Monsieur Death

A knock on my door woke me. I hadn’t even realized I was sleeping. Stupid humans, always wasting their time on useless things. I paused on my way to the door, thinking back. I couldn’t remember what sleep had been like. Alright, that may have been a bit scary. I shook off the feeling and opened the door. An older blond woman stood there, smiling so much it must have hurt her face.

“I’m Christe! It’s pronounced Christ-el, but spelled C-h-r-i-s-t-e. It’s French, but you would know all about that! My daughter Emilia says your from France!”

Here she pushed the girl I had met in the yard in front of her.

“It’s Emmaline, Mom.” She grumbled, pushing off her mother’s arm. Then she glared at me. Apparently, she was still mad about earlier. “And I have homework to do.” She turned around and ran off. Christe focused on me again. “So sorry about that!” I wondered if she ended all of her questions with an exclamation mark.

“So! You should come over and have dinner sometimes! You should get to know my daughter!”

I shrugged. “What about Evangeline?”

Her expression tightened. It reminded me a lot of her daughter’s. “I... What is your meaning?”

“I want to meet her. Your daughter Evangeline.”

“I.. well, you see, Evangeline is gone often. She not a very upstanding..... citizen. She does dangerous things and pushes people away. She has caused multiple.... issues with people who have gotten close to her. I think you would enjoy Emmaline much more.”

I shrugged again.

“I don’t know. I don’t really like her.” Her eyes widened with shock.

“Where is she now?” I asked. “Evangeline?”

She bit her lip. “I... don’t know. I really got to go home and cook dinner.” She turned and stalked quickly away. I went back to reading.

********

There was a second knock on my door. I kept reading. The knock sounded again. I gritted my teeth. A third knock and I was ready to punch something. A fourth knock. I did. The fifth knock had me. I went and opened the door moodily. It was, surprise, surprise, Christe once again. She shoved Emmaline in front of me. She had changed into a leather jerkin and dirty ripped jeans. She did not look happy to see me.

“Just try, alright?” Her mother whispered in her ear. Then she looked up at me.

“You two can spend an hour getting to know each other! Isn’t that so wonderful?!”

I shrugged.

“Starting the timer! Hopefully by the end, you’ll have changed your mind!” With that, she turned around happily and left.

“Are you going to let me in?” She asked irritably. I shrugged. The quick movement of my shoulders was quickly becoming practiced. I stepped aside to let her in. She stalked past me and sat down in the chair I was just in.

“I was going to sit there.”

She didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. I sat in another chair. We sat staring at each other for a few minutes.

“Nice Mom.” I started. I had no idea how to start a conversation.

She shrugged. I shrugged. This was very awkward. I tried again.

“You live near?”

She looked at me.

“Duh. I’ve never been anywhere else. Stupid adults with their stupid ideas of settling down and staying someplace. Haven’t they ever wanted to go anywhere?”

I was confused now. “So your sister...?”

“Oh don’t get me started on her! She’s a purebred proper idiot! And Mom, always getting our names mixed up! Good bye, Emmaline! Well, I’m just glad they didn’t name me that! Evangeline’s not much better! I hate being identical to her!”

“Wait... you’re Evangeline?!”

She made a duh face at me again. “Well, yeah! Who did you think I was?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but after hearing her strong opinions on her sister, I decided to let it go.

“Nobody.” I replied, shrugging. She narrowed her eyes, but dropped her gaze after a moment or two. We were quiet again.

“Cool clothes.” She said.

“Yeah.”

“You lived in Paris?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. I wanted her to trust me. I trusted her.

“Where’s Paris?” I said.

She started to smile.