Mixed feelings

She couldn't bring herself to tell her mother what had happened. She would mock her. Margot would roll on the floor, and Greta would sing the song of shame for her to dance too.

Her mother's flannel dress pooled around her as she walked. Esmeralda had driven  straight to her mother's maiden home after work. She was tired of everything. And the fact that there was no retreat made it even worse.

"So that's it. He pleasured you and you couldn't pleasure him back?" Her mother barked, halting to a stop in front of her.

"We- he said it was a mistake. It happened randomly." Esmeralda stuttered.

"It always happens randomly." Greta piped out. 

"What are you a woman for then? You were supposed to seduce him. Tie him down with your charms and get down to it." 

"Our Esmeralda is a dimwit. She has no liver, and her strong moral principles need to be seized down and thrown away." Greta's remark did it. They thought she was incapable. The truth was that they were all right. She was incapable. 

Esmeralda wanted to fall to the ground trom her sitting position on the small chair she sat on. The chair she used to sit on when she was little. Now it felt like she was sitting on a baby's carrier.

"So what do we do?" Margot asked. Margot had been silent all the while and Esmeralda relished her silence.

"Nothing, for now. You'll go back to Lakeshore and continue with the plan. We have to bring him down. We must do everything we can to redeem our bloodline. Everything. You don't understand the magnitude of this mission, do you?" Their mother asked her. 

Esmeralda didn't answer. She stared blankly at the enchantress. The rich embroidery on her flannel dress began to swim in front of Esmeralda.

The whole house was hot. Her mother's voice was fading away, like an expiring echo.

"We need to retain our kind in this modern era. And as the next enchantress, you have to blend our noble heritage with that of modernization. Only raising ours higher so the Mondes creed is not forgotten." 

"... Ravina tells me you have a soft spot with the wolf prince.." 

She slid down the small chair to the ground. The weight of everything was too much. She needed sleep. Her work in the fashion house was taking so much from her.

It was still dark. It was morning, but birds were starting to chirp and the refreshing feeling that accompanied dawn was there. She could feel it. But why was she sleeping in a cot?

She wasn't in her room. Her head pounded as if she was suffering from a hangover. Everything from the day before came flooding back. Including her cheesy moments with the prince. The way he had stared at her while his fingers were inside her…

This was a very bad time. She rolled out of the cot and stood on her wobbly legs. There was work! She had slept over too! She searched around the room she used to live in years back for her belongings.

Greta must have helped her to collect her things after she passed out. Greta wasn't as indifferent as Margot. After gathering her things in one place on the old vanity in the room, she leaned forward to check out her face in the broken mirror. 

Just then the door flew open and her mother waltzed in.

"Mother." Esmeralda said under her breath. 

"Since you started to live like the westerners you lost the shine of life." 

"Listen. The prince transformed yesterday."

Why was she saying it as though it was bad news? Esmeralda thanked her luck she did not ask it out aloud.

"We are losing time. Getting his semen shouldn't be that hard, Esmeralda. I have been grooming you for this."

"You were grooming me for the wrong purpose. This is wrong. And I'm only doing this because I have other plans. I'll leave Havana once this is over. I'm not cut out for fetish things like this." 

"Insolent child. You call it fetish? I call it destiny. This is our destiny. Most importantly, your calling. To serve the Mondes breed all your life, protecting our heritage until the next generation."

Esmeralda ran her hands over her hair. She was trapped. Her mother was magic-drunk.

"Fine. I'll do it. I'll sleep with him and get his semen for you. You might even want to drink it after."  The vulgar word left a sour taste on her tongue.

"I won't spare you the next time you'll talk to me like that. I think it's time for you to leave. You have work."

"I'll leave when I want to. I have a car, unlike you who has to fly on her broom. And, after I'm done with helping you with the prince, I'll leave Havana."

"We're not going into this. You can't leave Havana. You're the next enchantress. You'll carry on for me. For us. Child, we are different here. So we need to leave a mark that will be proof of our existence. We are old Romanians." 

Esmeralda wasn't going to fall for her mother's emotional blackmail. The woman knew her to use words like she did magic Old Romanians. Ha. She turned to grab her bag.

"I'm leaving. Goodbye." 

"If you waste too much time on this plan, I'll do it myself. And you know that." 

Esmeralda loosened her hold on the door knob. She wanted to give her mother a piece of her mind.

"You know very well what will happen if you decide to show yourself. Prince Kain is not so bent on searching for you. He is quite complicated, but I know one thing for sure. He always gets what we want. He'll rather die trying. And if you don't see him trying, that means you're not worth getting. That's the point. You're not worth searching for. People think about us as untamed gypsies. You're nothing like the Mondes breed. You're one selfish woman who is drunk with her magic. You should be striving to correct people, to prove them wrong."

Her mother gave her a round of applause.

"A well made speech, daughter. Did you know the prince transformed yesterday? I felt it. Everything about him has been tied down with my magic. Grow up, Esmeralda."

Esmeralda said nothing. She turned the knob and left the room finally. Greta was weeding the garden while Margot was on their mother's sewing machine.

"Do you think life would have been easier if we were born with magic?" Greta asked as Esmeralda walked out of their gigantic house. It was still early in the morning, and Esmeralda was not sure why her sisters were awake so early.

"No. I always thank my luck we escaped it." Esmeralda was happy Greta was trying to strike a conversation with her. She dug her feet in the mud with the sool of her heels. She was still in yesterday's outfit.

"Why? Is it so bad to be a magician in this twenty-first century? I hear there are people outside of Havana that possess magic." Greta pulled out a stubborn weed from its roots. 

It was still dark outside. Esmeralda could barely see the silhouette of her car in the front of the wide compound.

"Those people are not gypsies. Gypsies are rare. We might actually be the last gypsies. If there are more gypsies out there, then they should be of mixed racial descent."

Greta hummed in agreement. She was in a good mood.

"You seem to know so much about our kind. I mean, I only know our forebears had magic. I don't know anything about our history. Especially the war led by the king." 

Esmeralda stole a look at her sister who was crouched on the floor, tending to the flowers. She saw the black roses and a feeling of nostalgia washed over her. The black rose her mother had picked from this same garden and burned to ashes reminded her of her mother's cruelty.

"I know about us because I read books about Gypsy magic." 

Margot rose to a standing position, rubbing her hands together to dust off the earth from her palms.

"I know that. And you know so much about mother's powers because she groomed you in the Mondes style."

Esmeralda shrugged. Greta was right in a way.

Greta looked like she wanted to say something. She opened her mouth, then thinned her lips as if she was giving it a second thought.

"Mother thinks her magic will die." Greta blurted out. Esmeralda tilted her head to the side to study her sister.

"I don't understand what you mean." Esmeralda told her.

"She fears that there might be no successor for her magic. So she is insistent on you succeeding her so you can preserve our bloodline, at least."

"Are you trying to convince me?" Esmeralda asked. Greta bent down again to continue her work. She didn't say anything else.

Day was breaking. She licked her dry lips and cleared her throat.

"I shall be leaving now. I have work." With this quiet announcement, she left Greta to do her thing, weeding the garden.

She said something, and Esmeralda stopped in her tracks. She longed to get into her car so she could discard her heels. 

"I want to leave Havana too."

"I'll bring the book when I next come here. Everything about the Mondes is in it. Including the war." Esmeralda said in response. She continued on her way out.

Speaking with Greta had relieved her a little. Now she knew she wasn't the only one who was nursing mixed feelings about their mother's ambition.