Chapter 61: The Intruders
The Journal of Aerith Gainsborough
June 25, 0004
The pounding on our front door was deafening. It had been going on for five minutes straight, but showed no signs of stopping or slowing down.
"Forget it, Tseng!" my mom shouted as she clutched my hand. "Now's not a good time. And even if it was, I wouldn't be letting you in anyway!"
"Come on, Elmyra!" Tseng pleaded from outside. "I just wanted to talk to Aerith."
"Well, she doesn't want to talk to you," my mom replied. "She's having a very bad day."
For a few moments, there was silence.
"Hide," my mom whispered.
So I quietly trotted up the stairs and sat down on the top step. I wanted to hear what this was about.
Tseng continued to pound on the door with his fist for a couple more minutes.
Then, the inevitable happened.
Tseng opened the door with his master key, and stepped into our house.
He was followed by Heidegger, Scarlet, and Palmer.
My mom immediately grabbed a pan; it was all she had to defend herself.
"Why'd you bring executives this time?!" my mom demanded.
"We'd like to…..work out a deal," Heidegger replied.
"There's no deal to be made!" my mom snapped. "Aerith's my daughter, not some experiment."
"You know otherwise," Scarlet informed her.
Just then, my mom grabbed a kitchen knife.
"You might kill me," she began, "but you'll get hurt pretty badly in the process!"
"She's nineteen years old now," Heidegger informed her. "She's been emancipated for a year. She's no longer under your protection."
Finally, I had had enough.
"That may be," I said, "but you're on private property."
Everyone turned to look at me. I was standing on the stairs, but then decided to come down and join everyone.
I was wearing a lime green one-piece swimsuit. My mom was wearing a pink one. Both of us were in full makeup and perfume.
Heidegger noticed this, and scanned us.
"Did you two go swimming, or were you in some fashion show or beauty contest?"
"You don't really want to know," I sighed. "And it's not your business anyway. But as long as I'm on private property, you can't just come in and take me."
"We'll get a warrant," Scarlet warned me.
"Do you have one now?" I challenged her.
Scarlet lowered her head, defeated.
"And you won't get one, either," I said. "Shinra's too tied up with everything else. They're not going to come after me for a long time. If ever."
That's the funny thing about Shinra employees. Even though they're evil, they still follow the rules as long as the rules are the company's.
So Tseng, Scarlet, Heidegger, and Palmer turned and walked out, closing the door behind them, leaving my mom and I standing alone in the kitchen in our one-piece swimsuits.
My mom immediately turned and hugged me from the side.
I put my hand on her arm, but I was too drained from the day to do much else.
I then went over to the mirror.
I checked out my figure. I'm a bikini girl at heart, but the one-piece did look good on me.
A moment later, my mom appeared behind me, and placed her hands on my shoulders.
"You deserve the best," she said.
"Thanks," I said, trying to get my mind off of the day.
"You know," she began, "maybe we can take a mother/daughter vacation. Just the two of us. I heard Eros Nova has a lot of nice things."
I was surprised to hear that; my mom and I had never been on vacation in forever.
"I think I'll pass," I declined. "As painful as it is, I need to start over again. So I'm putting myself back on the dating market."
"So soon?" my mom asked. "Honey, don't you want to wait a while?"
I didn't. I wanted a boyfriend. More importantly, I wanted a husband. I wanted to be a young wife an mom, and I was determined that it was now time for me to move out and get married.
"Life's a timed thing," I replied. "I'm not getting any younger."
"You're only nineteen," my mom pointed out.
"And how old were you when you got married?" I asked.
"Eighteen," my mom replied honestly.
"I rest my case," I sighed.
For a while, my mom and I stared at ourselves in the mirror.
Then, my mom yawned.
"It's getting late," she said. "I think I'm going to bed. Will you be okay?"
"I'll be fine, mom," I assured her. "I'm a survivor."
That was true. I call Elmyra my mom, but the truth is she's not my biological mother. In fact, she's only a little more than a decade older than me. My biological mother was Ifalna, and she died when I was seven. I literally watched her die, and so did Elmyra, before she took me off the street. From then on, Elmyra was my mom. She was a Wutai War widow, and we had been inseparable ever since.
I have no idea who my father is or was. Maybe he's out there, and maybe he's gone. I hope I find out someday.
Anyway, back to the present.
My mom wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning," she said.
She then climbed the stairs. Halfway up, she turned to check on me one last time.
"You sure you don't want to go on a vacation?" she asked.
"I'm sure, mom," I replied.
"Last chance," my mom warned.
"No thanks," I repeated.
My mom nodded, and disappeared up the stairs.
I'll explain why those executives were coming after later on in the story. Because that, in itself, is a long story.