Bittersweet
This is merely chapter one of a story featuring my character Cadenza Madrigal. The title is still tentative as of now.
Bittersweet
My heart entertained the foolish idea of love for twelve glorious years. All the while, I was captivated by a single young man—fairly average, but with lofty dreams. I suppose that ambition, along with his caring selfless nature, was what I found most charming about him.
Paris Valentia (his surname meaning “valor” in the old Rubato language, a name quite fitting for him) lived a sheltered life in the royal city of Blancwood, Rubato. Blancwood was a magnificent city, with buildings made of resplendent white stone, and rimmed by majestic beech trees and poplars. The sun always smiled genially upon Blancwood, kind enough to provide warmth and light for the flourishing of plants, but never beating down too much, as to turn the city into an arid wasteland like the rest of the country. At sixteen years of age Paris enlisted in the military, resolving to defend his beloved nation. The boy only knew the beauty and peace of Blancwood, and thought by protecting the country he would be upholding these staples of his life—he never knew how the rest of the nation was exactly Blancwood’s converse, swarming with lowlifes, hatred, and crime.
My town of Santa Mariela was like all other Rubatoian cities of that day, a dried out and shriveled husk of a town, infested with pests and criminals, and overcome by a blight of poverty and famine. There was no secondary school in Santa Mariela—we were lucky to even have a primary school established—and so all of its promising young students were bused off to Blancwood for schooling with the rising of the merciless sun each day. It was in my third year of secondary school that I met Officer Paris, in my arithmetic class. Like the majority of Blancwood townspeople, he spoke in a short clipped tone, and so he found my Santa Mariela accent intriguing and attractive. He often would ask me to say his last name, as he loved the way it rolled off my tongue. He said my dialect reminded him of Latin and Italian, two languages he had studied before. Apparently he was unaware of the fact that the old Rubato language had been derived from those two, along with a bit of Portuguese. His last name itself was from the Portuguese language.
After my classes that day, I received a message from my eldest sister Vivace, informing me that my father had been arrested. She had yet to learn the charges against him, but she was told they were rather severe. It was certain that he would at the very least be sentenced to life in prison. I remember I had broken down in tears while awaiting my bus at the station. Paris saw me and came to comfort me.
“I know what it’s like to have a parent taken away from you, Cadenza…” he had said, taking my hand gently and stroking it to calm me down.
“H-how would you know? You have both your mother and father at home!” I had shouted back. At that time, I was still blind to the tragedy Paris bottled up inside.
He wasn’t angered by my insensitive outburst, although he had every right to be. Instead, he smiled and shared with me, “Actually… my mother was killed by police in an accident when I was very young… the woman I call mother now is my stepmother. My… my mother is the reason I refused to cut my hair for the military. Sounds silly I know but… she loved it long. I keep it this way… incase she’s ever looking down upon me from…”
I waited for him to say heaven, even though I was not of the same faith, but he did not. He simply smiled again and clasped the cross charm hanging from his necklace.
“But yes,” he continued, “I know what it is like to have a parent taken away… Don’t let your father go, Cadenza…”
I wiped away my tears and stood then. The bus was coming to take me back to Santa Mariela—the hell sweet Paris never knew.
“I won’t lose him, Paris,” I had whispered, and then climbed the stairs aboard.
My sister Vivace was waiting for me by the door when I reached home. She had terrible news.
“Father’s trial is in a few days, Cadenza. He’s being charged with murder.”
My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what I could say about that, or even think about that. I was about to go inside and throw myself into the numbing boredom of my schoolwork, but Vivace had more to tell.
“Sister, if we hope to get him out of this… we’re going to need your help,” she had said. That smirk of hers was discomforting and insidious. “You remember that bow father made you? Well, you’re going to need it...”
I furrowed my brow. I could only guess what would come next.
She turned away at that moment, and began pacing. It was like she was spouting off some sales pitch. "See, we all are going to be working to break father out of jail, whether by actions within or not within the constraints of the law. And since you’re the best shot out of all of us, you’ll be doing our…”
“Grunt work?” I had cut in, voice sour. I knew where this was going now.
“I wouldn’t put it that way… let’s just say you’ll be our little assassin and thief. Sound good, sister?”
“...What does Mom think of this?” I evaded.
“Oh, she’s all for it. And so are Algretta, Luminari, and Arietta. You’re the final piece, sister.”
I remained silent for a moment, sorting through all the thoughts swimming about in my head. This was for my father, that was certainly a plus, I loved my father and family and felt a strong loyalty towards them. As I had learned that day Paris’ mother had been slain by police, and so I felt as if I too now had a grudge against the authorities. That would provide me with motivation when doing my misdeeds. My schooling however, that might be interfered with. But when living in Rubato, my education wouldn’t have amounted to much. After much thinking, I chose to join in on the plan.
“I’m in, Vivace.”
“Good,” she had said to me, smiling mischievously. “I’ll have mother make the call to pull you out of that Blancwood school. We’re going to need you full time, sister.”
She walked back inside the house, leaving me alone to ponder over my decision. I wondered if I would ever see Paris again.
Last edited by Altamira; 09-06-2006 at 04:21 PM.