Hi there:)
Just wanted to point out that I made Nessa (and Boq) a year older so that she and Elphaba are closer together. And also, I just decided to change Melena and Frex's bloodlines so that Frex is the one born as the Thropp 2nd Descending, and Melena married into the Thropp family. Now... enjoy the 13th chapter...
Started writing: 23.12.2019
Finished writing: 25.12.2019
Chapter 13
Underhill
The thin paper of the letter was rustling in the pocket of her skirt as she moved, and Elphaba bit her lip. She glanced up at her parents and sister to check if they had heard the strange noise, but they were deeply engaged with eating their lunch.
Half a week had passed since Elphaba's arrival at the Thropp mansion, half a week that Elphaba had spent hankering for the arrival of her exam results (and hadn't been redeemed).
"Isn't it wonderful, the snow?" Momma said dreamily, and Father muttered in response.
A smile formed on Elphaba's lips. One that quickly fell when she heard the letter rustle in her pocket again.
And with a small hem, the green girl put down her cutlery, and her fingers found the thin paper of the letter. Her lips were pressed to a thin line when she pulled it out and placed it in front of her.
Nessa was the first one to notice the letter on the table.
"What's that, Fabala?" she asked curiously, and both Momma and Father looked up.
"It's a letter," Elphaba answered. "From Madame Morrible."
Her eyes found those of her mother and then her father. "I meant to give it to you when I first came back, but I... I forgot."
She was a bad liar. And she knew.
Momma's eyebrows slowly knit together. "What is it about?"
Quietly, choosing to let the letter answer the question, Elphaba handed the envelope to her mother, who opened it quickly with a sharp tear of her pinkie.
Momma and Father both leant close in order to read what was written inside, eyes widening with every single line that passed their sight.
Father finished first and looked up into the deep brown eyes of his daughter.
"This must be a joke," he said, but his lips pressed to a thin line gave away that he knew quite well it wasn't.
"I can't believe it," Momma whispered.
Nessa frowned in confusion. "What is it? What's going on?"
"That woman wants to take away Elphaba's private suite," Father exclaimed.
"And because of a stupid Winkie prince!" Momma added hotly.
Her eyes were sparkling with fury as she suddenly jumped up and began pacing up and down alongside the length of the table.
"That is a disaster, truly," she cried. "A disaster and nothing less. How can that sorry excuse for a Headshiztress think she could treat our daughter that way? Aren't these horrendible students enough? No, now that fish-woman has to make it even worse!"
Her voice was thick with the Gillikin accent she was proud to have gotten rid of over her years in Munchkinland, and the heels of her shoes thundered on the floor.
"I can't believe she would do this," she exclaimed in fury. "It's discriminating, it's wrong... gives away our daughter's private suite to the idiot prince who's going to leave in two months anyway, stupid and pampered and fu-"
"Melena!" Father interrupted hotly before she could finish the sentence.
Momma stood still, chest rising and falling with the air that seeped in and out of her lungs. Her cheeks were flushed, and her fists clenched and unclenched of their own accord.
"Well?" she challenged. "Am I not right? Don't you think that Elphaba's been treated differently because of the colour of her skin?"
Father slowly rose from his place, hands folded in front of him. "I do, of course, I do. But you're getting too caught up with this-"
Momma's eyes widened. "I am getting too caught up on this? No, Frex, I'm being caught up on this just enough to see the problem and have the nerve to act against it."
She had both her hands on her hips, and Elphaba could see her fingers dig into her hip bones as she spoke. "I'm going to write to Madame Morrible this instant, I won't let this go by unnoticed."
But whilst she spoke, Father quickly approached her and said, "Melena, no. We agreed that we wouldn't interfere. For Elphaba's sake."
"We agreed on nothing!" Momma exclaimed hotly. "You said it might be better to wait and see what's to happen next. I wanted to write to her, I still want it now."
She took two long steps towards the door, but Father caught her arm and held her back.
"No, Melena," he hurried to say, "We agreed to wait."
Elphaba bit her lower lip hard as she watched how her mother whirled around, hands raised in front of her.
"No, no, no, no, no!" the woman cried -shouted, almost. "You decided we would wait. I never agreed to anything, I merely said-"
"Oz, you won't bring up every single word we said, will you, now?" Father exclaimed.
"You decided," Momma said with vigour. "That's the point, Frex. You. Decided. As you always do."
Elphaba's brow knit in confusion as she watched her father take two steps towards Momma.
"Well, what else should I do, Melena?" said he. "Consult with you about every single decision I make? I'd be talking to you the whole day long."
Something flared up in Momma's eyes.
"And that would be a bad thing, I presume?" she snapped, snorting in disbelieving anger. "Talking to your wife?"
Father shook his head. "No, of course not."
But he was too late, trying to calm her down; she had already begun to seethe.
"You can talk to ministers, to farmers, to fishermen and millers, you debate with them for hours about the utmost ridiculous things! But to consult with your wife is too much to ask of you?!" she snapped, too loud, too fast.
And before Father could do so much as open his mouth, Momma had already continued.
"You know, Frex," she hissed. "with all your important meetings in the Emerald City and Brox Hall, your long stays, ...I genuinely think you're having an affair."
Elphaba's jaw dropped, and she heard Nessa gasp sharply beside her.
Father's eyes grew big.
"Melena!" he cried in disbelief and shock. "How dare you reproaching me for doing such a thing?! In front of the children."
Momma raised a hand, finger almost at Father's chest, ready to poke him as she snapped, "No, don't try and change the subject! Answer me; Have you been having an affair?"
Elphaba's jaw dropped even further, and she took her sister's hand, squeezing it.
"Of course not!" answered their father, hotly. "I love you; I could never do something like that to you. Or to our daughters."
Momma huffed and slowly sank into the armchair in the corner of the room, a hand covering a small part of her forehead as though she was trying to take her temperature.
"You haven't been showing that a lot lately," she said quietly and stared at her long fingers. "Ever since Elphaba left for college... you've been... distant."
"Because Elphaba is miserable!" Father exclaimed.
And Momma shot up again. "So am I, Frex! Or do you think I don't feel worried about her?!"
Elphaba slowly let go of Nessarose's hand and got up silently.
"Let's go," she whispered into her sister's ear, and they hurried out of the room.
Elphaba handed coat, scarf, boots, and gloves to her sister, who quickly pulled them on, and then spread a blanket over Nessa's legs so they wouldn't get cold.
When Elphaba was dressed, she scribbled a note ("Gone for a stroll.") onto a piece of paper, slipped into the dining room, and put it on her own unused plate.
As she returned to Nessarose, waiting in the hallway, she heard Momma and Father erupt in a loud disagreement. Not rarely she heard a swear word echoing through the dining room, and Elphaba quickly pushed the front door open and let her and her sister out into the cold.
"Has it been like that more often lately?" the green girl asked quietly when they were a few metres away.
Nessarose nodded. "I heard them arguing in Papa's study twice or so."
Elphaba looked at her fingers, brushed her hands together, and said with a sigh, "I feel awful."
Nessa frowned. "Why would you feel awful?"
"Well... because I am the one causing all this," she gestured at the mansion behind them and shook her head. "I shouldn't have said anything, it was-"
"This isn't about her, for goodness sake!"
Their mother's voice made both the sisters flinch. They had never before heard her raise her voice quite like that.
Quickly Elphaba took hold of the wheelchair and wheeled her sister through the snow, hurrying away from the mansion as fast as she could.
For some time, the two of them walked (and wheeled) in silence, and Elphaba saw how her sister wrung her hands in her lap.
"So ...how has school been going?" Elphaba said as casually as she dared to, and Nessa turned her head to look at her with a twisted smile.
"Very well, actually," the brunette girl said and looked down into her head in a sorry attempt to hide her excitement. "The headmaster said he would write me a letter of recommendation -for any university."
A smile formed on Elphaba's lips. "Really, Nessa? How wonderful!"
Nessarose nodded. "I know it really is. And I've been thinking... when Boq and I are going to get into Shiz... well, we would see each other every day, wouldn't we? And you wouldn't be so alone because you'd have Boq and me -and I wouldn't be so alone because I'd have the two of you and... it'd be perfect."
Her eyes glowed with such excitement and joy that Elphaba couldn't do anything but smile.
"Oh look," she said and pointed at something on the other side of the small road. "The willow is frozen."
And Oz, it was.
The large willow tree next to one of the smaller lakes that had a few of its branches hanging in the dark water had frozen dewdrops all over its bare branches, and the small ice crystals were sparkling in the daylight.
"It looks magical," Nessa whispered and took Elphaba's hand to squeeze it.
And it really did. Look magical that is. It looked like an enchanted place, a magnificent spot from another world that had tried to sneak into the lands of Oz.
"Fix this in your memory, Nessie," Elphaba said quietly. "For it probably won't appear again in quite the same way."
She waited a few moments and then began to wheel her sister away, further down the small street.
The streets of Rush Margins were almost completely deserted apart from a cat with black fur that sat on a window sill and stared at the two sisters in a somewhat arrogant way.
The cobbler's lay there without a single trace of light in the large windows, and when Elphaba had a peek inside, she could hardly see anything but a pair of leather boots on the work-bench and a few funny-looking instruments next to them.
"I wonder," Elphaba murmured. "if he's sick, the poor man."
"Come again?", Nessa said with a frown, but Elphaba waved a hand dismissively.
"Nothing important, Nessie."
"Should we stop by at the bakery?" her sister asked, and Elphaba shuddered to a halt. She quickly searched in her pockets for any coins, and when her fingers touched to cold metal, she nodded.
The Bakery lay at the market place just behind the large fountain and when the sisters entered the only customer -an old woman with rounded shoulders and a thin cloth covering her hair like all the witches in the fairy tale books had- slowly inched away from them. From Elphaba to be precise.
"Good afternoon," said Nessarose, and the old hag turned as though she had just noticed the two girls.
A smile formed on her lips. "Ah, dear Nessarose. How are you, my beauty?"
She did a very good job of ignoring Elphaba completely as she began her small chit-chat with Nessa.
"And what brings you here on this fair Sunday?" the old hag -Ellaine was her name if Elphaba remembered it correctly- asked.
"Well," said Nessa. "my sister and I just went for a short stroll and thought it a good idea to stop by."
"A very good idea indeed," sounded a new voice from behind the counter.
The baker's son stood there, dressed in a white apron and hat, and handed Ellaine a loaf of bread.
"Just as you ordered," he said, but Ellaine gave him a poisonous look.
"You're a slow worker, really," the old hag complained and made her way to the door. "I'll tell your father, I will."
And she was out the door.
Elphaba wrinkled her nose. "That old bag."
Then she looked up and at the baker's son.
Livander Groom was a handsome young man, she had to admit. He had short brown curls and fair, pale skin and a wonderful smile.
"Good afternoon, ladies," he said with a grin and leant over the counter. "What can I bring you?"
Elphaba gently nudged Nessa in her side, and the girl bent forward to study the range of goods.
"A croissant, if you please," she said, and Elphaba nodded.
"Make it two," she told Livander, and the boy nodded and disappeared into the storeroom.
After a few seconds, he came back with two croissants in his hands.
Elphaba handed him the coins before he could say anything.
"I don't need the change," she said offhand, and the baker's son raised his eyebrows.
But -of course- he didn't complain. Just put away the money and handed Elphaba the baked goods.
He winked at Nessa, and Nessa blushed, and Elphaba rolled her eyes.
"Good day," she said and held the door open for her sister.
"Have a lovely Lurlinemas," she heard the baker's son say and gave him a weak smile.
Then she looked down at Nessarose.
"You're smitten," she stated matter-of-factly, and Nessa whirled around in her chair.
"I'm not!" she exclaimed. "He is handsome; indeed, he is, but I'm not smitten."
Elphaba threw her head back in a laugh. "I was merely teasing you, Nessie."
She waited a few seconds before saying, "Do you want to save it or eat it now?"
"Save it," was the answer, and Nessa stared at her fingers. "I'm not that hungry right now."
Elphaba nodded. "Me neither."
The two sisters walked in silence for a few minutes as they made their way away from the market place and narrow streets into the fields.
The small path that led them to two of the three mills was shovelled free of the snow, and Nessa could easily follow it in her wheelchair.
"Oz, I haven't been out here in months," Elphaba murmured and added more loudly, "Say, how did the harvest go?"
Nessarose stopped and said thoughtfully, "Better than last year, that's for sure. But the farmers had to hurry because of the snow. It caught us all off guard -we had the first snow in late October already, but it melted away quickly. The corns wouldn't have survived it, though."
Elphaba's eyes widened. "In late October? Well, that's unusual, isn't it?"
Nessa nodded. "It really is. And the next few weeks Father had been so very busy with all the requests and complaints by the farmers. They had a really rough time. And -imagine that- Boq's father fell ill. It was horrible, really. The poor family had to harvest all alone."
"Bfee?" Elphaba said in shock. "Did he come down with the flu?"
Nessa shrugged. "I think he did. But he's better now, Boq told me."
The green girl sighed. "Oh, thank Oz. It would've been a disaster."
She shuddered to a halt to examine the mill that appeared on top of the hill. The windmill sail stood still, and the wood groaned when the wind shook it from the front.
For a moment, the two girls just watched the windmill sail shudder with a gust of wind, then Nessa said quietly, "I heard old Chopper died a few days ago."
Elphaba sighed. "Oz, not another broken mill."
Her sister elbowed her into her side. "Fabala, don't be so rude."
But Elphaba merely shrugged and pushed Nessa further up the hill.
"Poor Suzanna," whispered Nessa as they passed the mill. "She must be so alone over Lurlinemas."
Elphaba shook her head. "Suzanna hasn't been in the right state of mind for some time. She tends to forget everything. If life's mercy on her, she'll forget that Chopper has ever existed before she can even start to mourn his death."
And Nessa couldn't compete with that. She pressed her lips to a thin line and remained quiet -probably musing over what her sister had said.
"Don't you feel sorry for her?" Nessa asked after some time.
Elphaba shook her head.
"No, I'm afraid I don't," she said, "She always treated me the worst, so why should I now feel sorry for her -when she'd never felt sorry for me."
"As for Chopper," she added. "I'm quite surprised that he died so soon. He was much kinder than many of the living are."
And she shut her mouth and kept her eyes on the path before her -and her sister knew she wouldn't say any more to that matter.
The two sisters walked in silence for some time, each lost in her own trail of thoughts.
And then, by all sudden, the silence was cut off by a loud, booming voice sounding from some metres away.
"Miss Elphaba, Miss Nessarose!"
The two of them turned around, looking for the one that shouted after them. They knew the voice, but they didn't know whom it belonged to.
"Over here, my darlings!"
And finally, Elphaba spotted a slightly squatted woman, leaning against the fence with her knees and waving furiously at them.
"Oh look," Nessa exclaimed delightfully, "It's Boq's mother."
And the two of them turned around and hurried down the path until they stood right in front of the woman.
Mrs Underhill was a small woman -as was proper for a Munchkin by birth- with plump and rosy cheeks and kind blue eyes. She had red curls sticking out from her head, and a friendly smile curled up the corners of her red mouth.
"Why, look at you," Mrs Underhill exclaimed and pulled Elphaba and then Nessarose into a tight warm hug.
She took Elphaba's hand and squeezed it. "Haven't you grown up to become such stunningly beautiful young women."
Nessa blushed, Elphaba pressed her lips to a thin line.
"Come on," Mrs Underhill said and beckoned them through the garden and into the house, opening gate and front door for them. "Come on in. You must be freezing, right, my darlings?"
As the door closed behind them, the woman turned around and shouted, "Bfee! Bfee, come, we've got visitors."
"Oh, but Mrs Underhill," Elphaba hurried to say. "You mustn't bother him; he's still recovering from his illness, I'm sure."
But Mrs Underhill waved a hand dismissively and said, "Oh, that no-hoper can certainly welcome our guests."
And she ushered them through the hallway and into the kitchen where a small fire crackled in the fireplace.
She took their coats and scarves and threw them onto the armchair near the fireplace.
"Sit down, sit down," she told Elphaba and -for the lack of any chair in the kitchen- she pushed a bowl of dough to the side and invited the green girl to sit on the free spot of the kitchen counter.
So, whilst Elphaba hauled herself onto the counter, Mrs Underhill's husband Bfee entered the kitchen.
"The Thropp daughters," he said and hugged them both, though not as tightly as his wife had. "How lovely to see you."
"Mr Underhill," Nessa said with a smile. "I hope you've recovered well from the flu?"
The man nodded. "I'm as good as new."
He sneaked a hand into the bowl of dough and gave his wife a wink as she opened her mouth to protest.
"I must be going back to my work now," he said as he approached the door, a small bit of dough in his hands. "Much to be done, much to be done."
And he disappeared out the door.
Mrs Underhill rolled her eyes. "That man..."
But the love she held for him was clear, and Elphaba smiled.
Mrs Underhill began to knead the dough and said, "Do you want some of the apple pie I made this morning?"
Both Thropp sisters were ready to decline the offer, but the woman had already turned around and cut each of them a piece of the pie, handing it to them.
"Eat, my darlings. You're far too thin anyways," and she continued to knead the dough.
Elphaba threw Nessa an amused look, deep brown eyes sparkling as she sank her teeth into the delicious apple pie.
"You're off to Shiz, aren't you, Elphaba?" Mrs Underhill asked, and Elphaba nodded.
"I am," she said. "We just had our midterm exams and will start our second term after the holidays."
She watched as Mrs Underhill added some almonds to the smooth dough, nibbling on her piece of pie.
"You're enjoying studying there, I assume?" the woman asked and -before Elphaba could answer- added, "And they're all treating you respectfully?"
Elphaba averted her eyes.
"They're doing their best," she said quietly.
It was yet another lie. A small one, but a lie nonetheless. And Elphaba found two lies a day were far too much.
Mrs Underhill raised an eyebrow at the green girl but said nothing.
"Say, Elizia, what exactly are you baking?" Nessarose asked curiously and wheeled herself closer to the Munchkin woman.
"Biscuits," Mrs Underhill answered. "Just plain biscuits for the children."
Elphaba wrinkled her nose in amusement. Well, then the woman would have to bake a whole lot of biscuits.
Mr and Mrs Underhill had done a great job at... extending the family. Apart from Boq, there were four girls and another boy. Only one of the girls was older than Boq, one year apart from him. The youngest was the second boy, Manek, who was now ten years old.
"Now, what I meant to ask...," said Mrs Underhill, interrupting Elphaba's thoughts. "Why are the two of you wandering outside? Alone on a Sunday?"
Nessarose and Elphaba exchanged a quick look.
"Well...," Elphaba started. "There was a little... argument at lunch, so we decided to go for a stroll."
Mrs Underhill nodded slightly. "Oh, that was probably for the better, girls. Sometimes parents just have to fight, and the children shouldn't be forced to hear it."
She spoke like someone who knew what she was talking about.
Elphaba knit her brows and said quietly to herself, "Oh, but we heard."
Elphaba could almost feel the tension in the air as they entered the mansion sometime later when the sun had already sunk behind the horizon. The hallway and the staircase were dark, and it was absolutely quiet.
"Maybe they killed each other," Elphaba said drily and knew of the sharp nudge before she could feel it.
"Fabala," Nessa exclaimed in horror and grabbed her elbow. "That's not funny."
Elphaba sent her sister a weak grin, somehow twisted. She could feel her own heartbeat pounding against her ribcage. Was it worry that made her breath hitch and her throat tighten as she approached the door to the living room?
There was a thin line of light that shone through the small gap between the door and floor.
Slowly, almost hesitantly so, Elphaba opened the door and entered the living room.
A fire crackled in the fireplace and cast faint shadows on the barn red cushions of the sofa. And there on the sofa sat her father, elbow resting on the armrest and a book in his left hand.
Elphaba slowly stepped closer, steps muffled by the carpet. "Father?"
He turned his head just the slightest bit, and a weak smile formed on his lips.
"Girls," he whispered in delight. "Where have you been for so long?"
Nessa wheeled closer to the sofa. "We went for a stroll and bumped into Mrs Underhill."
Father nodded. A finger between the pages he was reading, he closed the book and tilted his head.
"How is Mr Underhill?" he asked quietly, brows knit together in worry.
"He's alright," Elphaba answered and sat down in the armchair.
And she saw her mother lying on the sofa, curled up in a blanket with her head on Father's lap, sound asleep.
Tears were staining her beautiful face, and Elphaba sucked in a quiet gasp.
Father looked at his wife, a finger gently caressing her cheek.
"I'm sorry," Elphaba whispered and stared at her green fingers. "I didn't mean to cause such distress."
But Father shook his head.
"No, you have nothing to be sorry for," said he. "It's not about you, she's been feeling exhausted and... quite miserable. And I wasn't there for her."
Elphaba lowered her head. "But-"
Father raised a hand to stop her.
"Elphaba, believe me, you do not need to blame yourself."
He took a deep breath. "I was blind."