Honeysuckle | M.A

Prologue: Hope

1954

Germolaine is torn apart.

It had been long established that when women under the age of 18 couldn't have any romantic relationships, and when they did become 18, they were to be married immediately. This rule hadn't been broken.

Until today.

Benjamin Hertinson, the community leader of this small village, had a daughter, Bonnie, and just weeks before her 18th birthday, she confessed to him that she was pregnant with Daniel Draklein's child.

Daniel Draklein was a young man who had been working at his fathers bakery since he was a child.

Benjamin and Bonnie got all their pastries from the Drakleins Bakery, not just because it was delicious and fresh, but because Benjamin had met Elaine's mother and the love of his life there when he was 19 and she was 17. She passed away 3 years prior due to heart issues that the village doctors could not identify, and could not cure.

When his daughter first told him about her pregnancy, he was confused, scared, and felt betrayed. His daughter was his everything, his only child, the only living memory of his deceased wife, and he didn't know what to do.

Hiding this from the village was not an option, because by the time it was her 18th, she would visibly be 5 months pregnant.

He stayed with Bonnie everyday leading up to her 18th birthday, tending to her needs, and he realized very quickly, that he truly had only 2 options, and one of them was out of the question.

Kick his daughter and future grandson out of the village for breaking the rules, which was out of the question, or..

Or change the rules. While making Bonnie breakfast one of those days, he knew that's what he had to do, no matter what it cost. He could do nothing but hope it would be accepted well, and that it would be for the better.

But hope is hopeless. Hope is a small bump in a downward hill, hope is when the doctors tell you your wife has less than a 2% chance of surviving her open heart surgery, and you still think she will make it, because you cling onto that 2%, that hope.

Hope takes a lot of strength; to find and cling onto something so small, yet still possible, took strength, and Benjamin always told his daughter, the limit is the impossible.

But his wife died. Who was to say hope would work in his favor this time? He could do nothing but hope it would.

He had announced the rule change at Bonnies 18th celebration, people were disgusted. Horrified. Hoards of people, including many women, disagreed that the rules should be changed after so long, and assumed Benjamine was discarding this rule because it was his daughter who had broke it, and not because it would be for the village's good. The people who thought this way made sure their voices and opinions were heard.

And so it happened.

The schism.

Germolaine split in half, the part that wanted to keep their old ways protested, and eventually crossed the path of the Lin Forest, and started building their own village on the other side. That village was named Geromele.

Germolaine had always been tightly knit, like cloth that was sewn together, and it was as if the thread was the villages trust and loyalty, and this rule for women was the needle, and when Benjamin removed the needle, the thread fell apart, everything went backwards, and Germolaine split in 2, with only the ever growing Lin Forest separating them.

Benjamin took care of his daughter, and made sure she delivered her baby boy healthily. He had her icy blue eyes, that, when you looked deep enough in them, was like a fire; warm and comforting. He had his fathers aura, calm and relaxed; he has rarely cried in his first year.

Andrea and Maurice Anne were part of the group of people leaving Germolaine to make another village behind Lin forest, not because they disagreed with Benjamin, a close and dear friend, but because the ongoing protests taking place, and such a drastic rule change, was too much stress for Andrea and the baby. Andrea was 2 months pregnant at 20 with her first child.

But surely, Andrea could not have known then, that she was pregnant with a girl who would, 18 years later, be able to do what Benjamin couldn't; to convince all the villagers to end this rule and come together again.

She was going to be the hope Benjamin always needed.

(word count: 755)