The X-Files Ficlet: Summer of ‘73

[kat_lair]

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Title: Summer of ‘73
Author: Mistress Kat / kat_lair
Fandom: The X-Files
Characters: Samantha Mulder, Fox Mulder
Genre: Gen, pre-series
Rating: PG
Word count: 582
Disclaimer: Not mine, only playing

Summary: It’s not like Sam’s that bothered about playing baseball but at least it would get her out of the house for a few hours.

Author notes: Written for wendelah1 as a fill for her prompt in the ‘Sugar and Spice’ female-centric fanworksathon. Her prompt was: Samantha Mulder, gen, pre-series, "Fox, how come you never let me play baseball with you and your friends?" This is un-betaed.




Sam is bored. Summers in Martha’s Vineyard are boring. There’s nothing to do. All her friends go away because their parents take them on holidays to somewhere interesting, because their families are interesting and not as hopelessly, irrevocably boring as Sam’s.

‘Irrevocably’ is one of Sam’s favourite new words. It means something that can’t be cancelled or altered, something that is true or going to happen no matter what. Like Sam’s family being irrevocably boring.

Or Sam’s brother being an irrevocable buttface.

“You’re a mean buttface!” Sam says. She’s standing on the doorway, watching Fox carefully packing his gym bag.

“Yep,” he says, not even arguing back which is so annoying Sam kind of wants to go and kick him in the shins, just to get him to pay attention.

“Come oooon,” Sam pleads. She’s aware she’s pouting and that too makes her angry because Fox has the ability to make her behave like a little girl even though she’s way too grown up for stuff like that. “You never let me come with you. You said yourself that you were a player short. I’m eight now and tall for my age.” She’d heard mom say that to Mrs Leroy last week.

Fox snorts. “You’re not that tall.” He shoulders his bag and pushes past Sam, starting down the stairs. “And didn’t mom say you two were going to bake cookies?”

Sam follows him down and out to the front yard. “I don’t want to bake cookies. Besides, mom’s being... weird.” She whispers the last bit even though there’s no one else around to hear. Dad is at work like always and mom is hanging the laundry at the back.

Something about Fox’s expression shifts and softens; he knows exactly what she’s talking about. Over the last few weeks, they’ve spent a lot of evenings huddled together on the landing, listening to their parents fighting in hushed voices. Sam doesn’t know what about, but dad’s been even more short-tempered than usual and mom... well, mom keeps hugging her all the time and makes up things for her to do inside the house like she doesn’t want Sam to have any fun anymore.

That’s really why she is so desperate for Fox to take her with him. It’s not like Sam’s that bothered about playing baseball but at least it would get her out of the house for a few hours.

Fox hesitates, one leg already thrown over his bike, thumb nail worrying at the tattered handlebar. For a minute Sam thinks she’s won but then her brother shakes his head. “Maybe next time, Sam,” he says, looking almost regretful when her face crumbles. “Look, we’ll play catch when I’m back, okay?”

Fox pushes off and within seconds he’s out of sight, disappeared beyond the bend of the drive.

“Butthead!” Sam shouts after him. She’s seething and it feels almost irrevocable, like she’ll stay like this always; angry and alone in the picture book perfect summer’s day.

Of course, it doesn’t last. Before long mom comes looking for her and with a sigh Sam turns around and stomps back to the house. Fox won’t be back for at least three hours but when he is she’s totally going make him keep his promise and teach her to throw baseball. And hit it too.

And she’ll be so good at it that the next time he’ll have to take her with him. Because Sam sure isn’t spending the whole summer cooped up at home.



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Comments

[pushkin666.livejournal.com]

This made my heart clench and go "Oh Sam and Fox" because you just know that they're not going to have much time left together.

Very well written hun and I thought you captured the atmosphere and voices very well.

[kat-lair.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Sam was abducted in November, I deliberately made it the summer before. Thank you very much, it was great to procrastinate write something completely different.

[pushkin666.livejournal.com]

Well it's not procrastination if it helps you write - even if it's something different. That's the way I look at it.

[wendelah1]

I love the repeated use of Sam's new word: irrevocable. "It means something that can’t be cancelled or altered, something that is true or going to happen no matter what."

We all know what that something is. This family is already being affected by her abduction, despite it being months off.

I like the allusion to "Demons," too.

"Over the last few weeks, they’ve spent a lot of evenings huddled together on the landing, listening to their parents fighting in hushed voices. Sam doesn’t know what about, but dad’s been even more short-tempered than usual and mom... well, mom keeps hugging her all the time and makes up things for her to do inside the house like she doesn’t want Sam to have any fun anymore."

Thanks so much. Great writing.

[kat-lair.livejournal.com]

I'm really pleased you liked this. The X-Files was my gateway fandom, although I never really wrote in it (unposted MSR scribblings of a 15-year-old still learning English don't really count... *g*)

Thank you for your detailed comments! I love to hear which parts caught the reader's attention. And echoing the irrevocable course the Mulder family was set on seemed like a fitting thing to do so I'm happy it worked.

[margaret-r.livejournal.com]

You've caught the voices of both a seven year old girl and her older brother very well! And there's a subtle sense of impending doom that fits well with what happens next.

[kat-lair.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! It was great writing something completely different from my normal cup of tea. And yeah, by the summer of '73 the Mulder family was already shadowed by things to come.