#where the crawdads and lilies dance

[small-sinclair]

Where the Crawdads and Lilies Dance

Hey, y'all!

This based off the wonderful @bluecoolr's comic.

Also, a gift for @lovely-cryptid and @sketchy-rosewitch (love y'alls writing!)

Has: Angst, fluffy ending, mention of past memories, fires, burning wax, hot steam, some strong words

Enjoy!

Cabin isn't far from Ambrose, so Lester could see the black smoke like crows over roadkill, singing their songs of hunger and lust. Lester remembered whistling for Jonsey when he started the truck and gunned it towards town. His heart wouldn't stop beating as fat tears fell from his eyes. He lost his brothers before from foster care for 13 years; he'll be damned if he lost them to a fire. His heart started to break when he saw the black smoke from the House of Wax, something his mother built as a temple to wax and false art, but his heart fell farther when he saw Bo's truck outside the building. He flew out of the truck and started towards the burning wax.

Men don't cry, boy, his father's voice rang. Men don't cry.

He heard a woman scream, the same girl from earlier, and a new guy trying to get out. But he could give two shits about them. They could burn and die for all he cared! His wild eyes passed over them and saw something that broke him farther. The floor was gone as yellow wax flooded below. He looked up at the ceiling, doing the math quickly. Three minutes until this place becomes--

"Bo!" Lester's voice cracks as he shouts his name. "Vincent! Where are you?" He looked around and found a safe place to slide down. Jonesy followed, her nose sniffing as they both went down. Their brown eyes scanned the burning room as Lester started digging at the soft wax. The heat started getting to his head as the thought of losing his brothers to this filled his lungs with tar and iron. This is no place for anyone to die. This isn't the place were his hopes of being with his brothers forever die and burns away. This isn't the place! It can't be! Just when things were starting to get back to normal and-and... and he didn't have to be alone anymore.

"Start digging, girl!" He commands frantically. "Le' find 'em!" He didn't care about how badly his hands burned or if his knees were going to swell; he wanted his brothers. He wanted Bo to make fun of him again. He wanted Vincent to roll his eye at his terrible jokes.He wanted to drink beers and get drunk with them. He wanted to laugh and smile and joke and... and... "Bo! Vincent!" He screamed standing to move through the burning wax at his ankles. "Please! I still need ya! Where are ya!?"

Just then, Jonesy barked, alerting him to move in time as a waterfall of hot wax and melted flesh washed down. He covered his face as burning liquids splashed his arms, earning a wince. He took a staggered breath at this new hell pit, his eyes scanning over flames and pools of wax. He finds a different spot and starts digging again.

"Keep digging, Jonesy! They have to be here!" Lester didn't mean to sound like a hurt child. Men don't cry. Men don't cry. Men. Don't. Cry. "Ya know, this'd go a lot faster if you gave me a hand!" His mind was going on and on about how he left Bo a night ago in a heated mood. How his older brother wished Lester was never born and how he should've left him for dead in Kansas. How Vincent tried to tell Lester Bo didn't mean it. How it wasn't his fault. How it's-- "Bo! Vinny!" He whined like a child. "Where are ya!? Please!"

Metal from the roof feel close to him, splashing hot wax over his arms again, but he didn't wince away. He had to find his brothers. He has to find them! He didn't want to lose his brothers on his birthday. He couldn't! Jonesy lifted her nose, sniffing the burnt air. Then she caught the smell of spice and ceder. She turned back to Lester and barked twice, making his eyes snap up.

He couldn't help but let out a relief smile and laugh. "Hey!" His face hurt as he smiled too wide. "Jonesy, look!" His heels dug in the soft wax as he scrambled to his feet. "There they are!"

The twins looked as if they never left each other. Bo laying his face to the side, eye swollen and blacken, and his hands out in front as if he was reaching for someone. Vincent behind him as he held onto Bo's shirt. his face connecting to the faded scar on the back of Bo's head. Lester was so glad to see Vincent stir as his eye parted.

Slowly, he lifted himself up from Bo's back, holding his stomach. Everything he's worked for, all the time consumed in wax and art, gone to waste in a snap. He could feel his mother's disappointing eyes looking at him within the flames. His fault. How could he be so careless of his mother's legacy?

"Vincent!" His lone eye snapped up to find his little brother running over to them, wax rising over his calves. "Wake Bo! Wake 'im--!"

Jonesy barked, her head looking up as she ran. Lester's eyes glanced up and went wide. He didn't have time to move as hot wax poured on hos left shoulder. He's felt pain before, but not like this. He staggered forward, hand over his shoulder as he let out a painful scream, and it was enough to make Bo jolt awake. He was slow to rise, his face burning in pain and hurts to lift. His head was pounding as he looked down at the yellow and orange wax, seeing his mother reflection in the river below. Her eyes harden and was angry at him. Bo closed his eyes as he tried to pull himself up to the stand, but he's too weak to stand on his own. He's letting his brothers down, his mother down--

"We gotta get out of here!" Lester looked around the wax pit as more pieces fell next to them. "Drain. Where's the drain?" He asked Vincent, pausing to seeing bright red leaking from his shirt. He swallowed hard, snapping his fingers. "Vincent!" Even his words startled Bo. "Where's the drain?"

Pushing himself up, Vincent held his stomach and pointed forwards towards a hall. Lester followed his finger and saw a tunnel leading towards the church. He gathered himself and went towards Bo. Wincing, he lifted his older brother up--

Vincent pushed them forward as the ceiling above started falling down like butter on a hot plate. He grunted as melted wax burned the back of his shoulder, but the feeling left as he helped carry Bo towards the tunnel. The blazing hot walls and pipes were about to burst as waves of wax built up faster, wax burning their legs as they moved towards the tunnel's hill, lead just upwards. There's still wax, but it wouldn't be as bad as the basement's pool.

"Bo! Mov' yer ass!" Lester snapped as he felt heat raising behind him. "Come on! Move!"

Bo dug his heels into the dirt tunnel and burnt wax. His body wanted to stop moving, to stop going all together--

"I still need ya!" Lester cried, not meaning for tears to fall. "I stills ne' ya, Beauergard!"

That was enough to move his legs to run with his brothers. He lifted his head to see Vincent leading the way towards the ladder to the church's floor, and he just taste the outside. Bo could see something like a new start to a summer's day, a new look at something his mama never promised. He didn't realize how heavy the chains of Ambrose had on him until he was running away from the hot wax and mixed flash and bones. He didn't realize how easier it was to breathe as he made it to the bottom of the ladder leading up to the church, how he pushed his twin up first to take Jonesy out of there. The sweetness of being free was right at his fingers, and he only had to thank his baby brother--

"Bo!" Lester pushed his brother up the ladder as a pipe hissed and shot open. Metal and brass flew like a bullet, hitting Lester's fast like a plastic bag on a windy day. Metal grazed his cheek, cutting his wrist, and the pipe shot right pass where Bo was standing. If his brother didn't move him fast enough... no, don't think that. Lester let out a gut twisting scream as steam splashed his face, pushing backwards, tripping on his feet to fall in burning wax.

Bo watched in horror as his brother's back arched as his screams rang throughout the tunnel, cutting him deep than any leather strap and duck tape. The look in Lester's eyes when they locked with his was a mixture of fear, and that twisted his gut like a knife to the chest.

"Les!" Bo jumped down from the ladder steps and bent down. Picking up his crying brother, his threw him over his shoulder and went up the ladder with his injured arm. "Vince! Grab 'em!" He breathed hurriedly. "C'n't hold him longer."

Wincing, he pulled his baby brother up to the floor of the church then helped Bo out of the hole. The knife in his stomach burned and tore at his skin, but it all slipped away as Bo's shaking hands pulled his him into a tight hug, breathing heavily against his clothing. The sudden hug made Vincent freeze for a moment before his arms wrapped around his shoulders, holding him tightly. The morning sun poured into the church like a waterfall over a cliff, sudden and beautiful all at once.

Bo didn't have time to apologize to his twin when he heard Lester's sobs and hitched breaths on the floor next to them. Vincent looked down at their little brother then back at Bo. Nodding, they pulled Lester up, and both were sick. The left side of his face was burned lightly and bleeding. His shoulder now glued to the fabric of the wax covered jacket from earlier. Blisters and cuts from wax and metal scarred his body as if he was cracking at the seams. His fingers burned and red, blood dripping from raw, soft wax. Fat tears ran down his face like an uncontrollable rain cloud. The mixture of pain and happiness was hard to tell apart.

Taking deep, heaving breaths, Lester lifted himself and wrapped his arms around his brothers, hugging them as tight as he could. He cried in their shoulders, sobbing their names like he did when he first drowned in the Mississippi that one time. His brothers saved him from a watery grave, and he's thankful for that every day.

*****************

It was slow and hard to stand up, but it was a team effort as they moved from the church floor, standing up from behind the alter. The wax figures siting forever in prayer with their heads down didn't seem to care for them as they limped off down. Bo and Lester carried their brother by his arms down the alters steps. Bo leaned against his mother's coffin, wincing at the pain in his head. Goodness, it'll take four or five beers to numb this pain. Either way, he was with his brothers once more. Lester got them back by jumping head first into the lion den with his eyes closed.

His blue eyes fell over his mother's body and shutters. "Lester, where you parked?"

"There's a car outside," Lester answered instead. "Truck's too far."

Jonesy trouts down the isle and barked at them to follow. The closer they are to freedom and away from this town, the better they'll be. That's the look Jonesy gave that made the brothers step one foot in front of the other. Bo stopped at the door and looked back at his mother in the coffin and the pastor's gaze over the dead.

"'M sorry, Mama," he whispered, swallowing hard. He flinched as the sun hits his eyes, reflecting off her coffin as if she was hitting him. "'M sorry I le' ya down."

Lester bit the inside of his cheek. "Beauergard?" Bo slowly looked at his brother to find sadness in his eyes. Did Lester always look so scared and sad? "Time to go. We can go to my home." With his burned shoulder, he pushed open the door and led the way down the church steps, helping his brothers down with every step. Though his legs felt like jello and his back was too stiff and hard, he tried to keep a strong hold for them. He already broke his father's rule about crying. Men don't cry. "Nice and easy, okay? See? We can use that jeep and get to my cabin. 'S far from here, so no ones will finds us."

It was hard to close the door with his mother laying there, her eyes burning down his soul as they made it to the jeep. He could hear her voice scream at him, calling him a disappointment and monster. He could hear his father calling him a failure and disgrace. He felt the scars on his wrist burn and peal as Lester hot wired the car, starting the engine. Apart of Bo wanted to die in the flooded basement. He wanted to die in the town that cursed his life from the start, and hurt his twin deep than the scar on his face.

The car jerked to life, and they drove away from the smoke and death of the town. Lester didn't want to look back, but the mirrors made him. Then his eyes fell on Vincent, who was staying awake despite the pain from the wound screaming at him to close his eyes, and Jonesy, who was curled on Vincent's lap. Lester looked forward and sighs softly. It doesn't matter that his home was gone; it never was his home to begin with. He's just happy that he gets to be with his brothers again. He has them.

Carefully, he pulls into the back roads and drove off down the gravel, heading to the cabin.

*************

"Why?"

The crickets chirped as the day came to an end. The view from the cabin gave them the chance to see the police and firetrucks. It was like this all day from what Bo could tell. All of it was for them and for that bitch that got away. Vincent was resting in Lester's room with Jonesy on his feet, his breathing normal and easy after being sown together. Bo took a show and let Lester tend to his wounds. As for Lester's injuries, Bo helped him ice his back and shoulder. The marks that the steam left will fade in a could of weeks; nothing that'll last forever. As for his back and left shoulder? He'll forever have a hero's mark for saving his brothers.

They sat on the cabin porch, Bo in the rocking chair Lester made, and Lester with in his dark grey boxers, sitting on the steps with a glass of ice water. His back was wrapped in bandages and his shoulder had aloe and crushed mint leaves over the burn. His legs wrapped in frozen peas and corn to heal the burns he suffered saving them. They were in silence for a while, so why break it now?

Lester jerked his head at his brother's soften voice. "Wha' ya mean?" He lifted a brow in confusion.

"Why did ya do 'at?" Bo rocked in the rocking chair as he flicked the fully burned cigarette. "Ya could've died."

"But I didn't."

"Don't be stupid, Lester," Bo said blankly, not raising his voice. The loudness of everything pounded his head. "Don't do that."

Lester looked up from the porch step then back at the town. The fire trucks were pulling out while some police officers stayed. "I still need ya, Bo," he didn't mean to sound so soft. "I stills needs ya."

"Ya could've started over."

"Not withou' ya," Lester shook his head. "We can starts over. Somewhere new, ya know? I'm thinking," his pauses as he takes a sip of water, "I'm thinking Alaska! Somewhere where Vincent doesn't feel judged and can be comfortable alone! He's always wanted ta' ge' away." Then he cracked a grin. "Youes and I's can hunt and fix cars. We c'n own a shop togetha... like ya promised me." He chuckles to himself at the thought. "It don't matt'a where I's starts over as long as 'm with y'all."

Bo took a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Ya still need us?"

"Always needed ya, Bo," Lester answer, looking back. Then a thought crossed his mind. "Do ya need me?"

Bo closed his eyes as he rocked back and forth. The smell of honeydew and the swamp sent him somewhere calmer, somewhere he and his brothers could swim with the crawdads and lilies. Yes, they can go where the crawdads and lilies dance. They can see the world as it really is, forgetting Ambrose and this life. Forever living the lives they promised themselves on the front steps at the foster home. Freedom never tasted so sweet against his teeth and lips.

"Yeah, Les," Bo said softly, opening his eyes to meet his little brother's soft brown puppy eyes. "I still need ya."

[thesmithfamily08]

February 1st, 2021

It is much more difficult to remember to do this every week than I would have thought.  I suppose I am more busy that I thought.  I read my two books for January, Where the Crawdads Sing, which I couldn’t put down, it was so good.  I would have said that I liked it before even finishing it but then the end totally blew me away.  Probably one of my new all time favorites.  The other book I read was Icabog, which is a book written by J.K. Rowling.  It is a childrens book but I got it for christmas and who doesn’t love a good childrens book, I mean I do still love Harry Potter!  It was good too, I wasn’t sure after I started it it took me longer to get into but towards the middle I really enjoyed it.  I definitely want to get the kids to read it!

My diet isn’t going.  I feel like I am doing what I always do when I diet which is restrict myself to the point where I end up over eating and therefore gaining weight.  I don’t know, this last week I have done really well but I’m not where I was hoping to be by the 1st of February...hopefully more good weeks to come!  I have though been doing fantastic with exercising regularly.  I’ve been using this app called FitOn for about a year or so on and off and I have started to really get into it and I am loving it, now I just have to get my food figured out and I’ll be good to go.

Kitchen is happening, the island is in!  We put a temporary countertop on it so it is pretty functional, range is moved into place all we are lacking is drawers and he is done with those they just need to be sealed and installed!  Then we are moving to the back wall!!  I’m really excited to do that one because we get to move the refrigerator which I feel like is in a really awful location in the kitchen. So that is moving forward, I did our taxes the other day and we are still getting our normal refund so hip hip  hooray we will continue on the kitchen!

Max is going to go to a summer camp this year with scouts, I think it is going to be great.  I wanted him to get to go last year but with covid everything was canceled, this year it looks like it is all going to happen though!  I might look up and see if I can find something for the girls to do too, camp wise I mean.

So school is still in, the kids hit 100 days in school on Thursday!  I can’t really believe we have made it being in school this much with covid but it has still been going great.  Lily is doing a party, I made her a shirt with all the numbers 1 - 100 mixed up for her to wear.  I hate that I don’t get to go, but at least they get to have it, that is what really matters.  Valentines parties are coming up too and they aren’t even having the kids bring boxes from home they are like making bags and decorating them at school but everyone still brings cards and candy....so I’m not really sure what they are accomplishing there but hey at least they get to have a party.  I actually haven’t heard what Max’s class is doing...is 3rd grade when Valentines parties in class stops?!  He can’t be that big yet right?  

So the weather has been gross and cloudy for the past couple weeks, and really really stinkin cold.   I’m so ready for spring it isn’t even funny, that being said I was ready before it even started getting cold.  I really hate the cold.  I’ve been bundling myself up like crazy and walking Charlie ever morning though, except when it is raining...I draw the line at rain!  She seems to be doing better btw!  She went probably a week and a half without any issues, we are letting her run around the backyard like normal again and she can obviously make her long walks happen.  We took her to John and Gwens house yesterday to meet their new dog Biscuit and he was jumping all over her like crazy and she started limping again but it didn’t last long and she was running around like crazy again in no time, so I think we are on the other side of it for sure.  I’ll bring it up with the vet the next time I take her in.

Kids are all doing great, girls are learning their ballet dance and it is so cute, I can’t wait until their recital in May.  They are doing good in Gymnastics too, I think the class is a little bit too easy for Penny but I also think Lily is learning a ton.  I’m hoping they test them soon and Penny moves up until level 3, we will see though I’m not sure when they do the testing.

I’m not real sure what else to talk about I have one hour until the kids get home from school and about 100 things to do before that happens...I’m going to start with moving all the things from the back wall of the kitchen into the island so we can demo....yay demo days!