Luminescence 18

Chapter 4

“You got suspended!” Poppa didn’t even bother with saying hello. His faced moved in a wave of lines shifting with another, infinite stories in those lines.

As soon as he opened the front door he turned on Aelius. “It’s that boy again. I told you he was up to no good, I told you not to get into any more fights with”-

            Aelius dragged her feet into the living room, her shoulders weighing a tonne. She hadn’t bothered saying anything; it ached as he yelled at her.

The planes of his face sunk to an abyss, dark and hollow. Poppa had collected her at school after taking time away from his job, where they payed him per hour.

            “He started it,” it was a pitiful response as she bit back the tears fighting their way to the surface. She hadn’t cried in years and now was not the time to start. Instinctively she turned to Nanna for help, only to find her huddled in the corner of the living room wide eyed and silent. When it was just the two of them Nanna was wholly different and vibrant. She’d tell stories from her childhood and tales of heroes and heroines and Aelius would fold up her knees under herself and hang on Nanna’s every word. There’d always been a light in her big wide eyes.

            They’d stay up into the early hours, weaving stories through the dark, characters that were magical and fantastical, more alive than the ones she’d found in books. Aelius always longed for those nights when Poppa worked late. She loved them both fiercely and loyally but knew she was the cause of their financial troubles. She’d been dumped with them from the age of six, when her parents had died in a car accident.