Closing Past Chapters

Participants:

Jaya.jpg Bhedri "Beddie" Dicori (NPC) S'las (NPC)

Date: Oct. 21, 2010
Location: The Bar, EW / Campgrounds, Bitran area
Synopsis: Right after L'ron leaves in Writing Bridges, Jaya puts stylus to hide and finally breaks her silence with her family. Receiving the letter days later, Beddie makes a pivotal decision.
Rating: PG-13
Logger: Jaya


Once L'ron left her bar that night, Jaya felt apprehension in breaking her silence with her estranged family.

For one thing, their last parting was on very bad terms. Her father has said hurtful things, and it was Jaya's nature to bite back when she was hurt. Unfortunately, her siblings Bhedri and Nacor got caught in the middle of it all, possibly destroying what little ties she had left with them.

Maybe not Bhedri.

Bhedri Dicori, her twin sister (or 'Beddie', as everyone called her) was tough to ruffle, especially when it came to family. Like their mother who had died, she had too pure of a heart to believe in anything but the good in a person. Despite all of Jaya's faults, Beddie never did turn a mean eye on her. Not even on that last day where her wild, wayward twin had walked out of her life.

If Jaya was going to write anyone in her family, her twin would be it.

My sister,

Writing stylus went to hide and paused as the barkeep bends over the hide from behind the counter. What could she really say that she hadn't already said that fateful day when she walked out of Beddie's life?

It's been many turns, but I haven't ever forgotten you and Nacor. I hesitate to write you now out of fear that those looking to get me will come after you. I've gotten into some trouble, and where usually I have always been able to get out of it, this time I cannot.

That was an understatement, but Jaya didn't really want to go into the details. It's likely, by now, folks would have been talking about whatever trouble that 'wayward daughter' of Bhadri's has gotten herself into for her to suddenly vanish - even though none would most certainly would have known the details.

You and Nac have every right to feel I have abandoned you to father, even after he had kicked me out of the clan. I was supposed to be like our mother, but in that I've failed.

It took much for her to right that - to admit failure there when she usually wouldn't. If her mother was alive to have seen all of this, Jaya was certain she would have been disappointed in her eldest daughter for succumbing so much to the shady temptations her father's side of the family had trouble with. Was it perhaps too late to make amends?

I won't make this long in the case you choose to tear this up without reading it, but I just wanted to say that I'm not dead and I'm as well as I can be. Been staying down south at Eastern Weyr (you know, the new one?), running a bar. That's weird, right? Folks are pretty nice here, which is something I'm still getting used to. Long story. Still got trouble on me, even down here, but still. It's nice to have a home again.

I -think- it's home.

Jaya never considered any place since Bitra home, so the concept of thinking the Weyr was one is one that was foreign. Eastern had been the longest she's ever stayed in one place since the being on the run - it was safer that way to keep moving, to keep enemies always guessing where she could be at any given time. In the beginning, right when she arrived, she already had that itch to move on again. It was the only constant in her life at the time, so it took much of her willpower to not keep that backpack by her side all the time. She never really did figure out why she even let the Weyrwoman Randi dupe her into running the bar! If she was only planning to move on, why accept such a position?

She wanted stability. She wanted a home. It was so basic an answer that Jaya wanted to dismiss it outright. She also knew, deep down, it was the truth whether she liked it or not.

I send this letter with S'las. You remember him. Be well, and take care of Nac. Father, too. Don't let him drink too much, still.

Jaya stared down at that last, frowning. Who is she to admonish her father on his drinking when she pretty much became him? She was going to leave that out, of course. No point in worrying Beddie that her twin sister was going down the same path as their father. She paused long, contemplating how to end the difficult letter, and then she quickly scribbled out,

I am sorry, Beddie. For everything.

Your sister, Bajaya

Jaya read through what was written all over again, looking satisfied that it didn't reveal too much of what had went down with after she had left the clan. She was far from ready to speak on Vaputero, but she had hoped this letter would serve as a sort of closing chapter between her and her family. She was hoping Beddie would at least read and convey the fact that Jaya was fine to both Nacor and their father, and that things would settle there. She didn't have to see any of them again. In fact, Jaya was hoping this letter would suffice there and allow them all to move on with their lives.

As fucked-up as it was, Jaya was living her life. It was time for the Dicori clan to live theirs without having to worry about their fucked-up daughter and sister.

-============= A few days later…. =========================

Bhedri Dicori was on a cliff overlooking the fields where her father had set up camp. They had just gotten back into Bitra after a long stint in Nerat that proved to be unsuccessful. Business wasn't as great down there as her father would like, and as such he had taken to his bottles the moment they returned and settled the wagons. It was no point in persuading him away from the bottles - whiskey was to Bhadri Dicori like the air needed for lungs. So Nacor and Beddie left him alone, as was customary when he wanted to be alone and 'think' with his bottles.

S'las had came a day after they made camp, holding the letter Jaya gave him right after she had fulfilled her promise to show the blue weyrling L'ron that she had, indeed, written it. The bronzerider looked fondly on the un-scarred woman before him, exchanging pleasantries and inquiring after both trade business and his own family since it had been awhile before he ever visited Bitra. He and Jaya did come from the same place where their families mingled, after all.

Jaya's letter both reassured and disturbed her. Being her twin, the traderwoman usually knew when the other was keeping something from her - and the letter was reeking with it. She stood out on the cliff, reading it for the third time before she finally looked away from it and towards the grand view of her Dicori clan. She could see S'las down below, talking animatedly with her brother, Nacor. What was Jaya hiding? What wasn't she telling her? That was what interested Beddie more than the small tidbits of information Jaya had placed in the letter as if to appease her. Was this letter it?

A determined glint came into her eyes right then as her gaze swept over the clan below and found the main wagon her father currently was in. She looked so much like Jaya in her pose - hands on her more slender hips and lips pursed as she contemplated her next move. Her father wasn't going to let her go down south to the Weyr - that was certain - but Beddie had a tendency these days to do a lot of things he didn't like. Would a visit to see her long-lost twin be any different - now that she knew where she was? Dark eyes falling on S'las, she was also certain the Bitran bronzerider would not mind taking her there and back home. She could pop down there for a few days, see her sister (and get the truth out of her or, so help her Faranth, she would stay there at the Weyr until she did!) and then return with little fuss. What could go wrong in a few days, right?

It was settled. Bhedri Dicori was going to Eastern Weyr.

Now the question was how to break it to Nacor and their father. Or, if Jaya was in that much trouble, maybe it was best they didn't know where she was going. Not until she returned, anyway. Regarding S'las, an alibi was already forming in her mind. She knew what to tell them, and they'll believe it. No one hardly questioned her and simple-minded motives. At least, most people only saw her as dumb and simple-minded - especially compared to her siblings. Maybe she was for blatantly ignoring the warning in her sister's letter and choosing to go visit.

Beddie smiled to herself with satisfaction as she folded the letter back up into a tight small square and stuffed it out of sight under her cleavage. She could already see her sister standing before her, their faces and bodies the same, after over five turns of worrying and waiting for Bajaya Dicori to return home to her. She was not about to pass an opportunity like this up. So help her, Faranth.


Ending Music: Brandy, Tamia, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan (Set It Off soundtrack) - "Missing You"


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