Tears for the Broken:
Chapter 1: Comfort in Misery
There he stood, leaning haphazardly on the black, silvered topped cane in danger of falling apart. He was forcing back tears that threatened to erupt from his face without notice. The lilies in his finely gloved hand quivered and sway as the vibrations of his hand, made them do so. There was a roughly etched gravestone, barely visible in the hazy due of the morning. I watched him for several, still, unyielding hours before finally approaching him ever so softly and gently placed my delicately adorned white-gloved hand upon his shoulder.
"Let them out, Oswald, before you explode and hurt the ones closest to you.", my voice was even and soft.
"Why did she have to die?", he choked back a sob before letting it come forth and unburdened himself emotionally for the next several minutes.
"That's a boy, let out those tears and let them water her grave." I soothed him gently and kindly.
I was by his side through all his misery and pain. He won and lost his mayorship. Edward Nygma hated him forever because Oswald couldn't love him back. Not that Oswald was to blame; he did say that he disliked riddles immensely. The reality of the situation was Oswald was afraid to love because of his last love; Jim Gordon, the overly zealous hero cop who was trying to nobly and tirelessly keep Gotham safe from the ugliness that had a tendency to seep through the facade of a well-mannered and well-functioning city that was supposed to be Gotham, wanted Leslie Thompkins not Oswald.
Oswald sniffled, "I wish that I wasn't so sensitive all the time...*Sigh*...", he trailed off lost in thought.
I stayed quiet not knowing what to say or do with this new input from a man who could be cold and distant yet warm like honey. My midnight black slacks and pearl gray short, slightly puffed sleeved blouse gently billowed in the cool light breeze that had slightly picked-up as we stood still and unyielding. His pin-stripped plum gray suit with glints of silver softly puckered in the breeze.
My dark chocolate and caramel eyes searched his now placid features and found not a trace of tears. All they found were red-rimmed light aquamarine blue eyes that stared at the words etched on his mother's gravestone:
Gertrud Kapleput
Beloved Mother
His eyes grew icy, cold, and distant than warm and soft in a single instant. He took hold of my hand and gently squeezed it before looking at me and saying," Sara, I need you by my side when I begin creating the future I was meant to have. Will you stick by my side or desert me like all the others have?"
I smiled warmly, " Of course I will stay by your side as you create the future you were always meant to have. What are friends for?", I gently squeezed his hand in return and gently fixed his 'disco vampire' hairstyle that Stabby Babs was so fond of.
Oswald could be sweet at times; especially when he wasn't busy being the King of Gotham and cracking skulls from time to time. But, boy, was he grouchy though; don't even think about disturbing him when he wakes up in the morning unless you want to have an equally bad morning. As this train of thought passed me by we had walked all the way out of the cemetery and into the city again and made our way into a bakery.
"Aww, toasty warm," he murmured mostly to himself as he warmed his gloved hands.
"Aww, yes nice and toasty, it smells heavenly sweet too.", I echoed after him.
The man sitting behind the bakery counter had short, frizzy strawberry, champagne blonde hair, fair skin and light, tender stormy blue-gray eyes. The man was wearing a gray plum sweater paired with gray plum slacks. His pearl white apron was neatly tied around his waist in a perfect bow in the front. His shiny coal black dress shoes gleamed in the fading late afternoon light. Freckles generously sprinkled his nose and upper cheeks under his eyes.
He was eating a lemon-filled doughnut as he read today's Gotham Gazette. The headline read: PENGUIN: HERO OR MENACE? That was one laughable title. It seemed as if the Gazette didn't know what to write about so they pulled straws and wrote about the shortest straw. Enough about them though, for now.
"Hey, Benny, how about some doughnuts for your favorite customers?", I playfully hollered startling the poor man.
"I told you to never bug me when I am immersed in the complicated, corrupting inter-workings of the Gotham Gazette.", he was peeved.
"I sorry, but a baker shouldn't be that immersed in a paper named after this city,", I nonchalantly mused, after a beat, I turned towards Oswald, " No offense to you, of course, dear friend." I gently patted his left forearm.
Benny smiled, "You could have said that the King of Gotham wanted some doughnuts.", he set the paper and his have eaten lemon-filled doughnut on the counter and stood up, smoothing himself out as he did so.
"What can I serve the king of this great city, this evening?", Benny's smile widened and then went slack when Oswald laid his eyes on him.
"...*intake of breath*...well, I would love some raspberry creme filled chocolate puffed pastries, please, uh, Benny was it?", Oswald's gaze was sweet yet menacing at the same time.
Benny smile, "O-Of Course, sir, right away sir.", Benny went to back to retrieve a doughnut box, returning shortly with one in hand.
He gently placed the delicate chocolate puffed, raspberry filled pastries in the neatly folded maroon box. He added extra pastries to box of doughnuts before closing the box and set it on the counter and closed the pastry display.
"That will be $8.95 for the baker's dozen with five extra free of charge for yours truly Mr. Penguin.", Benny uneasily stated the price along with the five doughnut discount.
Oswald handed Benny a ten, "Keep the change Benny Boy...*pause*... these better be utterly delectable and be-made-today-fresh.", Oswald looked expectantly at Benny.
" I assure you, sir, that all my pastries are made in the early morning and ready to be sold by mid-morning brunch hour.", Benny smiled proudly.
Oswald sighed and took the box of pastries and signaled to me, with a flick of his wrist, that he wanted to leave now. I thanked Benny for the pastries and told him to stay out of trouble and behave himself. I joined Oswald shortly after the exchange of polite expressions. Being so close yet so far away from someone like Oswald was like trying to orbit a far off distant planet in another universe, frustrating and nearly impossible to attain such an orbit.
We walked in silence to his renovated apartment complex that was morphing into his Iceberg Lounge. It was forming quite nicely and should be operational in six months or so. We walked into the lobby and was greeted by Fish Mooney who was waiting tirelessly for her pastries.
"Finally, the man of the hour has brought me my pastries.", she smiled gleefully.
"Yes, my lady, your pastries are finally here. please save some for me.", Oswald politely greeted her with a smile spreading upon his slightly plump, slightly thin lips.
They greeted one another and exchanged pastries for the next several minutes. With Oswald satisfyingly indulged, for the time being, I retired to my study to file away unfinished paperwork for the night. When I was close to finishing my work for the night a slight knock disrupted my serenely quiet space. It was none other than Edward Nygma.
"Nygma, I was wondering where you ran off to. You have been away for three months collecting your thoughts.", my voice was soft and firm, yet playful at the same time.
"Oh, you know me, I was just filing away lessons. I guess...what I seek others can't have, yet what I have other's can't seek. What am I?", he spoke indifferently yet with a hint of confusion.
"Oh, Edward, why can't you say that you seek Oswald's approval without saying it in a riddle?", I felt tired and frustrated with Edward and his inability to speak his mind without the use of riddles. I nicknamed him Mr. Riddler because of constant use of riddles in his everyday dialogue.
"You know that I can't help myself, they just pop out of me like a neverending stream of insane mantra of television static and white noise.", he was irritated at my attitude towards his riddles.
"I know they do, but you could just say the word that you want to say instead masking it in a riddle. Besides you know that I am bad at logic.", I was bitter that he couldn't express himself healthily.
"Look, I only wanted to talk with Oswald again, but he refuses to see me because I made him seem like an idiot in from of his constituents when he was Mayor.", Edward seemed sad.
"I know you weren't trying to make him seem stupid, but Oswald took offense to the fact that he couldn't answer a simple riddle so he aimed that anger at you in order to keep from blaming himself.", I tried to explain the best I could. For trying to explain Oswald's actions was like trying to explain the universe to a pope. Frustrating and complicated.
"Do you really think I have a chance with Oswald?", Edward was holding on to hope that he and Oswald could be partners once again.
"Have you tried apologizing to Oswald for making him look a fool in front of the whole city?", I inquired fed up with Edward's patheticness yet slightly awed by his resounding composure and calmness.
"No, I didn't know how to apologize to him without sounding childish and annoying.", this time a tear fell down his right cheek and he looked down.
It was in that moment that I really felt sincerely for him. He was like a labradoodle, loyal and friendly and seeking affection from those around him. I walked over to him and hugged him. My head came to his shoulder. For a moment Edward froze and then thawed and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me in return. We stood there for a few more minutes before departing.
"Don't worry, Edward, you will always have a friend in me.", I gently straightened his tie and smiled up at him.
I could not hate him, I could only think kindly of him. He smiled back with kindness and sweet happiness gleaming his eyes. It was that moment when Oswald came in, "Sara, I...Edward? I was wondering when you would return to me.", Oswald gently and curtly smiled before entering the room and closing the door.