This is a work of fiction.
*
Maria just stared at the man with distaste.
Maria, in her simple brown floral patterned dress, black hair sparkling in the light of the day, stood with a two foot long, one inch thick iron rod in her hand and faced down the imposing man standing in front of her.
The man was a full seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and hands that looked as if they could crush boulders. His face was extraordinarily plain, with shaggy blonde hair and a light growth of a beard. But his eyes, they were sharp, an ice blue with a stare that could drill holes in solid stone. His muscles were hard as iron and they showed on his hairy forearms and chest; he was wearing a plain gray t-shirt with jeans and workers boots. If one glanced at him on the street one would believe he was a construction worker or a tradesman of some sort. But if you were near enough to his presence, one could feel something different about him.
"You realize this is the way it has been and will continue to be so long as I am the Father" The man said staring at Maria with a look of anger on his face.
Maria stood her ground, she stared right back at him with her own anger building.
"You are the Father, but I am the Mother, I will decide what is best for my children, not you, you forsake them long ago when you withdrew to experiment ..." Maria said the last word in contempt.
The man stood looking at her, the fury plain on his face, the desert sun blazing down on them both, but neither feeling it.
"You. Will. Obey. Me. Wife." The man said pronouncing each word in a hiss.
Maria smiled and retorted "Try to enforce your will... Husband."
Pronouncing the last word with mockery was almost too much for the man to bear, his jaw clenched and fire blazed in his eyes as he took a step forward, flexing his hands and breathing hard.
Maria just stood there, confident in her own strength.
The man suddenly launched himself at Maria with a speed that was inhuman, faster than a bolt of lightning he was there, standing at the spot Maria had just occupied, but his hands closed on air instead of her throat.
Turning just in time he managed to see the iron rod connect with his jaw.
***
Betty had just finished with her paperwork on a new research company Maria had acquired when she felt the earthquake.
There was no warning, no slight tremble that told of the main event to come, just a hard solid shaking of the earth. She briefly considered running outside to see if her children were ok but decided against it, Davey and the Twins were smart; they would take shelter.
Being 9 months pregnant her body could not move as fast as she would like but she got under the desk as fast as she could and prayed the twins and her son were safe.
The building shook for a full minute before all finally fell silent.
Betty slowly got up to her feet and looked around. The room looked as if nothing had touched it; the paintings on the walls were still hanging straight, the sculptures were all still perched on their pedestals as if nothing had happened.
Well this is strange Betty thought. But then again everything about this place is strange Betty thought laughing.
Betty had on a maternity dress, the hem coming to her mid-thighs showing cute her bronzed legs with strapped on sandals. She briefly smoothed her dress out as she looked over the room to see if anything was broken.
Just then Maria walked through the door and saw Betty looking over everything and smiled.
"Everything is fine Betty; just a little shake is all." Maria said.
Betty jumped at hearing Maria and turned to look at her.
Maria's hair was slightly disheveled and her dress was ripped at the hem a bit, as if she had snagged it on a nail.
"Are you alright Maria?" Betty said, concern in her voice as she noticed the appearance of Maria.
Maria just kept smiling and said "Oh I'm fine, my ex-husband stopped by for a moment, we had a nice chat."
"Someday you'll have to tell me of this ex of yours, you hardly ever speak of him" Betty said smiling and sitting back down at the desk and putting the paperwork into the folder for Maria to look over.
"Yes I suppose you should know, he does come around every now and then to trouble me, he just can't seem to grasp the fact that this world is..." Maria trailed off, staring at nothing.
"This world is what?" Betty said setting the folder down and looking at Maria.
Maria shook herself and looked at Betty, her smile getting wider "Oh it's of no consequence right now, at any rate he'll be gone for a while. When we have these talks he usually skulks off until he hears of something else I did that angers him."
Betty just smiled back and sighed "Ok mystery woman keep your secrets." Sticking her tongue out at Maria made her laugh.
"Well I am going to change, but before I go, how are the new employees working out?" Maria asked sitting on the edge of the desk and placing her hand on Betty's.
"Oh they are wonderful!" Betty said taking Maria's hand in hers.
"Bill is just a wiz with design and construction and Sue and Terri are great with numbers, it's like the perfect start up for a construction company. Bill could design and build anything and his mother and aunt can run the numbers for costs!" Betty said grinning while placing her hand on Maria's thigh.
Maria sighed happily and said. "Well I am certainly happy to hear they are adjusting well, those old rooms did need some remodeling something terrible, and the books are looking better thanks to Terri and Susan." Maria now placed one of her hands on Betty's.
"Unfortunately I need to rest a bit, when my ex shows up it's always a tiring experience." Maria said sadly removing her hand from Betty's and getting to her feet.
Betty stood and hugged the other woman, arms encircling the smaller woman whom she owed so much of her happiness to.
Breaking the embrace Maria smiled at Betty one last time and walked through the door to one of the other rooms and closed it behind her.
Betty sighed and thought. One day she is going to have to explain all this to me.
Shaking herself a bit she decided to go to the kitchen to see if the Twins and her son were ok, something told her she was just being silly, of course they were ok, but the mother part of her was something that wouldn't be denied when it came to her children.
***
Davey had just sat down to eat when the shaking started. Dropping his fork on the table he jumped up and rushed into the kitchen to find the twins, to his relief they were already under one of the tables when he entered. With the pots and pans making a hell of a racket he got down on hands and knees and crawled under with them while waiting for the shaking to stop. Not saying anything, they probably wouldn't have heard each other over the racket that was going on, Davey wrapped his arms around Shana and Julie to wait out the quake.
After about a minute the shaking stopped, the pots and pans stopped banging together and the three slowly crawled out of their little shelter beneath the table and stood.
Shanna and Julie both rubbed their arms and looked around while Davey went over to look out the window.
"Anything damaged out there Davey? Any of the trees fall?" Shana asked.
"I don't see anything; I'll have to go check the units one by one though to make sure nothing is damaged, the main building had a lot of supplies stacked up due to the remodeling. Floor tiles, bathroom tiles, and such. I bet half of those are broken now." He said frowning slightly.
"Oh shit, what about Mom?" Julie asked clutching her belly and thinking of her mother who was also nine months pregnant like herself and her sister.
Davey and Shana both looked at her and they all three rushed out to go see if their mother was ok.
***
Maria slowly walked down a corridor in her home. A long wide hallway with high twelve foot ceilings, the ceiling and walls were all rose-colored marble with arches every twenty feet. The arches depicted humans, in various situations. Some had them fighting each other while their women and children wept, others showed them planting and growing crops with festivals and gatherings, and still others with people intertwined to show the art of love-making. The walls had paintings and tapestries hung sporadically down the hallway, various depictions of people doing the most ordinary of things, a farmer with his plow and oxen, a woman dancing to the clapping of her community, a young man standing on a mountain top staring down into a valley.
Seeing this last painting Maria stopped to stare at it. The young man was facing away so as she could not see his face, but it was so detailed in other ways that she almost believe it was a photograph and not a work of art. Running her fingers softly along the canvas she felt her heart lurch and she felt a longing come into her being.
