South of the Sun
Oh, please gods, don't let me be pregnant, she thought.The smell of vomit lingered in the air.She flushed the toilet again.Please just let me have the cold or something. I don't want a baby as a Christmas present.
Oh fuck, no.
It was true. She was pregnant.
She vomited again into the toilet. The smell still lingered in the bathroom.
"God damn it, those Germans!" her mother yelled from the living room. Her stepfather's influence, she thought. She hated him. Ever since he came into the family, it all got even worse. She left to go to school, the ground still covered in a pure white snow that had fallen overnight.
During lunch she pulled her boyfriend Percy aside to an unoccupied table. "Percy, we've got to talk. I've got to tell you something. Promise me you won't freak out or anything okay."
"What is it honey?"
"I'm pregnant." she whispered.
"How'd that happen?" Percy asked.
She made her eyes a little bigger and glared directly at him as if she were trying to say, "You know damn well how it happened, and don't try and deny it."
"I thought we were, you know, safe."
"Well, I guess we weren't, were we."
The lunch bell rang and Annabeth went on to her home economics class. God. Not home economics, she thought. Anything but home economics. The class had just started on the chapter about pre-natal development.
After School
"Hey, Annabeth. Do you want me to carry your stuff for ya?"
"Yeah," she replied. "Thanks."
They walked for a little while in the snow, not saying a word.
"You want me to be there when you tell your mom?"
"No, I think I'll be able to handle it."
"Well, here we are," Percy said.
"Here we are," she repeated.
Spontaneously, Percy bent in and kissed her fully on the lips. "Mmm." he said. "Cherry chapstick. I like that." Both of them laughed.
She didn't want to leave him, but found herself walking into her home and waving goodbye as he walked away.
"Ahem!"
Her illusion quickly broke and turning around saw her mother. She was holding the very out of date home pregnancy box in her hand. I thought I had thrown that away, she thought.
"And what is this?"
She decided to say nothing.
"Why would you even need something like this?"
"Yeah, Mom, I'm pregnant."
"Whose is it?" her mother said weakly, overpowered by her strong outburst.
"The test? Don't you think I know that you have a whole box of those things in a box in the basement. Or the baby? Get with the picture mom, I have a boyfriend."
"What will your father say?" There was a rush of fear or panic in her voice as if her mom hadn't heard a word she had said.
Annabeth burst. "How the hell would anyone supposed to know what he would say. He hasn't been around for eight years."
This would've happened sooner or later. She took a deep breath, "What? Were you worried it might be a German boy I might have met? A 'Kraut'? It couldn't be much worse, I'm already the daughter of a racist."
"Don't you dare talk to me like that young lady." her mother said furiously.
"Or what?" Annabeth retorted. "You'll kick me out? You don't have to bother, I'm leaving."
"You'll be back," her mother tried to retort. "You don't know how good you've had it here."
"I guess I'll just have to marry into money then. I'll get a big child support check out of that." She had said it just because it would hurt her mom the most. Before the Ring of Fire her mom had made a living off of her dad's child support.
Her mother raised her hand as if she was going to slap her, but Annabeth walked out the front door, not looking back once.
Sally Jackson opened the door. Annabeth was standing outside. It looked like she had been crying and at the moment she was shivering.
"Mrs. Jackson, Is Percy home? I've got no place else to go."
"Sure, come inside," she said. "Would you like something warm to drink?"
"Yes," Annabeth said shaking, watching Mrs. Jackson went into the kitchen. How would Percy's mom react?
She saw Percy was walking down the stairs. "What happened?"
"I told my mom, she freaked. I just couldn't stand any more of her racist bullshit either so I just left." She paused, Had he even told his mom yet? "Have you told your mom yet?" she asked.
Percy shook his head no.
"Told me what?" a voice came from the kitchen. Annabeth and Percy were caught like a deer in the headlights. Busted, a tiny voice in Annabeth's head remarked.
"Um... Mom, it's about Annabeth and me," Percy began. "Annabeth's pregnant."
His mother just stood there for a moment. Annabeth expected her to get mad and kick both Annabeth and Percy out. "Are you okay dear?" Mrs. Bellamy asked her.
Annabeth wasn't prepared for niceness. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted to get away from my mom. I didn't want any more of her racist bullshit. And I told her that… well basically."
Sally guffawed. "It's about time. That woman had it coming to her."
"You must be hungry," she continued, "did you have any lunch yet?"
Annabeth shook her head.
"Well, I'll go make you a sandwich and you can tell me more about it."
"You aren't going to kick me out are you?" Annabeth asked.
"Oh, heavens no. You two do plan on getting married right?"
Annabeth looked over into Percy's soft, blue eyes. They reassured her that, yes; she would want to spend the rest of her life with him.
Marcantonio's Pizza, Late December
The company has no direction, Chris Fleming though t to himself aimlessly through the streets of New York. Worse, they were opening a company in Austrailia and thy had nobody to run it
He stumbled into a pizza shop that he hadn't bothering to look at the name of.
"Can I help you sir?" a young woman inquired.
Clas casually looked at the menu on the table. "A small cheese pizza, please." His mind wondered. Who should I send to Austrailia?
"And what would you like to drink with that?" the waitress asked.
"Just water." he replied.
"Okay, it will be a few minutes." She answered and walked over to a nearby table where a young man sat. Chris couldn't help but overhear. That boy looks familiar.
"Hi honey," the waitress said, leaning down to give the young man a kiss. "Do you want the usual, bacon on cheese?"
"You know me too well." he answered.
She laughed. "Well I should, seeing as we're just married"
Chris hadn't been paying much attention to their conversation, but was instead looking at the man trying to place him. It struck him like a lightning bolt. That's Paul's son, he realized.
He leaned back. Paul's a good man. Great leader too. Then an idea popped into his head. Maybe I could ask his son her if he would like to go on a voyage.
Marcantonio's Pizza, January
"So," Annabeth said giggling. "What kind of pizza would you like Mr. Jackson?"
"Well, Mrs. Jackson, I would like a plain cheese pizza, of course."
"Okay, honey," she said smiling. "I'll get that right out to you as soon as I can, and then it will about time for me to get off for lunch break. Then we can eat together."
' To our last pizza in New York" she toasted.
Nico sat at a table in a nearby corner. New York was not precisely like his friend's letter. As soon as he and his family had gotten in this god awful place, he learned that Anton had fallen ill and passed away shortly after sending the letter.
Worse yet, it was hard finding a job. It was his wife who had wound up finding employment that brought in the income. Nico was glad, but also felt ashamed. Not of his wife, but of himself.
A few minutes later, present
"Say", Percy yelled, slightly buzzed, to the depressed looking Russian sitting in the corner. "How would you like a fresh start?"
"No thanks, I already tried that once." The Russian stated.
"Come, on. If you join up you'll be one of the first employees and they always wind up running the place"
Running the place, Nico thought.
"So, if me and my family join your expedition to Austrailia, we'll have a prominent position in the company?"
"Yeah, sure."
"I have to ask, why me?"
"We need all the people we can get."Percy stood up to leave and handed them a card. "The ship leaves in a few weeks. When you make you decision just call."
Early February, New York
Alice Bleacher looked at all of the monstrous ships in the harbor they were heading to. "Mom," she asked in her chipper little girl voice, "Which one is ours?"
"It's that one over near the end of the harbor" her mom replied, patting her gently on the shoulder as the three of them were walking.
"We're going to take this boat to South Africa," her father said, wiping his hands on his apron, his fingers brushing past the embroidered three-toed foot, meant to represent the holy trinity. "People are going to be needed. We are clearly not welcome here, not much better in New York, maybe Austrailia will be kinder.
Alice thought to herself happily. So rich, I could even become a princess. She clung tightly to the Alice in Wonderland picture books she had gotten for her tenth birthday last year.
The Bleacher packed on board along with a couple of the other Cagot families.
Off of Southern coast of Africa, Late May
"Momma, I'm not feeling very well." Alice said. Her mom looked weaker and weaker by the day. Her father was bedridden. She could feel him slowly vanishing, but still with a smile on his face, like a Cheshire cat. "Just eat your fruit dear," her mother said weakly.
"I don't want to. That fruit we got in that market tastes weird to me." she complained.
"That's only because you've never had it before." her mother said forcing Alice to eat the fruit.
A few days Later, near the tip of South Africa, Early July
Alice woke up feeling groggy but better than she had for the past couple of days. Her parents were still in their sleeping areas. She went over to them, thinking that she might surprise them awake.
Their skin was paler than ever, and their eyes were sunken in. "Mom, dad, wake up!" she said loudly.
"Mom, Dad, wake up" she said earnestly shaking them. They seemed heavy and harder to push.
Percy and Annabeth were nearby and rushed over to see what was wrong. They took a look at Alice's parents. Annabeth hugged Alice as tightly as she could. "I'm so sorry Alice"
Alice raised her arm to wipe away the tears around her eyes but she couldn't seem to dry her tears.
Alice remembered Joshua. He was another cagot, as well as a carpenter. He was speaking words about her dead mom and dad.
"We strive to be like our saviour in our daily lives, constantly asking ourselves 'What would Christ do?'. For some, it lead to being carpenters, like our lord. For others, like the ones we lay to rest today, were lead to make works spotless and pure."
Joshua made a three fingered cross over the crowd and stepped back and allowed the captain, who stood in as an official minister, to speak.
"We therefore commit their bodies to the deep, looking for the resurrection of the body, when the Sea shall give up her dead, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."
Her mom and dad's bodies were tipped over and fell into the ocean.
"It's okay, Alice, we'll take care of you." Percy and Annabeth told her. She held them tighter, crying. As the world around her fell apart, she clung tightly to any debris that she could find.