Cataline, with much regret, does not remember the mother to which she owes her special yet mocked existence on this Earth, for her mother died giving birth to her sister, Matilda, when she was a mere three years of age. Even though the official conclusion of her parents' relationship was Kata's death, the true roots of its demise had already been planted well long ago. Delmont had another keeping him company when Kata would be away, performing with her splendid voice in opera after opera, musical after musical.
Delmont hadn't intended to cheat on her, but the loneliness had begun to prove too much for his tangled heart. The time he had spent with her in the nine months of her first pregnancy proved to be some of the most joyous moments of their marriage, for they were together almost every day. Only a few months after Cataline was born did she return to her life's first passion, leaving him alone once more, weaker, more desperate for someone to keep him company than ever. He soon reconnected with his childhood friend, Damien.
As they always do, things began innocently between the two twenty-something men. Then one night while Kata was home, attending to Cataline and expecting Matilda to arrive a few months, he was joking around with Damien when a drunken kiss came upon his lips from his friend. And that's where the boundary had been breached at last. There was Damien, where his wife wasn't, waiting for him, desiring him like his wife used to. Delmont's heart now trembled for another. But it would soon not tremble anymore: It would simply fall asleep, succumbing to mourning, Death's dun song. He and his wife were but 24 when she passed on.
-------------Tout ce que je Souviens-----------
Oh, those days were always the fondest, for I remember them well in my heart. My first recollections are of April's bloom, cheerful colors vibrantly bursting forth in the park near Mom's grave to which Clarisse would take Matilda and me. The birds sang, the sun smiled, and the trees' young branches swayed gently. Even in those moments of early childhood, bird song felt so distinct to me, so exact, so inspiring that music would be a part of me until the day of my death. Few words come to my mind from this time, other than those Clarisse murmured when she showed me Mom's cemetery. You look just like her when she was your age. This time in my childhood was one of calm before summer's thunderstorm.
And then clouds descended upon my life. The kids in the school yard picked on me for my disturbingly light hair, pale skin, and dark eyes until another year passed, a harsh cycle of snow, ice, and at last rain winding itself around once more. It's not like I had any help with it, for Father was often away at work or with his friend at night. He told Matilda and I not to speak to anybody about it, for fear that big scary people would come take us away.
But truth, like many things in frigid Québec, soon thawed from the ice. The landowners weren't ignorant of us being alone at all, for they were the ones who soon arranged his arrest for neglect. It was the whole of my last week in 2nd grade that he went missing. Fatigued from having to care for a wreck's children, the authorities closed in on him with much rapidity. The court hearing was quick, for the landowners had plenty of evidence and were backed up by the tenants of the building in which we lived. At that time I was not quite sure what was going on, just that Daddy would soon be gone for good.
Fortunately for Matilda and I, my mother's sister Clarisse stood with us throughout the ordeal, comforting us, her arms wide open, her nest empty. Clarisse had always wanted children, but until a much later point in all of our lives she believed that she would die alone, a witch that nobody would see for anything more than a magical nurse with platinum hair and dun violet eyes, curing those who viewed her as subhuman. I always wondered why Clarisse worked, for my grandmother and grandfather had left her a large fortune. I guess unlike me, she actually wanted to befriend those judgmental beings.
However, she, too, eventually snapped at the unaccepting atmosphere of Québec. Struggling to get through a year with us and maintain a happy façade among her coworkers, she persisted in her profession until another summer arrived. She commenced our grandest flight, both literally and metaphorically. The Summer I was turned nine we took off all the way to Marseilles. Here, life became relatively uneventful, the Mediterranean inviting us out of our tempest.
Life was quite uneventful in Marseilles, save for the occasional unpleasant call from Father, I mean, Delmont. With my sense of what was normal fixed I concluded that he had been unfit to raise Matilda and I from the beginning. But other than learning that, I learned many things. Clarisse taught Matilda and me of my mother's blood, showed us how to evoke nature's wrath with our mere voices, and instructed me in the fine art of the violin and piano. Mother Bird she was, for she gave us our wings, our voices, our strength in life.
Then, in spite of Clarisse's self-resignation, she came upon him. José was the man, a silver-fox vacationing near the elegant estate we inhabited one pleasant summer. And in a matter of one fateful encounter, under the stars and on a quaint boat, they were in love. This fairy-tale occurrence spurred me into my teens, disconnecting my mind from Matilda's still innocent design.
Then came yet another flight: To Malaga we went. My mind and heart were lost for several weeks, until by some miracle I managed to acquire the Spanish tongue with much ease. José proved to be not only a decent teacher of his first language, but also a competent father figure. In spite of the warmth of Malaga, and the compassion of Clarisse and José, I felt that I needed to attend to one last thing in my home before returning to my studies once more.
In the thunder of summer I go, to give my mother the goodbye she never received from her daughters, and to settle things with troubled Delmont once and for all. Once I have those things set I have some travels I would like to embark upon.
