the silence in-between
what i thought and what i said

Merete waited patiently for Jetta to absorb all of the information that she had just imparted upon her. The silence for a few moments was calming, and it helped to settle her busy mind just a little. Her first words were ones of sympathy, which Merete accepted quietly with a gentle nod of her head.

Then Jetta began with her side of the story, to which Merete listened intently. She couldn’t help but gawp just a little when she heard that Sterre and Het Vuur had actually been staying in the Peak together at the time. For someone who had only known them in their prime, the idea seemed farcical to Merete – she knew what Sterre had thought of the women who lived in the Peak, and to imagine her father living under a crowd of mares, well it seemed an impossibility.

But a lot of things had changed since then, it seemed.

Another niece, and a nephew – Adelheid and Argento. Merete committed their names to her memory for the future – perhaps one day she would get to meet them too. Jetta seemed so level-headed and kind, her aura warm, that Merete couldn’t help but wonder whose genes along the way had calmed the tempers and pride that ran strong further down the family line. Perhaps it was Inka all along.

Either way, she couldn’t say that she wasn’t pleased about it.

She was silent for a minute, before she shook her head and returned Jetta’s smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said, regaining her focus. “It’s just so strange to think of my parents living here… I hadn’t seen them in years, and it seems so unlike them…”

She trailed off a moment, before a thought hit her. “What were they like then? Do you remember?”

Jetta couldn’t have been all that old when Diamant was born, but she must have been a child at least – perhaps she remembered something, even if only a little. It felt so strange, walking around with this huge piece of the timeline of her life missing. She tried to push the empty feeling away, and turn her attention to happier thoughts.

“My family seems to grow by the minute lately,” she said, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “Where are they staying, Adelheid and Argento? I would like to meet them one day, perhaps.”

“As for me,” she continued, “I went to the mainland. First it was to explore, then it was to get away – as I got older, that flair for the dramatic got a little too much for me. My brother, Rook, stayed here, I know that, but I don’t know for how long or where he went or where he is now. I don’t suppose you know anything about him too, do you?” she asked, joking, although she wished that she could expect a real answer.

MERETE

(het vuur x sterre)