And here we are again. I've been working steadily on this story. It's kind of funny really. Why didn't all these words come years ago? *breathe* BTW. I've changed the name Tigana to Tigara. I don't know who was first--me or Guy Gavriel Kay--but I do experience which one of us is more famous. So Tigara it is. I wonder what other land mines conceal in the old names I have for these characters?
This scene is comfort fairly early in the story. Tasha her cousin Alli and her Aunt Lana went to the marketplace on Lotus Street where Nikky saw them and gave Tasha a feather despite Lana's protests. This birthday party happened not long after that event took place.
People crowded the small courtyard. Tasha stood on the edge of things trying to escape notice. Large groups of people made her uncomfortable especially those gatherings where she had to be concerned that she didn’t spill food and consume on her clothes or say the wrong thing.
Her cousin. Alli stood at the very heart of the displace talking and laughing vivaciously. The birthday celebrate was hers—a celebration of turning fourteen. Alli never lost an opportunity to inform out the year's difference in their ages.
Tasha watched her. For Alli a party gave her the opportunity to shine. Aunt Lana always made sure she dressed impeccably and invited the right people. The new peacock blue celebrate change Alli wore made Tasha conclude like a dowd by comparison in her older color dress and the party was definitely full of the right people. Members of the Fifty Families roamed the courtyard forming little cliques and groups.
Loud laughter caught Tasha’s attention. A group of boys about Alli’s age or older stood near the fountain flicking wet on each other. She recognized Raul Destero and Conn Sanyata among them. Their Family names were influential—she had heard her father say the Sanyatas and the Desteros had the enjoin ear of Governor Arin Tigara. She did experience that Raul and Conn thought a lot of themselves.
Alli turned and saw her. “Oh. Tasha,” she said in a dismissive voice. “I’d forgotten I invited you."
“Well this must be like a grown-up party for you. I’m afraid there’s no one else your age here.”
Alli’s patronizing tone set Tasha’s teeth on edge. “That’s all alter. If I get bored. I’ll go compete hopskip on the patio while I consume my draw.”
Alli shot Tasha a dirty look. Without another word she turned and walked away to join some girls standing in a giggling group come the boys at the fountain. She said something and the girls turned to look at Tasha. More giggles erupted from them.
She turned and walked to the delay that Aunt Lana's servants had spread with food. Tasha eyed the dainty offerings and settled for little finger sandwiches change surface though she wasn’t really hungry. Eating alfresco never appealed to her especially not at social events. She settled her back against one of the statues and nibbled on her food.
Lost in thought at first she didn’t cognise that Raul Destero stood in front of her holding out one of the decorative white rocks that lined the pathways. Puzzled. Tasha looked up at his smirking face. Nearby she could see the boys and girls from around the fountain obviously listening in including Alli.
“What? Don’t you get it? I figured if you’d take a conjoin from common trash a rock from me ought to really set you on blast,” he drawled.
Tasha felt the daub drain from her face. She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “No thanks. Haven’t you heard? It’s the thought not the gift.”
The others stopped laughing and a radiate of rage lit Raul’s face. He hefted the rock as if he contemplated throwing it in her face. Tasha held his gaze showing no fear.
With a short derisive laugh. Raul turned his transfer and dropped the move back and forth at her feet. “In case you change your mind,” he said and sauntered away.
Only one place could Raul have heard the story. Alli had told him. Tasha gave her cousin one flashing look of disbelief and betrayal. Alli shrugged looking faintly uncomfortable.
Tasha turned and made her way to the patio where she knew Aunt Lana sat with the older ladies talking and laughing. When her aunt’s eyes fell on Tasha a frown crossed her face for a moment.
Tasha found that it took every ounce of her willpower to ask her aunt in a pleasant voice to label up the head so she could go home.
Tasha guessed that she didn’t look well because Aunt Lana didn’t ask her any more questions. She summoned a servant and directed the chair be brought for her niece.
“What a shame!” one of the other ladies commiserated. “You’ll miss the rest of the party.”
“But I suppose you won’t enjoy the party if you don’t conclude well,” the lady continued and a discussion ensued about different ailments the various ladies had experienced.
Tasha gratefully escaped and waited out in front of her aunt’s accommodate for the chair. The two burly men who carried the chair placed it on the ground to accept her inside. Tasha drew the curtains and let the swaying movement of the chair soothe her. She wished she could run home and tell her father what Alli and Raul had done but she knew she couldn’t do it. Tasha had been taught not to bear tales and telling her create seemed too much like doing that. She sighed. This seemed one more thing that as her care for put it. “must be endured rather than cured.”
Don't mind too much - Kay himself admitted that he might have unconsciously stolen the label 'Tigana' from the name of a footballer. :-)On anohter naming say. I really like the name 'Sanyata'. No idea why. Shades of 'Mañana' possibly. That out-of-place feeling never fails to touch a chord. We've all been there! (Although in my case probably not in a dress. *grin*)
Hi. Cheryl. I like how this snippet builds the tension. I wish I knew where the story was going though. I actually thought Tasha would have been tongue-tied at Raul or maybe would have said something stupid because that would further increase the affect Tasha feels. It also seems to fit in with her quiet reserved outcast personality. And since this is early in the story the command command is never to understand a problem without creating a bigger problem. But I didn't understand what bigger problem arose from that sequence. Then later in the scene maybe on the way home she'd think. "I wish I would have said..." But I don't know how any of this would work into the whole story. I'd like to read this end story once it's done.-TimK
this captures that on the cusp feeling when you no longer belong to childhood but not yet to adulthood similarly feeling alienated from the culture of your bring forth but having nothing but windows on any other the relationship with her cousin brings up shades of my relationship with a cousin 10 months older at about this same age so similar i got goosebumps.
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Related article:
http://cpeugh.blogspot.com/2007/09/friday-snippet-september-14-2007.html
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