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Sins of the Past

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Chapter Twenty One

"Woah woah woah, what?" I staggered back in shock. "Are you sure it's the same person?"

"Could be." Mom shrugged. "Could very well not be. She's old enough to fit the part and her last name sounds reasonably French, so I brought it up."

"How could she possibly even still be alive?" I asked, skeptical.

Mom shrugged again. "Don't know honestly, but it's certainly not unheard of for people to live beyond a century. I personally doubt that they could be the same person but it's possible."

I think I owed it to Elsa to find out. "Could I visit her, then? To see for myself?"

Mom nodded, before taking another sip from her mug. "You may want to do it sooner rather than later though. Her health's been rather poor lately and the doctors aren't quite sure how much longer she has to live. Apparently she's been defying death for a long time now."

I abruptly rose from my seat. "In that case, I'm gonna go right now."

Mom quirked an eyebrow at me, amused. "I'm fairly certain that you're not part of Belle's immediate family Anna, and visiting hours isn't until the afternoon..."

"Well yeah," I protested. "But this is important!"

"University is too y'know. Don't you have classes today?"

"But Mom..."

"Anna, I personally can say that the chance that she'll suddenly drop dead within the next few hours is incredibly low. I've only known Belle for two weeks, but already she's among one of the toughest people I've taken care of before."

I crossed my arms in a huff, conceding the point.

"Fine."

Mom chuckled to herself. "Atta girl. She's inside room 319 on the third floor. Front door passcode this week's 3278. I'm working the afternoon shift today so if you stop by around that time and get lost you can come try to find me."

Mom casually checked the time on her phone, and clucked her tongue at me once the little screen lit up.

"Alright I've held you long enough. You need some breakfast and you're gonna be late for the bus if I keep you any longer."

I don't think I've ever had a slower school day in my life.

It really was only a couple hours long to be fair, but I swear to god that it felt more like fifty years. I also had more trouble than ever trying to stay focused, because previously I'd only had to deal with thoughts of Elsa alone but now I had to deal with thoughts about both Elsa and Belle. Like, could Belle really still be alive after all this time? What's her life been like between now and 1928?

I also don't think I've ever run as fast as I did once the last lecture of the day was finished. I basically was up and out the door within the instant, and I'm pretty sure that I'd managed to make it across campus and to the bus loop within a minute.

The bus ride was pretty darn slow too though, though I also had a couple more thoughts about Belle to keep me company as I made my way downtown. What does she look like right now? Does she still remember Elsa? What exactly am I gonna do when I get to the hospital anyway? What if it's not even the same person and I'm getting all worked up over nothing?

The last two thoughts stood out most prominently in my mind all, but I knew as I hopped off the bus and began the sprint down towards the mom's workplace that I was gonna find out soon.

307... 308... 309... 310...

I briskly made my way down the hallway of the hospital, quickly scanning the nameplates of each door as I passed by. Assorted staffmembers were going about their business all around me, ducking in and out of assorted rooms as if this were a Scooby-Doo cartoon all over again.

316... 317... 318... Aha! 319.

Belle's room, supposedly.

I reached out and grabbed the knob, pausing in front of the door to steel myself as the full reality of what was about to happen slowly sank in. In a way, the sole reason for both Elsa's life and death potentially lay behind this door, and I still hadn't yet thought of what I was going to do if it actually was her.

It'd be great if Elsa were here, but she wasn't, and I didn't know how to call her.

The door was suddenly pulled open from the inside as I hemmed and hawed, catching me by surprise when it pulled me along with it though I managed to steady myself in time to prevent a fall. I prepared to give the perpetrator a nasty death glare once I dusted myself off.

"Oh, hey Mom," I laughed sheepishly once the door swung fully open.

Mom laughed as well. "Here for Belle already I see?"

"Yep."

"Did you wash your hands before you came in?"

I gave Mom the 'are you serious?' look, because of course I did. Comes with having a career nurse for a parent and all. She seemed to get the hint.

"Perfect timing then, because I'd just finished helping her do her business." Mom stepped aside, gesturing towards one of the two hospital beds behind her which I assumed to be Belle's. "She's in there."

I nodded a 'thanks' to Mom before beginning to make my way into the room. Just as I passed by however, Mom stopped me in my tracks with a hand on my chest.

"Anna, one more thing I'd like to mention."

I turned my head around to find Mom close enough to basically lean in and whisper into my ear, which she did.

"It technically was a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality on my part to tell you all that I did about Belle, so could you do me a favour and keep all this a secret? I could lose my job otherwise."

I nodded an affirmative before voicing one as well.

"Thanks, sweetie." The hand on my chest moved to pat me on the back, and the next thing I knew Mom had already closed the door shut behind her, leaving me alone in Room 319.

I turned toward the side that supposedly housed Belle, taking a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing.

I pushed aside the privacy curtains and made my way in, only to be immediately greeted by what my friend would again call a sad sight for sore eyes.

And for once I'd actually have to agree with him.

There in the bed indeed lay an old lady, the number of tubes leading into her body fighting for dominance against the number of wrinkles on her face alone.

This was Belle, supposedly, or what was left of her at least. I found it difficult to believe that this was once the cheery young brunette I'd seen before in Elsa's memories, so I leaned in for a closer look.

Her eyes were scrunched up, and her mouth drawn into a firm line as though she were uncomfortable, or in pain or something. But surely Mom wouldn't have deliberately left someone in this state, right?

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, thinking that it better be safe than sorry.

The lady grumbled at my words, cracking an eye open to sneak a peek at me before rolling over onto her side facing away from me.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone," she scoffed, audibly annoyed.

I stood there for a few seconds, dumbfounded, before stomping over to the other side to lean right into her face. "Excuse me," I shot back, rather miffed. "But as you can plainly see, you and I have never met before."

I began to question my actions the instant I'd uttered those words. What I was doing? Getting mad at some random old lady in a hospital whom I don't even know? Good god I wished I was less impulsive. Why couldn't I...

...Why are her eyes now the size of dinner plates? And why is she suddenly reaching out for my face?

"What?" I asked, backing away slowly.

"Come back." she whispered, her arm still extended.

"Why?"

"...Please." There was now a hint of desperation in her tone.

"O-okay...?"

I hesitatingly complied, squatting down next to the bed to bring my face next to hers once again.

"I know these," she muttered, as her bony fingers wrapped around the teardrop earrings that still hung from my lobes. Realization dawned upon me.

The old lady recognized Elsa's earrings. There was no doubt about it, she had to be Belle.

"I... a friend of mine let me borrow them not too long ago," I stammered, dropping my guard. "Her name's Elsa. Do you know her?"

Belle let out a small gasp, before pulling away to press down on a button that slowly brought both the bed and herself into an upright position.

"...Impossible," she croaked. "Elsa died almost a century ago."

I rose to my feet and leaned back, crossing my arms. "She did, yeah. She's a ghost now."

"...What?" Belle asked, clearly and understandably skeptical. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know," I admitted honestly. "But she's not here right now. You'd actually be able to talk to her if she were, though."

Belle's eyes widened to an even bigger extent than they did before, and she weakly reached out to tug on my sleeve.

"You're not lying, are you?" She asked.

I shook my head, and she released her grip.

"...I'd love nothing more than to talk to Elsa. Do you think you could call her?"

I shrugged. "I would, but I don't know how."

"Please," Belle pleaded, hope evident by her tone. "Try."

And so I did, though not much came to mind. I first tried to vocally calling out to Elsa once again, though that accomplished nothing more than to make me look like an idiot in front of Belle. I then tried taking an earring off and giving it a good shake to see if that'd do anything, which it didn't of course.

A crazy idea crept into my mind afterwards as I absentmindedly tossed said earring back and forth between my hands. I had no idea if it'd work, but I'd already run out of ideas, and seeing how simply waiting for Elsa to return of her own accord was out of the question since Mom herself had said that Belle didn't have much longer to live, I decided to try a more drastic measure.

So I grit my teeth, and tried flinging the earring into the floor with all my might.

It didn't break of course, but the impact was profoundly loud for a hospital setting. I immediately ran over to the hallway and poked my head out to yell "everything's fine!" in order to deter people from investigating.

Sure enough however, I found Elsa hovering above me when I'd turned back around, looking quite visibly dazed and annoyed.

"Anna, please explain why you felt the need to do that," Elsa complained, holding a hand to her head.

"Elsa!" I exclaimed, more overjoyed than sorry that the crazy idea actually worked. "No time to talk, there's someone here who wants to see you!"

"I beg your pardon?" Elsa asked, thoroughly perplexed. "Who in the world could possibly..?"

"Actually Elsa, hold on for a second!"

Another idea had suddenly sprung into mind, and so I hurriedly made my way towards Belle's bed, swooping up the fallen earring as I passed by.

"She's here?" Belle asked when I ducked under the privacy curtains, hope plainly evident in her voice.

I nodded in response, before taking off my remaining earring to offer both to Belle. "Here, you won't be able to see or hear Elsa without these. Do you want me to help you put them on?"

Belle looked at the jewelry dumbly, fingering the chipped part of the earring I'd manhandled with a rather large frown on her face before hesitatingly taking the earrings into her hands.

"I can manage," she asserted, whilst groping seemingly blindly at her ears for a few seconds before pulling her hands away to reveal that she'd somehow already expertly inserted both into her lobes. "It doesn't feel right though, wearing these," she mused. "I'd originally made them for Elsa to wear, not myself."

"You made these?" I asked in disbelief.

"That I did," she affirmed.

...Huh. Well, makes sense. Elsa did say that the earrings were originally a gift after all, and who else other than Belle to be the one to give them to her?

"Are you ready?" I asked to Belle, who gave a small tilt of her head as an affirmative. I'd only known her for like, 5 minutes, but already I was getting the feeling that she both looked and felt visibly younger.

"Okay, get ready then..." I took a breath, before calling out. "Elsa! C'mere!"

Despite not being able to physically see Elsa anymore, I could plainly tell when she'd arrived by how Belle's eyes suddenly and impossibly grew to be even wider than the previous two times combined. I hope she doesn't end up having a heart attack or something...

"I-Is that you, Elsa?" Belle gasped.

An extended pause ensued. Elsa was probably saying something in response right about now.

"..."

"Tu es trop belle pour avoir l'air si ennuyée…" Belle stammered, as though she were repeating after someone. "No one else would know that..."

"..."

"Merde, it really is you. Listen, I—I'm so sorry... what?"

"..."

"Elsa, don't be naive. I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I do not believe that I deserve any."

"..."

Belle's voice grew timid. "...Do you really mean that?"

"..."

Belle sighed as though fifty tons of weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"I... thank you, Elsa. Did you know that the scientists have since discovered that homosexuality isn't a disease?"

"..."

Belle chuckled quietly.

"I know. It was hard for me to believe at first as well, but I've since come to accept it. It would be best if you do so as well."

"..."

"Did you know that I have great-grandchildren, Elsa? Some of them are gay as well, and I'd never want for them to be put through what I heard they did to you."

"..."

Belle started tearing up at that point, and I began to grow painfully aware that I probably didn't belong in this room right now. I quietly eyed the exit as Belle crossed her arms and leaned back into her upright mattress.

"I wish things had gone differently as well..." she sighed. "Who knows what life would've been like, had I reacted differently that day?"

"..."

"My husband?" Belle laughed, her mood visibly shifting. "His name was Adam, bless his soul. A brilliant dancer, though nowhere near as good a partner as you are. Hmm? Yes, he was very charming..."

"..."

I quietly snuck out, leaving the two to themselves.

Thus ends the last of the scenes I'd envisioned at story creation. Anything here on out is truly being made on the fly.

Maybe only a couple more left though.