Moving Forward

A Little Help Here, Please.

Luke's POV

"You could have helped," I threw my shoe at Victor once I was certain that Chel was out of hearing range.

"I'm not stupid," he snorted. "She hits hard."

"Did you understand the point she was trying to make?" She wasn't always easy to follow, her thoughts tended to outpace her mouth and key information was left out of her conversation.

"I think so," his tone was thoughtful as if he was weighing his words carefully.

"Please explain it to me," I almost begged. "I'm stuck on figuring out how Marie is fitting into this."

"Do you remember when we asked her if she hated Marie?"

"Yeah."

"She said she didn't and when we asked her why not, she explained to us that Marie had been abused too. While Marie never received physical abuse, she was mentally abused. In her case, she was being taught to bully and beat on those weaker than herself. When we are little we are taught to play nicely with others, to share and not to say anything if we can't say anything nice. Marie's mother taught her to consider herself better, that it was okay to be cruel to people and you were free to beat on defenseless children. If Marie followed her mother's teachings, you had better believe she is sitting in a prison cell somewhere. She is saying we are a product of our environment and that Marie was taught a false view of the world and how people are expected to treat each other."

"Okay, that is understandable. What does that have to do with forgiveness?"

"I'm guessing that she is telling us that she had a hard time forgiving herself for resenting Marie," he was frowning. "Marie was pretty, Marie was a good girl, and Marie was Mama's darling girl. Chel was ugly, Chel was stupid, and Chel didn't deserve to live. It is sort of like when you learned that your dad had been raising North when he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge your existence. Kids don't understand, their feelings are hurt and their jealousy just makes them feel worse."

"Makes sense," I nodded my understanding.

"She is telling us that while Owen and Sean are guilty, they aren't completely guilty. They made mistakes, but it isn't solely their fault. She is saying that the Elders dropped the ball when they failed to do their duty to us. We all made mistakes; one is not learning all the rules for ourselves. We have to forgive ourselves, to accept that we carry some of the blame."

"Why didn't she just say that?" I demanded, "Why spout a bunch of confusing nonsense?"

"She tried," he smirked, "We were ignoring her."

"Ugh, girls are so illogical," I complained.

"I heard that," Chel's voice drifted down the hall.

Victor and I stared at each other, our eyes wide with the "Oh shit" exclamation sounding in our heads. We both stood and hustled out of the room and down the stairs; we were out the front door before she could catch us. A pizza was sounding very good about now, the further away it was, the better for us.

Owen's POV

Sean convinced me to apply for all three jobs that Sven Ericson suggested, claiming that it never hurt to try. The Museum Director interviewed me; it seems no one was interested in the job. While I didn't have the educational credentials he would have preferred, he was quite pleased that I knew Classical music and the different performers better than he did. He promised to get in touch with me later in the week. The News Paper agreed to give me a test run for both positions, the only part I didn't like was that the articles would be run without my name in the byline. The Editor explained that it was for my protection, that the people I reviewed could be threatening when they didn't receive the review they felt they deserved. When I didn't believe him, he showed me the letters that the last reviewer had received at the paper. They were quite insulting and dramatic, they sounded like spoiled children who didn't get their way and were throwing a tantrum.