A Daughter's Duty

Chapter 4

Rope climbing - not my sport.

"Try harder, child!" called one of the members in charge of my training, Mr. O. "Don't look down! You're almost there!"

"I-I can't d-do this!" I wailed.

"Yes, you can!" he shouted encouragingly. "Now, slide your arms up first! Then your legs! Atta girl!"

I did what he said, barely. I tried hard not to look down, but I did anyway. It wasn't as if I was afraid of heights, but I definitely didn't find it comfortable.

But finally, I was able to climb thirty feet of rope with scalding hands.

"Very well done, Ms. R," said Mr. I, who had come to the warehouse to check on us. "I am impressed by your results. It seems like just three weeks ago you had joined us – now look how much you've learnt!" He patted my head and I gave him a confused smile. This was the sort of thing grandfathers told their granddaughters. I wondered whether this was what he thought of me – a little granddaughter.

"Thank you, Mr. I," I said.

"Ms. E," he addressed my aunt who oversaw my progress. "I think it is time to increase the level. Stage thirteen on the scale, perhaps?"

"Of course, sir." She said. "Come along, my dear niece. We have a lot to do."

We left Mr. I and O there chatting and went to the other part of warehouse.

"What did he mean, stage thirteen?"

"Our system of training of members is based on a scale." She said. "This scale has different levels which have different stages. Each one has three rounds, like you've been doing for the past week. The thirteenth stage demarcates the start of the third and last level – so according to logic, each level has four stages. I am proud you have reached this level in less than a week. The last person who accomplished this feat was your mother herself." Her eyes drifted away from me and a melancholy smile took over her features.  "Ah, Darrell – I miss her. Amazing minister, you know. She did things no one could imagine –" She chuckled. "Like marrying your father, for instance."

I looked at her, surprised. "Why on Earth was it so unimaginable?"

"Before they got married, they often got into arguments – some lasting days. It was very irritating. I never liked Jason, to be honest. He seemed so childish, at times. And at times, he could be so serious, you could laugh at the look on his face. And he looked very old for his age. When he joined the organization, he was around twenty-five, and someone mistook him for thirty-five! His hair thinned very quickly and he already had reading glasses. People used to laugh behind his back at his nasal voice. I think –"

"Aunt Delilah," I said, fuming, but managing to keep my voice sarcastically sweet. "Maybe we should focus of the task ahead of us instead of telling me how much you disliked my dear old father."

Her jaw tightened. "I'm only telling you the truth, Evangeline. Ministers are supposed to bond with each other, and I am trying to –"

"Bond?" I completed. "Maybe you should have tried when I was still a child, right? Bonding with your niece after eighteen years is a little too late, Aunt Delilah. And bonding with your niece by insulting her dead father is even worse."

She huffed angrily. "I see. We won't get along so easily, will we? Now, how about we make this just a business relationship and forget that we're really related?"

"That's all I ask."

She nodded and cleared her throat – and when she spoke, her tone was very formal. "Here, Ms. R." She showed me a clipboard on which paper was stuck, showing a chart. On it were diagrams of the different stages of training. "You are now on level three." She pointed to a diagram which showed a humanoid figure with a gun, another with a speech bubble near its mouth, another holding hangers with different types of clothes and another with a book.