Things Past – Family
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
The sultry evening air was enhanced by the aromatic woodsmoke that rose from the fire that burned in the hearth. Every evening in her life the Lemarrev family had gathered here after dinner, sometimes there were aunts and uncles, sometimes grandparants, sometimes friends of her parents, other times her brothers were home bringing tales of adventures beyond the Cardassia system, but most often, like tonight it was just Imanil and her parents.
“You seem a little distracted, dear,” Imanil’s mother said as she came over to where her daughter sat, on a cushion by the fireside. Nalana smiled at her daughter. Nalana had been a beauty in her youth and fifty years on was still a very handsome woman. She had noticed that Imanil’s manner had been subtly different all the way through the evening, “fetch another cushion, dear,” she said, “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Nalana spoke a few brief words into her husband’s ear, and he grumbled something back at her. They left the room together, but a few minutes later Nalana returned with a bottle of sweet wine and two glasses. These she placed on the floor before curling on the second oversized cushion that Imanil had brought.
“Enarim has decided we are the two most cruel and despicable women alive for making an old man go and finish his tea cold and alone in his study,” she said. “Oh, he’ll get over it, he knows as well as I that there are things that he is not yet ready to hear.”
“Not yet ready?” Imanil said. As her mother made herself comfortable she had already begun to pour the wine into the two glasses. She handed one to her mother.
“My dear child, no father is ever ready to hear that his daughter has begun to pay attention to another man. First he begins to realise that soon he will lose her affection to another, then worse, he himself remembers being a young man and immediately rules any possible suitor as a predator. If fathers were allowed to get mixed up in these things we’d be gone in a generation.”
“How can you tell?” Imanil said.
“Because I remember being a young woman,” Nalana replied, “and because you know that there is nothing that you may not discuss with us. Why don’t you tell me about him,” she suggested.
Imanil related the strange story of their meeting to her mother, of how in the instant she had admonished him for missing the first part of her lecture she wished that she had not.
“When I told him that we could discuss what he had missed I expected him to make an appointment, not to pursue me down the corridor. The thing that struck me the most was how different he was, he’s not the first military man who has come to me for an introduction to a ship or station type that they have not yet been made familiar with, but he was the first who attempted to attend my lecture, even if he only caught the last part of it. Most of them turn up at my office and demand that I run and find the professor. Gul Getal, didn’t think for a moment that I might not be she.”
“How charming,” Nalana said as her daughter continued her story, she knew how frustrated it made her daughter having to continually explain to people that she was indeed Professor Lemarrev, and not one of the students. This Gul Getal could not have chosen a surer way to make a positive impression on her daughter.
“We went back to my office and, well before that we had touched in the corridor and I don’t know how to describe it,” Imanil took a sip of the wine as she searched for and failed to find the right words.
“As though in an instant you saw your past, present and future at the same moment, and throughout it he was there?” Nalana asked her daughter.
Imanil nodded, lowering her glass.
“Such a special moment. These days most girls are too busy bickering with whoever has most recently caught their eye to allow nature to do what it has done without assistance for centuries.” Nalana sighed, at least her daughter had been properly raised. “I’ve never understood how these girls expect to be able to respect a man who allows her to berate him from the instant they meet. Clearly any such can have no respect for himself.”
“He said that he would come to see me again tomorrow” Imanil said. She wanted to believe it, but she couldn’t be sure if it would really happen, not until it did anyway.
Nalana smiled, “Well, if he does then you must be sure to invite him to visit us.”
That was not the end of Nalana’s advice to her daughter. They talked long into the night, sitting up hours after the wine was finished and the fire burned low.
Fi'ta Gul Enarim Lemarrev
Commander of the Fifth Order (Retired)
Nalana Kasan Lemarrev
Diplomat
Professor Imanil Lemarrev
Lecturer on Aesthetics and the Built Environment
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
| Title | Family | |
| Mission | Things Past | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek | |
| Posted | Sun May 22, 2011 @ 10:51pm | |
| Location | Cardassia City. Coranum Sector. Cardassia Prime | |
| Timeline | Vague |
“You seem a little distracted, dear,” Imanil’s mother said as she came over to where her daughter sat, on a cushion by the fireside. Nalana smiled at her daughter. Nalana had been a beauty in her youth and fifty years on was still a very handsome woman. She had noticed that Imanil’s manner had been subtly different all the way through the evening, “fetch another cushion, dear,” she said, “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Nalana spoke a few brief words into her husband’s ear, and he grumbled something back at her. They left the room together, but a few minutes later Nalana returned with a bottle of sweet wine and two glasses. These she placed on the floor before curling on the second oversized cushion that Imanil had brought.
“Enarim has decided we are the two most cruel and despicable women alive for making an old man go and finish his tea cold and alone in his study,” she said. “Oh, he’ll get over it, he knows as well as I that there are things that he is not yet ready to hear.”
“Not yet ready?” Imanil said. As her mother made herself comfortable she had already begun to pour the wine into the two glasses. She handed one to her mother.
“My dear child, no father is ever ready to hear that his daughter has begun to pay attention to another man. First he begins to realise that soon he will lose her affection to another, then worse, he himself remembers being a young man and immediately rules any possible suitor as a predator. If fathers were allowed to get mixed up in these things we’d be gone in a generation.”
“How can you tell?” Imanil said.
“Because I remember being a young woman,” Nalana replied, “and because you know that there is nothing that you may not discuss with us. Why don’t you tell me about him,” she suggested.
Imanil related the strange story of their meeting to her mother, of how in the instant she had admonished him for missing the first part of her lecture she wished that she had not.
“When I told him that we could discuss what he had missed I expected him to make an appointment, not to pursue me down the corridor. The thing that struck me the most was how different he was, he’s not the first military man who has come to me for an introduction to a ship or station type that they have not yet been made familiar with, but he was the first who attempted to attend my lecture, even if he only caught the last part of it. Most of them turn up at my office and demand that I run and find the professor. Gul Getal, didn’t think for a moment that I might not be she.”
“How charming,” Nalana said as her daughter continued her story, she knew how frustrated it made her daughter having to continually explain to people that she was indeed Professor Lemarrev, and not one of the students. This Gul Getal could not have chosen a surer way to make a positive impression on her daughter.
“We went back to my office and, well before that we had touched in the corridor and I don’t know how to describe it,” Imanil took a sip of the wine as she searched for and failed to find the right words.
“As though in an instant you saw your past, present and future at the same moment, and throughout it he was there?” Nalana asked her daughter.
Imanil nodded, lowering her glass.
“Such a special moment. These days most girls are too busy bickering with whoever has most recently caught their eye to allow nature to do what it has done without assistance for centuries.” Nalana sighed, at least her daughter had been properly raised. “I’ve never understood how these girls expect to be able to respect a man who allows her to berate him from the instant they meet. Clearly any such can have no respect for himself.”
“He said that he would come to see me again tomorrow” Imanil said. She wanted to believe it, but she couldn’t be sure if it would really happen, not until it did anyway.
Nalana smiled, “Well, if he does then you must be sure to invite him to visit us.”
That was not the end of Nalana’s advice to her daughter. They talked long into the night, sitting up hours after the wine was finished and the fire burned low.
Fi'ta Gul Enarim Lemarrev
Commander of the Fifth Order (Retired)
Nalana Kasan Lemarrev
Diplomat
Professor Imanil Lemarrev
Lecturer on Aesthetics and the Built Environment