Of Gaea by Victoria Escobar Page A

with
garbage.”
    “No.”
    Ghita froze mid-step and turned to sear Ari with a
look. “What
did you say?”
    “ Sasha
doesn’t put words in my mouth; you of all people know that. He’s
above that, but what’s more important is I won’t be going to your
church. Ever.” Ari picked up her notebooks and held them close. “If
your God was supposed to heal me, Elias would have done so when I
saw him. He didn’t. Your faith is not mine and I want you to stop
pushing it on me. It’s not fair.”
    “ You saw
Elias?” Her voice was quiet in disbelief. “He… wouldn’t… heal
you?”
    “ He
wouldn’t even shake my hand.” Ari tipped her head. “I need to make
my own choices, and I have been or at least I’ve been trying
to.”
    Ghita
drew herself up. “I am protecting you from yourself.”
    “ No.”
Ari shook her head sadly and suddenly tired. “You cripple me. Just
as much as my legs do. Instead of teaching me, of showing me why;
you simply keep insisting it’s the right thing to do. Why wouldn’t
I question it? Why should I simply take your word as
truth?”
    “I have the
experience, you do not.”
    “I can’t get
the experience if you make all the decision for me, can I?”
    Ghita pointed at the notebooks. “Don’t bring that trash into my house
again, or you won’t have a place to call home anymore.” She walked
into the house and slammed the door behind her.
    Ghita walked through the house and down the block. She had to see
Elias. What had he have been thinking. It was such a little thing
for one as gifted as he was. Ari was too much of a burden in the
wheelchair. They all would be much better off when she was whole
again. It was outlandish to think Elias was somehow conspiring
against her. She would bring an end to it immediately.
    Nasya watched Ghita storm down the block with a half-smile
on her face. While she shouldn’t have taken pleasure in the other
woman’s frustration it was good to know Ari had stood up for
herself. Nothing was more bothersome than a bully and though Ghita
would deny it, that’s all she was to Nasya.
    Nasya walked
silently around the house and studied the scene.
    Ari eyed her chair across the porch. It felt like it was mocking
her. In a way it was. It was proof that while she had said she
would make her own choices she couldn’t do anything without the
help of someone else.
    “She’s wrong
you know.”
    Ari thought she would die from the sudden gallop of her
heart. She
turned to see Nasya. “Geez, must you scare me?”
    “ I’m
sorry.” Nasya walked across the porch and brought the wheelchair
over.
    “ I feel like… like she knows something but refuses
to tell me. She could be all I need and yet, she’s not.”
    Nasya held the wheelchair while Ari scooted into it. “It’s fear I think
that stays her hand. Take Lyris for instance. The last time Ghita
took action it changed her twin. I think she’s trying to keep from
making that same mistake.”
    “It doesn’t
make it right.”
    “ No, it does not. I never said it did. I was merely
giving voice to the thought.” Nasya rolled the wheelchair off the
deck and around to the sidewalk in front of the house. “Accompany
me on my walk, please?”
    Ari had
little choice since Nasya had already started walking but she
nodded anyway. “Sure. It’s not like I want to go in there right
now.”
    “She’ll cool
off by the time we come back, that too, is in her nature.”
    “ Nasya,
you’ve only been here for like four years and you’re never really
around. How do you know so much?” Ari tipped her head back to look
at the other girl. “I mean sure, Sasha and Kleisthenes know but
you’re kind of new.”
    Nasya
eyes seemed far away for a moment. “She knew my mother when they
were children. Ghita has always been the calm one and Lyris the
outspoken. Two halves of the same coin.”
    “ How do
you know your mother? I mean don’t you follow Spartan tradition?
Would I know my mother if…” Ari trailed