MOONS OF FRIDOLF

CHAPTER 4

v> They were outside indeed, when Becca was called upon she had thought she was headed for

the large sitting room just outside their bedroom door but she had followed the auntie through a

very empty sitting room and out to the trees that adorned the space in front of the house. She

felt out of place immediately, everyone was sitting in a circle on the ground, she did not know

how to act in front of so many people, she did not count but was certain the numbers rose to

thirty “sit down child” she followed the voice with her eyes and found her Grandmother directly

opposite her in a farther part of the circle “your voice is pretty strong Grandma” she knew she

shouldn’t have heard her so clearly from that distance “as is yours child” she didn’t see but she

knew the woman was smiling, she sat beside two uncles who had made space for her. She

regretted not wearing a longer short, she could feel sand on her buttocks and with the way the

fire in the middle of the circle burned brightly, she was unsure if her Grandmother did not seebetween her legs “is everyone here my Family?” There were men and women whose faces she

couldn’t see in the smoke “yes child, we’re the Fridolfs, there are wives and Husbands married

into this family but they are not in this circle” very weird but she was used to weird “the persons

you see here are the few direct bloodline of my Father and his Father Before him “my sister

should be here then, she’s my twin” there was a little awkwardness in the silence “I’ll go wake

her up!” She meant to stand up but was stopped by hands “she cannot be in this circle Becca,

Fridolf is as a name is benevolent and we let her answer to it but she does not have the blood”

what crazy things was she hearing? She shared a womb with her sister,her Grandmother must

be suffering the sickness of old age “how can she not have the blood, we have the same

Father!” Or did they not? There was no resemblance between the two of them, she’d thought it

in the past. Ruelle looked like no one in their little family of three, Becca looked entirely like her

Father except for her eyes, her eyes are blue like her mother’s but Ruelle however looked

nothing like their mother or Father but Becca had chucked it down to someone in the family tree,

she had believed her mother’s explanation of Ruelle looking like an uncle of theirs “you’ve the

same Mother Becca and you both are close in age but you do not share the same Father!” Her

vision blurred terribly, she was not going to believe anything until she heard from her mother.

She stood up with a strength she did not know she had, she half expected the Uncles to hold

her back but they didn’t, she stumbled as she ran but she did not run far before crashing into

her mother who was seated on the floor of the sitting room “is it true?” She cared nothing for the

tears her mother was shedding, there was a fire slowly building itself in her stomach “is it true, is

Ruelle not my twin?” It was true, when her Mother found her voice she told a story of how she

met her Father, she was homeless and with a newborn girl child. He was kind to her, too kind

and within months of meeting they were married “is that a secret that should be kept Mother?”

There was no sense in the story, no sense in keeping it away from them, Becca was unsure how

to feel “I do not love my sister any less now that I know” she wouldn’t have loved her any less if

she had known earlier either. This wasn’t a big secret, this could not be what the entire family

was hiding from her “why did you raise us as twins?” She knew the answer, they were not far

apart in age “we wanted a Family that was very close at heart Becca, your Father loved Ruelle

as much as he loved you and he wanted both his daughters to grow up together” it was good to

know that her Father was a kind Man “whose birthday was thrown away so you and your

husband could play twins with to different birth?” Her words stung her mother, she saw her flinch

a little and her eyes filled up with tears all over “I was very sick when I had Ruelle, I was

unconscious a long time and I’m that time her Father ran” she was being cruel to her Mother “I

do not know the exact day she was cut out of me Becca but you both have the same month”

she saw why they could celebrate birthdays together “I know I’ve not heard the last of these

secrets mother, please tell me the rest yourself!” Her mother shook her head “ the rest of the

story is not mine to tell Becca go back to that circle and demand it!”.

She expected the circle to have broken when she left but they were all still seated and chatting

away “it’s good that you returned Becca” she found the space she left and took it again “did you

get the answers you went after?” She felt like a prodigal child returning to the circle “why did you

all stay away from me for so long?” And why were they just now returning to her life?.