(no subject)
Aug. 5th, 2009 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiery_ringCarlotta slides down the bannister, having heard her father come home. She pads over to his study and knocks at the door.
"Ah, I was about to come looking for you." her father says, waving her in. "Come here, I want to show you something."
Carlotta comes over to the desk, and looks at the book he's opened there. It's a photo album, baby pictures to be precise. Actually, she's seen it the night she broke into Michael's room, but she pretends she hasn't.
They sit down together, and her father talks her through them, with narration of the various places and events.
"So you see." he says, when he gets to the end. "Your uncle Michael and I... we were never friends. We were brothers, we shared a house and a birthday, but we had very different hobbies and ideas and social circles. And he was a terribly bad influence on your mother. That's why I kept him away from you."
Carlotta nods.
"I'm sorry if I scared you."
"You did scare me Carlotta. Michael is a very persuasive man and whilst I understood your mother's reasons for leaving I could not forgive him for the way he brought it about. And I can never get your mother back, I lost her on the one night she needed me to be there."
He takes a deep breath. "And so I want you to make me another promise."
"Father... I can't promise to stay in this lifestyle forever." Carlotta says.
"No no, I wouldn't ask that." he says. "I would like that, of course, as would your Grandma, but I know it's too early to ask such a commitment of you yet. No, I want you to promise me, if you can, never to lose touch - disappear off the face of the earth as it were. Even if you do go back to circus life, you will write and call and visit from time to time, won't you?"
"That, I do promise." Carlotta says, giving him a small grin. "I love and appreciate you for trying, even if we do have awfully different ideas about things."
"And I love you too, that's why I'm going to talk until I'm blue in the face to persuade you to go into university." her father says, with a wry grin. "We'll discuss the business at a later date."
He gets up and puts the book away.
"You wanted to meet your cousins, you said?"
"If that would be okay..."
"I don't see why not. You can go over there tomorrow if you want, before you go back to school on Monday, but you have to take Harris and you're to stay away from Michael beyond polite conversation, all right?"
Carlotta jumps up and gives him a hug.
"That would be wizard, thanks Father."
"Ah, I was about to come looking for you." her father says, waving her in. "Come here, I want to show you something."
Carlotta comes over to the desk, and looks at the book he's opened there. It's a photo album, baby pictures to be precise. Actually, she's seen it the night she broke into Michael's room, but she pretends she hasn't.
They sit down together, and her father talks her through them, with narration of the various places and events.
"So you see." he says, when he gets to the end. "Your uncle Michael and I... we were never friends. We were brothers, we shared a house and a birthday, but we had very different hobbies and ideas and social circles. And he was a terribly bad influence on your mother. That's why I kept him away from you."
Carlotta nods.
"I'm sorry if I scared you."
"You did scare me Carlotta. Michael is a very persuasive man and whilst I understood your mother's reasons for leaving I could not forgive him for the way he brought it about. And I can never get your mother back, I lost her on the one night she needed me to be there."
He takes a deep breath. "And so I want you to make me another promise."
"Father... I can't promise to stay in this lifestyle forever." Carlotta says.
"No no, I wouldn't ask that." he says. "I would like that, of course, as would your Grandma, but I know it's too early to ask such a commitment of you yet. No, I want you to promise me, if you can, never to lose touch - disappear off the face of the earth as it were. Even if you do go back to circus life, you will write and call and visit from time to time, won't you?"
"That, I do promise." Carlotta says, giving him a small grin. "I love and appreciate you for trying, even if we do have awfully different ideas about things."
"And I love you too, that's why I'm going to talk until I'm blue in the face to persuade you to go into university." her father says, with a wry grin. "We'll discuss the business at a later date."
He gets up and puts the book away.
"You wanted to meet your cousins, you said?"
"If that would be okay..."
"I don't see why not. You can go over there tomorrow if you want, before you go back to school on Monday, but you have to take Harris and you're to stay away from Michael beyond polite conversation, all right?"
Carlotta jumps up and gives him a hug.
"That would be wizard, thanks Father."
