Decades- Anger, Grief, and Forgiveness
Wednesday, after school
Isabelle and Teresa are on her bed, gossiping.
"Oh, Lizzie Peterson, pregnant. And, her beau has fled town because her father threatened him at gunpoint saying he had to marry her or he'd shoot him in his sleep."
"Gosh, a bastard? Elizabeth must be in such trouble."
"Yes, she's being pulled out of school, and-"
Theo pushed open the bedroom door. "Teesa?"
Teresa huffed. "What, Theodore?"
Theodore fiddled with his clothes. "I stay?' He asked, wondering if he could sit with Teresa and Isabelle for company.
"No! Go away Theodore." Teresa groaned, waving her hand sharply away from her.
"Sorry." Theo sighed in defeat, his R's turning into W's. He pulled open the large wooden door with his weak toddler hands, and after much struggle, waddled away.
Isabelle stayed silent until the door closed.
"You know..." She began hesitantly. "You don't have to be angry forever."
Teresa turned to her with a furrowed brow. "What."
"At your brother." Isabelle clarified.
Teresa looked frustrated. "I thought out of anyone, you would understand."
Isabelle shrugged. "I do, but I don't agree with you."
"What on earth do you mean? You dislike your brother for the same reason."
Isabelle roughly shook her head. "No! I love my brother. I was just mad at him when I was younger because I was grieving and confused, and a small child."
"So you think I should forgive Theodore for killing my mother." Teresa crossed her arms.
"Don't force yourself. Just consider that maybe, Theodore is a piece of your mother that you get to keep. I think that way about my brother, he is the only part of my mother I have left. Your mother was taken away from him, too. And I doubt that Katherine would ever want you to be so estranged from each other. Or your sisters, either. I know you don't think of them as family, but they are half of you. They'll be a part of you forever, whether you like it or not, so you might as well learn to love that fact now, and not grow up bitter."
Teresa sits silently, thinking, then quietly gets up, coming back in with Cordelia in her arms.
"She looks a bit like me, I think." She said, as Cordelia played with her fingers.
"Well, you are sisters, after all."
