(Not sure what this video says about my humor, but Remi Gaillard is absolutely hilarious.)
Chapter
13: One Hell of A Woman
The explosions of lights,
colors, and sounds was nothing when compared to the calamity Lin and Ms. Grace
discovered upon reentering Providence.
During Ms. Grace’s run into
Homewood, a Thomas discovered the Davis boys with ash stricken faces and hair
spiked straight up from the blasts they started. The boys at that moment were
relatively unscathed when weighed against the possibilities of what could have
happened. However, the Thomas brought more damage to the boys than the
sparklers and the flares – the boys had been dragged by their ears to the
center of town to be publically punished for the fright they stirred in town.
The Thomas man threw the Davis boys in front of the mayor. The children were
visibly scared of what would happen to them. They were already alarmed enough
as it was after what they went through; they could barely hear anything around
them due to the awful ringing in their ears.
The parents of the boys
rushed over to see if their kin were injured, but their tempers were only
inflamed upon seeing that it was a Thomas attempting to bring their boys to
justice. The verbal exchange between four Davis’ and one Thomas devolved to
disaster as the numbers of representatives for both families increased.
The mayor and the reverend
were the first to attempt an armistice, but their efforts were in vain. No one
quite saw who threw the first fist of fruits at the other, but it was the act
which started the catastrophe. The feud between the Thomas’ and the Davis’
erupted like nothing anything of these mortals had ever before seen.
When Howard arrived at the
scene he thought for a moment that he had walked back through time to the days
when the moon was stained with the blood of his enemies and his kin. It took
him a long while to realize that this was a battle of mortals waged between two
families for reasons unknown. As Howard walked towards the fight in the center
of Providence with hoards of out-of-towners running as though for their lives,
the patron thought, “What fools these
mortals be, fighting for nothing. What happened to the days in which men fought
for a cause, fought for their lives? These men and these women fight for
nothing, they live for nothing, and now perchance for nothing they will die.”
Howard made it to ground
zero to help the reverend, the mayor, and the other dozen men and women of
Providence attempting to halt this violent brawl.
The scene was something
like a dream. Ms. Grace and Lin stood on the outskirts of the commotion. The
actions seemed to play in slow motion to the matron and to the school teacher.
The same visions of old that Howard saw afflicted Lin. However, it took the
matron only a moment ere she ran into the heap of flailing arms and inflated tempers
to try to bring order again to Providence.
Ms. Grace stood rigid as she
watched what she guessed to be a trifle started over absolute folly. She could
not believe what she was witnessing. Her eyes saw Allison’s puff of blond curls
waving madly about as she wrestled a chair out of another lady’s grasp with the
aid of Mr. Dawning. Not too far from them Ms. Joyce was using her own body as a
shield to protect and to herd a couple of children into Mrs. Huff’s teashop.
Mrs. Huff and Mrs. Winford stood beside each other on the porch, a front row
viewing pad. Their mouths were silent and agape. For once neither had a single
word to say.
The thin cloud of dust that
rose from the road cleared to bring Ms. Grace’s heart to stop. She found her
reverend. Mr. Tamrin was beside the hat shop, his nose was bleeding. He had not
made a single act of violence toward a single body, but his face was clipped by
an elbow of a man struggling to free himself from another’s grasp. Ms. Grace
wanted to run to Mr. Tamrin’s side, but she refrained. She saw that he was not
alone. Mr. Tamrin was pushing two petrified teens into Howard’s protective
arms. Ms. Grace did not hear what he said to his cousin, but she instinctively
knew that he was saying: “These are the
children I told you about; get them as far away from here as possible.”
The hope for peace between
the two families was lost among the shouts and the rising dust.
Right after the children
disappeared down a side street with Howard and Lin close behind, the
unimaginable happened; the reverend turned around to rejoin the cause for peace
when a woman threw her fist into his face.
Ms. Grace saw red.
Whether or not the punch was
intended for the reverend, Ms. Grace was not about to waste time in asking. She
began to rush forward, but her motion was almost immediately halted by a pair
of arms that entrapped her. Ms. Grace squirmed and kicked as hard as she could,
but for the second time that day a hand was slapped across her face. Yes, of
course it was Mrs. Higley’s again, except this time her son had the nerve to
accompany his mommy for whatever it was they had in mind for Ms. Grace.
“What the hell is wrong
with you?!” Ms. Grace screamed once Mr. Higley released her from his clutches
in the alley where he had dragged her. The weight of the day had enraged Ms.
Grace to the point that for the first time in her life she was ready to pick a
fight.
“Watch your tongue, you
insolent child!” Mrs. Higley scorned. “Brian, for the life of me I cannot
understand why you desire this parentless filth as your bride.”
Mr. Higley liked the
current fire in Ms. Grace. He had never seen her angry before.
“Ugh,” Ms. Grace screamed,
she did not have time for these people and their stupidity. “I am so frustrated
with the pair of you and if I had any sense I would not agree to be any part of
your sick game, but I will. I am not doing
this for personal gain or for any want to be your bride, Mr. Higley – I am
disgusted by the very thought of you. I am doing this for the sake of
Providence, which is in obvious need of help at the present. Now,” Ms. Grace
pointed her finger at Mrs. Higley and her son and for once both looked mildly
intimidated, or at least they were offended. “I will only agree to this union under
two conditions: one,” Ms. Grace looked directly at Mrs. Higley, “I need you to
swear on your life that you will uphold your end of the bargain; and two, that
you both swear on everything and anything you hold dear that you will not tell a soul of this engagement. I will tell people however and whenever I bloody choose.” Ms. Grace exhaled
angrily and pulled her bodice down to where it belonged. She was all
misarranged after being dragged into the alley. After straightening out her
clothes, Ms. Grace began to storm out of the alley. However, she quickly turned
back to say, “One last thing, Mr. Higley. You had better prepare yourself for
me, laddie; I am one hell of a woman and I will not stand to be complacent or controlled.”
Ms. Grace left Mrs. and Mr.
Higley in the alley to think on what she had said. They thought on the contract
that they formed for a moment before both ran out to the street in time to see
Ms. Grace knock out a woman with one brute punch of her fist in the middle of
the mess of everything.
Ms. Grace’s knuckles were
not made sore for nothing. The woman she knocked down with one swing had
infuriated her on two accounts: firstly, the woman had never once came to pick
up her young son Mr. Thomas after school, and secondly this woman dared to take
a swing at her dear Mr. Tamrin.
Ruefully, Ms. Grace had to
admit that in this case alone her little vendetta actually did taste sweet.
~*~*~
Gotta run!
See ya next week!
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
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