Disclaimer: Not mine.
Have you met life today?
"My brother did what?" Marron Chestnut clutched the telephone receiver in her fist until her knuckles turned into white little knobs. Her insides trembled as she started out the sliding glass door of her hotel room, but the tropical beauty of the Coconut Islands lent her none of the serenity it had since her arrival.
"Marron – " the elderly female voice on the other end of the phone line held a calming intonation "I want you to stop and take a deep breath. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours since you found out about Braun and Bura's... accident."
Swallowing around a painful lump of emotion in her throat, Marron closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. Her brother and his wife were dead. The realization had hardly had a chance to sink in. Marron's teeth clenched tight against the agonizing ache in her chest.
The person on the other end of the telephone was a friend, she reminded herself. It was okay to express to Lunch all the overwhelming grief she was feeling over the sudden death of Braun and Bura. But, once again, Marron found herself unable to confide her innermost feelings.
"Sit down," Lunch softly commanded.
Marron's knees bent of her own volition and she sank onto the upholstered chair beside the desk. Her mind raced with a thousand questions – questions that weren't able to form completely before being overrun by another and another. It was impossible to think coherently.
"I knew I shouldn't have opened your letter."
Lunch seemed to be talking to herself, and although the woman's voice barely penetrated her wretched stupor, Marron felt instinctive urge to comfort her.
"But I asked you to." The words sounded rusty and grating to Marron's ears. "There wasn't time to forward it. And there won't be time for me to stop in Maple City." It seemed as though someone else was speaking instead of herself, so distant and hushed was her voice. "I'll be flying straight to Willow and then renting a car..."
"Has the storm cleared enough for the airport to open?" Lunch asked.
"Not yet. All the airlines are still on standby."
Lunch sighed. "It won't be long. You'll be on your way soon."
She swallowed with difficulty. "I'm all packed. I have all my notes together about the restaurants I visited. And what recipes I could gather. Some chefs are so protective. I'm sure I have enough information to finish the article."
Dear Kami, she was babbling. Her nerves were frayed and her thinking hazy to the point that she was talking nonsense. Who cared if she wrote the article or not? The editors at Bon Appetit would understand, wouldn't they? She'd just been notified of a death in her immediate family...
Immediate family. To most people, those two words meant warm, close ties. But to Marron... Suddenly the cold, empty loneliness that engulfed her was not only overwhelming, but also frightening.
"Oh, Marron – " suppressed emotion crackled in her voice like erratic sparks "I hope I arrive in time for the memorial service."
She heard her friend heave a commiserating sigh.
"It seems all the arrangements were stipulated in your brother's will," Lunch said. "No funeral. And a memorial service for family and friends to be held within forty-eight hours of..." Here she let the sentence fade with yet another sigh.
The original purpose of Lunch's call came to mind, clearing up some of the fog that had enveloped Marron's brain. She tipped up her chin. Her voice seemed to gain strength as she said, "Read the letter again, Lunch. The important part, anyway."
Lunch cleared her throat with a gravelly sound. "You have been named by Braun Chestnut and Bura Chestnut as co-guardian of Epuron Chestnut –"
"Little Ron," Marron whispered.
She fought back the panic that welled in her chest, but like unrelenting waves crashing against the sandy beach, her anxiety built higher and higher.
"I don't know anything about babies, Lunch," she said. "I've only been out of college three years. Travelling all over the place." Her insides began to quake. "I don't have a home. I rent a room, for kami's sake. Where am I going to keep a baby?"
An unbidden memory swamped her, and suddenly she was back at little Ron's christening feeling awkward and clumsy and extremely inadequate as she held her brother's child in her arms. She remembered how hurt she felt as Braun, Bura and Trunks Vegeta, Bura's brother, had laughed at her lack of maternal instincts. She'd been embarrassed by their good-natured jeering, but Marron had to admit that their opinions had been correct – she didn't have an ounce of knowledge where children were concerned.
"That poor little boy would be at a terrible disadvantage having me as his –" She stopped abruptly. "How am I ever going to –" Again she stopped. "I couldn't possibly continue to travel –" Her breath seemed to catch in her throat and she gasped, failing even to keep her hysteria at bay. "What's going to happen when –"
"Marron, stop this," Lunch softly chided. "Everything's going to be okay. The letter said co-guardian." She emphasized the prefix.
"Yes, yes," Marron whispered, latching on to this small ray of hope with both hands.
"Do you have any idea who else might be named?"
Robin nodded vigorously even though Lunch was thousands of miles away and unable to se through the telephone lines. "Bura's parents," she said emphatically. "My brother's in-laws live in the same town. I'm sure it's them."
"The baby's grandparents," Lunch said. "See there, you have nothing to worry about. Grandparents love their grandchildren."
Again, Marron found herself nodding. "Mr. and Mrs. Vegeta do love Ron." Relief flooded her until she thought she'd cry, but she succeeded in warding off the tears. "And they're very nice people. I met them at Braun and Bura's wedding and then again at Ron's christening."
"You have nothing to worry about then, do you? The little fella's grandparents have experience with children, and he knows them. He's comfortable with them." Her words lightened considerably. "There should be no reason you can't continue traveling for the magazine."
Marron thought a moment. "It would probably make things easier for Mr. and Mrs. Vegeta if I were to sign over all rights to them. I mean, I trust them implicitly to take good care of the baby."
"When you stay calm," Lunch commented gently, "all kinds of options come to mind."
Now it was Marron's turn to sigh. "I feel so much better about this whole thing."
ShortPants told me to come back, so here I am... lurking in the cobwebs. Nobody probably remembers me anymore hehehe But still, all the stories I put here are not conventional in the sense that I tweak Marron to let her not be her usual cute self. She can't be perfect all the time, can she? That would be massively unfair. And I'm evil.