Aura (2 page)

At six thirty in the morning Aura was already up preparing for the day ahead of her.
  She showered, dressed, and, as Roger still lay coiled in her closet, she picked up her packsack and headed down the stairs to the front door.  It was her intention to leave early, that way she could avoid everyone as she made her way out of the building.  She was not quite successful in her desire to remain unnoticed.
Her stepfather, having forgotten his car keys on the entrance table, almost collided with her head on as she opened the front door to leave the house.  He looked at her in surprise for a few moments; noticing the backpack and her manner of dress, then spoke.
"Going somewhere Aura?"
"Hiking," she bent the truth a little, not really wanting to let anyone know where she was headed.  She had made sure that no one, outside of the kitchen staff, who would never have thought to tell on her, knew that she had packed enough food supplies for at least a fortnight.  She did not want anyone finding out.
Her stepfather, however, was not to be misled so easy.  He had noticed how her cheeks had colored slightly, and knew she was lying.  She was, in his experience, the worst liar he had ever met and his daughters could have given her any number of lessons on how to deliver her lines in a truly believable fashion.  He watched her as she squirmed before him, looking ready to bolt, and gave a slight crooked smile.
She, like he was doing himself, was probably fleeing the house early, just to get away from her mother's foul mood.  Her mother had not quite cooled down from the fight that she had lost with her daughter only the day before.  Nor had it helped his position when he had sided with the girl.  As far as he was concerned, the medical profession was definitely a good career move for anyone, male or female.
"You are not running away from home by any chance are you?"  He teased, hoping the lighthearted banter would cheer her up a touch.  She looked as if she could use a friend.
Unfortunately the remark hit too close to the truth for Aura, and the intended effect failed.  He sighed inwardly in disappointment then silently admonished himself.  He should have known better.  Aura, as he had occasion to remember well, had never teased well.
Aura knew her stepfather often tried to smooth her way for her and she was grateful for his efforts, but she was too insecure to believe in his effectiveness.  Then again, that was not totally true either.  He was one of the main reasons that she had continued to make the efforts, scholastically, that she did.  His words of praise and encouragement were the closest thing she could think of that indicated that anyone even cared.  Noting his disappointment at her lack of response, she decided to make amends by telling him what she was about to do, making him the only one to know what was on her mind, besides herself.
"Do you remember the old ruins I told you about soon after I first got here?"
"Yes, I remember.  They are about a mile or so from here.  We spent a few hours up there looking through them.  There was not much left of them if memory serves me right."
"It does, but things, I hope, have changed.  I believe I have found more of them, so I am going to camp out there for a while to do a bit of amateur excavating."
"You could do that from the house."  He reasoned. 
"I know, but I want to do it this way, it will make it seem more real.  It is not as if I have anything better to do at this moment, and you never know what I might find."  A hint of excitement crept into her voice as she spoke and her face lit up in expectation.
"When did this plan of yours start to take form?"  He smiled at her, pleased at how she seemed almost transformed by her hopes, yet feeling apprehensive about not having been told anything about it before.
"I decided this yesterday afternoon."
He raised his eyebrows at her and frowned, this was not a move he approved of.  She was obviously leaving early so no one would see her go, this, to him, meant one thing.  She did not plan to tell anyone anything about her plans, or at least she had not until just a few moments ago.  What bothered him the most was that she had almost been successful.  If he had not forgotten his keys he would have been gone when she left the house.
"Did you have no intention of telling anyone about your plans Aura?"
Her eyes fell and her cheeks flamed, she clutched at the straps of the backpack in her hands and refused to answer.
"I see," her father replied as he acknowledged the fact that she was not about to give him a voluntary answer.  "I believe that means a no, is that right Aura?"
She still refused to answer, shrugging her shoulders and turned an even deeper shade of crimson.
He shook his head at her in disappointment and, after a short period of awkwardness, began again.  "I realize that the area is fairly safe Aura, but someone would have been bound to have noticed that you were gone sooner or later and would have worried, did that never occur to you?"
Her gaze rose to meet his at this and in sudden irritation she asked.  "So who would have missed me father?"  She then swallowed convulsively and, on a calmer note, explained her outburst.  "Nobody would have noticed or have even cared that I was gone.  Mother would have even welcomed my absence.  Nor am I dramatizing things, this is just the way things are."  She ended with a long, deep sigh.
"That is not quite true Aura," he defended his wife.  "You mother loves you very much."
She frowned at him.  It was no less than what she should have expected.  "Think about it father.  If you give it any amount of thought at all you will agree with my observations."
That was the problem, he realized, deep inside he did agree with her, for it did seem that her mother did resent her.  It was, to his way of thinking, the woman's main flaw, because, other than the way she treated her own child, she had been a perfect wife and mother to him and his children.  He decided they would be better off, at this point of the discussion, if they talked about some other, more neutral, subject.
"As I remember Aura, those ruins are quite a way from here.  Would you like a hand setting up?  I have a little extra time this morning. I will give you a ride over there, and I could spend a some time with you.  If it is all right with you, that is."
She smiled as she nodded her consent.  "I had thought to make two or even three trips to take everything I wanted.  This way I will be able to do it all at the same time.  Thank you father."  The relief in her voice was shown plainly on the expression on her face.
"Three trips Aura?"  He asked inquisitively.    
"Well, I did mean to make sure that I was fairly comfortable as well as provided for."
"That sounds more like Monica, not you Aura.  How long did you plan on being gone anyway?"  He hated to sound suspicious, but he couldn’t help himself.  He was!
She just shrugged a shoulder as she answered noncommittally. "Two, three weeks or so."
"Somehow Aura, I think someone would have noticed that you were missing in that amount of time.  As it is, I am glad to know about it.  I will spend some time with you now, helping you set up your camp, then I will check up on you from time to time as you work.  It is the least I can do."
"Why?"
The question was asked innocently enough.  Aura just took it for granted that she would be on her own.  No one had ever taken the time to check on her before, why should they now?
To make things simple, her stepfather replied:  "Because I like my tea, and nobody makes it better than you do.  There is a price to my vigilance, you know."  He did not want to tell her it was because he cared and felt it was past time someone showed her that she did matter.
Aura took the joke in the mien it was intended and teased back.  "Perhaps it will do some good for me to be gone, even if it is to be missed for my talent at making you your favorite beverage."
"It would help your mother to miss you a bit as well."
"Father, mother has plenty of time to miss me.  I am only home for the summer holidays.  The rest of the year I spend at school, or helping out at the hospital.  I am not even home for Christmas."
He nodded sadly as he conceded her point.  She had a valid complaint and he hated to admit it.  He did, however, find something new out about her, something he would talk to her about as they sat about drinking their tea.  He had never heard about any training or studies or time spent in the hospitals before.  It was a possibility of course.  The convent did service a small sized hospital that was connected to the grounds.  Aura could have spent a lot of time there for all he knew.
They moved on, loading her camping gear and supplies into the boot of the car then she ran back into the house, calling, not too loudly, back, as she raced up the stairs.  "Only one more thing father and I will be back."  She returned a few moments later with Roger.
Her step father laughed his amusement and commented:  "I think you will be well guarded Aura, I will not have much to worry about.  He is not only very protective of you, he seems to be very fond of you as well, if snakes are capable of such feelings."
She smiled as she stroked the head of the snake wound about her torso, and answered:  "I never did thank you properly for him, and I suspect how much you probably had to go through to get him for me.  Mother made it very clear to me what she thought of the idea of your buying him."
"She feared running into him in other parts of the house."
"I know.  I have attempted to keep him contained so nobody would have any complaints about him.  Roger really has been a very good snake."
They left, taking the next hour and a half to get her campsite set up with her pop-up tent and portable, but primitive, cook stove.  She never went on any camping expedition without her little hibachi.  After everything was set up to her satisfaction she started up a small fire and boiled some water for their tea.
"Did either of the girls, or your mother, tell you about the party we are giving on Saturday night Aura?"  Her stepfather spoke, giving himself an opening to approach her about her way of dressing and how he planned to change it, and her, a little.
It was not as if she dressed shabbily or had ever gone about dirty, but she needed dressing up.  He wondered how she would react to his offer to help her find her true inner self.
Aura gave him a blank look then shook her head.  "Why should they?  I never attend their parties."  She replied as if stating a fact.
"I know and I think it is about time things changed about the house."
"Somehow I have a feeling this is something we might be sorry trying father, perhaps we should pass on this idea."
"Well I do not happen to agree, so I want you to do me a favor, nor do I want to hear that it is impossible for you to do so.  You went to the same finishing school as the girls and I know you are capable of doing what I am about to ask."
He waited for her to reply and she watched him as their wills clashed.  She did, owe him a favor, and some sort of allegiance, she supposed.  To repay what she felt a clear and definite debt, she pushed her feelings of impending disaster aside and conceded, albeit with severe reservations.
"All right, for you I will give it a try."
"Good," he knew she would not back out after giving her word.  With Aura he could count on that.  He then began to fill her in on his plans.  "I am going to pick you up on Saturday morning and we are going shopping.  That is the first order of business.  After we are going to go to the stylist your mother and stepsisters frequent in order to transform you.  I have had a suspicion for a long time that beneath that neglected exterior dwells an untouched and hidden beauty.  Now I will know for sure."
"Father, this is a mistake."  She warned him once more, feeling a need to voice her misgivings.
"I disagree.  Give me a chance to prove to your mother that she has been wrong about you all of these years Aura."  He pleaded as if looking desperately to bridge the invisible gap between mother and daughter.
Aura said nothing as she watched him rise to leave, but she sadly shook her head as she rose to see him off.  She picked up her snake and walked beside her stepfather in silence, then stood as she watched him drive away, after bidding him a fond farewell.
When he was out of sight she gave a sigh, as she spoke to her snake.  "He will never accept things as they are, will he?  It would make no difference to mother if she could see me looking beautiful, she would just rather not have me alive in the first place."
Tears burned her eyes as she set Roger on the ground to go his own way.  She had never told anyone how, when she had been eight, her mother had, in a fit of fury, told her exactly why she hated her.  She looked like the man who had loved her mother, then left her.  She had found herself with child shortly after he had gone and she had been left alone with his child.  As they shared the same coloring she had become, for her mother, a living and constant memory of the only serious mistake she had ever made in her life.
It had hurt, this declaration of hate and the brutal telling of it by her mother.  Aura had hidden in her room and cried, her child's heart broken to discover that her beautiful perfect mother could never love her.  Nor had the revelation ceased to cause her pain, making her feel the stab of her rejection all over again, as if it had been repeated each time she had cause to remember it.  Matters had not changed between mother and daughter over the years to indicate that they might.  Though Aura never seemed to stop hoping that they would.
True to his word her stepfather reappeared four days later to take her shopping and to have her restyled for the party.  Aura cooperated on everything, anything to make him happy, except for the hairstyle the beautician had wanted to give her.  The woman had suggested that they cut over two feet off of her hair.  There was no damage to the lengths of her hair to warrant such a sacrilege, for, to Aura, that was what it would have amounted to.