(Violet's Pov)
I was helping Clementine making dinner. I really did feel bad for how I had acted; I just didn't like how those people were treating her. After all she is doing for them too, it made me angry.
"Hey you're going to bust the tomato with that grip." I hear and look to my hands and I set the vegetable down.
"Sorry." I say as I look to her and she nods a bit then takes the tomatoes and I grab some salt.
"There are crackers and bread in the cabinet." She tells me and I nod as I go and get them as well.
"What's got you mad?" She asked and I looked to her as she just looked to what she was doing and I look to the side a bit.
"How can people treat you bad, but you're keeping them safe?" I asked her.
"People are ignorant Violet… I mean that's what the war is all about, ignorant people." She says and I bring the stuff to her as she was making a tomato soup.
"Mind getting the butter and cheese from the fridge?" She asked and I go and grab the cheese along with the butter and I go back over to her.
"I've seen plenty of racist people back home but… I don't know." I say as we work on making some grilled cheese sandwiches.
"It's just what happens here and everywhere." She says and I look to her.
"But it shouldn't." I say to her and she looked to me.
"You are more worried about the racist comments, what about the homophobic ones they made?" She asked.
"It's diff-."
"Not really, I mean yes two entirely different situations and comments, but they were rude to you as well, so why aren't you mad about that?" She asked and I look to the side a bit and shrugged.
"Cause I'm use to it." I tell her.
"Same here, I'm use to it but I don't let it bother me because I am better than that… why feed into their delusions that a black girl will get violent at words they say? Why land myself in jail for it?" She asked.
"I'm not saying go to jail for it but it needs to change, people need to learn that they aren't so high and mighty or better than others." I tell her.
"Violet, people out at war aren't all that better either, before I was with David and Luke, that's all I heard was people making remarks about my skin color, in the end I just did my job and left it at that." She tells me and I look to her a bit as she finished the sandwiches and I helped her finished the soup. We set the pot on the table along with the plate of bread and Clem grabbed the utensils while I grabbed the plates and small bowls. We sat down and had a light meal and I look to her a bit and then we hear the duckling run about and I chuckled as I get up and give them some food before I sat down again and ate.
"After dinner do you want to listen to the radio?" Clem asked and I look to her.
"Sure, though you don't have to ask it's your home." I stated.
"I thought you'd like to join me; they have a station that has new stories they tell through the month." She tells me and I nod. We finished up dinner and I took the plates and pot to the sink as Clem went to tune in on the station.
"Next up we have a story for all you ladies." The man on the radio says and I chuckled at this as I clean the dishes and Clem came to help.
"What's so funny?" She asked as she dried the dishes.
"Sounds like it's going to be one of those romance books I've seen on my mother's bookshelf." I say to her.
"It could be, and probably is." She says as the light music played and we finished up and set the dishes back in place. We then went over to the couch and look a seat I had my arm over her but resting on the couch as the radio stopped the music and the man began talking on the radio.
"Tonight, on the grand adventures of the lone cowboy-." He talks some more and I tune in and out but Clementine looked interested in it. They had a woman on the radio speaking with some man that sounded gruff and I just listen in here and there.
"Thank you for helping me sir how can I ever repay you?" The woman on the radio says and I gag a bit and Clem hits my chest and I laughed a bit at this.
"That is the fakest southern accent I have ever heard." I tell her.
"And you have one?" She asked and I nodded.
"I do actual." I tell her and we listen to the radio a bit.
"And we will be back, make sure to take a break and tune in a few minutes for the rest of the story." The man says on the radio and some advertisement comes on and I sighed as I get up and head to my room. I go and grab some cigarettes and I look to Clem as I show her the pack and she nods as we go to the back of the house. I pull out one for her then one for me and light up my match to light up her cigarette and then mine. I wave the match a bit to put it out and look to the sky a bit as I take a drag and then take the cigarette out my mouth and blow out some smoke.
"I want to hear it." She says and I look to her as I lean my back against the house.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"I want to hear the accent." She says and I clear my throat a bit.
"'Scuse me ma'am but I think that there show was less than accurate to the true southern accent of which I grew up with." I say and she laughed.
"Holy shit that's good… I have a slight accent but nothing like that." She says and I chuckled and took another drag of my cigarette as does she.
"It changes sometimes depending on who I'm around." I tell her and then looked back to the sky.
"My grandfather god I thought he was a cowboy with his mustache, big ol' thing." I say and chuckled then I look to Clem a bit.
"It's still a good story they're telling though." She tells me and I sighed.
"I suppose, though I wasn't the type of girl to be boy crazed when I was younger or romantic." I tell her and she laughed.
"Sorry I just… I can't see you being romantic." She says and I chuckled and finished my cigarette as does she and we go back in but I grabbed her hand before she could open the door and she looked to me as I got up the last step and leaned down to her ear.
"Though maybe I could take a few lessons from the story." I say and move back to see her face red then she quickly turned to go into the house. I shrugged and went in and we both took a set on the couch and I put my arm over the couch again and put one leg on top of my other as the story started again. I would look to Clem from time to time as the story was nearing the end and once it did, they started to just play some music on the radio and I look to her as she just relaxed into the couch, it looked like she was about to fall asleep.
"Tired?" I asked.
"A little." She yawns and I nod as I pat her leg and turned the radio off. She gets up and heads to her room and I head to mine and see the duckling had already settled in its bed and I smile a bit and go over and pet it gently. I then get changed into some sleepwear and laid in the bed for a bit. It wasn't long till I had finally fallen asleep, I was woken up by something climbing onto my chest and I look to see the duckling. I was a bit surprised that it was able to get up on the bed alone, so I get up and take the duck outside so it could run around. The stars were still out but it looked to be early morning, the sun should be coming up in an hour. I grabbed my cigarette and lit it as I watched the duck walk around a bit and I stretched and cracked my neck a bit.
"What are you doing up?" I hear and look to see Clementine as she steps outside wrapped in a robe and I look to the duckling and point to it.
"Woke me up… thought it needed to go out." I say and she takes the cigarette from my mouth and takes a drag of it and I smirk a bit as she handed it back to me. I take it and take a drag myself and watch as the duck just runs around and a breeze comes by and I look to the tree as the branches swayed a bit.
"What about you? What has you up?" I asked.
"Just couldn't sleep… might just stay here today if that's ok with you." She says and I nod.
"Yeah, it's fine." I say and the duckling ran back up the steps and we chuckled a bit and Clementine opened the door for it and it ran inside and we walk in after I put my cigarette out. Clem turned the radio on and we listen to it for a bit.
"Big storm coming into Georgia so I suggest staying indoors we are under a tornado watch as well." The man says and I look up a bit.
"Should get this place ready just in case." Clementine says quietly and I look at her a bit. We stayed up a bit and heard a few roars of thunder and I go and change into some jeans and a polo shirt. Clem was dressed in some work pants and a regular t-shirt and I go and help her board up what we could as more thunder was heard and then there was some rain coming down hard as we were close to finished. By the time we got back inside we were soaked and I shake my head a bit of any water and Clementine had grabbed some towels for us. We then changed out of our wet clothes and I wearing some comfortable sweats and a t-shirt and I let her borrow a pair I had. We sat on the couch listening to the radio but nothing came on and I shake my head a bit at this.
"Radio station must have left, must be pretty bad." She says and I get up as she tries to find something but nothing. The duckling was walking around a bit and I look down as it tried to peck at my feet and I chuckled a bit and looked to Clementine.
"Well, it should be fine, twisters were huge back where I lived." I tell her and then something came on the radio.
"Hello, we have a special program today and we will also be giving updates on the storm coming through Macon, with some music to play for anyone at home, so we hope you enjoy your day indoors because the tornado hasn't hit yet but we are keeping an eye out, now back to the story." The man on the radio says and we both sighed a bit and I look to Clem.
"Ok… let's make some breakfast." She says and I nod as I helped her. I went and put some food and water out for the duckling and it ran straight to it and I go and help Clementine as she got some pots and pans out.
"You like biscuits and gravy?" She asked and I nod.
"Yes, very much." I say and she pulled out and old recipe card and I grab what she needed.
"Who's recipe is that?" I asked as we got to work.
"Grandma Everetts she lent me some of her old recipes to work on." She tells me and I nod as I get the biscuits in the oven.
"Said it would help me become a good house wife." She says and I look to her a bit.
"Funny, you don't seem the type to be a house wife." I say and she laughed.
"Nope, not really, I can't stay home and take care of kids all day, I mean I can take care of AJ since Lee adopted him when he was a baby, so I have the ideal of what to do but other than that, can't tell you a thing." She says and I lean on the counter as she stirred the gravy in the pot. Some music had come on and she looked a bit down so I grabbed her hand gently as the song played and she looked to me. I turned the stove to low heat so the food wouldn't burn and I look to her.
"Ever dance before?" I asked as she placed her one hand to the back of my neck and held my other hand and I place my other hand on her hip.
"A little, I should take you to one of those barn parties I use to go to, though you might seem out of place." She says and I chuckled as we swayed slightly to the music.
"And why is that?" I asked as she smiled at me.
"We have more upbeat music for one, unless someone is feeling sappy, plus no whites allowed, but I think they'll make an acceptation for you." She says and I laughed.
"Well, I don't want to cause anymore issues, but if I get permission before the party then sure." I say as the music kept playing and we moved a bit away from the kitchen so we had more room.
"I'll have to ask Russel he's the one who plans the event, lots of good food there too, even games so it's not all just dancing." She tells me and I dip her and she laughed.
"Sounds like a great party." I say as I lift her up.
"Oh, they are." She says to me and the song ends as another weather report comes in. I let her go and she goes back to the stove and I follow her as we finished up breakfast and we sat down to eat. The rain kept coming down harder and I would look to the boarded-up windows as there was a thwacking sound here and there. the duckling was running around here and there and I watch it as does Clementine as we finish up with breakfast and we got to cleaning the dishes. Some songs would be playing on the radio and then there was a moment where they stopped the music to give weather updates.
"And now for the special program, a story of the lone cowboy-." I sighed and chuckled as Clem looked to the radio and then to me.
"Alright, I'll listen to this one." I say and she pumped her fist and we finished doing some chores before the program started. We took a seat on the couch and the Duckling followed us and I picked it up and it sat on my lap as I crossed my leg and it fluffed up a bit before relaxed and Clementine pet the duckling gently as the story started and I listened for a bit.
"When we last left off the lone cowboy and the damsel had just gotten into the town-." The radio man recalls what happened last time and I put my arm around the couch again and Clem kept petting the duck and it relaxed and looked like it was falling asleep.
"I can't believe he just left her alone, if she was being stalked like that." Clem mutters and I chuckled.
"It's for the dramatics, though it's a bit quick for her to be kidnapped again." I say as I look to the radio a bit.
"Right?" She asked and we laughed at this but kept listening.
"They have to mention his abs? what are they bullet proof or something?" I asked and she laughed.
"This part is for the lonely house wife." Clem jokes and I chuckled and I look to the duckling.
"Oh right, my bad I forgot some women don't have husbands who can satisfy their wild fantasies." I say and I pet the duck a bit then look to Clementine. The story kept going and then they decided to take a break and played some music again. The rain was pouring and I look to the side window a bit, and the wind was picking up some more, then the power went out after a loud thunderous sound was heard.
"Damn, after they were getting to the good parts." Clem says and I chuckled.
"They were just going to describe his body again." I say and she fans herself.
"So good." She jokes and I laughed. The power came on quickly and then off again, like it was flickering and then it finally just came back on and we looked to the radio a bit as it came back on.
"Storm is knocking the electricity in and out-." They said and it goes static so Clem gets up and turns the radio off and then finally the power goes out again.
"Let's get some candles just to be safe." She says and I nod as I move the duckling off me and it flaps its wings a bit as I set it on the couch.
"Ah, stay there." I tell it and it tried to get off the couch but I caught it.
"Bring it with you, not like the candles are heavy." Clem says and I sigh as I bring the duckling with me and she hands me some candles and the duck tries to peck at them so I move them away.
"Hey that's not food." I say to it and Clem laughed as it tried to peck at me.
"Hey, stop it." I laughed and it did and we go set the candles and I hand Clem my matches and she lights them up it was still dark in some areas but it was good enough so we could see where we were going.
"I just didn't want the duck to be by our feet in the dark." I tell her as I set the duck down and it ran to my room and I put my hands on my hips a bit as Clementine also watched the duck ran in there.
"It will learn." She says and I nod a bit and we go back to the couch and Clementine grabbed a book to read and I look at it a bit. it looked like a romance novel but there was no cover photo and I read a sentence.
"It's a woman, who traveled the land looking for a husband, but instead she found a woman who has been traveling as well, they decided to travel together." She says and I look to her.
"Are they romantically interested in each other?" I asked and she looked to me a bit then back to her book.
"It could be implied that they are." She says and I read a bit with her. Though it took me a little longer.
"Can you not read fast?" She asked. She didn't sound annoyed at the fact and I look to her as she looked to me.
"I'm not a strong reader, sorry." I say to her.
"Nothing to be sorry about… if you want, I could just read it to you." She suggests and I nod a bit. She asked where I was in the page and I point to the part and she begins to read from there and I listen. We were about two chapters in when there was a knock at the door and Lee along with AJ and Carley come in and Clem quickly hides the book and I look to her as she goes up to them.
"Power went out here too? Are you two, ok?" Lee asked as he took off his jacket and I go get them some towels to dry off with.
"We are fine, I'll make something warm for you all to drink." Clem tells them as I hand them the towels and they dry off.
"Can I see the duck?" AJ asked and I nod as I point to my room and he goes in there and I look to Lee and Carley.
"The storm is getting bad; we got a report saying that a tornado hit Atlanta before the power went out by our place." Carley tells us and Clem hands them something warm and AJ comes back with the duckling.
"Oh my, I hope people are ok." Clem says and they take a seat and Lee tries to dry AJ off but he was more preoccupied with the little creature in his arms.
"I'm sure they are fine, Grandma and Grandpa called saying they were going to the shelter in town just to be safe during the storm." Lee tells her and she nods.
"That's good." She says and she offered me a cup and I took it gently and she grabbed herself one as well. I took a sip and realized it was hot chocolate and I smile a bit.
"We wanted to check up on you two as well." Carley says and I look to her.
"We are fine, we know what to do." Clem tells her.
"I heard some soldiers freak out during a storm." She tells us and I look to her.
"They said it sounds like cannons or explosions to them." She says and I look at Clementine. She did look a little uneasy and I felt bad that I didn't ask anything beforehand.
"We are fine we promise." She says and I nod and drink a little more of the sweet treat. They stayed for a little longer and then they decided to head back to the house and as they left, I look to Clementine as she did the dishes and I go over to her.
"Is the storm scaring you?" I asked her.
"I was distracted so… It wasn't till Carley mentioned it." She says and she kept cleaning.
"Well, you could read to me again if that got your mind off things, or we could talk." I try suggesting many things to keep her distracted and she looks to me a bit.
"I'd like to continue reading the book, it was getting good." She says and I nod as I helped her put the dishes away and we go back over to the couch and I see the duckling just walking around and then goes back to my room and I look to Clem as she got the book and began to read again. It felt like a long time before we hear the storm settled just a little and I keep listening to Clem as she kept reading to me. She stops reading and I look to her as she looked to her watch.
"Time for lunch." She says and I nod as I get up and we go work on making sandwiches. As we finished up she said we could go to the living room and eat so we did just that and the duckling runs up and tries to take a bite of my sandwich and I laugh.
"I'll get you food hold on." I say and go and grab the duckling and bring it to its food and pour a little in the bowl for it. It ate the food and I go back to the couch.
"I remember the old lady saying bread wasn't good for ducks." Clem says as we finished our lunch and I nodded.
"Grandpa always had a bag of seeds with him just incase we went to the park so he could feed the ducks." I say as I took a drink from my cup.
"Mind lending a cigarette?" She asked and I chuckle ad I grabbed my pack and hand her one and I grabbed myself one after I asked if it was really ok to smoke in the house. She nods and I light up both our cigarettes and she grabbed an ashtray from below the table and sets it on top of it. I would flick my ashes in the tray and look to Clementine as she looked to the radio a bit.
"Storm seems to be settling down a bit, don't think the tornado will hit here, maybe strong winds and debris." I tell her and she nods. When we finished the cigarettes, Clem got up and went to a side wall cabinet and brought out some blankets and brings them over to the couch and then I get up and we grab the pillows from our rooms and I bring the duckling their bed as well. It immediately ran to the bed and fluffed up a bit before it finally started to fall asleep. Clem then grabbed the blanket and unraveled it but looked to me and I look to her.
"Go on lay down." She says and I chuckle as I place the pillow by the arm rest and I lay my back on the pillow and Clem gets on top of me as she covered herself and me with the blanket. I move my arms to her side and she grabbed the book and looked to me.
"This, ok?" She asked and I nod and she began to read the story to me. I don't know when we ended up falling asleep but I did wake up to the sound of thunder but it was a soft roar not like before. I look to see Clementine still sleeping but it seemed she changed her position because her body was turned to face me and her head was to the side as she took soft gentle breaths. I rubbed her back gently as she slept and I look to the side to see the duckling still sleeping as well and I lay my head back a bit and I take a breath and I close my eyes again. I feel Clem move a bit and I open my eyes to see her moving her head to look at the couch and I rubbed her head gently and she seems to be waking up and I move my hand from her head and she looked to me and I look at her and smile.
"Hmm… fell asleep." She says and lays her head back on my chest.
"Yeah." I say and place my hand back to her head and she relaxed some more.
"Your heart is beating pretty fast." She says and I chuckle.
"Is it?" I asked and she nods and I look to the ceiling. We stayed like this a bit and I run my fingers through her hair a bit.
"I don't want to go back." I hear her say and I look to her as her hand gripped my shirt.
"I hate it there… seeing all those people in those camps, having to shoot others, scared of dying, not being able to see my family." She says and I rubbed her back a bit.
"It sucks… I honestly don't want to go back either." I tell her and I keep rubbing her back gently.
"And we can't not go back." She says and I nod.
"Honestly the only way to get out is if we get injured to the point we can't go back and have to be sent home, or if we die over there." I say and she sighs.
"But I don't want to die there… I don't want to be left over there I would like to be brought back home at least." I admitted.
"Even though you haven't been well with your parents?" She asked.
"I'd like to be buried next to my grandparents, if they could do one good thing for me, they could at least respect my wishes in death." I tell her and she looks up to me.
"What if you find a partner?" She asked and I take a breath and look away.
"Oh, shit I didn't mean… I'm sorry." She says.
"It's fine…. She's been gone, I should move on but… it's hard." I tell her.
"Still, I shouldn't have said that." She tells me and I look at her and think.
"If I find someone else… it might depend, I heard they cremate people and put them in jewelry so if that is what they want I'm ok with that… but I'd also like some of my ashes with my grandparents… maybe have the rest in a veteran cemetery if they'll allow it." I explained.
"I'd make sure it happens if that is what you want." She tells me and I look to her.
"That would be great actually… honestly I wouldn't want people sad at my funeral either, throw a damn party for me." I tell her and we both laugh.
"Same here… throw a damn party don't cry when I'm gone." She says and I nod.
"Alright, we got that settled." I joke and we laughed. She placed her head back to my chest and I rubbed her back some more.
"What's it like?" she asked.
"Hm?"
"What's it like… being with another woman?" She asked and I think.
"Probably the same with a man I suppose, I mean Minerva and I didn't really do much with me not being all that romantic, hell she didn't like to dance but could that woman sing like an angle." I tell Clementine as we laid there.
"You dance very well though." She says and I chuckle.
"She wanted to always lead but I wouldn't let her, I only knew how to lead." I explained.
"Your grandfather taught you I suppose?" She asked and I nod.
"And my grandmother and I would dance a lot when she took me to see her friends, they had small parties here and there… a lot fancier than what I grew up with." I tell her and clear my throat.
"Sounds nice." She says and I nod a bit at this and look to her head.
"It was… they were a happy couple." I say and take a breath and closed my eyes a bit.
"I hope to one day have what they had, but… not what happened afterwards." I say to her.
"What exactly cause your parents to… blame her death on you?" She asked and I look to her some more.
"I just didn't call for anyone, but there was no point… she was gone, far too gone the moment she pulled the trigger." I tell Clem.
"And they didn't think to get you help? It had to be traumatizing." She says and I nod and move up a bit to be almost sitting.
"It was… she was just two feet from me… lost my hearing for a few days so I didn't know what anyone was saying to me, they thought I was just stupid… didn't talk either… there was one doctor though that I was told who tried to tell everyone that I probably just went into shock, they thought I was facing her when she shot herself." I tell her.
"But you were looking away?" She asked and I nodded.
"My grandmother got this new TV, and there was this… cartoon playing, she asked if I wanted to watch it and I said yes… she said she was getting me some fresh fruit to eat and she did, she gave it to me, and a few minutes later I hear a bang and something clatter to the floor." I tell Clem.
"Oh god." She says and I nod.
"I… turned my head a bit and when I saw all the blood I just looked back to the TV… and didn't move… it was then I noticed I couldn't hear the TV anymore." I explained and lay my head to the couh cusion.
"They sent me to the boarding school and they uh… wanted to trial me as an adult, but because I was eleven they had to wait… when I turned eighteen they gave me an option, prison or military… my lawyer said to me it would be better if I joined the military because then I could gain benefits and a job, I wanted to go to prison because I thought I deserved it at the time but he spoke for me because I didn't know what to do." I tell her.
"It's cruel that they did that to you." She says and I shrugged.
"At least I got a job out of it." I tell her.
"But you could die over there, all of us could." She says.
"Why did you join again?" I asked her.
"Because I wanted to help people, and to get out of this town… got fed up with people saying I wouldn't amount to nothing, Lee kept telling me not to listen to them and that I would do great things so when they were asking people to join, I did." She tells me and I nod.
"How'd you become a sniper?" She asked and we move so we had our legs off the couch and I grabbed my cigarettes and I offered her one which she took and I lit them up for us.
"Was a great shot… when they forced a gun in my hand." I tell her.
"They forced you?" She asked.
"It was at a time where we couldn't have people not carrying weapons, thinking we could end the war quicker that way but… look at where we are." I say and take a drag of my cigarette.
"I hated guns after grandma, was terrified of them actually… but I had to… first image I had in my head when I took that shot though was of my dad and bang… perfect shot." I say and flick the ashes into the tray.
"First image I saw when they handed me a gun was the man that killed my parents." She says and I look to her.
"They were murdered?" I asked and she nods.
"They were lynched." She says and I look at her in shock.
"You didn't-."
"I saw them… yes." She says and I look at her.
"How old were you? If I can even ask that." I say and she looks to me.
"I was eight." She says and I look to the table. How could they do that to this sweet woman? How can she still be so kind after what she saw?
"I uh… saw the man, didn't care for his name, didn't care where he was from… he took them in the middle of the night… him and his friends, hung them in our own yard… and people just passed on by." She says and I felt sick.
"Did you not see the others?" I asked and she shook her head.
"They had white hats covering their face… he didn't… you know all of that was because my dad just passed his wife and said sorry when he accidently bumped into the woman?" She asked and I look to her.
"You're… oh god." I say and I look to her.
"My parents were very kind people, never hurt a soul… so I try my best to live with that teaching… kind of hard when my job is to take a life." She tells me and I look to the side and then smoke my cigarette.
"… Come to Texas with me… for a week." I tell her and she looked to me.
"You want to go home?" She asked.
"To visit my grandparents graves." I tell her.
"… Alright, when do you want to go?" She asked.
"Sometime next week… I'll get us a hotel and if anyone bothers you, you let me deal with it." I tell her and she nods.
"Alright… sounds like a plan… I'll tell Lee and them in the morning." She says and I nod then we finished our cigarettes.
"Want something to eat?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No, not really that hungry." I tell her and she nods as she gets up and makes herself something to eat. The power comes back on and I go and open the door to see it wasn't raining anymore but still dark out. I look over to Clementine as I close the door and she looked to me.
"No more rain." I tell her and she nods and holds out a mug for me and I go over and take it gently and then take a sip. I look to see she had made me a plate and before I could say anything she tells me to sit down.
"You can eat it when you feel like it but I would still like to talk with you, plus it feels weird eating alone now." She says and I nod as I look to the sandwich a bit and then sighed as my stomach growls a bit and she giggled a bit and I grabbed the sandwich and took a bite.
"Thank you." I tell her and she nods as she eats her own food. A week would pass us by quicker than I would have liked and I had both our clothes in one suitcase since we wouldn't be staying in Texas for too long. She was wearing a simple light blue sundress with black flats and I was wearing my black pants, white shirt and a baby blue vest. Clem said something about how it makes me look handsome and to be honest I was a bit happy when she said that. Lee took us to the train station and I gave him some money for the duckling, though he tried to refuse I said that it's payment for taking care of it while we were gone, and to save it up for something if he wanted. I got our tickets and we get on the train, I made sure we got first class though so no one would bother us and I look around a bit.
"Looks nice." I say as I set our bags on the top cages for storage and I take a seat and groaned a bit.
"Oh god this feels nice." I say and Clem giggles as she takes the seat across from me.
"Oh, these are nice." She says and I nod and close my eyes.
"Should go first class everywhere, if it wasn't so expensive." I say to her.
"It is expensive, but what can you do? Only the rich can afford this all the time." She says and I chuckled.
"They should pay us more for the jobs we have, but we are just bodies." I say and opened my eyes. We chatted for a bit here and there and a few times during the trip a lady would come by asking if we needed anything. When we do finally reach Texas, it was night so I got us a hotel and we slept in a bit. it wasn't till the afternoon when we finally woke up and got dressed. I then noticed we were wearing the same colors; she had a green sundress and I had a green vest on. We left the hotel and I took her over to the cemetery where my grandparents were. We walked and walked for what seemed like forever until I see the grave marker of an angle and I make a turn and walked in the grass. We walked past ten graves before I finally see my grandparents' graves and I look to them a bit.
"Your grandfather was a veteran?" Clem asked and I look to her then my grandfathers grave where it said his rant and the war, he was in. I nod a bit and look more to the graves.
"… Did I tell you why I always say a prayer before I shot at someone?" I asked and she nods as I look to her.
"Yeah, you didn't think someone shouldn't be prayed to when they die out there." she says and I point to my grandfather.
"He was a sniper as well." I say and put my hands to my sides.
"He was?" She asked and I nod and feel her wrap her arm with mine as I keep looking to the grave.
"He told me how he would say the prayers because he thought someone should have that… my grandmother told him to do it too so he would have a clear head, that he did something good for someone even if they were the enemy… I don't think they deserve it but… I don't know." I sighed and I feel her rub my arm a bit.
"It's complicated and I'm a hypocrite if I'm going to be honest." I say and just looked to the grave.
"Your grandmother was in the war too?" She asked and I nod.
"She worked with communications so she didn't see what we do, which I'm glad about." I say and Clementine leans her head on my shoulder. It felt nice.
"Pardon me?" I hear and I don't turn around when I hear the voice.
"How do you know my parents?" I hear a man say and I look to Clementine a bit as she looked to me a bit and I sigh and turn to the side a bit to see my parents.
"What the hell are you doing here?" My dad asked and I look to the graves a bit.
"I was just leaving." I say and I motion for Clem to follow me.
"No, you tell me now why you are here." My father says and I glare at him as he came up to us.
"I was just-." I tried to say but he hits the side of my head with the palm of his hand.
"HEY!" Clem yelled.
"Shut it you, how dare you bring her kind here to them, and how dare you come here after what you've done." He says and I look to him. I didn't say a word and I think that made him angrier as he was about to hit me again but Clem pulled me back and he missed and fell forward. I'm guessing he's drunk, just like always.
"Get out of here." He says as he looked up to me from the ground.
"No." I tell him. He glares at me as he was getting up and I just watch him.
"Should I teach you a lesson?" He asked and I just look to him and clench my jaw a bit.
"What going to beat the hell out of me like you did when I was little?" I asked him and he glared at me.
"Come on Violet." Clementine says and she pulled my arm a bit and I look to her and nod and we start walking.
"Fucking fags." I hear my dad say and I turn to look at him.
"Vi-."
"You know what dad, at least your parents weren't like you, how the fuck you became an ungrateful bastard just fucking baffles the hell out of me." I say to him and he glared at me.
"You don't come back for years-."
"I WAS OVER SEAS BECAUSE YOU FUCKERS WANTED MY ASS TO ROT IN JAIL!" I yelled at him and he shut his mouth as I glared at him.
"I'M OVER THERE WITH MY FRIENDS BEING BLOW THE FUCK UP, GETTING SHOT AT AND HERE YOU ARE SITTING ON YOUR ASS DRINKING A FUCKING BEER WITH NO CARE IN THE GOD DAMN WORLD, WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING GO OVER THERE AND SEE THE SHIT WE SAW!" I yelled at him.
"Do not speak-."
"Oh, shut the fuck up, you old bastard, you don't deserve respect, you never did… the moment you called the cops on me was the last straw, I DIDN'T KILL HER SHE KILLED HERSELF, THE BLOOD WAS ON MY GOD DAMN BACK BUT YOU DON'T THINK OR FUCKING CARE!" I yell and then pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head.
"I am still you-."
"You are not my father, and you." I say as I look to my mother. She looks to me and then to the ground.
"You are not my mother, for all I care, both of you can die tomorrow and I'll have your bodies thrown in the river, no graves no markers, so you both best pray they don't contact me first when you both croak." I say and I walked with Clementine away from them and I feel Clementine grip my arm a bit as we kept walking.
"I don't think you should have said that." She whispers and I look to her then to the front.
"Why? They deserved it, my mother didn't speak up, he hit me again, he thinks I'm on some silly fucking vacation when I'm not… no, they deserved every word I said to them." I tell her as we kept walking.
"You'll regret it, your father deserved it, but your mother? I saw her smile when she saw you, didn't you see it?" She asked.
"No… no I didn't." I tell her honestly. We decided to just head to the hotel and get some room service for the night. I was to tired for all of this. We eat dinner and I look to Clem who was looking to the radio and I go and turn it on as a report came through.
"We are told the war might end soon, the enemy has been sending letters doubting their dictator Carver and his actions to some fellow citizens, it seems he has been putting anyone he deemed a traitor into their camps, sending innocent people to those camps, we have been sent photos for our televised shows but they are pretty graphic." The man says and I look to the radio and sit up a bit at this.
"You think his own people will take him out?" Clem asked and I swallowed my food.
"It seems like it… they photographed the camps?" I asked.
"I saw come people with cameras at the camps." She says and I look to the radio more.
"It's even said he sent the so-called traitors' own children to the camps as well." The man says and I get a bit angry at this fact.
"So, the only reason they might go after him is because now they have to deal with what they all agreed was ok? fucking hypocrisy, they should suffer like all those people did." I say and take a drink of my water. When the news went out, I shake my head and we finished our meal and I go to take the plates to set them on the cart outside and I see an envelope on the ground so I pick it up and go back into the room and closed the door. I opened the letter and read it.
'Dear Violet,
Though we might have not talked in years, I would like for us to spend some time together without your father around. If you are willing to come visit me at the old diner I use to work at in the morning.
If you don't come, I will not try and contact you again and keep your wishes to never see me.
Your Mother,
Lucy.'