Chapter 9 – You are beautiful people
"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world... Does anyone have anything to say about this?" Asked Marie to her classroom full of students.
Marie could definitely see the reality in the quote; her life had been changed dramatically because of decisions that had been made without her prior knowledge or her opinion in the discussion.
Her life had always been difficult growing up in the South, with her God-loving parents wishing for her to be the perfect daughter even though they knew it was an impossible task. Then finding out she was a mutant, a decision she wouldn't have agreed to if she could have spoken to her maker, as well as becoming a pawn within a game of chess that she simply didn't want to be a part of.
Marie sometimes wondered if all of what had happened to her would have come true if she had just stayed in Laughlin City instead of hitching a ride with 'The Wolverine'. Her life was completely and utterly changed because of that decision. Because of that decision, she had met and fallen in love with a man who looks three times her age and is probably old enough to be her grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's best friend.
"I don't like the thought that any one of my decisions could be the reason I'm successful or not successful, I fall in love with one person or another, I die in a horrible car crash or keep living until I'm 75." One of Marie's students exclaimed to the rest of the class.
"Why do you feel like that?" Questioned Marie.
"My life is not pre-determined, I don't think. I hope that I make decisions because they are right for me, not because they may give me a better choice in the future."
Marie loved teaching philosophy and ethics. The discussions were always enthralling and they always lead to her rethinking everything in her life.
Marie began speaking to her class, without realising that a certain feral man was watching her from the door. "I see what you mean. I don't think I'd like to believe that someone, or something, has allowed me to live the life I have lived.
My life, at many points, has been amazing. I have been loved, loved someone, felt the wind in my hair, eaten some darn good food and made friends for life. I have experienced the sun rising and setting on a beautiful spring day, watching as new lambs are born into our world.
But if my life was pre-destined, if it was given to me by an omnibenevolent being or if I deserve it because of previous sins... then I must have been an evil person in a previous life. I have watched as people I care about have suffered great loss, I have watched children torn apart from their families because of one simple genetic mutation that makes us different.
Life is a bitch. Life is a bastard. Everyone wants that amazing life. To find Mr Right or Mrs Perfect and have 2.4 kinds and white picket fence. But life isn't like that. Life is hard and it makes you cry, and bleed and cry all over again. But you all have a chance to have a brilliant life, don't let being a mutant stop you from reaching your dreams and meeting those aspirations.
When life gets ugly and shits on you from a great height, fuck it right back. Because. You. Are. All. Beautiful. People."
Logan couldn't really believe that everyone was 'beautiful' but he certainly thought Marie was.