"You will be hearing of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."
– Matthew 24:6
Mallory's first memory had been the smell of grass and trees
"That's impossible," Her mother tells her with a laugh. She had only been four years old when they moved from Georgia to the sunny city of L.A to be closer with her sick grandmother.
But Mallory swears. "It's true" She can remember their little lake house, with the trees and the grass and the scent of fresh air, the lemon tree outside her window and the singing of birds every morning.
Her voice is deaf to her mother's ears and Mallory stops trying
It's pointless
Throughout the years, Mallory's life has been painfully dramatic; sometimes she can't help but wonder whether she has her own "Truman Show"
Her mother and grandmother are a dynamic duo whose forces she can't go against. Her mother, Beatrice is angry for letting her grandmother talk to her into teaching her palm reading, while her grandmother, Abby is furious with her mother for bringing home another man.
"I told you not to tell her about this nonsense!"
"Our ancestors are something you should be proud of! What you should be ashamed of was bringing that monkey man inside our home!"
"I'm young! I can see whomever I wanna see! And you two wouldn't be awake to see us if you weren't trying to brainwash my six year old daughter with the same bullshit that killed my sister!"
For a few seconds there's a stunned silence and Mallory comes forward with tears in her eyes.
"Momma, I don't want you and Granny fighting."
Beatrice's face softens as she takes her little girl into her arms. "We're not fighting, baby, we're just … arguing. Adults do that!"
"Your mother is just as stubborn as a goat, sweetling. No need for tears." Abby pats her back and shoots a warning glare at her daughter who avoids looking at her.
All of them go to bed and the next morning they all pretend as if nothing happened.
Mallory can't say she was surprised
In 2nd grade, Mallory has already fallen into category; she's one of the 'weird' kids.
It's not something she does, it's how she acts.
She is polite and nice to people like her momma taught her but she gets bored of their silly games easily.
She likes staring at the sky and finding shapes within the clouds, she likes helping the school with the plants and she is always up for volunteering.
Sometimes she's drawing during class but she hides her sketches because of past incidents with her teachers.
Apparently, her imagination is a bit disturbing
She would never forget the day her teacher pulled her mother to the side and gave her the picture she had drawn. Her teacher had been so concerned she almost called the police and social services and refused to let her leave.
It took almost an hour to convince that it was her gram's tales influencing her imagination
Her mother had been so upset that she refused to look at her during the whole car ride. Mallory promises not to draw anything else in class.
For what is worth, Mallory keeps her word and her drawings to herself.
Abby Bennet is known as the kooky lady around the neighbourhood, but to Mallory, she is more than a grandmother with crazy stories; she's a listener, a guidance, and at the end, a friend.
"It was pathetic" She will lie to others when she is older because what preteen had her grandmother for a best friend?
Aside her freakish stories about witches, ghosts, and all the nonsense – her grandmother keeps going despite her mother's disapproval – Mallory loves spending time together.
The weekends belong to them; studying, painting, cooking together, taking care of their garden…
Her grams disapproves her mother's busy lifestyle; working all day at the hospital, trying to keep in touch with her friends while having failed attempts with dating men.
"It's so boring to be alone"
Her grams believes her mother should be focused solemnly on her. Mallory will never dare to say it aloud to her mother but she is glad. They don't really have anything in common and their quality time always ends up being awkward.
At some point, her mother gives up, much to grams' frustration, and Mallory can happily enjoy her free time either alone or with Grams
Today, it's Sunday.
It's sunny. Late afternoon with a typical L.A weather.
They are planting new bushes.
"Why roses?"
"A woman in the flower shop recommended it" Her grandmother starts. "…she showed me a picture of her own garden, full of rose bushes. A beautiful sight."
Mallory nods and encourages her to keep going. Grams has been acting oddly for the past few days and Mallory couldn't help but think of the worst. Has her health worsened under her nose?
Abby mixes compost with oil till she has formed a mound, losing herself in her thoughts
Mallory copies her movements, placing the bare root rose on the soil mound. Her hands hurts but she does not complain.
"Mom told me you went to the doctor last week," Mallory tells her quietly. "How did it go?"
Grams gives her a warm smile as she fills the hole with water. "Don't concern yourself with silly things, Mally"
"Your health is not silly" She protests with a frown, offended that her grandmother doesn't think of her health as a serious issue.
"It's the same thing, sweetling: take the pills, eat healthy, rest, etc, etc." She assures her with a dismissive tone, waving her dirty hand in the air.
Mallory pouts as she stares at her grams' hands making a soil mound over the plant; feeling suddenly guilty for not offering to do the whole thing herself.
She should be lying on bed, watching her favourite telenovela
"Perhaps you should go to bed then"
Her laugh startles her so much she almost drops the bottle of water. It's not one of her grandmother's usual laugh – warm, loud, and full of life – it's dry, almost bitter. "Nothing can make me sleep these days"
"Is it mom?" Mallory finally asks. Because who knows how many sleepless nights she has spend, listening these two arguing about every small detail.
At first, there's no response, other than rough movements, which make Mallory pity the poor flowers.
"I saw your drawings as I was cleaning your bedroom this morning."
Mallory closes her eyes, mentally cursing herself for being so thoughtless as to not hide her drawings somewhere as usual.
"A bleeding sky with dark crows, a woman with a crown of twelve stars and a red dragon with seven heads… How long?" She inquires, in a voice trembling with emotion.
Mallory stares at her in disbelief, unable to understand how she could get so worked up for this
"Grams, it was for a school project," She says slowly, as if explaining to a child. "My teacher read us 'The Woman and the Dragon from the bible and told us to recreate an artwork in order to see what we understood."
"No" replied she, with vehemence. "You know, deep down you-"
Mallory places her hand on her grams' back, rubbing her fragile body careful and gently
"I love your stories, Grams" Mallory tells her cautiously, knowing she had to tread carefully, "and I'm proud of where we're coming from but it's all… you know… stories."
"None of you understand!" Grams shakes her head furiously, yanking herself away from her. "I have seen it Mally! A huge pale snake taking you, and transforming into a monster with claws" Her voice continues to tremble, as if she is ready to cry. "He'll take you and I-I-"
"Grandma?" Mallory looks at her wide eyed as she tries to gasp for air. "Wait here, I'll bring you your pills!"
Mallory runs inside ignoring her gram' protests, feeling like the biggest idiot for causing this. She opens a drawer in the kitchen where she knows Grams keeps her medicine.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Her mother asks from behind her, unaware.
"Something's wrong with Grams. We were in the garden and-" she struggles to find the right words but her mother seems to understand for she rushes out of the house before she can even complete her sentence.
Mallory follows her. Gram had already become pale and had fallen on the ground. She notes however, that she no longer cries anymore, she was only staring at the mud with a blank expression on her face that sent her chills on her spine.
Her mother approaches and sooths her enough to take her upstairs. Mallory offers her the medicine but her mother only shake her head, "She just needs rest"
Mallory sits in front of the kitchen table, feeling like the biggest asshole in the planet. What was I thinking? Just because Grams acts all tough, it doesn't erase reality; she is old and her mentality is more fragile than ever.
There's a special place in hell for idiot like you
"How's Grams?" she asks as soon as her mother comes in.
"She's fine" She replies with an easygoing tone as she pours two cups of chocolate for them. "Mal, you need to understand that Grandma is old, she's not always going to be here."
Despite knowing that, Mallory still doesn't want to think about it. In every dream she has, Grams is always there, in her fantasies.
"I don't even know what happened," she replies instead. "She freaked out over a school project"
Her mother raises an eyebrow and guessed before taking a sip of her cocoa. "The one with the dragon?
At her nod, mother pokes her cheek, giving her a little smile. "For what is worth, it is a good drawing."
Mallory gasps, unused to being praised by her mother
"Don't look at me like that! I can appreciate a talent" A hand creeps up, and Mallory stares at her mother stroking her palm as if it was something alien. Her mother has never been the affectionate type.
"Will thinks so as well"
Oh
That explains it
Will Drake was her mother's new love interest
A fashion designer who moved in Los Angeles mainly because he was looking for inspiration, if Mallory had heard correctly
Sometimes it's hard to eavesdrop from upstairs
"I showed him those cute clothes you designed and he was impressed!" Her mother claps her hands in excitement in the same way she did when Mallory admitted to like Cheyenne, the guy her mother was seeing a month ago.
"You stole my sketches?" She feels a flash of irritation and something cracks from behind them but neither of them bothers to look.
"Stole!" She repeats the word with a scoff. "You always exaggerate, sweetie. I just bragged about my little girl" She pouts, crossing her arms
Sometimes Mallory wonders which of them is the adult and which the child.
"Perhaps you could go to an art school" Her mother keeps going, unaware of her patience slipping away.
She doesn't know whether to blame it on her hard day or her mother's bullshit but Mallory's fury springs to life. "You don't even like my drawings! You find them stupid and creepy!"
Her mother doesn't move an inch. She rolls her eyes and simply brushes few strands of hair away from her face. "Well, it would be a nice change to draw something other than silly figures. Clothes is a good start." She adds with an approving nod.
Her fists clenches and Mallory inhales a deep breath as she answers tightly. "They're shadows, not figures. And it's called having a goddamn fantasy!"
Her mother sits up straight, throwing her a glare. "Watch over your language, young lady"
Oh now she wants to play the mother
"You know what? This is pointless." She exclaims. "We're discussing my artistic skills when Grams had a breakdown and it's my fault!" Her shoulders drop and her mother lets out a long sigh as she gets up and come from behind her, her arms swallowing her into a hug.
"Don't mind your head about it" She tells her with a tone that leaves no room for arguments. " In the future, this will be a funny memory, you'll see. We'll all tell, «Remember that time grandma lost it over a school project during 6th grade?» and we'll all laugh"
That doesn't sound plausible but Mallory nods hopping to end this.
She want to go to her room and pretend the world doesn't exist
Satisfied, her mother leaves her and goes back to making crepes.
Mallory goes to her room, her footsteps feeling heavy as she passes from her grams' bedroom – she peaked inside only to find her asleep. She closed the door, not knowing whether she should feel relieved or disappointed.
Inside her room, Mallory feels like she can finally breathe but her eyes burn with tears.
She feels so exhausted she wants to cry; she's tired and angry, and a 13 year old cliché
Next thing she knows she'll think the world is against her.
Lips pressed into a hard line, Mallory grabs her notes from class and seat comfortable on her bed. She doesn't know what she's doing; she's not a believer: people are born, they grow old, and then they die.
Yet here she is, on her bed reading the mess that is the bible, trying to understand, trying to connect.
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre." And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus-
"This is ridiculous" Mallory scoffs at herself for wasting time. She throws the papers carelessly on the floor, unbothered that her mother will probably scold her tomorrow.
She lies down and turns on her tv, watching absentmindedly a show about four sorority girls being threatened by a red mascot as she tries to come up with a new way to make up to Grams.
She figures that after school, she'll ask her to show her again how to sew and knit; she hates it but Grams loves these things.
Relieved to finally have an idea for the next day; Mallory falls asleep just before Nick Jonas's character dies.
That night, she dreams of a rotten field with dry air, and a boy surrounding by snakes under the bleeding sky.
Notes:
The last piece is called 'The Woman and the Dragon' and is from Revelation 12
Mallory's last name is Bennet because it comes from Benedictus which means "blessed"
(finally my Latin were useful for something)
This takes place before Apocalypse but we'll get there eventually
Lastly, I'm dyslexic and English is not my mother tongue so forgive my mistakes
