Jane Be Jane <pt1>......AerisVampire

1. A Rainy Day Kind Of Woman

As the cry of a newborn baby girl echoed through a tiny lake town in Aina, a drizzle began to fall from the ever-lingering clouds. On this particular March evening, the skies had lightened to a navy grey, and a chill had set in, giving the village an unwelcoming aura. But the baby girl arrived all the same, her black hair thick on her head, and her hands splayed out as if grabbing for something beyond.

Her mother held her to her chest, and her father looked on in satisfaction; the expressions on their faces displaying only traces of emotion.

"She will be a rainy-day kind of woman," her grandmother had told her parents with honest brutality. "Like this, her hometown, she will dwell on things, and never let you know why. Her manners will be mysterious, even subtly harmful. She will be different, my children."

"Mother, you poison her fate," her father snapped back. He kept his eyes on his daughter as his wife rocked her to silence, his arms crossed firmly. "We wish her the best, and here you curse her!"

"I do nothing of the sort, Boris," she replied. "I tell you only the truth."

The baby squirmed as if agreeing with her grandmother, and tightened her hands into fists that pulled back to cover her face. Pressing her face against her mother's body, she whined in discomfort. Edina petted the mass of hair on the child's head, and laid back on the pillows.

Boris sighed in exasperation and turned away from his mother. The old woman smiled with accomplishment, the wrinkles on her face stretching in accordance to the movement of her muscles. She turned away from the child and her parents, her hands wrapped around each other, left thumb in right hand. Walking to the door of her son's cabin, she whispered a prayer for the newborn child.

May light be present in her times of darkness, and dark in moments of light,

"Such a pest, that mother of mine," Boris muttered, settling on the bed beside his wife and child. The two were weak from the eighteen hours spent bringing the little one into the home, but strong enough to wait for the child's father to suppress his irritation.

The baby girl's eyes fell closed, but not in sleep. She relaxed soundly, and flitted her eyes behind puffy lids; though only a few moments old, the child knew something was not right when closed eyes showed her light.

So the child may see the world for everything it is, and some things it is not.

She crooned, rubbing her face with a closed fist, trying to dissipate the light into the darkness of the town. The child knew already her village was small and dark. She knew this shut-eye light would be welcomed, would be contained.

May she see it with open eyes,

But the light would not fade away, so she resolved to rid it mechanically, opening her eyes to the earth she would take on. Emerald gems blinked from a powder-white face, and squinted for familar forms. There came a rampant typhoon of only strangers.

And cast not impure glances at that which she does not know.

The baby did not look on with desire to shun her new life, nor did she see with predisposition. Her views were unclouded, unlike the skies of Lomea; she inspired herself to be one apart from the masses.

And may she be fairly just and justly fair,

Moving slightly in Edina's arms, the baby deemed this cloth far too rough to sleep in, but compromised this for mother's warmth. Edina had settled down on the bed, and was looking at Boris sternly.

To every creature of every name.

"Now, have you decided her name?" she asked him, praying he'd picked something virtuous and feminine.

Hope was a terrible name, the baby decided. But Faith would be fine.

"I had been thinking of Gertrude," Boris announced. "Gertrude Elaine."

Edina and the baby made a displeased sound in unision at his suggestion. The child's parents looked at her, frightened, before continuing their conversation.

"Gertrude is such an archaic name. Like Boris," her mother commented. I'd like to give her a name that's cheery. And easy to say."

Boris only shook his head, and looked at the child. Her white, clowing face stared back at him. Beautiful, but nothing terribly special to look at. He smiled, remembering the old saying about women like her. Reaching forth to pet her dark head, he made his decision.

In strength,

"Jane."

Edina looked at him quizzically. "Jane," she echoed. "How do you figure?"

"Look at her, Edina!" he exclaimed as he backed away from the bed. "She's a plain Jane! Its that simple! The child is nothing more than a pretty face. Look how she sleeps with open eyes. No normal child does that, Edina. Something's wrong with that child!" -Jane began to cry at her father's words, and her mother appeared uncomfortable as well. She covered her daughter's ears but Jane heard all.- "She'll be no more than just an odd white face under the dark Lomea sky!"

Baby Jane gave howled as her father shouted about the child he didn't know. She didn't like him already. Edina scowled at Boris as she turned away from him with her baby clutched to her breast.

And in weakness,

"Sleep little Jane," Edina crooned. "Daddy's just mad you weren't a boy." She cradled and rocked the infant child, away from her husband, shunning him from view. "Its al right, Janie, cause I'll love you no matter what mean old Boris says. He just doesn't appreciate the plain and simple beauty, or any women who have it. Especially you, Jane. Especially you."

Edina kissed her gently on the head when the child had fallen asleep at last. The moonlight leaked in from the open window as the clouds cleared away from the lunar body. Cast on her snow white skin, it haunted her features even as the moon faded back behind the clouds. And as boris went out to the tavern at the bottom of the hill, Edina held Jane tight and whispered in her daughter's ear until she too was sleeping.

"Just Jane be Jane," she whispered. "Jane be Jane."

So mote it be.

Thanks so much!!! AerisVampire

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