Vivienne

-That name.-  Denise heard the whisper in the foggy drive to school on Monday. “I have never liked that name, dad.”  Denise grabbed the heavy extinguisher again and swung for Herman’s knees.  Delight filled Denise as the heavy metal crashed into her father’s leg, dropping him like a stone.  Heaving the canister once more, Denise plowed it into his other knee rendering him helpless on the ground. “Marion loves me, Dad.  I love her.”  Denise dropped her weapon and stepped over her groaning father. “I am not sick.  It isn’t a problem for two ladies to love each other.” 

Denise looked away from her father when her mother started scrambling for the house. “Mom, wait.”  Denise concentrated for a minute. “Can I lock the door from here?”  The green light in her palm flared and she heard the audible click of the lock to the back door. “I guess I can.”  Denise ran to the back door just as Lorraine started frantically twisting the knob in vain.

“Denise?”  Lorraine begged and kept trying to get into the safety of her home. “What…what…please..”

Reaching for a handful of her mother’s long brown hair, Denise dragged Lorraine over to her father and forced her to the ground. “You get to be with who you love, don’t you?”  Denise yanked back her mothers head, “Don’t you?”

“Y..yes…”  Lorraine squeaked to her daughter.

“Amour..”  Herman barely spoke and reached for Lorraine’s hand.

“Exactly, dad.”  Denise stomped on his knees again. “You get to be with who you love.  I can’t.  She’s leaving or has left already, thanks to you..”  Denise huffed and ran her hands in her curly dusty blonde hair, “...and that pig in the trunk.”  Kicking a few rocks out of anger Denise kneels close to her mother. “She’s mine and I am hers.”  Denise tore open her dress to show the dotted flowers that covered her skin. “Look at it.”  Denise growled as her parents turned away from their daughter. “I said look at it.”

Lorraine cried out when she felt her head being turned without her doing it. “Denise…what..please..can’t you see…”  She pleaded through painful tears.

“Then stop resisting.  See love as it is before you, mother.”  Denise smiled. “I made those paintings on the ground with her and in her honor.” Denise paused, “She painted this lovely flower on my body.  My body, her hands, her love.  Artful and tasteful.”  Denise pointed to the trunk. “Those heathens could only see her body, her ability to please them.  Excite them. I stole their abhorrent renditions to destroy them.”  She spat on the ground. “I am protecting the … woman.. I love.”

Herman pulled himself closer to Lorraine and looked up at his daughter. “This ain’t love, Denise.”  Herman pulled Lorraine to him and hid her face from Denise. “Go on an’ do whatcha gonna do and stop the preachin.”

Kicking rocks as she circled her parents like a shark, Denise shook her head after her father’s last proclamation. “No, no.”  She knelt down in front of him. “You aren’t listening, Father.”  She took a deep breath and ran her hand over the flower painted on her skin. “Why don’t you ever hear what I am saying?  Are you that lost?  Are you that devoid of love?”  She pointed to her mother, “You call her love all the time, where is the same for me?”  Denise raised her eyebrows in defiance. “I do everything you tell me to, I have been your good girl.”  Her voice’s tone changed and sounded authoritative and hateful, “It took me an entire summer and a fall semester of school to convince you that  college was worth it.”  Denise sneered and grabbed her father’s chin. “Now, I have found love.  Love has found me and has my heart bound to it.”  Denise carefully combed her fathers hair over to the side with her free hand. “Here you are…”  She growled, “...once again blocking my progress.”  Denise smacked her father across the face, leaving a red welt. “All you had to do was embrace that I was in love.”  Huffing and shaking her head, Denise resumed walking her circle. “Now look at the mess you have made.”

“My mess?”  Herman half grunted in pain as he watched his daughter march around them. “You’re a sick girl ya are an’ I’m gonna do somethin’ bout’s it now.”

Hearing the words slowly crawl out of her father’s mouth, Denise had stopped her stomping and turned to face him just as he went to grab her foot.  Jumping to avoid the old soldier’s grip, Denise shook her head, “Tisk, tisk.” Denise pursed her lips and folded her arms, “You just won’t learn will you, dad?”  Strolling over to the truck of the car, Denise bumbled around until she found the crowbar with the spare tire. “Perfect.” She announced gleefully.

Singing lightly to herself, Denise made her way back to her parents with a half smile on her face.  Smacking the heavy metal bar in her hands for a moment, Denise slowly rattled off the lines to the nursery rhyme she’d recalled.

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail..”

Listening to her mother whimper and softly speak to Herman, Denise took a few steps back and waited for the terrified woman to finish what she had to say. “You know that nursery rhyme is about the consequences of your actions.”  Sighing, Denise knelt down and gave her mother a hug. “I do love you, mom.”  A shuffle from her dad made Denise stand up once more. “You tried to be understanding in a way.”  Denise pointed the crowbar at her father, “You did what was expected of you.  Cooked, cleaned..wore the proper clothing…”  She paused. “..Even the supposedly right discipline for me at his hands.”  Denise knelt down beside her mother’s hair covered ear. “You still allowed all of it to happen, so you are just as guilty.”

Resuming her pace around her parents, Denise knew what she had to do. “I have to keep the love that found me.”  She tapped the crowbar on her own chest for a few seconds. “Look at you both, huddled together consoling each other, you would do anything for your love.” Surveying the blood on the ground from her former professor, Denise took a deep breath. “I am left without any choice by your actions.  Just know that I do love you both.”