Lucas motioned for us to be silent, but I was pretty sure I couldn't actually talk anyway. He moved over to the wall outside Helen's bedroom and rubbed his hands together. He then gently placed his hands against the wall, making a box out of his fingers. He dragged his hands across the wall diagonally, still in the box shape, forming the corners of the box. The wall turned translucent, but only so that we could see inside.
Dad picked up a teapot that Helen kept on her dresser. “You sent them to Jörd,” he stated, not questioned. “You understand what that does to my plans, of course."
Helen took a drink from a glass sitting on her nightstand. "Of course," she acknowledged. "What better way for them to find out than their mother?"
Dad set the teapot back down. "I shouldn't have to tell you that this was a betrayal."
She laughed. "Is it? Funny, I thought you told Nora that she was to grow past her former proclivities. Since she's been here, she's gotten a job, engaged in higher education and met a nice young man who shares her interests and respects her." She took another drink. "Sounds like she's met your expectations."
He still had a grip on the teapot, and tightened it, nearly to the point of breaking the pot. "She wasn't meant to meet my expectations." He turned to face her. "I sent the both of them here to forget about Asgard and live commoner lives, as was their destinies. Neither of them was supposed to know they weren't worthy of being royalty." He walked over to the window. "And now my whore daughter is cavorting with that bastard monkey king!"
Helen stood up now. "Nora is not a whore, and Evan isn't a bastard. He's a kind young man who you should be proud has feelings for your daughter. And Nora has kept her legs tightly closed since coming here, and has no interest in opening them for just anyone."
"What does that matter? She's half Elf, that makes her a whore by default. Just like her mother."
"That is your former wife, you'd do well to remember. Jörd loved you, though no one can understand why. And Nora is no whore, she's a nineteen year old girl desperately looking for acceptance from a father who doesn't want her."
All I could think was Holy shit, Helen, you rock.
Dad wasn't backing down, however. "A foolish child, from an unwelcome marriage. Jörd was no wife to me, nor were any of them."
"I can see that, clear as day, Odin. You're a damned fool and every one of your former wives knows it. Thankfully, so do Loki and Nora, now."
"Because Jörd told them? They'd be wise to forget everything that whore said and learn to accept that they were never meant for greatness." He started for the door. "Least of all Nora, falling for that whelp monkey."
I motioned for Lucas to get out of my way and stood up. Before Dad made it to the doorway, I did, and blocked his quick exit.
It had only been a week, and yet everything that had happened made it feel like years since the last time I saw him. Then again, before becoming Nora, the longest I'd gone without seeing him was maybe a day or two. Primarily on Wednesdays, now that I thought about it. Huh, weird. Either way, Dad took one look at me and his eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
"Hello, Dad, how about you say hi to your daughter before you leave? Or, wait, no, you expected to find me fucking Evan in my room, didn't you? Probably assumed I'd be screaming out his name any second so that you could shake your head and feel justified in labelling me the disappointment you'd already decided I'd be before I was ever born!"
His mouth curled. "And you meant to tell me you're not? Look at you. Clearly your goal this evening was to allow that worthless monkey easy access to your nether region."
I motioned to my outfit. "My goal was to wear something nice to a dinner with his parents that he invited me to. Evan and I aren’t even in a relationship yet, let alone a sexual one, and neither of us is in a hurry to make it one. He hasn’t once tried to make a pass at me, and the first time we met, the two of us were terrified of each other.”
Behind him, I saw Helen nod. I could tell I’d clearly made her proud, and that made me feel proud.
Dad maintained his look of dissatisfaction and ire, making it very obvious that I wasn’t going to sway him with some stern talk and a killer outfit. But if there was one thing that his face taught me right then and there, it was something I’d take to my grave.
I didn’t care what he said.
Sure, I’d admitted to Mom and even Lucas and Helen knew that I had been someone who wanted my father’s approval, but now, after hearing straight from the Sleipnir’s mouth, the lesson Mom had tried to teach me had finally hit home. He didn’t want to be approving of his daughter, and I didn’t need that approval anyway.
Before he even had a chance to say a word, I laid it out for him. “You’re my father, the man who raised me -- or at least pretended to -- for most of my life, but you are not welcome in my life anymore. You manipulated me. You manipulated my brother. You lied to, cheated on, and continually berate my mother. You have no respect for anyone that you see outside of a mirror. The people who care about me, who actually want to see me succeed in life, are all around us right now, and I hope there’s never a time they aren’t. Maybe, some day, when you get your head out of the tight little corner of your ass that you’ve nestled it into for the last few thousand years, you can start to make up for what you’ve done to me, but I’m not waiting for that, nor am I expecting it.” I turned and started for the stairs. “Go home, Dad. Somebody there needs you more than I ever will again.”
* * *
The ride to Evan’s house was uneventful but pleasant. I felt good, and I was positive it was because of what I’d said to Dad and how I’d finally relieved myself of the burden of feeling like I needed to live up to his standards. I felt so free that I almost didn’t know what to do with myself after this dinner was over. The obvious answer would be to keep going as I was, go to work, go to school, make new friends, find someone to grow old with.
But that would have to wait until after the dinner, which should have terrified me, but I actually felt a gentle sense of calm, like everything about it was going to be alright. I mean, I was still a little worried that I wasn’t going to be what Evan’s parents expected of me, but the boy was a shapeshifter, they shouldn’t really expect anything concrete about the girl he’d invited to dinner.
I pulled into his driveway and walked up to the front door. I took a very, very, very deep breath and after exactly one knock, the door opened and a relatively short woman stood before me. She had a smile on her face and what appeared to be a butcher knife in her hand. “You must be Nora!” she said, with excitement in her voice. I had to assume this was Evan’s mother. “Please, come in. Evan will be downstairs as soon as I can get him off that game of his.”
I gestured for her not to hurry. “It’s okay, I can wait.”
She smiled at me. “You can wait, sweetie, but I would like to see how my son reacts to what you’re wearing. I’ve seen some of the pictures on his Facebook, I know you’re a little more modest than what I see right now.”
I giggled nervously. “Yeah, a mutual friend helped me pick out something.”
“She did good.” She then walked over to the stairs and shouted something in Chinese that I couldn’t understand in the general direction of where I assumed Evan’s room was. She then turned back to me and said, “He’ll be down in a moment, just make yourself comfortable. Dinner’s in ten minutes.”
I smoothed the hem of my dress and sat down on the couch. I saw a nice mix of both Chinese and traditionally American things all around the room. The wall across from me where the TV was mounted had an ornate design of serpent-like dragons surrounding the TV, which made me wonder if they were painted after the TV went up or in preparation for it, or if there had been a painting there at some point and they just decided to put the TV there instead. It was above a fireplace, so my guess is it was a painting at first. On the wall opposite the front door was a glass case full of football and soccer trophies, for Evan and the last couple generations of the family. Photographs of Christmas parties, New Years celebrations, birthdays and other occasions adorned the wall behind me.
Seeing the cultural mix reminded me of the first time I’d seen Helen’s house back when I was little. It surprised me how well everything seemed to gel together despite being so different. And up until now, I’d always wanted to go back to Asgard and be Thor again. Maybe being around such a unique mix of family and friends should never have been something to try and escape from in the first place. If anything, it should have been what I’d always wanted.
I heard my text notification go off and reached into the purse I’d been forced to bring. I’d accepted that being Nora was the right way to be, but the purse thing was still kind of annoying. There was no reason girl pockets had to be so damned small. I pulled out my phone and saw a text from Debi.
Has he said anything yet or is he still picking up his jaw?
He still hasn’t even come downstairs yet, but his mom has basically told me that he’ll have to stop his eyes from leaving their sockets.
What you’re wearing, his eyes damn well better not be the only thing that’s bulging.
I frowned. Stop that. You’re starting to sound like Lucas.
He’s your brother, I’m just dating him.
Still. I’ll be here when you get home, so make sure you tell me all the juicy details. Unless you don’t come home tonight.
Shut. Up. I’ll see you later.
I shoved my phone back into my purse and heard footsteps from upstairs. I quickly stood up and straightened any wrinkles in my dress. Evan came down the stairs. “Sorry for not meeting you, but I couldn’t find a save point on Final Fantasy X and this Let’s Play I’ve been watching of it got to a really funny part, see these two kids are playing it, and…” He stopped about three risers from the base of the stairs as soon as he saw me. “Holy shit… Nora?”
I held my arms out. “Do you like it?”
He took those last three steps slowly. “Like it? I’m…” He made it to the base of the stairs. “Floored.” He chuckled. “Yeah, I timed that stupid joke, but c’mon… You look…”
“Gorgeous?” his mother asked as she stepped into the room from the kitchen. “Yes, she does, and you’re going to give this nice young lady respect tonight.”
He nodded. “You know it, Mom.” He walked over to me and looked me up and down, clearly still incapable of fathoming that it was really me in the white dress and denim jacket in front of him. “You really do look amazing."
I smiled. "Thank you."
He walked me into the dining room. "So, how'd that trip to Elf world go?"
"Alfheim," I corrected, "and it went well, actually. Get around all the naked people, and it's actually really pretty there. And my mom was super supportive of who I've become, and she told me everything about my dad's secret plan to dump me and Lucas out of Asgard, and…"
I told him everything, and he listened to every word. He asked me loads of questions, and told a bunch of jokes, and then dinner happened.
And I knew then that I'd made the right decision to be Nora for the rest of my life.
