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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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608
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Ezra's Forever Friends

Summary:

His mother told him every lie in the book.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Ezra's Forever Friends
by Pirate Turner

 

        He was at last managing to hide his fears. They only came to him still in the dead of night, when his eyes were tightly shut and he was deep in slumber. There, in the safety of his dreams that did not forget, or allow him the luxury of forgetting, Ezra remembered his fears. He recalled every taunt ever placed upon him by his mother and all other people who had begrudged his very existence and all the friends he had tried to make only to lose in such little time.

        Maude had always teased him often but never more so than when he'd been a child. As much as it pained him to admit it, there was some truth in a few of her teases, but most, including her proclamations that he had anthrophobia or sociophobia, were simply blatant lies meant to make him believe she was doing the right thing by keeping him from children his own age, or any other possible actual friends he might have been able to make. He had still made a few along the way, but every time he had made a connection, Maude had ripped him away from the location and sent him, always with a scowl and a darkness in her eyes which Ezra had taken to be hatred, to live somewhere else. Usually, that place was as far away from his current locale as she could send him, and always, he never saw those friends again.

        He wasn't scared of people, though. She had filled his young mind with every bit of nonsense she could possibly muster until he had simply ceased to believe her and took every word that left her mouth with the proverbial grain of salt. She wasn't capable of speaking the truth, for the most part, he had determined, but there was one fine gem she spoke repeatedly to which he clung and upon which he eventually had built his adult life.

        There was no reason to fear people. Every one could be outwitted or outconned, and as long as one did not allow his heart to become involved with people, there was no way for them to truly hurt them. Oh, they could shoot you, bury you in the sand, or even send you to the hangman's noose, but you could break away. A Standish could escape anything.

        But there had come a time, for Ezra, when he had no longer been able to make his escape. He had tried, but though he'd left the dangers far behind, his heart and that pesky, little voice in his head that Josiah and Nathan were teaching him was a conscience had refused to allow him flight. He had gone back into a situation from whence he knew he was lucky to have escaped once, and especially lucky to have lived through twice, and he had stayed with those people ever since.

        He was still scared, but even now, as he tossed and turned, Ezra saw the six other men with whom he spent almost every waking moment now. Every one of them was there in his mind's eye, smiling at him, telling him they wouldn't desert him as Maude and everybody else had, and proving their words by saving his life countless times. A warm, loving body pressed close into his, and Ezra stilled. He clung to his friends' reassurance and to that body curving around his. His heartbeat calmed, and for one more night, the gambler who had spent his entire life on the run, in order to protect his heart, was a little less afraid.

The End

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author Pirate Turner.
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