Family Ties
By Gaeriel Mallory

NOTE: This story is the beginning of a four-story arc that deals with the issue of parenthood.

Every since starting here at Photon’s, I have seen more people and things in one night than most people see in their entire lifetime. I have met gods, wizards, aliens, ghosts, a vampire, Santa Claus, elves and more. What I never expected to see, however, was someone I knew from my old life. So imagine my surprise when one night my Uncle Rupert walked into Phton’s.

I had not seen any of my family for years, ever since I had run away at age fifteen when they wanted to marry me off.

Yes, marry me off. Needless to say, my parents and I did not get along very well. The only person that I actually liked who shared blood with me was Uncle Rupert. Naturally, he was considered the black sheep of the family. But then again, so was I.

He used to tell me stories when I was little. It was mainly his stories that had prepared me for Photon’s. If any other fifteen-year-old girl from Victorian England stumbled over this place they probably would have “had a spell.” Heh. Bunch of wimps, the whole lot of them.

But I digress. I was sitting at a table with Tim and Scarlet Louis and we were playing a game of cards. I was sitting next to Louis and my back was to the door. Tim sat across from us. Tim threw his hand on the table and sighed in disgust. “Poker just ain’t my game.”

Louis grinned as he reshuffled the deck. “It’s all about luck, Tim. That’s all it is.” He began dealing out the cards again. When I saw my hand, I made a face. Apparently, poker was not my game either.

Tim saw me and started chuckling. “Anne, gal, you have to work on your poker face.”

I scowled and threw my cards into the middle of the table. “I’m never going to make something out of that.”

A hand reached over my shoulder and picked up the cards. “Well, I don’t know about that, my dear. Sometimes, all you need to do is try.”

I started upon hearing the familiar voice. Whirling around, I cried out, “Uncle Rupert?”

There smiling down at me was the same face that had smiled down at me when I was a little girl. I watched as the face showed surprise, confusion, and then recognition. “Anne? Is that you?”

“Uncle Rupert!” I threw my arms around his waist and he returned my hug, the playing cards falling unnoticed to the ground. He grasped my chin and tilted my head up so that I looked up at him once again.

“Anne, my girl. We thought you were dead. What on earth possessed you to run away?” Sympathetic blue-gray eyes in a lined face peered down at me. Louis got up and gently pushed my uncle into the vacated spot on the bench. He sat down with a murmured thanks to the highway thief.

I looked imploringly at my two friends. They both shook their heads at me and shrugged. I sighed. On my own for this one. “Uncle Rupert, they were going to make me marry that awful Lord Pennington! He was three times my age. I couldn’t stay.”

He gave me a sad little smile. “Ah, dear Anne. We two are the outcasts in our family, are we not? Me the scholar who couldn’t give a whit about high society and impressions,” he said it as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “And you with your music and your penchant for unladylike songs.” He gazed around Photon’s, his eyes gliding over the gaggle of Taliniums in the corner, Tel and Elizabeth behind the bar, Samm easily lifting a barrel onto the bartop, and Hermes holding court by the fireplace.

“You seem to be taking this place pretty well,” I commented.

“I used to frequent here quite often when I was younger.” He turned sad eyes on me. “That was long ago. I’m afraid I don’t recognize any faces now.” He sighed. “I guess nothing lasts forever.” Finally, he asked me, “So how did you come to be here?”

I told him. I told him of sneaking out of the house with my lute late at night, climbing out the window. I told him of wandering the streets of London, scared and alone but refusing to turn around and go back home. And finally, I told him of running into Photon’s Crossing when someone had begun following me. I had run straight into Samm and after I had picked up my jaw from the ground she had offered me a bed for the night. Sitting in the corner by myself I had been hesitant to join in the closeness of the Photon’s crowd but in the end had been pulled in. Someone had noticed my lute and asked me to play something. So I did.

And the rest is history.

I had never looked back. Photon’s Crossing had become my home and I had a new family now. It was a strange family but they were closer than those who shared blood with me had ever been.

Louis and Tim smiled at me after I had finished my story. “You’re one of us, Anne. Don’t you ever forget that,” the highwayman told me. “If you ever need help, we’re here for you.”

Uncle Rupert hugged me. “Well, girl. It’s seems like you’ve done well for yourself. I may have to start coming back here again just to hear you play!” He laughed. “I’m glad I went for a walk tonight. My feet led me straight to you.”

Samm wandered over and tapped me on the shoulder. “Feel up for set?” she asked me. “The masses feel like dancing.” She winked.

I grinned at her. “Let me get my fiddle,” I told her. “I’ll have this place moving in no time.”

She laughed and walked back to behind the bar. I turned back to my table partners. “I’m sorry, Uncle Rupert.”

He chuckled ruefully. “Duty calls. I understand. You go and I’ll sit here and get to know your friends better.”

I ran up to my room to get my instrument, smiling all the way.

Uncle Rupert would come two or three nights a week. Pretty soon, he was one of the regulars and people would call out to him as he walked through the door. Sometimes, he would bring along his flute and join in with me on a song. Other times, he would just sit at a table nursing a drink and talking and laughing with people.

It felt good to have him there, a part of my life again. I had not realized how much I had missed him.

But then one night he did not show up. I was a little bit worried but pushed the thought out of my mind. It was not like he had promised to come, only that he would try. But when he did not appear the next night or the night after that...

Worried did not begin to describe how I felt. I told Samm and she tried to calm me down but I knew in my gut that something was wrong. The next day I did something that I had not done for a long time.

I left Photon’s Crossing.

It was daytime and the streets were crowded. No one noticed one more person in the throng even if it was a girl dressed in breeches. And even if they did I would not have cared. I had one thing in my mind: find Uncle Rupert.

I navigated the maze that made up London. Familiar streets and buildings passed me as I made my way to where Uncle Rupert lived. Had lived. I hoped that he had not moved.

I wished that one of my friends could have come with me, maybe Louis. But I was the only one who was from this world and time and it would have been futile for one of them to try and follow me. The incident with Elizabeth and Telrondil had showed me that.

Finally, I saw the familiar building in front of me. I ran up the steps and knocked on the door. There was no answer so I knocked again, this time harder. The door was yanked opened before I could try a third time and a hard-faced man stared out at me. Looking over my clothing disdainfully, he asked, “What do you want?”

“I’m here to see my Uncle Rupert. Is he here?” I realized my mistake as soon as I made it. I had called him my uncle. Hopefully, none of my other family members would find out. That would be awkward.

The man stared at me again, studying me. “Mister Bradley is indisposed of at the moment. I’ll inform him that you called.”

He tried to close the door but I stuck my foot in the way. “Wait! Who are you?”

“I’m his physician. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

I did not let him finish. I pushed past him inside and ran up the stairs, ignoring him as he called out for me to stop. My heart hammered in my chest as I imagined why Uncle Rupert would need a doctor. I burst through the door to the master bedroom. “Uncle Rupert!” I called out.

I skidded to a stop when I saw the woman sitting by his bedside.

Aw, crap. It would have to be my mother.

Uncle Rupert raised his head from the pillow and looked at me in astonishment. “Anne? What on earth are you doing here, child?”

My mother was looking at me. All the color had drained from her face and her eyes had gotten very wide. I ignored her, instead focusing on my uncle.

“When you didn’t show up for three nights in a row, I got worried.”

He chuckled. “I should have thought to have sent a message to you. But I’m fine, Anne. I just fell down and sprained my ankle. The doctor is refusing to let me walk. But I’ll be up and about again in no time.”

I felt relived. My mother, unfortunately, decided to find her wits just then. “Anne!” She jumped up and advanced upon me. Her face was a study in emotion: rage, hurt, surprise, happiness, relief ... until anger settled on her features. “Where have you been? When you father hears about this... And what are you wearing? I’m taking you home and putting you into some proper clothing this instant! What on earth are you thinking?”

I had been backing up as she came closer to keep the same amount of distance between us. Behind her, I saw my uncle making shooing motions with his hands and mouthing “run”.

So I did. I turned around and ran straight into the doctor. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. “I’m terribly sorry, Mister Bradley. I’ll get her out of here at once.”

“Wait!” My mother shrieked. “She’s my daughter and I’m taking her home. You can put her into the carriage.”

I felt the blood rush out of my face. There was no way I was returning to that cage they called life. So I did the first thing that I thought of: I stamped down hard on the doctor’s instep. He yelped and let me go. I then ducked around him and jumped over the railing of the stairs.

Inwardly, I was thanking Samm for all those lessons in self-defense and fighting she had given me. I was in the best physical shape I had ever been in my entire life. And I was certainly in better shape than my mother, encumbered by layers of skirts and that horrid corset. I shuddered at the memory of wearing those torture devices.

I was out the door and down the street before either my mother or the doctor had even reached the bottom of the stairs. I felt a bit guilty about leaving Uncle Rupert there by himself to answer my parents questions but at least they had no control over him as they did me.

When I reached Photon’s I let out a sigh of relief. I opened the door and practically slammed it shut behind me. Elizabeth was sitting at one of the tables, books and papers spread out around her. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I shook my head. “I am never ever leaving this place again. Never.” I went upstairs and into my room.

Uncle Rupert walked into Photon’s a few nights later. I put down my lute and ran up to hug him. He smiled at me and hugged me back. “I told you I’d be all better, didn’t I?”

I laughed and got him a mug of ale from Melthus, who had bar duty that night. “You know, your mother is quite unhappy with you at the moment,” he told me as we sat down at a bench.

“I don’t care,” I responded. “They didn’t ask me what I thought before they tried to marry me off so why should I care what they think now?”

He smiled. “Quite right, my dear. Quite right.” He raised his mug in salute. “Here’s to girls who know what they don’t want and aren’t afraid of what they have to do in order to not get it.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Louis tapped his glass against my uncle’s mug and took a drink. “Glad to have you back with us.”

“It’s good to be back.” My uncle took a sip of his ale and sat back.

I just smiled before going back to my corner and my lute. It was good indeed.

--fin--

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