Free Legacy by Jayne Olorunda

think,”
    By this stage his hands trembled as much as his voice. And rightly so Gabrielle thought these words came from the so called ‘good Catholics’ who had raised her. She was certain that unless things had changed drastically in her time away they weren’t taught such attitudes in any mass she had attended. Gabrielle’s estimation of her mother and father diminished there and then. She now saw one of them as a racist and the other a weak. She went back indoors and packed her things; she couldn’t see through the tears. She hugged her little sisters, closed the door and left. She wept for the entire journey. That was the day that she truly left home.

Chapter Fifteen
    Although Gabrielle was deeply hurt by her parent’s reaction she was annoyed with her father in particular. She knew without doubt that he did not share her mother’s provincial opinions. She remembered him reading the Irish Times and its world report and condemning Ian Smith as a tyrant. He derided him at every available opportunity and championed the plight of the indigenous South Africans to all and sundry. Once he even had asked her to say a special novena to St Jude the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes, asking him to solve South Africa’s problems, after Ireland’s of course. Yet he was prepared to acquiesce with her mother’s attitude, rather than brave contention in their cautiously harmonious home.
    Regardless of the growing resentment she felt towards her parents her life seemed to trundle on as normal. For a while she held out the hope that they would be filled with remorse. She imagined how they would contact her to say sorry. Yet as the months passed she knew this was not to be. Reason told Gabrielle that she would be planning this wedding alone.
    The definitive humiliation for her was telling Max her parents did not approve of him or of their engagement. He was visibly upset but seemed resigned to their feelings. By all accounts Max had learnt never to expect acceptance when encountering the unknown so he was perhaps disappointed but not surprised when Gabrielle reiterated her parent’s words to him. Gabrielle knew that this was not the first blind rejection he’d faced; in her short time with him she had witnessed many. She also knew that he had looked forward to meeting her family; she talked of home a lot and had unwittingly built his expectations.
    Max clearly felt that he was tearing her away from her family. Yet the family she thought she had, the family she used to be so certain off, no longer existed. Instead one hundred miles down the road, in the town she grew up in dwelled a family she didn’t know. Their outward façade cunningly concealed their true nature. A nature she never wanted to encounter again. It was with confidence that she could tell Max that her family were no longer important, because right now, that was how she felt.
    To prove Gabrielle’s assertions further, she insisted that they set a date sooner rather than later. She wanted them to marry; Max would become her new family. They had friends, good jobs and happiness. She would let no one spoil that, especially not her parents.
    With that in mind they set a date for June of that year, only six months away and began making arrangements. Max was put in charge of finding a home and Gabrielle would look after the preparations for the big day.
    They decided to have a small civic wedding and secured a booking in Belfast city hall. As her family wouldn’t attend they no longer needed to consider any religious perspective; that suited her. She wanted the day to be simple. Big weddings were designed for families and guests rather than the couple. Gabrielle decided that they would invite no one; they would quietly get married and slip away on honeymoon. Max was still not completely at ease with Gabrielle forging ahead with plans and her blasé attitude. He continually insisted that she would regret it later.