smallhobbit | Resignation

"Exile" was so good, that I couldn't resist playing with the characters.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately they are not mine, I'm just borrowing them for a bit.

Nancy flung open the front door and stepped inside, waving a copy of the paper and shouting “Tom, it’s happened, it’s happened, Metzler’s resigned.”

She waited for her brother to reply and when she heard nothing repeated herself, “Tom, he’s resigned, you did it.”

There was still no reply, so she headed upstairs, muttering to herself, “Daft bugger, trust him to still be asleep today of all days.”

She knocked on the bedroom door and went in, waving the paper. She was used to seeing her brother almost completely hidden by the duvet, either fast asleep or else pretending to be. This time, however, she thought she could hear muffled sobs. Her usual practice was to throw the duvet back, half uncovering him (in case he had chosen to sleep naked; unlikely given the temperature of the house) but this time she carefully pulled back a corner of the duvet.

“Tom, what’s the matter?”

“What do you care? You’re not my sister.”

“Of course I am, you stupid sod.” She put her arms round the duvet and hugged its contents. “You’ve always been my big brother. Who your real parents are hasn’t changed anything.”

Tom slowly sat up and Nancy was shocked to see tears streaming down his face.

“I wish I could believe that.”

In reply Nancy put the fingers of one hand just below Tom’s rib cage and wriggled them around. Tom squirmed and tried to escape.

“Get off, you ..,” he paused, memories of their shared childhood flooding back, “toad.”

“Still your sister?”

“Yeah, okay.” He smiled slightly.

Nancy put an arm round him and gently pulled his head onto her shoulder, “Would it help to talk?”

#####

Ten minutes later, once Tom had had a quick wash and got dressed, he came downstairs and into the kitchen. Nancy handed him a mug of coffee and they both sat down at the table.

Tom began hesitantly, “I had a text from Mike who told me the news. I thought that Metzler’s resignation would make me happy, but it hasn’t. My life’s still fucked up; Dad’s never going to get better; I suppose I thought that somehow Metzler going would put things right, and of course it hasn’t.”

Nancy watched as Tom rubbed his eyes, obviously struggling not to give way again to the tears.

“I must sound very selfish,” he said.

“Not this time.”

“I’ve lost so much that I’m never going to get back. All those years thinking that Dad hated me, and hating him back, only to find out that he’d always loved me.” Tom lost his battle with the tears, which starting to run down his cheek.

Nancy passed him a clean handkerchief from the airer.

Tom looked at the handkerchief and traced the initial with his finger. “I remember when I got upset when I was little; Dad always gave me his hankie and told me to keep it. He used to say it was a magic hankie that would make everything better.” He wiped his eyes and pushed the hankie into his pocket.

“I just wished he’d told me everything, rather than trying to protect me.”

“He did what he thought was best.”

“I know that now.”

“Are you going to visit him today, to tell him the news?”

“I ought to, I owe it to him. It’s just ..,” Tom looked uncertain.

“We’ll go together. As brother and sister.”