EVERMORE ─ marvel

VII. Hard & Complicated

Chapter Seven
Josephine

"Jo?" I hear Baba's voice ask from the other side of my bedroom door.

"I'm here, Baba, come in." I tell him, setting my book down on my bed. I've been trudging my way through the Odyssey. It's been a nightmare, I welcome a break from it.

Baba slips inside my room, his face filled with concern. He's wearing his Jabari uniform, so I'm assuming he just got home. He never wears it around the house. There's an anticipated look in his eyes, like he's been waiting to talk to me all day. Baba has always been like that; he wants to talk everything through, not hold anything back, be as open as possible. Dad and I aren't really like that, we like to be alone when we're angry or upset. I guess it's a good thing we have someone like Baba to level us out.

Baba comes over to my bed and sits down next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, pulling me towards his side. "How are you doing?"

"Just peachy." I mutter sarcastically.

"Do you want to talk about what happened last night?"

After the dinner incident, Dad and Baba flew me home to Wakanda. I've pretty much been in my room ever since, neither one of my fathers have pushed me to talk yet, and I'm glad. I haven't wanted to talk about what happened, with them or anyone else. I haven't even talked to my musketeers.

But I guess I have to eventually, and if I do it now I don't have to see the concern and distress in Baba's eyes anymore, so I nod glumly. "I don't know what happened. I just snapped. All these weeks I've kept it together, but seeing the house I was born in, seeing baby pictures, seeing my nursery. I just got so angry."

"You have every right to be angry."

"It's so hard, not one part of this has been easy. From the moment I learned who my birth parents were, my life got so complicated. I just wish things could be easier."

Baba rubs my arm gently, planting a kiss on the top of my head. "Easy and uncomplicated don't necessarily mean better. When I met your Dad, I led a very simple life. I got roped into complicated, and often life threatening, situations because of him, your aunt, and your uncle. But even though my life became harder and more complicated, I was glad for it. All of us wish our lives and the people in them could be perfect, but it's our imperfections in an imperfect world that make life so beautiful and filled with adventure."

"So you think having Daniel in my life will make life more beautiful and filled with adventure?"

"I think that you shouldn't shy away from having a relationship with Daniel just because it's complicated. Yes, having a relationship with him is hard, but so are a great many things in life that are wonderful. You could have a real connection with him if you only open yourself up to him, and learn to forgive him."

"I can't." I whisper.

"Why not?"

"Because what does that make me if I do? If I forgive him and my mother for all they've done, then it makes me just as bad as they are. They did such terrible things, things that go against every moral code I have, that hurt me and others like me."

"There is a difference between forgiving someone for their past actions and condoning those actions," Baba argues. It's truly astonishing to me how he has an answer for everything, how wise he is. The only other person I know who is like that is Aunt Soroya. I've always thought she and Baba were cut from the same cloth. "You can forgive your father and your mother while still believing what they did was wrong. And to Daniel's credit, I think he believes that he was wrong as well."