Warnings: Somewhat
sensitive subject… read with care.
My thanks to Toni
Rae for the quick Beta.
A Decision Made
By Ronnee
She stared at the
doctor in total shock.He had to
be wrong.“Are you sure?”
The general practitioner
smiled, “Yes, Mrs. Ellison, I’m very sure.From
the tests and what you’ve told me, your baby will be born pretty close
to your anniversary.”
Grace smiled uneasily,
trying not to feel trapped.She quietly
took the papers the doctor handed her, all giving her directions about
how to stay healthy.“Why can’t I
eat anything?”
“I can prescribe
something for the nausea,” he wrote out a small blue paper.“But
the easiest thing to do is to stay away from the things that bother you.If
smelling it cook makes you ill, don’t try to eat it.If
you break out in a rash after trying something, avoid it.Some
women’s bodies become over-sensitive when they are pregnant.”
She forced herself
to thank the doctor.She had to think.She
had to get out.
@>~~,~`~
Grace went to the park.She
could not believe this was happening.She
had been so careful.It was too soon
for her to be having a baby – it would upset all of her plans.And
the problems she was having – her skin reacting to the soap she used, being
unable to eat anything with tomatoes in it, the scent of the lab making
her dry heave – they were too much for her to handle.
She thought about her
grandmother’s words from so long ago.
The day she had
become a woman and her body showed its readiness for childbearing, the
old woman had pulled her aside.
“It is time for
us to talk, Grace.Time for you to
know about the curse.”The ancient
pain in her grandmother’s eyes made Grace cringe.“Come,
we must be alone.”
Grandmother Tierney
had led Grace to the old house, up on the hill that overlooked the town.It
was a beautiful view, but the house was somber.It
had been somber since the day her grandfather died, only a year earlier.Now
her grandmother kept it shut up, no guests, no frivolity, nothing new to
bother her ‘oversensitive’ aging body.Grace
hated it.
“Every one of us
has the chance of passing on the curse, girl.”Grandmother
Tierney’s eyes watered.“I gave it
to my sons, both of them.Your father
died of it – in the War.He could
not fight the curse and when the gas fell near him, he died, unable to
breathe.”
“What curse, grandmother?”Grace
watched wide-eyed as the old woman pulled out a journal labeled 1949.“Is
the curse there?”
“No, child. This
is just my memories of the curse, my generation of it.”She
laughed lightly.“The curse is older
than that.”Bright, blue eyes met
hers and the fear there made the girl want to run.“Long
ago, in the days before Cuchulain, the Tuatha d’Dannu gave men a choice.One
brave man could accept the curse – to see, to hear, to sense the enemy
long before the enemy arrived.In
exchange, for this aid from them, he would have no choice but to share
his soul with one of the half bloods.The
half bloods were children of mixed blood, part d’Dannu and part man.These
children are rare and fey, loving to learn and to play just like their
kin – only they are mortal.
“To one man, an
ancestor of ours, this was a fair bargain, for times were hard.The
invaders were sorely pressing the people of the hills. And the clans were
dying out, raided for slaves; the lands were stolen and the towns were
pillaged.Our ancestor agreed to
the bargain with the Tuatha d’Dannu.He
was given eyes that could see like the hawk, ears that could hear the growing
grass as it cut the sky, a nose that could smell the incoming ships while
still far from shore, skin that could feel the presence of an enemy by
the warmth the man left behind, and a tongue that could taste the faintest
poison put into a well.His soul
was split and given to one of the soulless half bloods.His
soul-kin kept the gifted senses from driving the man mad.For
if God had wanted man to have such senses he would have given them to all
men.”Her grandmother laughed bitterly.“God
was angry, child.Very angry.He
poisoned the man’s mind so that it could not hold against the gift and
only the half blood kept him from madness.
So
this man took up the mantle – but he did not know the curse would pass
to his sons and daughters.And now
there are no more children carrying the blood of the d’Dannu.”A
spindly hand rested on her shoulder.“I
carry that cursed blood and I know what I am speaking of.I
hear your mother calling for your sister to stop humming out of tune again.I
smell the scent of dinner – roast beef and potatoes, asparagus, the fresh
onions in the salad, and for desert, a nice custard.”The
pale eyes gleamed fiercely.“Your
grandfather was not one of the half bloods, but he was a descendant of
them.He could make the senses fade
so I seemed normal.But he is dead
and they become harder to deal with every day.Soon,
I will go mad, as God decreed for the unholy bargain our ancestor made.And
you – you carry the curse.”
“How can I carry
it?” Grace was furious at the old woman.Her
mother was right, Grandmother Tierney was mad.“I
don’t see or hear or smell things that way.”
“But you carry the
blood in you.And your father, before
he left for the war – he knew.His
skin was red from his uniform.He
could hit the target when no one else could see it.He
heard the plans his officers made and was never caught unaware.”The
tears in the old woman’s eyes were running down her face.“But
he had no one to make the curse be gentle for him.And
so, I knew he was not coming back.He
knew too.” Grace looked at
her hands and saw they were shaking.“How
will I know?” “If you have shown
no sign of the curse by now, it has passed you by.”There
was honest relief in her grandmother’s voice.“But
if your children carry it, you will know.Your
skin will burn from things that make no sense.You
will be ill every time you eat.The
scent of simple things will make you ill or worse.”The
old woman was so very matter of fact about the symptoms.“My
sister had no part of the curse.Her
firstborn, your cousin Jack, did not have it either. But her second child
– she barely survived that.And
the boy died before he was two years old – asthma the doctor said.But
we knew why he died – his father was not one of the mixed bloods and so
could not soothe away the troubles like your grandfather did for your father. “It will be your
choice, child.But know this… every
child your bear will be at risk of having the curse.You
will know which have it and which do not.Only
if your husband carries the blood, however diluted and forgotten of the
Tuatha will the child live.”Her
grandmother looked away and then, after a long moment, met Grace’s eyes.“There
are ways, not all of them legal or approved by the church to prevent children
and to keep you from having a cursed child.Think
about this now, before you marry.” Within a month, the
old woman had died – from asthma according to the doctor.And
that had scared Grace more than anything, because her grandmother had never
been ill in her life. From that day on she
had studied her family and their heredity.Her
mild interest had become sharpened by her findings, sending her to science
and genetics for an explanation of the curse.Her
mother was normal – so she did not study that side of the family so hard.But
her father’s family, there she found evidence of the curse her grandmother
had spoken of.Not all the members
showed signs of the ‘curse’ but too many did.And
most who had the curse died young.Very,
very young. She still did not know why some lived but most died but she
would find it. And now she had to
make her own decision – about her own child.She
stared at the pond in the middle of the park.Could
she choose?Dare she not?And
what about William? He would never believe any family curse.He
had see it but had scoffed – said the things he saw at the family reunion
were just tricks.She knew better,
they were her family and they could not lie to her.She
could see through their lies. William, she had married
him out of choice.Not for love,
but as an escape from her family.He
only wanted a pretty, educated wife to grace his home.He
knew she did not love him; he did not love her either.For
his inheritance, he had to be married by his twenty-fifth birthday or he
had to wait until he was forty.Stupid
will but it gave them the money they needed. He
used his share to start his business and gave her enough for research and
labs. Now, there was going
to be a child.A child, who if she
paid attention to Grandmother Tierney’s words, was cursed by both the Tuatha
and by God.Not that she believed
in either of them. But she believed in genetics and from her research she
knew enough to be afraid. She shivered in the
cool breeze.She had made her decision. @>~.~`~~ She knew she had to
it soon or it would be too late, but everywhere she went she found the
thing.It was huge, a giant, black
cat.And it was angry with her.When
she picked up the phone to call a friend for help finding a doctor, it
hissed at her.When she started to
ask a colleague about the subject, it appeared, teeth bared and threatened
her.Grace was terrified of it.In
her dreams, it was curled up around a baby boy, gently and protectively
keeping the child safe.It was fighting
her and winning. Today, she could have
sworn it was gloating at her.Laughing
as it purred near her feet in the labs.The
numbers were not matching and her experiment was a failure.Her
coworkers were worried.They knew
she had been ill but weren’t asking.She
did not think they dared, thanks to her temper lately. The
room swayed again-- she had not
eaten a full meal in nearly a week and it showed.Before
she could sit down, the room went gray.Vaguely,
she heard one of her colleagues yell. @>~~`~,~~ “Grace, I want you
to meet Sally.”William was beaming
as he introduced the young Asian woman to her.“I’ve
hired her to take care of you and make sure you get the rest the doctor
ordered.” She did not scream.She
did not wince.She did not fight
or cry.She met the brown eyes and
saw a wisdom there that seemed boundless.Sally
knew, it was in her eyes.The woman
nodded slowly.Grace heard the rumbling
purr of that damned panther from where it lay across the bottom of the
hospital bed. It had won and it had found someone to protect the baby.She
could yield gracefully.“I’m happy
to meet you, Sally.” “I am happy to serve
you, Mrs. Ellison.”Sally’s words
were formal, almost a pledge.Oh,
yes.Sally and her ageless eyes
knew. Fin