"Mom, you are outrageous! How could you pretend to faint just so I would feel sympathy and agree to all those arranged marriage plans?" Eleanor stared at her mother incredulously. Half an hour after the incident at home, the ambulance managed to arrive and would take Gemma to the hospital. But the unexpected news came from the team on duty after examining Gemma's condition, that apparently Gemma wasn't fainting at all. Her heart rate and pulse were normal. All her vital signs were functioning well. So she was just pretending.
Oh my, Eleanor felt so embarrassed by her. But how could her mother act so casually afterward? If Eleanor were her, she would have surely fled to avoid such immense embarrassment. The officers who came didn't make any comments, but Eleanor knew they were laughing at Gemma on their way, or even grumbling annoyed because she was disrupting their work. Yet, perhaps, out there, many 'patients' were waiting for them to pick up.
"I will do anything to make you agree, Ele. I have no other choice but to sacrifice you. Your father's wheat field is not just a field. It is a silent witness to our struggle. From when we were dating and didn't get my mother's approval. From when we decided to elope and started all our businesses from scratch. When we finally had you, and we rushed here and there to sell the field's produce, so you could live in sufficiency." Gemma didn't continue her speech because Chad asked her to stop. But every word Gemma said earlier managed to silence Eleanor.
"You live well, one of the reasons being the result of your father's wheat field."
"Stop it, Gemma."
Chad stopped Gemma when she was about to speak again, continuing her story.
"Come in, Darling." Chad looked at Eleanor with a thin smile. Nodding towards Eleanor's room not far from the living room where they were now talking. "Daddy will talk to your mother again. Don't worry, Daddy will find another way out of this mess."
Eleanor remained silent. She didn't know, but suddenly her body froze. Her tongue-tied. Eleanor couldn't say or do anything. Her head suddenly felt heavy. Even until Chad led her into the room, Eleanor didn't say a word.
***
The wheat field, to an extent Eleanor couldn't estimate, stretched as far as she could see from behind the window. The field that had been her friend since childhood. The place where she spent time, where she searched for her father if he wasn't at home, where she hid when Gemma scolded her to do school assignments, and where she played with Chico all day. The field meant a lot to Eleanor. The field was memories, a treasure that held many tears and laughs within.
But maybe, for Chad and Gemma, the meaning of the wheat field was much deeper than that. Before she existed, Chad and Gemma had already created many stories there. More than Eleanor could remember. Then, why couldn't Eleanor understand that?
Eleanor groaned softly. She slid the window open until the wind blew instantly on her face. Deep inside, the girl took a breath. The sky, now orange, made Eleanor feel even more melancholic.
"I have many dreams for the future. But the field is not just the future for the Cadwell family, but also history. Letting it go means letting go of the future and leaving the past behind," Eleanor muttered to herself. Her chest filled with various feelings she couldn't explain.
Turning to her right, Eleanor found dozens of Polaroid photos she had neatly arranged. Photos that, when she looked at them, only made her feel more hurt. "Sorry, Pete. I have to make a decision right away."
Eleanor hurried out of the room and stopped in front of her father who was sitting at the dining table. He was massaging his nose bridge several times. The problem he faced must have made him difficult.
"Dad," Eleanor called. Almost making her father startled when she came and called him out of the blue. "I'm going to marry Jonathan Turner. But, I have to meet him today, before I change my mind."
Chad immediately sat up straight. Perhaps he didn't expect Eleanor to change her mind so quickly. But a few seconds later, the middle-aged man neutralized his facial expression. Standing in front of Eleanor with a gentle look.
"No, Darling. Dad will find another way. You don't need to sacrifice for this family," Chad said, rubbing Eleanor's shoulder.
"What other way will Dad take aside from this?" Eleanor asked, her gaze fixed on Chad's tired eyes. "If you're going to give our field to the Turner family just like that, or you're thinking of applying for a loan from the rich and annoying bald man at the Montana border, I won't allow Dad."
"Ele ...."
"Marriage to Jonathan Turner won't be as terrible as dealing with the loan sharks who like to kill and make us pay in any way, right?" Eleanor reassured.
Chad sighed. He looked at his daughter, the one he loved so much, the one he always adored, the one he always boasted about. Eleanor could see that this decision was also very difficult for her father.
"I'm not an ordinary girl, Dad remember? I can take care of myself. I can even survive when I got lost in the woods when I was ten. Being the Turner family's daughter-in-law won't be anything."
"Are you sure, Honey?" Chad looked at Eleanor hesitantly. There was reluctance emanating from his eyes. There was a thick sense of regret, which managed to make Eleanor's eyes moist. "Marrying someone you don't know isn't an easy matter."
Eleanor clasped Chad's right hand. She smiled broadly even though her eyes began to well up. "Dad can trust me," she murmured. And Chad, finally couldn't say anything else, except to agree with what his daughter said.
"I'm sorry, Elle," Chad spoke softly, almost like a whisper.
"Stop apologizing, Father," Eleanor concluded. "Perhaps this is the form of my devotion to you that I can offer at the moment." Eleanor gave a faint smile.
***
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