First I couldn't think of anything, then I had a couple of ideas. This is the one that hatched. Thanks to
rubyrosered for quick beta.
Trinity
by Halimede
The day Benton realized that his mother's face in his memories was actually the one from the photographs, he stood outside the library and let the tears freeze on his face. Eric came out and joined him. Benton dropped his head, refusing eye contact, but Eric always stayed as he pleased. And as long as necessary.
"It's not really her anymore," Benton said. "What I think I remember is just the pictures, crowding my real memories of her out of my head."
Eric squatted down beside him so Benton was looking at the top of his head.
"You can't take a picture of a smell." Eric said. They looked out over the frozen landscape together.
It was a relief to stop crying.
* * *
The world was white, completely white. He was tracking by wild instinct. He knew he was going too far, knew he was risking his life. He'd known even before he lost his pack. Still he kept going. 'Why?' the voices of reason, in the shape of his grandmother, father and section chief, ricocheted in his head.
Because he knew her. He knew everything about her. What she ate, where she slept, how she felt. He would gladly die, but not before he'd seen the face that went with her scent.
* * *
"There are two basic systems of ethics," his grandmother used to say. "One is based on people's innate desire to do the right thing." Benton would nod. He could understand that. "And the other relies on God smiting people down, when they stray from the path of righteousness." Benton would nod again. It sounded somewhat severe to him, but he could sort of understand that, too.
* * *
Benton Fraser, RCMP, lay flat on his back on a train platform when God, worried and anxious, bent over him and said, "I can't understand ya."
by Halimede
The day Benton realized that his mother's face in his memories was actually the one from the photographs, he stood outside the library and let the tears freeze on his face. Eric came out and joined him. Benton dropped his head, refusing eye contact, but Eric always stayed as he pleased. And as long as necessary.
"It's not really her anymore," Benton said. "What I think I remember is just the pictures, crowding my real memories of her out of my head."
Eric squatted down beside him so Benton was looking at the top of his head.
"You can't take a picture of a smell." Eric said. They looked out over the frozen landscape together.
It was a relief to stop crying.
The world was white, completely white. He was tracking by wild instinct. He knew he was going too far, knew he was risking his life. He'd known even before he lost his pack. Still he kept going. 'Why?' the voices of reason, in the shape of his grandmother, father and section chief, ricocheted in his head.
Because he knew her. He knew everything about her. What she ate, where she slept, how she felt. He would gladly die, but not before he'd seen the face that went with her scent.
"There are two basic systems of ethics," his grandmother used to say. "One is based on people's innate desire to do the right thing." Benton would nod. He could understand that. "And the other relies on God smiting people down, when they stray from the path of righteousness." Benton would nod again. It sounded somewhat severe to him, but he could sort of understand that, too.
Benton Fraser, RCMP, lay flat on his back on a train platform when God, worried and anxious, bent over him and said, "I can't understand ya."
ouch
Date: 2003-06-01 05:18 pm (UTC)Ashlan
Re: ouch
Date: 2003-06-01 11:02 pm (UTC)Plus, most fictional characters get to enjoy *being* bad at least a little, before they do the whole redemption thing. But poor Fraser is an upstanding citizen all his life, and the *second* he decides to go for a little Bonny and Clyde holliday he's shot down. The very *second*! I thought that was significant.
Re: ouch
Date: 2003-06-03 06:44 am (UTC)think, think, think.
Ashlan
no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-03 09:52 pm (UTC)