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[This happened at 11:00 am this morning.]
“Darling, I can’t imagine why you don’t want to meet Herman! He’s such a sweet boy and so smart! He’s attending Oxford, you know!”
Emmaline Johnson was on another of her many campaigns to settle her daughter with a nice ‘normal’ boy. Since the war and her father’s death, Angelina’s mother had been obsessed with normalcy. She wanted with every fiber of her being for her daughter to be out of the world that had taken her husband. Every week there was another perfect man put up for inspection; another appetizing bit of the mundane to dangle in front of Angelina like a carrot on a stick.
It was never anything Angelina wanted.
“Darling, I can’t imagine why you don’t want to meet Herman! He’s such a sweet boy and so smart! He’s attending Oxford, you know!”
Emmaline Johnson was on another of her many campaigns to settle her daughter with a nice ‘normal’ boy. Since the war and her father’s death, Angelina’s mother had been obsessed with normalcy. She wanted with every fiber of her being for her daughter to be out of the world that had taken her husband. Every week there was another perfect man put up for inspection; another appetizing bit of the mundane to dangle in front of Angelina like a carrot on a stick.
It was never anything Angelina wanted.
“You’re not getting any younger, you know! Twenty-five, today! It’s practically a miracle, what with the way things are in your part of London,” Emmeline continued as she poured more tea. ‘Your part of London’ was as close to referring to the Wizarding World as Emmeline ever reached. It’d only been in the past couple of years that she’d begun to refer to it at all. It didn’t seem to be an improvement, in Angelina’s opinion.
“Yea, mum, I know. I just want to meet a boy on my own, not some son of someone in your gardening club. Just leave me in peace for this one day, would you? It’s my birthday, mum!”
Sipping at her tea, Angelina could help but wonder why she still came here. It was just another obligation, one more thing on her check list for the week. She never enjoyed the experience and neither did Emmeline. If anything, they had grown to resent one another, both unable to budge from their positions. But they smiled and chatted, had tea every week. They were just pretending at old parts that didn’t fit. So, why did she come?
Because every week, Angelina visited her mother, hoping that this week the mother that she remembered would return. That one day, she would enter her childhood home and her mother would ask her how she was, how life was going, and would express interest in the people that Angelina spoke of and the places she described. The mother that was thrilled when an owl arrived or whenever Daddy used magic to light the fireplace. She longed for the woman that had read Angelina’s school books cover to cover with her out of curiosity and speculated about the magic innately present in music.
Her mother never would have given her a hymnal for her birthday. It was a disturbing thing to realize that though she’d known her all her life, she was sitting across from a perfect stranger. It had become abundantly clear that Mum didn’t live here anymore.
The bloody war orphaned me.
“Alright, dear, I’ll leave you be. But only for today! I will find you a proper gentleman,” Emmelina agreed patronizingly and held out a plate of treats. “Another biscuit, dear?”
Flashing her best stage smile, Angelina took the plate, “Of course, mum.”
{Summary: Angelina has a disappointing birthday lunch with her Mum.}
“Yea, mum, I know. I just want to meet a boy on my own, not some son of someone in your gardening club. Just leave me in peace for this one day, would you? It’s my birthday, mum!”
Sipping at her tea, Angelina could help but wonder why she still came here. It was just another obligation, one more thing on her check list for the week. She never enjoyed the experience and neither did Emmeline. If anything, they had grown to resent one another, both unable to budge from their positions. But they smiled and chatted, had tea every week. They were just pretending at old parts that didn’t fit. So, why did she come?
Because every week, Angelina visited her mother, hoping that this week the mother that she remembered would return. That one day, she would enter her childhood home and her mother would ask her how she was, how life was going, and would express interest in the people that Angelina spoke of and the places she described. The mother that was thrilled when an owl arrived or whenever Daddy used magic to light the fireplace. She longed for the woman that had read Angelina’s school books cover to cover with her out of curiosity and speculated about the magic innately present in music.
Her mother never would have given her a hymnal for her birthday. It was a disturbing thing to realize that though she’d known her all her life, she was sitting across from a perfect stranger. It had become abundantly clear that Mum didn’t live here anymore.
The bloody war orphaned me.
“Alright, dear, I’ll leave you be. But only for today! I will find you a proper gentleman,” Emmelina agreed patronizingly and held out a plate of treats. “Another biscuit, dear?”
Flashing her best stage smile, Angelina took the plate, “Of course, mum.”
{Summary: Angelina has a disappointing birthday lunch with her Mum.}
Current Location: 78 Bryant St.
Current Mood: 
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