She sat at the table, bewildered from her parent's thought
just a few minutes ago. Irma kept on eating breakfast and zoned out for a few
minutes without knowing what was going to happen next. The silence fell on them
till she spoke.
"Mutti, Vati., what is it?" she asked them.
"You should know about tonight. Your dad's side of the
family is flying to Holland State Park, right here in Michigan. Well, they're on their way."
her father explained in German.
"Entschuldigen? Really? They're flying in
dragon form and across the Atlantic Ocean?"
she laughed. Her parents were not amused with Irma’s laughter.
"Yes, it is a matter of importance, Irma. They're bringing your dad's brother’s
nephew with them." Verena smiled at Irma as she looked with disgust in her
eyes.
"Mutter, are you telling the truth? You can't be lying." she stopped
laughing.
"Irma, I am not lying! This meeting is important, very
important." she exclaimed.
"How, Mutti? Why is it? It's about me isn't it?"
Irma questioned her mother.
"The meeting is about you, our future and your future." Udo told her
directly. Tears had streamed down her face when her father said this. Her face
had distorted in anger and quickly stood up from the table.
"Is it my family? Is it because everything has to with me?" She cried
more as tears fell to the ground.
"It is also the future of our clan's leadership. Your father must fight
tonight with his brothers and sisters. There also will be his cousins too. Ten
years we have to do this ritual of leadership, and our ten years is up. If your
father loses, we have to move back to Germany." Verena told her in
German.
"I must fight for us to live a better life here In America. Blood will be
shed, high in the sky, dark at night. It is a war between our families. The ten
of us will fight a one against one at a time." he said with pride.
"Why must I be included in this fight? Why must I be the one who is
blamed? Why do I-"
"You're not blamed Irma. You're including in this
because we sat a match for you, an arranged marriage for the distant future.
Lucas is excited to meet you, and stay with us when he is a foreign exchange
student at your high school on Monday." her mother interrupted her
daughter, but filled with excitement when she had told her about Lucas.
Irma walked out of the dining room with her fists clenched together. Her eyes
were filled with so much anger, but turned around to look at her parents in the
eyes. She cried more and more as tears fell each time she shook in anger.
"Why do you do this to me? Can't I love someone who l want to? I'm never
going to like this guy. And, wait...why in this world is he staying with
us?!" She shouted to them, then ran up to her room and locked the white
wooden door.
The hours past by after her parents talked about the situation. Verena decided
to go knock on her white door and speak to her. She didn't know how to handle
the situation, but before she knocked, she remembered a vivid past memory
locked deep inside her head. This memory of a panacea past of hardship and love
she had.
Verena was holding hands with a very handsome Irish-American teenage boy.
They were walking back to her neighborhood, but she stopped at the corner of
her street. The sun was about to set as the hope she lost in their love.
'Verena, what's wrong?'
'My...my father doesn't know we're dating.'
'What?... we've been dating for almost a year. Why
wouldn't he know?'
'Charles, it's because he doesn't want me to date anyone
besides German men. It's about purity in my blood line.' she sighed as he soon
hugged her.
'I love you Verena, I don't care what stands in the way of us. I always will.'
Charles said and then kissed her. Then immediately she let go of the kiss when
she heard someone come near. It was a man, tall and blond hair. He was a
resemblance of Verena, but as a male figure.
Charles glanced at the man and asked, 'Oi, sir. Hello?'
Verena turned around to look at him, not wanting to say
anything. The air felt bitter with the man's presence.
'Warum bist du hier? Wer ist er?' he asked as she stood there next to Charles
without saying a word. Charles was baffled at the language he was speaking.
'Verena! Ich brauche eine Antwort!' he yelled to her as Charles words were
speechless. He finally came to his senses that this man was Verena's father.
'Sir, are you her father? ' he asked nicely to him. Then, the blond man glared
at him with fire in his eyes.
'Bist du mit ihn?! Gehen wir!" the man yelled as he grabbed Verena's right
arm.
'Oi, sir. What do you think you're doing?' Charles yelled
at him with his heavy Irish accent.
'Vater! Nein, ich liebe ihn! Ich liebe ihn!' He stopped and let go of her arm,
pointed at Charles and asked, 'Liebst du ihn?!'
'Vater, ja! Ich liebe Charles, ich liebe ihn.' she
repetitively said as she cried. He tried to grasp Verena, but her father stood
there, protectively standing in front of her. Soon, he stopped and trembled in
fear.
'If you dare touch my daughter again, I will kill you. I will kill you if I
even see you with her.' he threatened. 'Vater!' she cried.
'Gehen wir!' he yelled back to her and soon she trailed
behind him to the direction of their home. Verena looked back at Charlies with
tears in her eyes.
Irma sat on her bed crying when she heard a faint knock at her door. She didn't
say anything when a key jingled and her door opened. Verena stood against the
door frame looking directly at her daughter.
"Do you want to talk about what is going on?" her mother asked as
Irma sat on the bed. The silence had filled the room when the question lingered
in the air.
"I was in love once." Verena said as she then sat down next to her
daughter.
"I was about your age, but soon your grandfather found
out about the relationship I had. The boy was a nice Irish-American, had a cute
accent. I was in love like I never was before." Irma was shocked when the
story went through her ears.
"Who even said I am in love?" she asked as her eye brows raised in
questioning.
"I did, that's why were crying when I told you about
Lucas. He's a dragon too, just to let you know." "Mom, why are you
making me have this arranged marriage."
"It happened because it is a tradition for almost a
thousand years. I have been arranged to marry your father, but it doesn't mean
I don't love him."
"I'm not going to say anything, for the fact I might be in love or I might
not. I don’t want to be forced to love someone, especially some boy whom I
never met." she cried as she looked up to the ceiling. Her life was
immediately starting to turn downhill.
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