Life On the Fjords

The Lovers

The one thing he hoped Elsa would never ask him about was the marks on his wrists. After a few more visits by the river, the two became more comfortable in each other's company and managed small talk, but Jack wouldn't dare delve into personal things again like that night. He didn't want the subject of his family coming up. All he shared with her was that he had two younger siblings and that they had a penchant for making messes directly after Jack had finished cleaning up.

At one point, Jack was certain Elsa had forgotten about them, for he made an extra effort to keep them concealed with his sleeves whenever they had their chats.

It was Elsa who did more of the talking, naturally, but Jack found her life to be quite interesting as she spoke of all the trouble she used to get into during her school days. Before she had a private tutor, Elsa went to a girl's boarding school. Instead of obeying any of her headmistress's instructions, Elsa liked to sneak out of her room at night and explore the building. There was also one girl who was always throwing a fit because she wasn't used to being away from her mother, so Elsa told her a story about how she coped with missing her own family by using an object they loved most to give them hugs and kisses. For Elsa, it had been her doll, and she told them whenever she hugged and kissed her doll, she was giving her mother and father a kiss, and that the other little girl could do the same.

Jack wound up sharing his own methods of calming down his siblings. All he'd have to say to get them to settle down was, "Do you wanna play a game?" Their ears would instantly prick up and he'd come up with whatever wild adventure for them to have on the spot so that he could get his chores done in peace. He'd send them to count all the things that were blue in the house, to look for spiders that might have taken up residence in the corners so they could put them back outside.

Jack's personal favorite game on days his patience was worn thin was the quiet game... or as Jack called it, 'sit down and shut up.'

Elsa didn't have any siblings, so his own tales were of fascination to her. It was strange to imagine having ones so much younger than herself as well, ones he had nothing in common with other than their parents. Jack would confess one thing to her, that he had trouble relating to Jamie and Mary, that their childhoods were far different than his... Sometimes he resented them for it, but he knew it wasn't their fault for having it so much easier.

When spring became summer, Jack's workload took up more of his time and he'd be too worn out by evening to make the trip to the river just to see her. He only went when they absolutely needed more water, and on those days he just wanted to get back home so he could end his day early.

Summer brought more than just heat and extra hours of the day, it brought back memories... Late June was strawberry season. Going up to the river this time of year still felt so foreign without his mother beside him. She would be humming or singing to herself as Jack would sprint excitedly up the hill to go berry-picking. Jamie and Mary never cared about what fruits were in season, so such activities weren't of interest. Jack wouldn't ask them to go anyway... Sometimes this time of year brought back pain along with those happy moments.

Did his mother think about this every summer? Did she miss coming up here every year just for the sole purpose of collecting some strawberries to have as a treat? These questions were swimming through his mind as Jack fixated on the running stream before him. He didn't have any reason to be up there other than it was his habit, but the peace of the moment was enough to make him stay a while.

He didn't have any more work that needed doing, Mary and Jamie were with friends, and the beast surely wouldn't come all the way out here and find him, only to go into a rant about how Jack ought to have forgotten that bitch by now and moved on as he did. It sent a fire into Jack's core every time he said such things about her. Bitch. Whore. Cunt. All of those words sent Jack into a frenzy and he swore he could feel his entire being going red from how much he wanted to throw the heaviest object he could lift at the beast and silence him.