Light From The Door Way

"Alas, the world is not so simple." crooned the old, bent lady with a Cheshire cat grin, her brown crooked teeth seeming to rattle as her breath cat weezing out. Angelica tried to to flinch from the strench of her breath, and barely succeed in doing so. The lady sat back, a crone in her age, riddle with wrinkles and covered in dirty, tattered rags of the homeless, smelling of mildew and soil.

Angelica nodded, agreement over coming her fear for the woman. "I..I just want to know about my Mum. I want to know what happened to her after I was born." Angelica murmured, her voice seeming airy as she tried to squease the worlds out. Her golden hair -spun up in a braid bun duo- glittering as the sun flitered through the drapes. The rays put shadows under her cheek bones, high and prominate at they were.

The crone crackled and Angelica's fine hairs stood straight up and she got goose flesh. She rubbed her arms, a chill running down her spine. "Your 'mum'. A fair maiden was she. Skin white like fresh milk, hair the color of snow, and eyes like the sea. She was thin. I remember that. She was thin, beautiful and all the women envied her.

"She scooped up your father, she did! Right from under my friend's nose. My friend was angry, very angry, but married a richer man. Your mother and father lived next door to me for three years before she got with child. What a joy it was for them. She had trouble, you see. She tried for many months to concieve, and she could not. Then, one day, she came screeching from the house, down the walk at your father, screaming about being with child.

"When you were born your mother was so happy..."

"Yes, yes, I know all of this. I know the stories, I see the pictures. I want to know why she left and what happened to her. Can you tell me that?" Angelica said, a little hastily. The house smelled like moth balls, and dust. The crone in front of her smelled no better, and was an eye sore. The woman glared at her, her gray, nearly sightless eyes, rolling around in her head to do so. Angelica surpressed another shiver, and couldn't help but think the woman looked like a witch, with the triangluar nose, and seemingly green skin. The worts and craters in her face didn't help matter any.

The woman bit out, "Your mother went through a crippling depression. Starting when you were born. Her skin and hair seemed to lose their shine and suddenly she dropped weight and nobody seen her again."

"How long ago was that after I was born?"

"About a year. Nobody knows what happened. Not even your father." The crone creaked up out of her fading red chair and shuffled out of the room, signaling that Angelica leave. Angelica stood and followed the woman into the next room. The room was big, and black. There were no windows, or furniture, just a small bed laid on the floor in the corner. The light from the door way was the only illumination into the room, and Angelica's petite shadow was thrown across the dirty carpet, stained in dried blood.

"Miss Olga?" Angelica called quietly. "Miss Olga, I wasn't done asking questions. Will you please come back out? You've only raised more questions." When Angelica got no answer, she crept into the room. "Miss Ol-" A blindling pain spread from the back of Angelica's skull, and the dirty carpet rushed up to her face.

The door creaked open and Angelica walked into the foyor. Her father, tall and dark, strode into the room. "How was Miss Olga?"

"She was fine." answered Angelica. "She seemed a little irriated today. Like she didn't want to talk to me."

"Did you ask about your mother?"

"Yes, I did and maybe that's why. I got the feeling she didn't like Mum very much. I'm going to go to my room now."

"Alright, get your studies done." Angelica didn't answer her father as she ascended the stairs, a Cheshire grin looking out of place upon her beautiful, young face.