Chapter 4.4 - Anger

Willow was angry. That in itself wasn’t too unusual, but she hadn’t been this angry in years. Not since she started her Sim Fu training.

She was angry at Marissa for leaving her baby without a word.

She was angry at herself for not being there for Felix and Flora when it happened.

She was angry at Felix for not being able to cope.

But there was one person in the house she wasn’t angry with, and that was Flora.

Marissa was gone. Felix spent all of his time outside. He said he was job hunting, and maybe he was, but Willow was pretty sure that he mostly just wanted to avoid the house. 

So whenever Flora needed something, she went to Willow.

“Aunt Willow?”

“What is it, Flora?”

“Is Mom dead?”

“No! Where did you get that idea?”

“One of the boys at school asked me where my mom was today, so I said she was gone. When he asked when she was coming back, I said she wasn’t, because that’s what you told me, and then he said that meant she was dead, but I didn’t think so, so I decided to ask you.”

Willow took a moment to process the convoluted rambling. “Flora, your mom isn’t dead. She just left.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because all of the kids at school have moms. Some of them don’t live with them, but none of them left like mine.”

“Flora… I really, really don’t know. I wish I could explain it to you, but I can’t. I don’t understand it myself.”

“Did she not love us enough?”

“More questions are not going to make the answer different. She just… felt like she needed to be somewhere else, I suppose.”

Flora nodded, but her eyes were sad, and Willow abruptly began to hate Marissa. Could she not have thought about the consequences of her actions?

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The absolute worst of it, though, was at work. Midnight Hollow had an incredibly active rumor mill, and it had been working overtime since Marissa had left. This often meant that people at work, people she barely knew, felt like they had the right to pry into her personal life. Nowadays, an average day at work went something like this:

Willow got to work and started tutoring kids. About halfway through her second student, someone - maybe her student, maybe some other person at the center - would stop her to ask how she was doing.

“It can’t be easy, raising that baby on your own…”

“And she’s not even yours! You deserve a medal.”

“I’m sure she’s difficult, with parents like that…” 

“It must have been so hard on you when her mother walked out.”

“Tell me, how’s your brother doing? Has he resorted to begging yet?”

She hated it. Some of them were worse than others, but they all just wanted to get the juiciest gossip straight from the source. None of them cared about her wellbeing, or Felix’s, or even Flora’s.

Her temper was easily frayed at the best of times, but in these situations, it took everything she had to keep herself under control. She was always immensely relieved when it came time to move on to sparring.

Maybe she was a little harder on her opponents than usual. Maybe it was just the new techniques she had learned in China. But whatever the case, she was winning almost all of her matches, and it made her proud. At least there was one aspect of her life she could still control.

Author's Note: I said this generation was going to be much more picture-light. Somehow, I even seem to have neglected to get a CAS photo of child Flora. I'll try to have one for you with chapter 7, since the next 2 are already done. Flora is now a perfectionist. Next time: the most emotional drama this generation so far! (It's also already up, so click that next post button)