Fan Fiction ❯ china doll ❯ the flowers ( Chapter 5 )

The two sisters and their only cousin looked shocked at the doctor; the man sighed and added:

" ... Unluckily the analysis' results aren't good, we must expect the worse. For now we're administering to your cousin a glucose's solution and trying to restore the electrolytic equilibrium; we couldn't do anything else until we don't know the poisoning's cause. You should have brought her at the hospital at the appearance of the first symptoms."

Doctor Anselmi's voice was cold and distant; Tom was absorbed in his thoughts, his glance laid on the clinic's courtyard; Bianca thought continuously about the doctor's words nibbling her thumb's fingernail; Isabella was shocked and literally speechless, then she looked at the doctor and whispered:

" And the baby? What about the baby?"

Doctor Anselmi gave a rapid glance to the case sheet.

" As you had required, we have done a pregnancy test too and..."

" And... ?"

Tom said looking for the first time the man, whom rearranged the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at him back.

" ... and the Miss Meridiae isn't expecting. "

" What?!" Isabella exclaimed grabbing the physician's white uniform," isn't she pregnant?! But... the morning sickness...."

"Miss, calm down! Nausea reenters in the symptomatology of different alimentary poisonings."

Said this, the doctor left. Isabella looked disappointed; Bianca thought silently while Tom threw a sigh of relief.

" Luckily she's not pregnant, I am too young to be father."

" Are you joking?!" Isabella exclaimed," You're almost seventy-one years old! And if I remember well, grandpa Alfio was your contemporary!"

" Ah, you're right. However I feel too young to have children."

" It's useless stay here." Bianca said looking at them and changing topic," I stay with Virginia, while you go back home and find out what could have poisoned her."

Isabella embraced her sister, while Tom stretched his lips in an encouraging smile. The two cousins went back at Villa Trao and they searched the places in which Virginia had been in the last eight days without any result: at the end they only needed to search in the chestnut wood. Isabella took Tom to the chestnut and told him that while she had picked the bark, Virginia and her had talked had talked: Tom looked sideways at her, and without a word, began to search the environs. It was while he checked the nearby chestnut trees that he found the mushrooms: the cap was very big, five or six inches of diameter, flattened, slightly viscous- the weather had been rainy- and not uniform olive green; they had a membranous feeble ring and an ample bowl-like membrane at the base of the stem. They were white and fibrous; unscented the youngers and unpleasant the olders; the taste, instead, was slightly sour. Tom spit the bit of mushroom that he had tasted and checked the group: three had been picked, of which one lay among the dry leaves. He took it and gasped when he saw that it had been bite: by the signs of teeth and the size, he understood that it had been bite by a human being. At once he understood what had happened: Virginia had found the mushrooms; she had recognized them -or she had thought to recognize them; she had eaten two, but she just had bite the third, Isabella had called her. Tom put the mushroom in a pocket and said:

" Quick Isabella: we must go back to hospital! Give me your hand."

" Hey, won't you appear in the middle of a Muggle hospital?! It'll be more prudent go with my motorbike: in less than half hour we'll be there."

Tom tightened his lips and nodded. Few minutes after, they were on the highway driving fast toward Taormina.

" Waah! Slow down Isabella: after all there isn't all this hurry!"

Tom exclaimed gripping Isabella, who was regardless of his remonstrations, drove at breakneck speed.

When they arrived at hospital, Tom looked for doctor Anselmi: he found him near the coffee vending machine chatting with some colleagues and he called him. The physician turned and frowned at him; the wizard took back breath, took the mushroom from the pocket and showing it to the doctor he hissed:

" Amanita Phalloides."

The doctor Anselmi gasped; then barked new direction to a nurse, whom nodded and runs toward Virginia's room; he then beckoned Tom to follow him and asked him to tell him how it had happened, or rather, how he thought it had happened. Tom ran a hand in his hair nervously and sighed.

" Well, Monday the girls had a walk in the chestnut wood: my... er... little sister has picked three amanita -two eat and one only partially. My cousin wasn't... er... there. But I don't understand: we're in spring, and this is a summer species... "

" Have you said Monday?" Tom nodded, " Well, it's unbelievable that she's still alive: usually the death occur after five or six days since the ingestion, your sister has a quite strong physique."

" Yeah, Virginia is stronger than what she seems. "

Tom whispered thinking about the Chamber of Secrets' incident -somebody else would have died in few months, while her body not only has given up only few weeks before the terms' end, but Virginia has survived too.

" Nowadays, this syndrome's treatment is more effective than in past: the administration of elevated quantity of tioctic acid gives favorable results even in cases as desperate as your sister's. Sure, probably she'll need a liver transplant and she won't ever recover completely, but with this therapy we'll save her."

Tom nodded mechanically and both went in Virginia's room: Bianca and Isabella were there, pale, seeking comfort in each other. The doctor told them to wait outside and Isabella proposed going to the cafe across the courtyard: the three sat silently while a waitress served their coffee -laced with liqueur for Tom, with a dash of milk for Bianca and strong black for Isabella. They said nothing, everyone deep in thought: the youngest still couldn't believe what had happened; the man felt anger mixed with guilt and anguish grew inside; the woman, instead, stared her cousin, as if she saw his feelings. Bianca sighed and stirred her coffee once more.

" Why are you so upset, Thomas?"

Tom looked surprised his cousin, he then sigh and sipped his coffee.

" Too much sugar in this coffee."

" Don't change the topic, it doesn't work with me." she stooped forward," what is distressing you?"

" How dared she?" he hissed after an along silence," she did it on purpose, I would put my hand on the fire! Instead of thank me; to be grateful for the opportunity that I am offering her, she does such stupid things! If she dies... well, she couldn't die, I don't want it: she's my doll, she belongs to me, and she couldn't die if I don't want it!"

" Are you sure that it's /only/ this?" suddenly said Isabella toying with her cell phone," Are you /sure/ that for you Gin is only a plaything?"

" What do you mean Isabella?!"

" Nothing, I mean nothing; it's that... well, when Gin has caught bronchial pneumonia you haven't thought twice to bring her in hospital; then you've given her soul back and now this: when the doctor told us that she was in coma, you were quite upset, practically an other!"

" Nonsense. If I'm upset, it's only because she's so stupid to think that she have the luxury to decide alone! She's my china doll, she's mine, she belongs me, and it's me, /me/ to decide for her!"

The two women sigh; then Bianca stared at her sister and said:

" Isabella, leave us alone."

" But, Bia!" the girl protested, then mumbled," Ok, I'm going! What a shitty Easter."

The two adults looked the girl kick the dustbin. Bianca shook her head, leaned forward and grabbed Tom's hand.

" I couldn't know what you have in your head, I think that not even you know it. " Tom opened his mouth to protest, but the woman rose a hand," No, Thomas, don't say it! It's only a lie that you have been repeated so much times to think it is true! Even if you don't want admit it, Virginia and you are bond: you share a part of your souls and this is an unbreakable bond!"

" But what are you saying Bianca? When we have parted my soul from hers, we have purified it!"

" Once two souls get mixed, they couldn't be separate: I'm surprised, you should know that before the simpler societies /this/ was the wedding ceremonial; after all you too are a member of the Confraternity. Deep inside you know that you can't lose her."

" Are you trying to tell me that I am... I am in love with her?" he hissed furious," Is that? Thomas dear I think you are in love with that girl?!"

" No, I have neither said nor thought such a thing. Listen, I just want to tell you that in your unconscious you know that if she dies, a part of you will die too; and if you want keep her with you, it's only to feel whole: you could hate, love, be indifferent to each other, but only together you'll feel. Isabella told me that Virginia was Potter's girlfriend: even if she goes back home, even if she goes back to him, she won't be at her ease."

" So in the end she'll go back to me, leaving the brat empty-handed. " he ended with a grin," Well, it could be an evilly nice idea...."

" It's not quite what I said, but you're close enough. But I agree with my sister about one thing: there's something more, but you have to find it out by yourself."

Tom puffed and mumbled something about female romanticism; then he finished his coffee and went back to Virginia: Isabella was there, still toying with her cell phone; when she saw him, she gave him a weak smile and told that she had to meet some friends; she left, leaving him alone with his own thoughts. Tom watched Virginia thinking about what Bianca had revealed him: he had known it, he had always been conscious of the indissoluble bond that, like it or not, bound him to the girl. He called himself a fool, for too much greed he had took a false step: he had always avoided every bond that could be avoided; at times he even doubted of his own followers, above all the lower ranks. Virginia seemed a stranger, with those wires that tied her to the machines that keep her alive; yet she was so familiar with that aura of puzzling innocence that sparkled and trembled around her. Despite she wasn't any more a child, despite everything /he/ have done and shown her, did Virginia keep his innocence: was it this /the other/ which Bianca and Isabella had talked about? And owning her he thought that he could enjoy the reflex of that innocence too, was this what did Bianca and Isabella tried to tell him? That was one of the few times that Tom didn't know the answer of his own questions, and he wouldn't have found an answer in a book. Tom understood that the truth was much more than what the eye met, and that perhaps many moons and many winters would pass before he could completely catch the meaning.

* * *

Slowly, tiny splinters of conscience reassembled, becoming one thing. Fluctuating in a dense dark, she didn't understand if she was alone or with somebody in that darkness: at times she had the feeling that all around her was empty, only she and the dark; other that that obscurity swarms with spirits, and the dark became animated with smells, touches of ghosts of a life that she didn't recognize as her own. Then a pearl of light rose in that night without time: she didn't know why, but she had to reach it.

Virginia woke in an unknown bed, in an unknown room. The scent of disinfectant and medicines were strong and sickening; the walls' whiteness bothered her eyes. There were in the air a constant beep and a noise, like a blow: only then she noticed the beeping devices. Only she then noticed to not be alone in that hospital room.

" Welcome back among the livings, Virginia dear."

Virginia wanted to shout, but something obstructed her throat: Tom was there, sitting at her bedside with a newspaper laying on his knees, and he stared her with his look of mocking triumph mixed with composed anger. Tom leaned on her and with an elegant-and-thin-fingered hand arranged a lock of hair behind her ear; then with the same hand tightened her nape, clamping it so strong that two tears stream down her face.

" Did you think that I would have let my doll go so easily? Did you /really/ think that I would have let you free to decide about your miserable life? No, my dear, if there is anyone that decides, it's me, have you understand? And don't try to do again such a stupid joke, or I won't be so generous to not punish you."

Tom hissed with anger, his breath grazed threatening the skin of the girl, who could do nothing but nod. When the nurse entered the room, she found Virginia awake and Tom holding her hand: she warned the doctor at once. In the afternoon Isabella came, and she told the patient the last days' events.

" .... Where's the matter? We go in city, Avada Kevadra two or three hundred people and find somebody compatible." said Isabella between the laughter," Oh Gin, you had see the face he has done when the doctor has told us that the two of you were compatible! After all I've done to get back a body, now I must give away a piece because of that stupid girl! Practically he has been /forced/ to give you the liver!"

Virginia smiled weakly.

" So typical of him, I'm not surprise of his bad mood... What's the date today?"

" April, Friday 25th: you've been in coma for almost one week. You really frightened us, do you know it? Why have you done it? Aren't you well with us?"

" Isa I... " her eyes watered," I am sorry that you have worried for me, you are the only person that I didn't want to hurt, the only one who has been my friend since that damn day. But I... I can't stand it anymore, every day I must bear this burden, and he treats me as if I'm not a person and I... I want to go back home!"

The girl cried more loudly. The other bit her lower lip and embraced her.

" Hush, you must be strong. I know that my cousin is an unbearable bastard son of a bitch, but deeply inside -very deeply I mean- he's a nice guy: he is fond of you, and you too." Virginia looked at her filled with anger and amazement," Don't do that face, I have an eye for such things: the problem is that you two are too stubborn to admit it."

" What are you saying, Isa: I love Harry and nobody else!"

" Yes yes, but don't get upset, it isn't healthy for you. You know, you'll spend the summer here: I have heard To talk with the doctor about the opportunity to bring you back in Britain; but you can't travel until you won't recover. It will be a wonderful summer: I'll convince my cousin to allow you to come with me and I'll bring you in wonderful places. We'll have a lot of fun!"

The two friends smiled and Isabella chirped happily about her teachers.

The rapidity with which Virginia recovered, it was unbelievable: the medical staff almost didn't believe that in little more than a week, the girl that had risked to die was already able to go back home. After all, thought Virginia when they told it to her, she had needed two days in a warm, soft, cozy bed after the Chamber of Secret's accident to recover. Well, once discharged, she would have undergone weekly check ups, but at least she wouldn't have spent her seventeenth birthday in hospital. Once back at Villa Trao, Tom and Virginia kept to share the same bedroom: Bianca said that some one would always stay with the girl, if something happened during the night. Tom didn't like to be her baby-sitter: since the first evening, he has wanted to claim her; but every time he touched her side, he felt the bandaging under her nightgown's fabric and an inexplicable terror to reopen the wound froze the blood in his veins; so he just embraced her all night long.

One night Tom was restless: what Bianca had revealed him it continued to torment him. He pushed the sheets away and got up: open a window, he let the breeze caresses him while he looked at the violet sea and the turning white sky, announcing the new day. Then once more he looked Virginia sleeping her calm sleep; without know why, Tom took the first trousers and the first shirt he found in the closet and slipped on his feet the previous day's sock and shoes. He went out on the terrace breathing the salty air scented with spring and went down the staircase leading to the little cove: but instead of reaching the sea, he turned into a path. He crossed uncultivated fields, while the spring's fragrances inebriated him and he felt his head become more and lighter, more and more free from the questions that had bothered him in the last days; then he took a tiny branch and whipped the tender grass. It was the beginning of a folly.

He picked daisies with still sleeping corollas; wild roses that scratched his hands and asphodels that it was said they carpets the Limbo; branches of myrtle in bloom and periwinkles and brooms and gorse and climbing and every kind of herb and wild flower that he met on his walk. Soon he held a forest of wild flowers in his arms and walked; then the feeling of intoxication was such that Tom began to laugh: not the cold and sadistic laughter that usually got out from his throat; but a fresh and genuine laughter, like a child that discovers the world for the first time and is still able to feel wonder at the sight of a butterfly. And Tom laughed, sensing at each footstep a breaking branch, a slipping stem, a flower spreading petals on his polo shirt's sleeves.

Virginia was awakened by a hit on her full chest: in her arms, a great bunch of wild flowers covered her. Without wonder from where that unexpected spring came, she tightened the flowers ignoring the scratches, watching ecstatic their simple beauty, tasting their aromatic smells. Then she spread her arms, the flowers now covering the bed: it was then that she noticed it. Hooked to an ivy shoot, there was a pin: it was an emeralds snake biting its tail, coiled as a horizontal eight -the infinity's symbol, and seven enameled ivy's leaflets and nine tiny coral berries.

" It's Meridiae family's seal: infinity, perfection and life. That pin belonged to my mother: happy birthday."

Virginia started hearing Tom's voice: he gave her his shoulders, looking at the rising sun. His voice betrayed the run's breathlessness, and the leaves and the petals creating brushstrokes of color on his navy-blue-and-pale-blue stripped polo shirt, told her that that gift was from him. She whispered a thank you looking the pin, her cheeks red. Tom left for Elysian Fields that morning, and he wouldn't have gone back before ten days: he perhaps wanted to give Virginia the time for the wound to scar; or he had business to take care of; or more simply he needed some time by himself to clear up his mind.

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The information about Amanita Phalloides -commonly known as fly agarics- and its syndrome, are extracted from "I funghi dal vero- vol. 1°" by Bruno Cetto, ed. Saturnia. Why do I have chosen this particular mushroom? Simple: it's the local flora's most poisonous mushroom, it' s almost always deadly and if you survive, you'll have the signs for the rest of your life.

Since MM.org isn't working, I've published two pin ups about this series on FF.it, the Italian version of FF.net: Uncle Voldie's portrait, Uncle and Isa in a certain attitude. Please, give them a glance and leave a review!!

www.fanfiction.it/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=sho wpic&pid=144&orderby=titleA

www.fanfiction.it/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=sho wpic&pid=147&orderby=titleA

These other, instead, are the ones that my colleague Seifer-sama has done for me:

www.fanfiction.it/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=sho wpic&pid=161&orderby=titleA

www.fanfiction.it/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=sho wpic&pid=160&orderby=titleA

www.fanfiction.it/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=sho wpic&pid=162&orderby=titleA

And now the usual thanks. Urth, Verthandi and Skald, soon they'll take on more space than the story! I must be telegraphic in my answers. From FF.net

Natalie Portman: the fifth chapter is here, and I've the plot till around chapter ten.

Evil Incarnate: have you recovered from your fall? Are you well? Thank you for the vote and remember one thing: the birthmark could become very important!

Lil kawai doom: yes, quite you! Tee hee... XP

Persephonie: oh my, you have been one of the few people to don't fall in the pregnancy's trick! I'm sorry too for Virginia, but Tom was really looking for trouble!

Luna: are you too well now? Aren't you jaws dislocated? I knew it that the birthmark was a stroke of genius.

RaistlinofMetallica: perhaps I'm disappointing you, no... er... shoot-wand marriage. I know that it's a matter of honor, but who knows how Mr. Weasley and his sons will react if they know what lil' Virginia is doing...

Angel: well, I'm known to surprise my readers, and there are more surprises to come!

Katherine K: I know it isn't a nice experience. Perhaps I'll tell the episode in my fic about Hogwarts's foundation, Al Dabaran.

Sabacat: here a new chapter, but be not impatient;)

Kafka: er.... my English isn't so perfect, but you are right saying that it's one of the best ways to learn it.

From AFF.net:

Liv: everything I have to say about mushrooms, it is at the author's note's beginning. And congratulations to you to have understood the real Virginia's sickness' reason!

And we now the Italian version. From FF.net:

Iceygaze: thank you thank you thank you and again thank you for the compliments! I'm glad that you have liked my fic. I like Isa a lot too!

Ele: yes, Bianca -but also Isabella- comes from "Mastro-Don Gesualdo" by Giovanni Verga.

From FF.it:

Nimue: I agree about Donna Porzia being a cliché, but it is a choice: after all it is a character that will appear very little, and she'll be sight through the eyes of Tom and Bianca, whom don't bear her. About being "Lady Voldemort": I think that Uncle Voldie could afford a harem XP!

Ele: thanks to you to have shown me this site; you have given to our fellow citizens the opportunity to read my works and to me to be able to publish in Italian.

Beh, that's all. For now.

See ya,

Herentas Meridiae

P.S.: sorry for the delay, but I was sick in those last days...