Every day spent away with Caleb is usually followed by a day of deprogramming on the part of Batman, who will never accept Caleb's efforts to change or even try harder. Every gentle smile, every healthy suggestion from Caleb is met with suspicion by Batman as an attempt to fool all of us or suck us in only to bring us close enough to poison eventually. To Batman Caleb is a deadly flower with a beautiful bloom. To the unaware (or unprepared), it's when you lean in to smell the fragrant blossom that you realize you've just been poisoned from the fumes.
Oh. I see we're going to have a dramatic reading this Sunday. I wish you had let me prepare something in return.
Don't be disdainful, Bridget. I just see how easy it is for him to catechiz you into making him the hero of your story when he's nothing of the kind.
What is it going to take to make you see that people can change? You did. I try and give him credit, soften him a little, make them as alike as they always were. It's kind but cutting.
Did I? I don't know if I have. Authoritarian has shifted to honest at last and I reach him.
You have. At least, I think you have.
Then listen to me and listen to Lochlan when we tell you to keep your guard up, or we'll have to.
Noted-
It isn't noted, Bridget. I know you well-
Then you'll know that at any given moment I have an army at my fingertips.
It's the taken moments I'm concerned with, not the given ones.
Don't use my words against me.
I'm trying to protect you. That's all. We'll change the subject.
He starts talking about holiday parties but his efforts to keep me safe from thoughts of Caleb only serve to keep my attentions on precisely that.
The rest of the drive to church is silent, the only sound the wipers against the glass, grating smoothly across the windshield as we drive under bridges and trees, then sliding easily on the drops that come the moment we leave those temporary shelters.
Maybe if you're free later we could have a walk on the beach? Ah. He does know me after all.
I'd like that.
Oh. I see we're going to have a dramatic reading this Sunday. I wish you had let me prepare something in return.
Don't be disdainful, Bridget. I just see how easy it is for him to catechiz you into making him the hero of your story when he's nothing of the kind.
What is it going to take to make you see that people can change? You did. I try and give him credit, soften him a little, make them as alike as they always were. It's kind but cutting.
Did I? I don't know if I have. Authoritarian has shifted to honest at last and I reach him.
You have. At least, I think you have.
Then listen to me and listen to Lochlan when we tell you to keep your guard up, or we'll have to.
Noted-
It isn't noted, Bridget. I know you well-
Then you'll know that at any given moment I have an army at my fingertips.
It's the taken moments I'm concerned with, not the given ones.
Don't use my words against me.
I'm trying to protect you. That's all. We'll change the subject.
He starts talking about holiday parties but his efforts to keep me safe from thoughts of Caleb only serve to keep my attentions on precisely that.
The rest of the drive to church is silent, the only sound the wipers against the glass, grating smoothly across the windshield as we drive under bridges and trees, then sliding easily on the drops that come the moment we leave those temporary shelters.
Maybe if you're free later we could have a walk on the beach? Ah. He does know me after all.
I'd like that.