Stolid by Aaron.D.Key

Author:Aaron.D.Key [Key, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Time passed. It was a quiet house, even with the visitors. They had stayed longer than I thought – but then again, so had I. It was still a house of quiet thoughts, of solitary reading and music. I began to look around me, and as I did so I began to feel more at ease because of the discontentment I saw. The friction troubling those not as low as me comforted me, though it wasn’t a noble feeling.

One evening we were sitting in the library in the glow of the fire. Johnathon amused himself with a chessboard and I was reading a fascinating tale about the innocent hobbies of a man of taste. It was like drinking in sunlight. The words slipped down my throat and made red hot fire inside my mind. Johnathon was bored. He moved chess pieces and looked at me. Engrossed as I was, I was still distracted by him.

“Stolid,” he said.

“Yes?” I replied, not lifting my head from the pages of my book.

“Stolid,” he repeated, and knocked his white king onto the floor with an irritating crack.

“What?” I said, dragging my eyes away from the painted words.

“Am I bothering you? Shall I keep quiet?” He was saying it with a smirk to annoy me and so I smiled.

“Get on with it then,” I prompted him.

“Well I was just thinking that it’s odd you’ve never asked me anything about my past. I brought my visitors here so you could examine them, and I thought you might show some curiosity. Aren’t you curious?”

“I’ve asked you, and you said that you were long-standing friends, reliant upon one another. You didn’t seem to want to tell me more. Of course I’m curious. It disturbs me, I don’t know why, that once you loved that woman,” I said and wished I hadn’t.

“I’m not sure I ever did,” Johnathon replied, thoughtfully. “At least that’s what I would have said if you had asked me. You see it was always Timonthy and I who were good friends in those days. In my innocence, for I was young then, I thought it would always remain that way.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, she did,” Johnathon answered. “I’m not really sure how it came about, although I believe that Timonthy met her at a concert or something, and not really knowing what to do with her brought her home to me. From two we became three, and for a while I believe we had a good time. Then of course sex reared its ugly head. It got complicated for a while, though most of the time I remember that I was left on my own.

“Then, somehow, I found myself getting married. I blame my father for it mainly. He came to visit me at this inconvenient time and liked Lizzie a lot. He encouraged it. Timonthy seemed to fade into the distance under this unnatural disadvantage, and because I was angry with him for neglecting me before, I was pleased with this attention. I began to find my father’s enthusiasm infectious.

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