Trying for Assurance
Chapter 4 - Trying for Assurance
“Excuse me,” Charlie said as she placed the gift of goodies down. She had stopped in the kitchen, where her mother was.
“Mi vida, are you okay? You don’t have to overdo it,” Mimzy voiced, clearly concerned.
“I know, Mama.” The blue bow blonde took the things out of the basket and placed them down on the counter one-by-one, the house taking them away via counter tiles. “I just want to do my part like the rest of the family.”
“She’s still right, amor,” Husk said, being face-to-face with his daughter with an enlarged nose.
Charlie couldn’t help but grimace and go, “yeesh.”
Then the accident-prone man scratched his chin with an equally enlarged hand, before placing it down on Charlie’s shoulder. “First Gift ceremony since yours… man, does time fly.”
“Bee stings…” The bright-eyed girl said, taking her hand away from the puffy one.
“And I’ve been there, where you’re at.”
Mimzy turned around and groaned. “Ay, Husk…”
Husk just continued, scratching himself with the other hand, which is also puffy via stings. In any case, Charlie resumed placing the stuff from the basket on the counter, which Vivienne had also resumed taking away said items to elsewhere.
“When me and Tia Molly married into the family, outsiders who had no Gift and never, ever would… surrounded by the exceptional, it was easy to feel, I don’t know, un-ceptional? It was the same for Angel, too. Though it wasn’t to the same extent, I guess. Definitely not after he got a Gift.”
“But I guess that’s just it," the blue bow blonde argued. "Why did Angel get a Gift but I didn’t? And shouldn’t you or Tia Molly have gotten gifts, too?”
Husk turned, revealing that one of his ears also got stung, which grossed out Charlie when she noticed.
“Well… as much as it would be nice to feel like you fit in, standing out is, I think, not so bad. I think Vivienne saw that in me and Molly. But Angel needed a little more help in getting close to people. It’s just different for everybody, when it comes to things like that. Besides, me and your tia already have plenty of crap or responsibilities to deal with. Maybe a Gift would have given more problems than help, if you can believe it or not.”
“Thank you, Husk. But please eat now, I can’t bear seeing you with signs of pain,” Mimzy said, stuff a piece of sugary dough in Husk’s mouth. Then to Charlie, as her husband was healing in the span of seconds, “mi amor, if you ever want to talk-“
Charlie lightly huffed and then she rebuffed, “I gotta put out the stuff. The house isn’t going to decorate herself.”
At that, Vivienne’s banners drooped, like she had the idea that she didn’t already look good.
“Oh, sorry, you could. You look great!” The blue bow blonde assured, cheering the house and her banners back up.
“Corazon, remember!” Mimzy cried out.
“Yeah, remember,” Husk agreed.
Then both parents, “you have nothing to prove!”
“Mm-hmm!” That was all Charlie could respond with, other than a thumbs-up. Both parents looked on with worry.
Later on, the blue bow blonde tried setting up however she could. After all, regular people without a Gift is helping out so there’s still some things she can do. In fact, right now, the bright-eyed girl was placing candles in decorative doilies that have each member of the family’s names, like a doily with Ozzie’s name or one with Verosika’s.
“Ah, los musicos,” Molly said. “You guys can set up over there.”
“Clean your rooms!” Vaggie ordered. “I don’t care how big they are.”
One of the maestro asked, “has anybody seen my tiple?”
Charlie got up and then turned her attention to the pictures on the wall nearby. It was of Vaggie with each one of the Gifted members of her family. The three on top were of the elderly lady matriarch being a younger matriarch, since Pentious, Mimzy, and Blitzo were children in those pictures, each kid being at the age of five.
The two below Pentious were of Arackniss when he was five and of Angel as a teenager since, as made clear in the song, he's Molly’s twin and she had married Pentious.
Another two pictures were below Mimzy, considering how Ozzie and Versoika were her children. Of course, there wasn’t any such picture of Charlie and Vaggie together. The pang of sadness was kind of difficult to push down and ignore but the blue bow girl knew she had to or else she'll sour the celebrations. For her cousin Collin.