Chapter 8.24: Dear Diary, the Crown

Dear Diary, things have gotten… strange since I last wrote. I’ll start at the beginning of when I began to realize the strangeness. It was after lunch one day, and I was in the art room, waiting for the other girls to get there and for class to begin. I don’t know why I was so early except I had this weird feeling something was about to happen.

Doris and Gwen were the next to arrive. They were whispering to each other, heads close together, like girls will do when they have a secret. As for me, I wasn’t in the least interested in what was going on with them. Until they called me over to join them.

All of a sudden, my focus on Doris was like a laser beam, and I knew she was pregnant. How did I know that, though? How could I? She looked like she normally did. It wasn’t as if she was showing or anything.

Sometimes I wish I could just be quiet, but there I was, suddenly fixated on her, and blurting out everything in my head. “You’re pregnant, and your parents are making you marry Steve. You’re so scared, but everything will be all right.”

The other girls’ eyes grew large. They glanced at each other before Gwen glared at me.

“How could you know any of that?” Then, her eyes narrowed at me. “It’s that stupid Tilly! She was trying to blackmail poor Doris, but I persuaded her to tell her parents. But you couldn’t know any of that unless Tilly told you.”

“I swear she didn’t,” I stammered, my cheeks flaming crimson. What had come over me that I would just burst out like I had?

Doris shook her head so fast, I thought it might fall off her shoulders. “No, Gwen. Tilly never followed me into town, she only saw me sneaking out. She has no idea that his name is Steve. Not unless you told Gigi.”

Gwen’s chin jutted upward, and she grasped Doris’s arm. “I swear, I haven’t talked to anybody! You know I wouldn’t!”

“She didn’t,” I affirmed, my head spinning. How had I known the boy’s name?

Doris stared at me now. “You said everything will be all right. How do you know?”

I shrugged, a chill going down my back, making the hairs at my nape stand up. “I don’t know. But it’s true. You’re unhappy now, but you won’t always be.”

“What else do you see, Gigi?” she asked, taking my hand and squeezing it so hard I winced.

“I- I believe your next child, not this one, will one day be leader of the Free World. This child will follow in Steve’s footsteps at his father’s company. Try not to be unhappy or frightened any longer. Write down your experiences because they will help other girls some day who are feeling alone and find themselves in similar circumstances.”

I haven’t any idea where any of that came from. Even though I begged them not to tell anyone what happened, I noticed all the girls at the school watching me and treating me differently. Some gave me a wide girth in the hallways, as if they were afraid I might touch them. Others looked away quickly when I met their gaze. I sensed they had questions. But then, so did I.

Later in the day, Tilly pulled me aside. I suppose she wasn’t scared of anything, let alone me.

“I just knew you were special, Gigi!”

Shrugging my shoulders, I felt the familiar warmth in my cheeks. “Listen, I don’t know what happened. There is nothing special about me.”

“You’re kidding right? I heard all about how you knew the boy’s name! You told Doris’s fortune! What’s mine? Do me!”

My spine stiffened, and I regarded her with cold eyes. “I’m not some kind of parlor game, Tilly. It was all a fluke.”

“A fluke? I don’t think so. I’ve known you were different ever since I met you.”

“Than you know more than me.”

“C’mon, fill me in!”

Gritting my teeth, I practically growled at her. “I was lying! I only wanted Doris to feel better.”

She shook her head. “No, you knew the boy’s name.”

How had I known Steve’s name?

“I-I heard them whispering. I overheard it.” My voice was firm as I told her to leave me alone, then hurried to my next class.

Two periods later, I was face to face with Tilly again. Today, Miss Regan was having us work on our logic skills. That meant lots of chess matches in which she chose our opponents. I was playing Patti, Tilly was next to us, playing Meredith.

I wasn’t much of a chess player. Patti was the smartest girl in class, so it was pointless playing her as she hardly ever lost.

“I can’t remember which way the Knight moves,” Meredith complained.

“Two up and one over, or one up and two over, in any direction,” Patti said. “He’s L-shaped which might help you remember that.”

“I highly doubt it,” Meredith said.

“For pete’s sake, Meredith, you’re not even trying,” Tilly said.

She kept looking at me like she expected me to grow another head or something.

“What?” I demanded, my gaze locking with hers.

She quickly looked away, back to her game, mumbling, “Nothing.

“Have you decided what you’re doing after you graduate?” Meredith asked Patti, who was the oldest of us and leaving school in just a few weeks.

Patti hesitated, then shook her head no. “I’m not sure.”

Before I checked myself, I blurted, “Becoming a nun is nothing to be ashamed of.”

What the hell? It was like my mouth had a leak and I had no idea what would come out of it.

Patti’s jaw dropped, her face pale. “There’s no way you could know that. I’ve only talked to a few of the staff and Sister Joan.”

It was like I couldn’t stop myself no matter how hard I tried. “I know you’re worried what your parents will say, but honestly, they just want you to be happy and settle down a bit.”

All three girls stared at me like I had jolted them with electricity. For a long moment, no one moved until I abruptly excused myself from the chess table and ran behind one of the shelving units in the library.

Of course, Tilly followed me. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me behind a different shelf.

“What?” I challenged.

“Shh,” she said, putting her index finger to her lips, “Father Burnside is putting books away in the next aisle.”

“What do you want?” I asked, as if I didn’t already know.

“I knew you were lying to me,” she hissed. “I just want the truth.”

My heart was beating a million miles a minute, pounding against my rib cage like an out of control drum. “I don’t know what the truth is.”

Tilly sighed loudly and folded her arms across her chest. “I will do anything for you, Gigi. I want to be your friend.”

I pointed my index finger at her and said, “If that’s true, the first thing you will do is stop blackmailing people. Your life will take a horrible turn if you don’t stop.”

Her eyes were enormous, like saucers, and she bit her lower lip before saying, “I knew you’d read me. What horrible turn?”

I tried to answer her, but it was as if I was swept miles and miles away to a dark abyss. I shivered in the cold murkiness, with nothing but black and damp cold around me.

“The consequences will be severe,” I heard myself say as I tried to will myself out of this place.

“Gigi!”

The voice was an echo from far away. All at once, I realized I was lying on my back on the floor, with Tilly shaking my shoulders.

“You passed out cold! Are you okay?”

I nodded as I grasped her arm to pull myself into a sitting position.

“I think I need to lie down.”

Tilly nodded, helping me to stand. “I’ll tell Sister Joan you aren’t feeling well.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

My legs were shaky as I made my way to the room I shared with Meredith. I prayed she wouldn’t be there when I arrived. I wanted to be alone.

Thankfully, I was alone.

I pressed the palms of my hands together as if praying. What was happening to me? Whatever it was, I didn’t want it! Why couldn’t I just be normal?

“Please, please, just be normal,” I invoked to whoever was listening and could help me. Trouble was, I felt more alone than ever. My limbs were a jumbled, shaking mess, so I pushed my hands together even harder, as if that would steady me.

“What is happening to me?”

Then, the warm light appeared, seeming to envelop me like a cozy blanket.

Before my eyes, as if he was in the room with me, appeared Laris Bloodgood. The pleasant glow of the light intensified until it was a beam upon his head that he wore like a crown.

“Do not be afraid,” he said, his voice echoing in my head. “You are so special, Gigi. There is nothing to fear if you let your powers shine.”

Let my powers shine?

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

“I have been searching for you for a millennia, and at last, here you are. Your family line is important, but the powers seemed to die out. It was your Great Trauma that ignited who you truly are. You are more powerful than anyone in your family has ever been.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know it is difficult, but all will be clear as time goes on. You must embrace who you are.”

“H-how do I do that?”

“Open yourself to your power. It will not hurt you, but will make you wise, I promise.”

“How do you know this?”

He smiled, then, his strange eyes misty with unshed tears. “Because, Gigi, we are the only two of our kind.”

I fell to my knees, his words both alarming and comforting me.

It was then I realized the light I’d found so fascinating and warm was upon my own head like a crown.

A special thanks goes to Bee (Poses by Bee, Stories by Bee) for the poses in Gigi’s last two pictures. You can find them here: Family Fighting Updated, and First Day of School.