Undone by a Broken Angel

39.) Sibling Rivalry

"Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from?  They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you."

-James  4:1

Abraham:

“You two seem close,” David says to Abe after the door closes behind her.

Abe shrugs and shoves half the cake in his mouth.

“Why do you think she left like that?” Joshua asks.  For a kid so smart, he sure doesn’t have much common sense.

“She’s scared,” Samuel answers.

“I feel bad for her,” says Paul.  “She’s just a girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders.”

“But she’s so pretty,” Joshua says, his eyes going dreamy.

Her looks have nothing to do with her situation.  Abraham knows that Abigail is trying her hardest, but she’s being overwhelmed with her history, their love, her newfound ability she knows nothing about, and now meeting the men that she needs to pick a husband from.  And he knows she’s trying to find a way to save him.  She’s only having a meltdown.  “Just give her space.  She’ll be fine,” Abe answers the group.  He would want space; he sees a lot of himself in her.

“Brother,” David says, “I believe it’s time you let us take over.”

“Yes,” agrees Samuel.  “You found her, good job.  And now you’ve delivered her to us.  It’s time to step back.”

Abe has never liked Samuel.  Sure he has the best relationship with God and therefore can hear his wishes better, but that’s always been his problem.  He’s almost too mechanical- only believing in the signs he sees.  And he also knows that Sam will interpret everything to point out the fact that Abby belongs to him, but Abe can’t stick around to protect her.  Sam is right, his part is finished.  Saying goodbye to her is going to be the hardest thing he’ll ever have to do.  He needs to get out of their way.  “I understand,” he agrees, his hands balling up in his lap.

“So,” says David, “tell us what she’s like.  I’d like to know all about her.”

It seems sick to him.  Abraham has fallen deeply in love with this woman, and now his own brother wants him to share the most private things he’s learned about her?  After how David has spoken to her?  It’s not often that Abraham feels rage, but now would be one of them.  No one needs to treat her like a piece of meat.  

“I don’t have anything to tell you,” he declines to say.  He refuses to give his brother anything he could use to manipulate her feelings.  They look almost identical; it would be easy for her to mistake David for Abe and then the brother’s identities would merge in her eyes.  He doesn’t want her to fall in love with David simply because he looks like and behaves like him.

David’s eyes narrow at his younger sibling.  “How close were you to killing her?”

Years and years of being feared and insulted explodes out of him and his fist slams into David’s face.  He tumbles to the floor, but is back on his feet in an instant, his fists up by his face in defense.  Abraham leaps on him, punching his brother in the back with heavy hits.  David shakes him off and Abe hits the floor hard on his butt.  Leaning forward, he wraps his hands around David’s waist, gets up on his knees, and pushes him down onto the ground again.  David uses his hands to keep his brother at arms length so that he can’t reach his face.

“What is wrong with you?” David yells at him through all the shuffling and yelling going on between them.

Abe sees the others watching them with amused expressions on their faces, but he ignores them, trying to pin him down to give him another black eye.  For symmetry’s sake.  

“She is a lady,” he yells at him in answer, driving his knee into his stomach.   “Speak to her with respect from now on.”

David scoffs.  “Or what?  You’ll hunt me down to beat me up?”

Abraham doesn’t say anything.  Rather, he elbows his brother in the ribs.

“Oh my God,” he hears Josh breath from his seat at the table.  Abe sees that he’s come to some sort of epiphany, his eyes wide with understanding.  “You love her,” he theorizes.

Abraham freezes and his brother is able to get up and right his clothing.  He looks down at his hands in his lap in shame, feeling very childish.   “I didn’t mean to.  I know my condition better than any of you,” he spits out.  “I was trying to be careful, keep my distance, keep my head down, but she’s remarkably intuitive.  She held me accountable for more than just her safety, but she knows the risks.  I believe she knows we have to part ways, though I expect she’ll put up a fight.”  He’d rather get hit in the head with a sword again than share the things he loves about her.  “She’s stubborn,” he forces out, “she won’t do anything she doesn’t think is right.  She likes to be comfortable all the time, but she’d sacrifice it to help you.  At night her skin glows and she sometimes sings in her sleep.  She loves to read, but she doesn’t like to study much.  She likes being called princess even though he says she hates it.”  It’s funny, when he finished speaking, it felt like he was talking to himself.

“You know more than I thought you would,” his brother responds.  “I think Sam is right.”

“Don’t worry, I’m planning on leaving,” Abe says sadly.

“Where will you go?”

“Nathanael has a mission for me, as it seems.”

They nod their approval.

“Abraham, will you help me with the dishes,” Dianna asks.

He gets up and helps her collect everyone’s plates and assists her in the kitchen, gladly escaping the judgmental looks he was receiving from the people he knows best.

“Do you think you can leave her so easily?”  Dianna asks, scrubbing a plate underwater when they are alone together in the kitchen.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Don’t faint ignorance, Abraham.  I saw her dress on the floor.  I can tell you’ve been intimate.”  He glances up at him with a knowing look and he feels chastised.

“Nothing escapes you, Dianna,” he mumbles, the dishes suddenly becoming interesting.

“So what are you going to do?”

“Leave,” he replies.

“You’re going to abandon her?”

“Yes,” he says bluntly.  “She’s in constant pain whenever I’m around her, and I’m fighting my illness every second of the day.  It only gets worse when she’s near.  I can’t love her physically, Dianna, which is important to rebuild our race.  You know that.”

“Is that what she wants?  To pop out babies in an attempt to keep your race in existence?”  Her voice has gone all motherly and his hands change pace, his thoughts suddenly thinking about that perspective.  He’s never asked her.  “I see that you’re happy together and I know what her mother wanted.  She arranged for me to be her messenger.”  She turns to him then, placing a hand on his forearm and he gives her his full attention.  Her eyes are full of love and he melts into it.  “She was never wrong, Abraham.  Never.  Will you continue to be manipulated by an elder who isn’t your queen, or will you continue to let him influence your actions?

The happiest times of his life have been the days spent with Abby and he can’t imagine abandoning her.  He’s a danger to her life, that much is true, but Queen Katrina had a powerful gift that he can’t argue with.  If she knew he and Abby would be husband and wife, then that must be true.  He dives headfirst into that thought and imagines what it would be like to be her husband.  He had a few tastes of it when he spoon fed her at their first stop, when he carried her at their second, and when he dressed her wounds when they arrived at Eden - her white skin glowing in the moonlight.

 “If you ask me, you two have a connection that can’t be broken.  If you leave, she’ll wait for you to return, and she’ll look everywhere for your cure.  I can see she doesn’t leave things unfinished,” she predicts and Abe has to admit that he thinks she’s right.

“She won’t.  She’s too smart for that, and there is no cure, Dianna.”

“Yes, well, as you said, she’s stubborn.”

He can’t respond once again, though he does make up his mind on his next move.