chapt.4
For the next few days, Riff never took his eyes off me. Every chance he got, he would ask me how I was, how I felt. He was over protective but it was enough to keep me from lapsing into another bout of depression. He kept me way clear of Columbia, but she wasn't around much anyway. She spent the nights out of the castle, so after about a week he let me back into my own room. (It was only later that I found out about Eddie.) It was hard to spend time alone, but I was never really by my self, and I was kept busy enough that I didn't have much time to dwell on my darker thoughts. The only one that kept it's self ever present in my mind was that some day very soon, Frank's reign was going to end. I wasn't sure exactly what my brother had in mind, but I knew he was clever enough to keep our idea submerged until the opportune moment. About two weeks after Columbia and I had our "altercation" I ran into her one evening as she was coming in the door after another of her almost nightly excursions. She wasn't sure how to react in my presence and I wasn't sure about her. A brief expression of concern showed on her face, but disappeared and was replaced by her sweet but fake smile. "Hey", she said and began to walk past me up the stairs. I called her back.
"Columbia", I started unsure of what I should say but I had started and now I had to continue. Finish what you've started flashed through my brain. It was a haunting line to me, one Riff used on me many times in order to keep me from getting distracted from my work. It was also a line Frank used on me the one time he tried to seduce me. That one line held several meanings to me and none of them I particularly liked. Finish what? I wondered to myself but I was pulled out of my thoughts by a voice from the stairwell.
"Um, Mags? Did you want something?"
I looked at her and then I remembered what I wanted to ask her. "Yes, uh, where do you go every night? You've spent most of your free time out of the castle, I was just wondering what you do." 'Whom you see' is more like it I thought. Her eyes went a little wider and then she blushed. Not the response I was expecting.
"I, well, since Frank simply ignores me most of the time I took it upon myself to go find someone else." She stated it with such certainty that I was caught a little off guard. I didn't even think she knew Frank wasn't terribly interested in her anymore.
"Oh, I see. Well did you? Find someone else I mean." She smiled a little and then she said: "Yes, well I think I did. He um, his name's Eddie." She blushed and giggled slightly. Eddie? The delivery boy? Whatever did she see in him? Now I was very surprised.
"Eddie? As in Frank's new delivery boy Eddie?" I asked.
"Yes, yes that's him." She looked down at the stairs.
"Sorry, I'm just a little bit surprised that's all. I mean I didn't think you knew that Frank, well that he just wasn't interested anymore. I didn't know...." I trailed off and began "admiring" the art on the walls. She looked at me funny then she said:
"Yeah, there's a whole lot you don't know about me. 'Night Mags." She turned and walked up the stairs. Curious as to what she was referring too in her last statement I followed her. We arrived at the door to our room at the same time. She heard me coming and whipped around. "Magenta why are you following me?" her voice was hushed and a look of fear flickered in her eyes. Remembering the last time we were alone in our room, it didn't surprise me that she was scared. I tried not to look offended. "Look, Columbia I need to talk to you. I know how you feel about this situation, and I'm sorry for what happened. I've talked to my brother a lot and I'm getting better. You were right, there is so much that I don't know about you, but lately you've made me curious, I know this is strange coming from me, but maybe if I knew you better things would be different." She was staring at me wide eyed and then she muttered more to herself than to me "what are you on?" I heard it, and immediately I could feel the heat rising in my face. She must have realized that I had heard her because she turned such a deep shade of scarlet and had to look down at the floor. "Oh Mags, I'm so sorry, it's just that I never thought you'd even look at me twice, but now that you want to have a serious talk with me, that's um, well it's weird." She chanced a glance in my direction and caught my gaze, but I looked away.
"Can we move into the room, instead of the hall, that is, if you want to?" This situation was awkward at best and now she didn't even think I was serious. There was one question I had to ask her, but I wasn't sure whether she'd answer it truthfully or not. She was right about one thing; I was taking some sort of anti-depressant though I wasn't sure it was having the right effect. It certainly wasn't making me any happier. It was my brother who kept me on it and I didn't bother asking questions. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and followed her into our room.