Chapter 10 Her Explanation
She prepared more fries and decided to mix some powdered orange juice for the rest of the family in a large bottle. Seeing that both maids were conveniently absent, she carried the fries and the juice to the dining table all on her own.
Everywhere she went, Justin followed her like her a tail.
She sat at the table with Justin and one by one, family members arrived. Her mother was the first to sit at the table since she had been attracted by the smell of the fries long before but she was feeling awkward about asking Scarlet for a bite.
Her brothers, sisters and father all showed up and she finally had the chance to observe them. Her father was a tall, large man with a stocky build, black hair and grey eyes.
Scarlet had inherited the hair and eyes from him, there were no doubt about it. Her mother was blonde and slender. She had inherited her physique from her. Her eyes were drawn to her mother\'s large protruding tummy, It was a good thing that med beds existed in the interstellar otherwise she could not understand how this small woman survived giving birth to eight children and she still looked sexy and young.
Moreover, she was about to give birth to another one!!
Her parents really needed a lesson in sex education and birth control otherwise they were on a mission to repopulate the blue star since it was now their home and sparsely populated.
"Scarlet, do you have anything to say to us?" her father directly asked.
Boldly, she looked around, refusing to quiver the inquisitive and harsh glances being sent her way by some of her siblings.
"I want to apologize to everyone for my past actions; I was very sick and disturbed, it\'s not an excuse but it\'s an explanation for most of my erratic behavior. I met an old doctor at the edge of the blue forest a few months ago who secretly gave me treatment. He said my uncontrolled rage and outbursts of anger were a result of an untreated childhood illness caused by blockage of my chi points. He unblocked them and I am still in the process of recovery so my mental strength is going to return slowly overtime.
He also gave me a lot of things like food, seeds, books and others. I was not trying to get my husband\'s attention by fleeing this planet before I was injured; I wanted to tell him about the things the old doctor had given me.
Now, I realize that I was foolish; these things are going to be used to develop our new home not to impress a man. We cannot keep depending on garbage collection to make money; we will stay backward if we stay the course.
I think it\'s time for us to come out of our shells and take our fate into our own hands. Just because our old dreams are dead does not mean we cannot start over and find new dreams. All of you can think about it and if you agree with me, we will discuss it tomorrow. That\'s all I have to say for now."
She was done talking and explaining her change in behavior and she hoped that they would not be asking about the changes in her personality anymore. She had come up with this wild tale when she recalled that Scarlet often went to the edge of the blue forest in some hopeless effort to find a mutated beast. If she did find one, she would send word to Esong and he would come to fight the beasts then she could use the opportunity to seduce him.
Scarlet\'s foolish actions had for the second time today proved useful to her.
Her family was silent, probably bubbling with dozens of questions and most of them ready to poke holes into her story but she chose to remain nonchalant about it all.
Instead, she started serving fries while Justin her little assistant helped her push the plates around around.
"You were ill, are you not spinning some kind of ludicrous story to dig yourself out of a hole?" Carolyn asked inquisitively in a doubting voice.
"If you have any questions for me sister, please wait until after dinner." Scarlet replied. "I am sure that all of you are starving after a long day of hard work."
She could see the burning curiosity in all of their eyes but the smell of fries and colorful juice distracted them.
"Sister Scarlet what is this juice?" her youngest sister Halley asked after taking one sip of the delicious orange juice.
Scarlet smiled at the adorable little girl who was only a year older than Justin and said, "Hmm, a refreshing drink. Do you like it?"
"We can\'t shut down the garbage dump, how will we make money." Elroy, the younger brother who was born after her suddenly blurted.
"Eat your food." Adler ordered Elroy. "If you don\'t want it, give it to me."
Elroy guarded his plate as if Adler was a thief and he looked around nervously at the rest of his siblings. The older ones in particular were eating so fast that soon they would eat up all the extra food.
After dinner Carolyn surprised her by helping her clean the table and wash the plates even though she was very much still slightly hostile to her.
"Were you really ill?" she asked her.
"Yes, " Scarlet replied, "Very ill. Being sent to this planet was the best thing to ever happen to me because if I met my savior here."
"Can we meet this savior of yours?"
"No," Scarlet replied and put on a very sad face, "He left but he said when I train myself and fully recover my mental strength I can go and look for him."
"Hmph." Carolyn replied.
Everyone was gathered in the living room, pretending to watch whatever it was that was playing but all along secretly peeping to catch a glimpse of Scarlet.
She found them waiting for her as if she was a guest speaker for a function.
"Sister, we all have questions for you." Beord her second brother said. "Like what you were doing at the edge of the blue forest and how the doctor treated you. We also want to know what you are suggesting we do once the garbage dump is shut down."
Before she could answer, Mega also added, "Your father and I had no idea that you were ill Scarlet, if we did we would have sought treatment for you."
"Your mother is speaking the truth." Her father said.
"Mum, dad, I know this so you don\'t need to apologize. I want to put it in the past along with all of mistakes. Everything that you all want to discuss can wait for tomorrow and the days which follow because I have to go and train. I also need to sleep, the doctor told me to sleep for at least eight hours a night in order for my body to mend faster."
"Oh, okay then, go in and rest. I will put Justin to bed." Adler quickly responded before anyone could object.
She kissed Justin on the cheek and left with a whole lot of curious eyes on her back.