Mean || Delia and Teddy

blondexhurricane:

While Delia couldn’t remember the last time it had rained in San Antonio, she was almost certain that there was a giant storm cloud hovering above her house. Ever since Teddy had returned home wounded, each passing day seemed to be gloomier than the last. Watching the way the possibly permanent injury was destroying the woman who she once thought was invincible was one of the hardest things that she’d ever suffered through, but at the end of the day, she was determined to hold on to enough hope and faith for the both of them.

“If you’re not having any fun after like forty-five minutes, we can leave,” Delia promised as she walked alongside the wheelchair. It had taken a few weeks of pleading and promising, but Teddy had finally agreed to a morning at the park. The seven year old was hopeful that the fresh air and warm sunshine would do her mother some good. Maybe, just maybe, it would lift her spirits a little bit and remind her that there was more to life than obsessing over things that were beyond her control.

Once they’d arrived at their destination, Delia, as usual, agreed to stay where Teddy could see her before taking off to go play and make some new friends. There was a brunette over on the swings that seemed to be about her age, and the two were soon enough laughing and chatting away about their favorite Disney princesses and other, similar topics. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long before she had to leave, and the blonde once again found herself with no one to play with.

Tired of swinging, wide eyes surveyed their surroundings for a minute before Delia decided that the slide was the least crowded area. An older boy apparently had the same idea, and he didn’t seem to like the fact that he had been beaten to it by a little girl. No sooner had she begun to climb the ladder to get to the top than she felt herself being shoved off to the side.

The contact her small body made with the ground was somewhat painful, but Delia wasn’t about to start crying — especially not in front of a bully. “If you ever push me like that again…” She warned him with an intense glare, resisting the urge to retaliate by pushing him right back.

Teddy, prone to falling back into a familiar pastime, was watching. The other mothers, they knew who she was — knew her story, and judged her with those prying eyes. They saw her chair, and their faces clouded with a pity that Teddy resented more than anything. She didn’t want anything to do with them, nor did she find herself deserving of their pity. And so, she resigned herself to watching. 

Forty-five minutes. That was all her daughter had asked of her — her daughter, who had sacrificed so much already in the wake of her pride. Couldn’t she give Delia forty-five minutes outside the prison they both called home? It was a whole new kind of oppression, being so close to her daughter’s joy but not being able to share in it. She’d have traded her heart and soul just to do the things she once did with her little girl. 

But when she saw Delia fall, everything changed. The weakness in her legs were no longer her concern; the chair no longer held her prisoner. Some long-dormant rage rose in her like a tide, filling her limbs with a strength she thought she’d lost for good. She didn’t care who was watching, for her will held its own over fear. 

“You!” Teddy yelled. Her feet may have failed her many times before, but the fierce protective instinct within her wouldn’t settle. “Listen here, you little —” She stopped, just short of hurling a number of vile obscenities at a boy who didn’t know any better.

She knew she held no authority, sitting in this wheelchair. She’d seen it at work — people who once respected her, looking down on her in a way that wore her down and erased her. Teddy may still have held the position as Chief of Staff; yet, those who treated her as such were few and far between — but she wasn’t going to let that stand in the way of protecting her daughter.

And that ungainly stride she took across the sand — it was just short of a rousing change that moved her.