This is it for One and the Same. I'm still working on what to post next so we'll see if I add anything next month.
One and the Same
8
There's a snap from a foot landing on a twig. Albert tenses looks towards the sound. Rosey bristles and gives a low growl. Charlotte springs from the side of the house, brimming with excitement, "I knew you'd be here."
Albert sighs and starts putting the box back together. "Did you come to yell at me again or are you visiting your parents for once?" Margie lays back down but keeps her eyes on Charlotte and Rosey scoots closer to him.
Charlotte ignores his biting question and stomps up the steps. She raises an eyebrow at the box, "You managed to steal the box from your dad, congratulations. Are her letters just like what you remember them to be?"
he sets the box in the open space on the swing so she won't sit down, and stares at her. "Is that really what you want to know? Are you sure you don't want to ask if reading them has changed my mind about your cause."
Her face reddens, "Well...I mean... You haven't read them in so long. I thought..." Her voice petters out.
He sighs and stands up. Of course, that's what she's here for. It's been a long time since she actually took an interest in his life. "Yes, they are like I remembered and I'm no suddenly going to have a change of heart."
Charlotte's eyes are like ice, "You're so cold, Al."
He snorts and returns his line, "And you let emotions dictate every decision you make."
"At least I have them!" She yells, startling the dogs.
"And yet the only one you seem to be able to tap into lately is anger!"
"One of us has to be angry at this unfair world!"
"I never said I wasn't angry!"
"Well then you sure don't show it! You may as well be a stone wall for all you show me. You have been ever since--" She snaps her mouth shut.
So she was going there. He glares at her, "Ever since what? ever since we got a notification of death in the same envelope as a blood-soaked letter! I wasn't even thirteen, did you expect me to be the same after that?"
"That doesn't mean you have to keep your heart locked away! I'm not going to know how to help you if you doesn't tell me!"
"Help me?" he laughs but he's not smiling. He would believe she cared once she showed some actual concern. "so you do think about helping other people and not just wrecking lives."
She bristles, "Don't you DARE judge me! I'm at least doing something, unlike you. For all your suspicions about the war and your mother's death but you don't do anything but search through old papers!"
"So I should be doing what you did today? Taking out my anger on those who have nothing to do with it! Demolishing property of regular people. People like you and me!"
They glare at each other breathing hard from the yelling, their voices lingering in the air. The dogs stick closer to their master. Rosey with hackles raised is on the precipice of growling and Margie calmly watches Charlotte. Albert takes a deep breath and runs his fingers through his hair. "Enough, I don't know what you thought would happen when you came." He turns and gathers up the box and his bag. If he looked at her, he knew they'd start screaming at each other again, "I can't and don't ever want to be like you. You claim to want change but all I see is you continuing the cycle. Have you ever considered what will come after you drag down those in power? Who is going to take their place? That organization you joined that claims to want peace?" He snorts and opens the door for the dogs to walk in before following them, "Maybe one day you can see beyond your own emotions."
He could feel her glare trying to stab his back, "And maybe one day you'll learn to act instead of locking yourself in that house with all those old memories and whatever information your hoarding. I hope that when you're ready to act the world still cares enough to know."
Albert shuts the door with a soft click as Charlotte's boots thump down the stairs.
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