this show, it will give us a bad look," Mother said as she reappeared in the doorway.

"I think Luke should come with us. It is not fair to leave him with the staff whilst we have a nice evening out at the theatre. He is older enough to attend and he'll learn more about behaving in company if he never spends time in other people's company."

"We do not have time for this, Harriet."

"Then make time. You said you do not want to give us a bad look and yet by not bringing your second child to the theatre, you are the one giving us a bad look. How will society look at you if they never see Luke in person?"

"What had gotten into you today? You never talk back to me and I certainly did not raise you to be so disrespectful."

"If you won't allow Luke to come to the theatre, then I'm not going either. It doesn't seem fair."

Mother looked at me with a raised eyebrow, a face she would never usually pull as she did not want to cause frown lines. I kept my face as straight as I could to try and convince her that she could not intimidate me no matter how hard she may have tried. The idea of either Luke or myself standing up to Mother had never happened before, but something deep down was telling me that I had to defend my brother. He had never experienced the things I had by his age and it only seemed right that he had been given that chance.

Neither Mother nor I wanted to break first but our time to get to the theatre before the show started was quickly dissipating and I know she hated to be late for anything. She lowered her eyebrow and looked between Luke and me as though trying to decide just what to do with an unruly daughter and a son who couldn't sit still for longer than five minutes. Together we were most likely her worst nightmare, neither of us were fulfilling her dream of the perfect child.

"Alright, fine. We don't have time to stand here arguing. Luke, go and change and be quick about it. We will be waiting for you in the carriage and if you are not there within ten minutes, we will be leaving without you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

Without so much as a word or glance in my direction, Mother turned around and stalked back through the door to the carriage that had been sitting idle. Luke looked up at me and grinned, bouncing on the toes of his feet in excitement at the concept of going to the theatre for the first time in his life. There were many things he had yet to experience and I hoped that this would be the first thing of many that he would be able to attend. If Mother expected him to do well in society then he would have to be introduced to society first.

"Thank you, Harriet!" Luke exclaimed, wrapping his arms around my waist. Something in my pocket rustled

"Your welcome. Go on, go and get changed or you won't be going."

The smile never left Luke's face as he ran up the stairs to his room to change into something a little more suitable for the theatre. Once he was out of sight, I reached into the pocket of my dress and dug out a small square of what seemed like paper. Only it wasn't paper. On one side was a strange coating that made the paper slightly shiny and in a small coloured square as a photograph.

My eyes scanned over the photograph, taking in the clothing and hairstyles of those involved. It all seemed so different from the clothing I had on or from those I had seen around me. I looked a little closer at the faces in the photograph, unsure as to where it may have come from since photographs were all done in black and white in seat positions due to the time it took to capture the photograph. One of the people in the photographs looked just like me, but with her hair pulled back in a plait and wearing glasses with a thick black frame.

Written at the bottom of the photograph were three names. Mitch, Harriet, Ricky

I had no idea how I came to have this photograph, or just what it may have meant, but there was something about it that seemed familiar. I just didn't know what it was or why something that seemed to foreign had ended up in my dress pocket.

However it may have ended up there, would remaina mystery but I put it back in my pocket with the intention of never letting itout of my sight.