Orlando and Francisella saw their last year at Sim State University fly by. They were so busy with senior projects and wrapping up things for graduation that the end was upon them before they knew it. Orlando graduated first.
Mallory had graduated from Sim State and Bacillus was ready to get married. Bacillus was able to get walls up on the house and while it was small, it had everything the young couple would need for starting their life together.
Bacillus was able to take some time off work for the wedding. He found Don Santo most accommodating for his wedding and the honeymoon they planned to take. Mallory brought all of her things over to the house the morning of the wedding. Mallory’s family did not approve of Bacillus. They found his skin color to be appalling so they refused to have anything to do with their daughter. This made Mallory sad but Lora, Yersinia and Francisella came to the rescue. They helped her get ready for the wedding while Anthracis gave Bacillus all the advice he could come up with. Lora was, of course, beside herself with excitement about the impending wedding.
The ceremony itself was small. Only Bacillus’s family attended and it was exactly how he and Mallory wanted it to be. They married in a beautiful arch in the yard (Bacillus had been saving frantically to afford the arch.) The rings and vows were exchanged and everyone cheered. Mallory had married her Baby-Face.
Yersinia ended up taking a separate cab from her parents back home so when she got home it was late and both Anthracis and Lora were nowhere to be found and the house was dark and quiet. Yersinia decided that the first thing she would do was to check some job listings and get her resume posted so that a job might come her way. Fortunately, she had done well in school and was already well qualified for a career in medicine. She applied for a few jobs on-line and then went to wait for her parents to come home.
Yersinia didn’t have to wait long. Anthracis and Lora’s cab pulled in shortly after she finished applying for jobs. It turned out they had stopped to pick up a few groceries on the way home so that their fridge would be full for Yersinia. Yersinia was grateful. Lora came up to her daughter and gave her a big hug and said, “Welcome home.”
“It’s good to be home, Mom,” Yersinia told her back.
Yersinia could hardly believe it was her senior year of college. When she stopped and looked back over the last four years it was apparent to her how much had happened. She certainly wasn’t the confident and slightly arrogant eighteen year-old that left the Bacter Estate for Sim State University. She had expected to fall in love at college but she certainly never expected Gordon would turn out the way he did. But she was moving past that. At least trying to anyway but she still had nightmares and while she knew Gordon was in prison and would be there for a long time she still felt her heart skip a beat every time the phone or doorbell rang.
One afternoon the doorbell rang and Yersinia felt that familiar nervous feeling in her stomach. It escalated even more when Sella yelled out that there was someone there to see her. Yersinia thought she was going to be sick right there on the spot. Sella didn’t know about what happened with Gordon so she wouldn’t know not to tell her if it was Gordon. Yersinia was starting to panic. She was very relieved when she got the door and realized that her visitor was just Professor Xavier Jones. She hadn’t seen Xavier since Gordon’s attack although she did speak to him occasionally on the phone.
“Yersi, I’ve been worried about you.”
“Why Xavier? I’ve been fine.”
“I’m not so sure that you are fine, Yersi. You rarely return my phone calls and you changed majors and never mentioned anything to me about it. What was I supposed to think?”
“I don’t know, maybe that psychology just wasn’t my thing.”
“But Yersi, you were the top of your class, why would I come to that conclusion? Please, tell me what is going on.”
“It’s complicated. I’ve just had a bit of a change is all.”
“Tell me. I love you Yersi.”
Bacillus had graduated and he was ready to start life on his own. Since he wasn’t the heir to the Bacter Estate Anthracis gave him $20,000 to get started with. Bacillus knew that starting over would be a bit difficult. He bought a plot of land not far from his parents home that took up most of his money. With what was left he was able to put up a small foundation and four walls to form a bathroom and modestly furnish his foundation. He knew that it wasn’t much but he would make it more of a home by the time he and Mallory were to be married.
Francisella was very sad now that Orlando had moved off to the fraternity. She was left with only Sophie, and while she liked Sophie it just wasn’t the same. She was really feeling like she was missing out on something by not being at the house. But Francisella was really pretty stubborn and she was not going to change her plans just because Orlando had gone and joined the fraternity before she had planned to. So she stuck with it.
She still knew that something was up and not entirely right with Yersinia but she had long since given up the pursuit. She had talked to her father and he was also unable to get anything out of Yersinia or Bacillus. Sella thought that once she moved into the house, maybe then Yersi would tell her what she was hiding. Bacillus had graduated and moved back to the old neighborhood. Things were changing around Sella rather quickly and she didn’t quite know how to handle it all.
Sella worked quite hard and was able to get all of her assignments done on time. Phone calls kept coming from Orlando telling her how great life at the frat was. Sella finally caved in and called them up so that she could pledge.
Yersinia felt like she was living in a daze. Since the attack by Gordon she was running on autopilot. Just going through the motions completely unaware of all that was going on around her. She was vaguely aware of the inquiries by her sister and knew that Orlando Bertino, her sister’s boyfriend had just joined the house and there was a memory of talking about school with her father. Little else sunk in. Bacillus had to remind her of her counseling appointment. She dreaded going but knew she had to.
She walked to campus with her head spinning. She was finding it increasingly difficult to keep her thoughts together. She arrived at the counselor’s office faster than she had expected. Her counselor was Professor Jessica Ebadi; Yersinia had taken Intro Psych with her. Yersinia gently rapped on the door. “Come in,” she heard a voice behind the door call out. Yersinia opened the door and walked inside.
“Have a seat,” Professor Ebadi said to her with a smile. Yersinia sat and watched Professor Ebadi flip through a file on her desk that Yersinia was certain was hers. Finally, Professor Ebadi spoke again, “Well Yersinia I see here that you have a popularity aspiration, you are majoring in Psychology and doing quite well with a 4.0.”
Yersinia smiled and nodded. She didn’t know how much she was or was not expected to say. But Professor Ebadi continued, “You are obviously doing quite well where you are. I have had you in class and Professor Jones also thinks very highly of your academic ability,” Yersinia felt herself grow a little warm at the mention of Xavier, “But the question is not how well you are doing but rather if you are happy where you are at. So the question I have for you is, are you happy?”
Those words struck Yersinia. Was she happy? Before the incident with Gordon she was very focus on becoming popular. But all of a sudden that didn’t seem to matter to her anymore. She felt much more internal and reserved. She looked up at Professor Ebadi, tears welling up in her eyes, “No, I’m not.” And suddenly Yersinia launched into the whole story about what had happened with Gordon and how she felt so alone and like she would never feel normal again. She didn’t care that Professor Ebadi was a colleague of Xavier and she might tell him what had happened. She just needed to get it all off her chest. Once she had she felt much better.
That sat in silence for a while but then Professor Ebadi spoke, “You will feel normal again. It will take some time and normal may be different but you will feel normal again. Trust me. You have gone through something very traumatic and it will take time for those wounds to heal. Be patient with them, they will heal. I think that given everything that has happened a change of aspiration would be good for you. Have you thought about that at all?”
“Yeah, I have and I think you are right. I was thinking maybe knowledge. That was my dad’s and it worked well for him.”
Professor Ebadi smiled, “I think knowledge would be a good change for you. Now, we will do that now and you can go home and think about what you want to do with your life and change majors if you’d like. And of course, Yersinia, everything that was said here stays here and if you ever need to talk, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Thanks.” Yersinia left her appointment feeling lots better. She was relieved that she wasn’t going to tell Xavier. She didn’t know how he would react and she certainly didn’t know how she was going to tell him.
Anthracis Bacter sat on the sofa with his head in his hands. He was very grateful at that moment that his wife was at work. Life had seemed so good for his family. How had things gone so wrong?
It all began with a phone call from his youngest, Francisella. She had told him that her siblings were acting strangely. She clearly thought that something was going on because she brought it up to him. This put him on guard. He had tried to call his son, Bacillus, but couldn’t get any answers out of him. Something was going on and Anthracis hated not knowing what it was.
Francisella knew something was wrong. She had called to talk to Bacillus and Yersinia about Orlando. Orlando really wanted to join a fraternity and Beta Eta Pi seemed like the likely choice for him. Sella was planning on joining it as well but not for another few semesters. She liked quiet life with Sophie. But as soon as she heard Bacillus answer the phone she knew there was something wrong. There was something in his tone of voice that suggested trouble. “Bacillus, it’s Sella. What’s wrong?”
“N-n-nothing.”
“You’re lying. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Nothing is going on Sella. What do you want?”
There was something about his tone that made her feel uneasy. She decided to ask for her sister. She had always been closer to Yersinia anyway. “Well, can I talk to Yersi then?”
“No,” Bacillus responded shortly.
“What? Why not? I want to talk to Yersi.”
“Yersi is, uh, indisposed and won’t be able to come to the phone for a while.”
“Bacillus Anthracis Bacter, tell me what is going on!” Sella was really starting to feel quite worried; this wasn’t like her brother to just blow her off and ignore her.
“Francisella, it doesn’t concern you okay? What did you want when you called? I’m sure it wasn’t to badger me.”
Sella realized she had no choice but to give in. Bacillus wasn’t going to tell her what had happened and she wasn’t going to be able to talk to Yersinia so it was really no use. “I was calling about Orlando. He is thinking about rushing a frat and I thought Beta would be a good one.”
“Okay, tell him we’ll be by later tonight. But I gotta go now Sella. Talk to you later.”
Bacillus hung up the phone before Sella could reply. She just stood there staring at the phone in disbelief. She shrugged her shoulders thinking maybe she would get a chance to talk to them when they came over to pledge Orlando that night.
Orlando had class until 8:00 that night so the members of Beta Eta Pi did not come over until after that. Sella had been pacing nervously all afternoon trying to decide how she was going to confront her siblings about this secret they seemed to be hiding from her. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to say when they showed up at the door. At first things were very chaotic and hectic. The three of them were dressed in togas and seemed to just want to run around the room with their hands in the air screaming. This was a totally different side of her brother and sister. At last Orlando engaged in conversation with Mallory and Sella decided this would be her chance.
Simmer’s Note: This chapter contains some disturbing scences. Please read with caution.
Another term had started for Bacillus, Mallory and Yersinia. Bacillus was finishing up his junior year and Mallory and Yersinia were both finishing up their sophomore year. It was starting to become more and more obvious that the negative footing Bacillus and Mallory started out on was pretty much gone. Their relationship continued to go smoothly and it was really starting to heat up. They were still putting off sleeping with each other but they were finding it increasingly hard to keep their hands off each other. Even something as innocent as playing video games would result in pretty hot and heavy make out sessions on that old couch where his father had made out with his mother.
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