Ella was staring at the grandfather clock across the room and as it struck eight, she heaved a sigh, wiping her red nose on her sleeve. Scarlett was seated at the desk, her pen scratching across the leather-bound ledger, her brow furrowed in concentration. After several unsuccessful attempts to catch her mother's eye, Ella began clicking her tongue.

"Stop that."

Ella heaved another sigh, fidgeting in silence for a few moments before standing up. She waltzed to the mantelpiece, picking up the solitary snow globe.

"Put it down," Scarlett said without looking up.

"I'm bored."

"Go play with Susie."

"I want big brother."

"Your brother will be joining us very soon."

"When?"

"Mark my words, he will. It's only a matter of time."

"But when?"

"Ella-"

"Sorry, mother," she grumbled.

"I know you're bored, darling. But there's nothing we can do now."

"We could play a game."

"What sort of game were you thinking?"

"I don't know."

"Well, think of one then. I suppose anything's fine so long as it doesn't involve terrifying the poor hens."

"That was, that was an accident," Ella said, blushing.

"Maybe I could just ask you things."

"You've been doing that all day."

Ella's face bled to crimson.

Scarlett surveyed her daughter before sighing, putting her pen down. "Alright darling, but only until supper's ready."

"What did you want to be when you grew up?"

"I don't know. I never really thought about that when I was your age."

"What am I going to be?"

"Well, you're going to be a lady like your grandmother and get married and-"

"I don't want to get married and be a lady. I want to be President!"

"Wha-" Scarlett burst into a gale of laughter.

Ella flushed angrily, going rigid as a board as she clenched her fists. "Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm sorry darling," she choked, "I just, where on earth did you get an idea like that?"

"Cousin Beau wanted to be President and when I said I did too, he told me I couldn't because I was a girl." She folded her arms. "I don't see how being a girl has anything to do with it."

"I'm afraid it does; it's a man's world, after all...or so they say," she muttered.

"But why can't girls do the same things boys could? It isn't fair."

"Life isn't fair, darling," Scarlett replied, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Perhaps you can marry the President."

"Meh. Maybe I could be a lawyer like Wade and Uncle Henry!"

"Maybe you can," Scarlett mumbled, her attentions returning to the ledger.

"How did father ask you?"

"What?"

"How did father ask you to marry him?"

"I actually asked him."

"Oh! Can girls do that?"

"No, but I did."

"Wow," she cooed, her eyes sparkling with wonder and admiration.

"Did you ask Rhett too?" Scarlett couldn't help but laugh.

"No, quite the opposite."

"Do you remember when he asked you?"

"I'll remember it 'til my dying day," she replied, grinning.

"How did he ask you?"

"On one knee."

"Oh!" Ella exclaimed, clasping her hands together, her eyes full of stars, "Like knights do to their ladies."

"Yes." I also had had too much to drink and your father had been in the next room. Not the most romantic of circumstances if you ask me.

"Did he have flowers and everything?"

"Er, not exactly."

"Did you say yes?"

"Well, I couldn't say no."

"Why not?"

"I just couldn't. Rhett could be very persuasive."

"What's Uncle Ashley going to do?"

"How do you mean?"

Ella peeked at her beneath her lashes.

"You know..."

"That man...if he had any sense, he ought to have remarried long ago. Beau still needs a mother and the house is a disaster. God knows that India has tried her best, but it seems that she's as suited to housework as he is..."

"But you haven't either, Mother," Ella replied innocently, tucking a finger in her mouth.

"Who on earth am I going to marry?"

"You could marry Uncle Will."

Scarlett glanced at the open door. "Don't let your Aunt Sue hear that."

"Why not?"

"Your Uncle Will is already married."

"Oh, but can't you marry him too?"

"They don't allow that sort of thing here."

"But Aunt Beatrice told me in Utah-"

Scarlett set her pen down, pinching the area between her eyes. "This isn't Utah and besides, it's wrong."

"Why?"

"It just is."

"You're always saying that," she huffed. "Adults are always talking about how things are, but never how they should be." Scarlett raised an eyebrow, wondering what sort of talk this was.

"You could marry Uncle Ashley."

And now it was Scarlett's turn to sigh.

"Has Beau been talking to you?"

"No," Ella replied, sashaying from side to side.

"I will not be marrying your Uncle Ashley. Not now. Not ever."

"But you said you loved him."

"That was a long time ago. And you'll find, sweetling, that love isn't everything."

"But Aunt Melly said that true love is forever."

"Nothing is forever."

"Do you think we'll ever see Rhett again?" There was naught but silence as Scarlett crossed out several figures.

"There are days when I do see him."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"Is Bonnie there too?"

"Sometimes."

It was always the same: weak, indistinct voices that were interspersed with Pitty's sobs, the sweet rotten stench of incense and flowers that had clung to her throat; Wade's shoelaces had been untied and Ella had been hungry.

"What happens when you see them?"

"We sing and laugh and play games-"

"And then?"

"I wake up."

"Oh," Ella said, looking crestfallen.

Scarlett sat back, stretching. "But it appears that I will have to remarry."

"Why?"

"I've been alone for too long."

"But you were never alone, Mother. You've always had me and big brother."

"I know but...someday, you'll understand."

"Won't he be angry?"

"I think he'll care as much as he did that night."

"What has Rhett been writing?"

"Why don't you ask Wade?"

"I tried asking him but he won't tell me and Uncle Ashley-"

"You're not bothering your Uncle Ashley with this, are you?"

"But he would know what he's saying, wouldn't he?" Scarlett winced.

"No. He wouldn't."

"Mother," she began hesitantly, "what did Rhett say to you when he went away?"

She shut the ledger.

"He said that he was tired."

"Of what?"

"Of everything."

Scarlett stood, coming towards her daughter and Ella stared in frank curiosity as she knelt down, grasping her by the shoulders.

"What are you-"

"Love only yourself and fight only for yourself."

"But you said-"

"Listen to what I am telling you now."

"Your Aunt Melly knew the risks. Your Uncle Ashley did as well, but she went through with it because she wanted another baby; she wanted someone else to love and it cost her her life. Don't you ever do that, Ella. There's only one of you and at the end, you're all that you're going to have left."

"Aunt Melly said that children are life itself and that everybody dies, but we didn't have to be sad because we would see each other again, that there was another world out there for all of us."

"Your Aunt Melly was wrong. And chock full of morphine, from the sound of it. There is nothing worth more than your own life. This life is all that matters because there is nothing after we die. Nothing."

"This," she said, gesturing about the room, "is all we have, all that we can hope for."

"Then," Ella whispered, "what's the point of everything?"

"There isn't any."

"Then how do we go on?"

"You find a way."

"How did you do it, Mother?" Ella asked, looking into Scarlett's face but her mother wasn't looking at her anymore. She was was staring out the window; her eyes were glass and when she spoke, her voice was hardly above a whisper, "I just...keep moving forward."

"And don't put all of your eggs in one basket."

"What does that mean?"

"Don't put too much of yourself into one person."

"Is that what he did?

"Yes, and it destroyed him. It destroyed us all."

"Why are you telling me all this now?"

"I don't want you to get hurt."

"Ella. Someday, it will be as if the world has ended but when that happens, you must remember that it hasn't. You can leave. You can get out. Don't be like me. Don't be like the rest of us. Don't hold on to something that is no longer there."

"Just like your Aunt Beatrice...she lost all of her boys and she lost her dear Nelly but she still found a way to go on."

"But that's because she had Uncle Jim."

Scarlett's grip tightened.

"And what will she do once he is gone? You can't count on anyone for anything, let alone for your happiness. He had a light; your Uncle Ashley did as well and when it was gone, their hearts died too, but we don't have to be that way. People fall in love and marry twice, three times; they all act as if that's taboo, a sacrilege against the dead, but it isn't. Don't we have a right to live as they all did? We don't have to die just because that one person is gone."

"Mother, it hurts," Ella said, squirming.

"You and your brother still have time. Use it well. Don't run after what you cannot have."

"Mother-"

"Do you understand me?" she said, shaking her.

"Scarlett, is everything alright?" Suellen was at the door, frowning.

"Yes, I was just...clearing up a few things."

"Well," she began, eyeing her sister doubtfully, "dinner's ready."

Scarlett stood. "Go eat your supper, dear. I'll be right behind you."

"Yes, mother."

As their footsteps died away, Scarlett crossed the room to the window: a thick fog was crawling across the landscape, its tantalizing fingers beckoning to her. She shivered.