Into The Embrace Of Fire: Chapter 13

 

Chapter 13

 

I was making cream puffs, while Calysta and her mom were making pasta salad. Mr. Kenward was outside and was busy making the BBQ.

I was so busy that I didn’t notice that Calysta and her mom were laughing at me. When I looked up, I saw them whispering to each other’s ears and giggling. I went back to my work to finish my cream puffs. I was smiling. I really loved to see Calysta’s laugh. It made me happy as well. Her laugh was cute and innocent, like a child. I didn’t care what subject they were laughing. It just made my heart race. I wanted to stand up and hug her. I wanted to kiss her so much that it started hurting me.

I focused on the cream puffs. I loved cream puffs. The sweet taste of them made my mouth watery. The plan was to create enough cream puffs for a big family, but I wondered if anything would be left after I was done.

I was dipping in those cream puffs to a bowl full of melted chocolate one by one. Finally, my inner demon won. I put one of them in my mouth. I closed my eyes and let the sensational taste take its place. I didn’t want any other senses to interrupt it, but when I heard the laughter burst from Calysta and her mom, curiosity made me open my eyes and look at them. The mother and the daughter were both laughing, but they tried to hide it behind their hands. I knew they were laughing at me, but I didn’t want to stop their laughing by asking stupid questions, like “What are you laughing at?” If they felt like sharing, they would. However, it didn’t stop me from smiling. I resumed my work.

“I’m sorry, Agustin. I didn’t mean to laugh at you, but your face was priceless when you were eating,” Mrs. Kenward explained.

“No worries. I know I make silly faces sometimes. Someone is always there to remind me of that,” I said, and then I looked in Calysta’s direction. Both of them laughed heartily.

The pasta salad was almost ready. It only needed a dressing, which was left for the last minutes. They used a different color of pasta. It looked delicious. I couldn’t wait. I was really hungry or, better to say, starving. The smell of BBQ on one side, the pasta salad on another side, and on top of all, the cream puffs made me like a zombie.

The table I was using was big because when I dipped in the cream puffs in chocolate, it needed time to get its shape. The freezer didn’t have enough space, so I used liquid nitrogen to cool them down. It was a dangerous task, but I was confident that I could handle it safely.

I looked outside of the window and saw Calysta’s father was still busy making BBQ.

It was a lake house that they rented. The view was breathtaking. The clean blue lake was surrounded by evergreen trees, red maples, shadbush, sycamore, black cherry, balsam fir, and honey locust. On the far side, there were hills covered with trees and bushes. The reflection of the trees and bushes on the water was the most fantastic show. The mist in the morning and the sunset in the afternoon made me cry like a baby. The house itself was designed in a way to capture every precious second of the view. Every part of the house had a window to the outside. It was like the whole place was sitting on glass. It was a good thing. I could see the deep woods from the back and the lake in front. The inside of the lake house was another beauty itself. The house was two stories. Downstairs, there were two couches that had been connected in an L shape. They had the color of a smooth cream with sandy-brown stripes. The couches faced two armchairs with dark-brown color on the arms and sienna color on the side woods. The armchair seating’s cloth had a beige color with bronze stripes. The couches had three sets of cushions. On each set, there was a matching color cushion to the sofa. The other one was midnight blue, and next to it was sangria with some pictures on it. In the middle of the couches and armchairs, there was a dark-brown table. On top of it, there were three baskets with stones in them and two vases; each of them had jasmine in it. They were all on top of a Persian carpet, almost the same color as the couches. The whole setting was facing the fireplace. It was a stone fireplace frame. The house was painted in two colors. From downstairs to the edge of upstairs, it had been colored with seashell color, and from upstairs to the ceiling, it was colored in Rosy Brown. The kitchen itself had a view to the outside. The house had three bedrooms on the upstairs, and in each room, there was a master bedroom, and each of them was facing the TV.

The mother and the daughter were still laughing, and I was dying to know what they were talking about.

Marshal, Aiko, Bernadina, and her boyfriend were planning to join us as well.

It was Calysta’s birthday, so everyone had to show up. The best thing was, we were spending the weekend in the lake house. Calysta was happy about it, and I was thrilled to get out of the city. It was the best idea for someone’s birthday. They hit two birds with one stone—a party and vacation.

My gift for Calysta was too obvious. It was a giant painting of her, so I didn’t think she could pull off a surprised face for her gift, but somehow, she was excited about it. I had no idea what her parents prepared for her. I envied them. They knew how to give a gift. Not like me that a three-year-old child could guess what her gift is.

My cream puffs were almost ready. I looked up and saw that those two were still whispering and laughing, which brought me another smile. I headed outside to get some air. Mr. Kenward was still busy making BBQ. The man loved doing it. In the heat of summer and direct sunlight, he was doing the BBQ. He was the man, not me. I was sitting inside and baking some cream puffs, which most of them would be devoured by myself. Maybe those two were laughing at me because of how sassy I was to sit inside.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked him. Perfect, now I look like a woman. Just ask him if he likes to have some lemonade so that you can fetch him some. That way, you make it official, I thought.

“Ah, Agustin. It’s you. No, dear, I’m almost done here,” he responded.

“It smells delicious. I can’t wait to try it.”

He laughed and said to me, “Well, you aren’t that bad either. The poor Eda feels threatened whenever you are around and trying to cook.” I joined him, and we both started laughing.

“How is the cake? Do you think Calysta made it well?” he asked.

“Does it matter? Either way, we have to show her our happy faces whether it tastes good or bad,” I responded. He burst into laughter, and I accompanied him.

“That was . . . that was the right answer,” he said after he managed to control himself, but he continued chuckling.

“Oh boy,” he said while wiping his tears and trying to control his laughter, “it’s good to have you around. You are a nice young man. I like you a lot. It is kind of weird since it is coming from a daughter’s father, but you are different.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that,” I said while being embarrassed.

“Do you think your friends are coming now?” he asked.

“They better be, or they have to go to the wilderness to find food,” I answered with a smile. He chuckled.

“What you two are doing here? What are you laughing at? The whole house is about to tear down with you two laughing,” Calysta’s mom asked. She was smiling.

“Oh, nothing, love. It was just men’s talk,” he answered and then gave me a wink, which made me smile.

“Anyway, the kids arrived. The food is ready?” she asked.

“Almost,” he responded.

I saw through the glass that Calysta was greeting Marshal and Aiko by kissing them both on the cheeks. Then she hugged her dear friend Bernadina tightly. She was so happy to see her. Lastly, she gave a handshake to Bernadina’s new boyfriend.

Marshal waved a hand to say hi to me. I waved back to him and signaled him to come to the balcony. After a while, he joined us. Calysta’s mom went back inside.

“Hey, how you doing?” he asked.

“Good. What took you so long? You just showed up in the nick of time,” I answered.

“The traffic was heavy.”

“Come on, can’t you come up with a better excuse? Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Well, we saw a unicorn on the road, and Aiko and Bernadina wanted to take a picture with it. How was that?” he answered while he was chuckling. Mr. Kenward laughed too.

“Well, let me tell you, me and Mr. Kenward wanted to put your surviving skill on test in the wilderness if you showed up late,” I responded. He laughed, but Mr. Kenward just smiled.

“Then I would use you as bait for the wild animals,” he answered. Mr. Kenward chuckled and shook his head.

“If you dare, say it in front of Calysta. She’ll make you a target practice before feeding you to the lions.”

“How noble of you.”

Mr. Kenward was laughing all those time.

“I like the back-and-forth conversation between you two,” Mr. Kenward commented. Then he continued, “The food is ready, so no need to kill each other.”

We headed to the house. We helped Mr. Kenward take the food inside.

The food was delicious. Everyone enjoyed the steak and pasta salad. The irony was, the main course had leftovers, but all my cream puffs were gone. Marshal knew how much I liked them, but the bastard took two and three at a time. It was like he was eating sugar cubes. Besides that, he showed me his smug face. I just smiled and shook my head. We both knew that if we were alone, he wouldn’t survive long enough to give me that smug face. Calysta and her mom were laughing too. I think they were laughing at me for watching all those cream puffs disappearing in front of me.

After the food, there was music. We all started dancing. We even forced Mr. and Mrs. Kenward to dance with us. The old couple was dancing happily. Bernadina and her new boyfriend were dancing cheek to cheek. Marshal was a good dancer. He danced like a pro with her girlfriend while I was dancing like a person getting drowned in the sea. My hands and feet didn’t rhyme at all. Calysta was laughing at my dancing, and I didn’t care about my dancing as long as it made her happy. I loved her laugh. She was having a good time, and that was all I wanted for her.

After we danced, we gave our gifts to Calysta. She received a beautiful necklace from her parents. The necklace had a picture of a mermaid sitting on the rock. She loved it. She received perfume from Marshal, a beautiful and delicate watch from Aiko, expensive-looking boots from Bernadina, and a T-shirt with a picture of Snow White and the seven dwarves from Bernadina’s new boyfriend, which I guess it was suggested by Bernadina herself because he didn’t know Calysta that well.

At last, it was my turn to give her the gift. I fought and insisted on opening it last. I wanted to know how much trouble I was in. She didn’t like the sound of it, but she compromised. When she was tearing apart the gift paper, my heart was beating so fast that I thought that my heart would stop at any moment. I was embarrassed about my gift. I should have talked to Aiko or Bernadina about what to buy for her. The embarrassing moment would be that my gift was less impressive than the gift of Bernadina’s new boyfriend. A thousand thoughts haunted me when she looked at her picture.

She opened the gift. Here comes the moment of truth, I thought.

The moment she looked at it, her jaw dropped. She wasn’t alone. Everyone, except me, joined her and watched the painting. They all had the same reaction.

“Wow,” everyone was saying. That wow was the worst thing that I ever heard. Wow because “It is ugly. How dare you? Why did you draw this shit?” Or wow because it was unexpected.

I was holding my breath. I wished there was a place that I could hide. I wanted the earth to open up and take me in.

Then I saw tears in Calysta’s eyes. I’ve done it. I screwed it up, I thought.

She ran to me, and before I could say anything else, she kissed me in front of everyone, especially her parents. I didn’t know what to make of it. I was the one who got surprised after all. She looked at me with her teary eyes and started laughing. Did I miss something? I thought.

“Your gift is the best,” she said while having the most beautiful smile she ever had.

“Ahemmm, ahemmm.” Her father was pretending to cough, which meant “Enough is enough.”

“Ah, Dad, your gift was great too,” she responded. No, silly girl, he meant to stop doing what you are doing, I thought but didn’t have the audacity to say it out loud.

“How did you come up with this? I didn’t know you were this much talented,” her mom commented.

Calysta was still hugging me tightly. She rested her head on my shoulder, and I was feeling her warm breath on my chest, which was great and pleasant. I was living in a dream. Then I saw Marshal smile, which reminded me of something that I had forgotten.

“Ammm . . . well . . . how can I say it?” And with that, everyone burst into a laugh.

I could feel Calysta was chuckling on my chest too. Great, are you stupid or what? Why can’t you talk like a human being? I thought.

“Well . . . I always see Calysta like that . . . I mean . . . I mean, she is pretty like the sunrise in the ocean . . . and . . . and . . . her heart is as big as an ocean . . . ,” I said and hoped that her father wouldn’t punch me by saying that.

“Ahhhhhh, that’s so romantic,” Bernadina said first.

“Uhuuuum, I had no idea you were like that. Is all mathematician like that?” Aiko said. I just smiled, and it made me more embarrassed.

The way I painted Calysta, it was like she was sitting on a rock. Behind her was an ocean, and it ended where she sat. One end of her evening gown was the ocean itself, and the other was the typical ending of the evening gown that exposed one of her bare feet. The color of the dress was the same as the color of the ocean. The painting’s purpose was to see those beautiful eyes—those eyes that compelled me the second I saw them. The sun was rising right behind her, and with that, she was like a goddess—the goddess of beauty and the ocean. I never knew what to expect from painting her like that. She was so picky for even taking her pictures. Every cute and beautiful picture she hated the most, I loved the most, especially those where she made faces. So when I saw the tears, I thought I disappointed her so much she would break up with me right there. It was perilous, even though I put so much time to paint it. It took me almost a year and a half.

“He always does that. The moment that I think he can’t be more romantic, he pulls off something like this,” Calysta answered instead of me. After that, she gave me two quick kisses on both cheeks and ran toward her painting. The canvas was thirty-six by sixty inches. It was huge. She looked at it again. Then she put one hand on her chest while studying it. She looked at the painting again and then from the paint to me. After that, she raised the same hand from her chest to her mouth. She was trying hard not to cry.

I had no idea what the painting would do to her. She seemed to be really happy about it, but I hated to see her tears. I had a mixed feeling of happiness and sadness. I felt like an asshole who made her girlfriend cry. I always wanted to see her beautiful and lively laugh.

They all gave me a compliment for the painting and asked me if I could paint them as well. While I was melting from those compliments, I told them that I would think about it.

The whole party was on hold for quite some time. They were all talking about the painting.

“Can I at least have some of the cake you made?” her father requested with a really kind face. He was pleased to see her daughter happy, and above all, he was proud of her that she could at least bake her own cake. She was the love of his life.

“Liam, couldn’t you at least wait a little bit more?” Mrs. Kenward said with a smile.

“Ohh, Eda, love, the way I see it, there is no ending to it. Is it wrong to ask some piece of the cake that my own daughter made for her own birthday before I go to bed?” he responded. Everyone laughed at his comment, but it made Calysta blush. She ran like a child to her dad and gave him a kiss. Then without any other words, she ran to the kitchen to bring her cake.

When she came back, she brought a cheesecake that had been topped with chocolate, and the top of the cake was decorated with fruit cuts.

She sat behind the table, and then she blew her birthday candles.

“What did you wish for?” Aiko asked. Calysta blushed. Then she looked in my direction, and she shied away.

Everyone laughed at her reaction, except me. I was melting too.

She started cutting the cake, and she gave the first piece to her father.

“Does anyone want coffee or tea?” I offered. After getting the orders, I went to the kitchen and came back with some coffee and tea.

The cake tasted good. She even put some banana and walnuts in the middle layer of the cake, making the cake tastier. She was a natural.

Everyone complimented her cooking, and it only made her blush more. She was such a sweetie.

I was in the middle of eating the cake when her dad came and sat right beside me on the couch. He stretched his arm behind my head so that he could rest his arm on the sofa.

“You know what? I am glad that I didn’t have to lie to her about her cooking,” he said. I choked; a piece of the cake was trapped in my throat, and I started coughing for air. He patted me in the back to help me while he was smiling. He got his revenge for the earlier incident—what a smooth way to do it.

After I got rid of the piece, I started laughing through some coughs. I really liked him. I think he had the same feeling because I never got a bad vibe from him either.

“Are you okay?” he asked me with a cheerful voice. I was only able to nod while trying to cough out the rest of the piece.

“Thanks, by the way, for the painting. It is such beautiful work,” he complimented me again.

“Oh, thanks,” I said, and then I made a solid cough to clear out my throat and also get rid of the remaining piece. Then I continued, “I did nothing. She was beautiful herself.”

“I know,” he said and then looked in her daughter’s direction. Her friends surrounded her. She was happy. She had the necklace on. She was so busy talking to her friends that she didn’t notice both me and her father were watching her.

“Do you know Calysta almost died when she was baby?” he said and continued looking at her. It shocked me. If I had another piece of cake in my mouth, I would have choked on it again. Some invisible heavy force punched me on the chest. I never thought of a world without her in it. I looked back at her. She was still busy talking to her friends. Her friends were spoiling her with some compliments and other things that I couldn’t catch.

“No,” I managed to say.

“Yeah, she almost died in front of me. The moment I had her in my arm, I loved her and loved her ever since. One day a doctor notified us that she got infected by some kind of bacteria, but since she was an infant, she was in great danger. The news was a big slap on my face. I searched desperately for any doctor to have a solution for the problem. Each day, she was getting weaker and weaker. I hated myself for not being able to do anything for her. One day, outside of the hospital, when I was crying out of desperation, a young mother asked me if I was all right. I don’t know why, but I told her the problem. She smiled and told me that I should calm down. Then she gave me the address of a doctor who treated her son with the same problem, and the rest is history.”

I didn’t know how to respond to his story, so I kept quiet.

“She became everything for me since then.” he continued. He wiped out the tears that were coming from his eyes.

I never saw him crying. It felt strange. I didn’t know what to make of it. Anybody could sense how much he loved her.

It would be more like mocking him to say that I feel the same way for her, so I kept quiet.

I looked back at Calysta. She was still talking to her friends, but this time, she noticed that I was looking at her, so she gave me her alluring smile. I smiled back, but it died on my lips the second she turned her attention to her friend.

“She likes you, you know. As a matter of fact, she likes you more than I can approve of, but I can’t blame her either for it. I can’t thank you enough for being a gentleman to my daughter. Not only that. You helped her a lot in her life and studies. Between us, my love for my daughter made me blind about her activity. I spoiled her with whatever I had and possessed, but I got lucky again by having you in her life. She grew up in these past two years. She became more mature. She decides accordingly. It is all because she wants to impress you,” he said while chuckling. “As much as I want to, I can’t take credit for what she is now.” He was laughing, but I knew it was kind of a sad laugh. Also, I knew, in fact, he was proud of her no matter what.

“Thanks.” I had nothing else to say. It made him laugh again for some other reasons that I couldn’t figure out.

“You take care of her, okay?” he said while he was smiling.

“Okay,” I said with a weak voice. I didn’t know what to make of it. It was all new to me. He came like a hurricane to me and made my whole world upside down.

He chuckled and kissed me on top of my head and stood up to refill his cup. He asked me if I wanted to fill mine too. I thanked him and told him no need for that.

I was sitting there with the plate and the remaining cake in my hand. I was trying to digest the whole situation.

I remembered the day that I sat with my father. It refreshed those memories, the conversation that I had with my father. He told me how I was born.

“You were a little rascal. You worried us to death because you weren’t a usual kid at all. Almost all children cried for being hungry, or they wet their diapers, but not you. You were quiet all the time. You laughed and played quietly, and because of that, we never knew when we should have changed your diapers or give you food. We visited so many doctors to find out what was wrong with you, but all of them told us that we shouldn’t be worried. You were healthy but a little bit underweight. That was all to it. Whenever I played with you, your laughter was torture for me. I thought I wasn’t a good father since I couldn’t find what was wrong with you.”

I laughed at what he told me, but then he continued.

“Don’t laugh, you little bastard,” he said while he was smiling.

“What happened next?” I asked him.

“Well, back then, it wasn’t like today, being surrounded with technology to search for them on the internet. We had to go hospital by hospital, city to city. We even asked if we needed to go to the other country to see if we could find a doctor for you. They told us that we were overacting. Your hearing was good, you could see, you could respond to any action, and you could cry if you get hurt. After a while, we listened to the doctors and waited. When you were only one year old, you started talking. That was a relief for us that you weren’t mentally challenged . . . ,” he was saying until he got interrupted by my laughing. He smiled and continued.

“Anyway, as I was saying, it was a relief that you were smart, but you were too smart for your own good. Then you wanted to learn to read and write. It was our mistake to show you how to read. Do you remember the time we told you that you can’t play around with the TV and you asked why?”

“Yeah.”

“We told you that you may be accidentally getting electrified or mess up the TV programs. The next thing we didn’t expect was, you went and read the whole brochure in the house. The situation changed, and you were the one that told us how to use them correctly.” He started laughing. I smiled. I remembered every detail of it.

“Or the time other kids bullied you?”

“Which one?” I asked because I was bullied a lot.

“The one that you made them expelled?” he asked. I laughed and nodded my head.

“You were in first grade when you shouldn’t have been. Anyway, one day you came home with blood and bruises on your face. You told us what happened back then, but what could we do at that time? We reported to the principal, and it sounded like the situation got worse than better. Then one day I noticed that you were reading The Art of Warfare. I didn’t realize why you were reading it that time since you were reading so much, but two days later, the office called us and asked us to come to the school. You took a cam recorder and gave it to another poor student that had been bullied and asked him to record those bullies in action. The next day, they got into the trap. You had evidence that these kids were bullying you, and you asked the poor principal to expel them.” He laughed and shook his head. I smiled. Then he continued.

“The principal asked us to talk to you and make you change your mind. After a long conversation, we were convinced to give those kids a second chance. We did what they asked, but you came and showed us the video and asked us what we would do if such a thing happened to us. If I get beat up and your mom gets raped in front of me, then I go to the police and they tell me that everything is okay and I shouldn’t be worried at all and let’s give them a second chance?” We both laughed.

“I didn’t know what rape was. I just read it someplace which told me it was the worst thing that could happen to women,” I said while laughing.

“It is scary how you manipulated us at such age,” he said.

“Well, I had to do what I got to do,” I responded.

“Anyway, I was furious when I saw how you got beaten up, then with what you said, you just added fuel to the fire. I went inside, even though your mom was reluctant. I told them that either those guys were out or I took you out of school. Then you came in and told the principal that it would be such a good idea because after that, you were planning to go to the newspaper and release the video to the public. You little bastard with no mercy told them the title of the newspaper would be ‘The Victim of a Bully Got Kicked Out of the School, but the Bullies Were under the Protection of the School.’ I wanted to laugh when you said such a thing, but I kept my face straight just for your sake. The poor principal didn’t know what to do with us or, better to say, to you. I even remember the last shot she tried. She asked you if there was any way you could forgive them. You told her if she could give you a guarantee it wouldn’t happen again, you would give them a second chance. She was so happy that she didn’t realize she just went into your trap, so the poor principal agreed. Then you asked her to give you a written paper to say she would resign from the job if those people bother you again. That would be your guarantee. The poor woman had nothing to say. I mean, everyone was shocked. Me included. How you planned out this whole thing and made us pawns in your hand. Then I remembered the book you read, you son of . . . something.” We both laughed.

“When she paused, you attacked without mercy. You told her even she couldn’t guarantee that because her neck was on the line to guarantee that, but it would be okay if someone else’s neck was on the line. You continued by saying that the second she realized that she was included, she wouldn’t want to guarantee it. I couldn’t believe my eyes to witness such a thing. It was like a court fight, and you were the lawyer. Let me tell you, no matter what the outcome was, me and your mother was proud of you. When she told you that you shouldn’t go that distance for a fight between classmates, you cried, which I didn’t know to believe it or not. Such drama queen. It was like you were playing in a movie to get an academy award or something, then you told her why not? What would she do if her neighbor abused her? Would she feel safe to go home then? Would she call him neighbor again? Why do adults think that it is okay if kids are being bullied? But the second they put themselves in their shoes, they don’t want to be involved? What was the difference? Wasn’t both the same? Why do they think the kids are more forgiving than adults? When you asked her those questions, boy, I didn’t know what to say, let alone the poor principal. When she tried to calm you down and talk some sense to you, I remember what you did. It is like it happened yesterday. You grabbed your bag and headed out of the office, and on the way out, you said to her, ‘I wish you luck with your bully students. You deserve each other. And I promise you that the whole world will know what is going on in this school. People will realize that the bully in this school can get away with anything.’”

We both laughed for a while. Then he continued, “Oh boy, that aside, you played us so well. I mean, your mom and me, when we witnessed such a scene, your mom was so worked up that she shouted at them and she told them that they should be ashamed of themselves. Then she followed you outside. I was livid. I was so angry that no matter the outcome, I wanted to change your school. Anyway, you know what happened to those kids after that. They got expelled, and you became the champion of the little kids whom they had bullied.” We both laughed. Then he looked at me with a sad look. It was like he just remembered something horrible from the past.

“When we thought that life is beautiful and everything was perfect, you got malaria. I don’t know how you got it. It wasn’t important either, but we got so close to losing you. You know what it was like? It was like the world gave us the biggest gift and was about to take it away. We got to know you. We loved you dearly, and then the crazy thing happened. I hope you never go through this because it was the end of the world for us, for your mom and me. Your mom went nuts. Days and nights, she was crying. I was emotionally broken. I even got so close to losing my job too. Not that I cared about my job, but the cost for your hospital was astronomical. The insurance was covering it, and it was the only thing that kept me going to the job. Anyway, you survived, and you are here now. Maybe you get a sense of what I told you, but you never understand until you go through it yourself.”

A pat on my shoulder brought me back to the time where I was. I noticed it was Marshal. His round face with black eyes was looking at me. He was happy and proud. Then he hooked his arm around my neck to get me closer to his face. He wanted to whisper something in my ears or just do some horseplay. I was about to find out soon.

“I didn’t know you were such an ass. I don’t know what I am supposed to do now. Aiko is giving me a look that says, ‘Why aren’t you like that?’” he said.

“Took her so long to find out that you are useless,” I responded with the biggest smile.

He laughed.

“But seriously, such a piece of work. I was like, ‘Look at me. He is my best friend. I am so proud of him.’ Then I remembered you are an ass.”

It has always been like that between us. We gave each other a compliment by adding some insult to it. I think that was called being best friends.

“Poor Aiko, she had such high hopes for you. She saw me and thought you were like me just to find out you were the opposite of me. It is too late for her now. She is hopeless now. She has your name on her, and no one is going after her even if you break up with her,” I said.

“Bastard.”

I smiled. I won this round. Then I looked at Calysta.

“I was so worried she wouldn’t like it,” I said with concern in my voice. He knew who I was talking about.

“She had to be crazy if she didn’t. I don’t know so much about painting, but I know the work you put into it was a lot. If an amateur can say that, trust me that everybody else can say the same.”

“So you think that she liked it because she realized how much work I put into it.”

“Don’t be stupid. Look at her. She is the happiest girl in the world now.”

“You know how picky she is.”

“So what?”

“Well, I think we have different tastes of beauty. Whatever seems to me to be beautiful, it is ugly for her.”

“Don’t be stupid. Even if you are right, you only needed one shot to get it right, and trust me, you got it right. She loves it. However, if she pretends to like it, just give me a signal, so I can let Aiko and Bernadina know about it. They know what to do with her.”

I smiled.

“You know that you are not off the hook yet. You are going to pay for what you did earlier,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“The thing you did is going to be washed away with your blood only, you bastard. Do you know how much time I put there to make those cream puffs? Then you ate them all like a grizzly bear that just came out from hibernation.”

He laughed, and I smiled.

“Hey, can I ask you a favor?” he asked.

“What?”

“I need to borrow some money.”

It got me curious. “How much?”

“Well, enough to buy a nice car.”

“What?”

“Don’t go scrooge on me.”

“First of all, fuck you, and second, did you tell anybody what I am up to?”

“No. Why?”

Three years ago, I put some money that would be only a thousand dollars on the market and played with it. It was a mathematical challenge for me, and I liked it only because of that. Betting against something was like reading a card. However, you won’t be kicked out of a place like a casino because you know how to read the pattern. When I had enough information about the market and taught myself the terms, I invested a little money. It became a huge success. My thousand dollars changed to thirty thousand dollars just in a few months. After a while, I got really good at it that when people were losing money, I was getting more money. It was just calculation, which I was good at. I was practicing mathematics in real life. My thousand dollars became two hundred thousand dollars in a year.

When I told my dad about it, first, he freaked out, but since I wasn’t playing with my savings, he let me continue to do it. He was kind of proud of me, but he never let me know about it just in case. He doesn’t encourage me to do reckless things in my life. In the second year, I was betting cheap. I mean, I didn’t do too much risk. The reward was huger, because when I was losing money, it was only a little, but the profit I got from it was huge. Those shares in the market that were about to go bust, I bought them. They were really cheap, so if I lost the money in it, it wouldn’t be a huge deal, but if I won, the bet would go up to 13:1 or sometimes 30:1, which means enormous money. It sounded easy, but the catch was, I had to know which one I had to buy, so I had to go around studying those shares. I had to see the history, which meant data. I had to put a fixed time for it. By saying that, I spent only two hours a day on it. In my second year, I nearly made three million dollars. In my third year, I made roughly forty-four million dollars. Only my family and Marshal knew about it. I didn’t want anybody else to know about it because I wanted to have an everyday life.

I could have gone to college at an early age. At thirteen or fourteen, I chose those boring classes only because I wanted to have a normal teenagehood. I was not particularly eager to draw too much attention to myself. However, when other kids were in trouble to do their homework, I was reading advanced books in college and university. I was a private person. I really liked my me time.

Marshal found out about it only by accident. When I was in my room and doing the market things, my mom let him in. I was so engaged in the market and the news that I didn’t notice him behind me. Then he became curious about what kind of business I had to do with the market. After that, he became a pain in the ass to find out how much money I made out of it. That happened two years ago. Now he knew how much I made. It was only a number to me, but for him, it was so huge that he made a long whistle.

“Are you kidding me? I told you it is confidential. I don’t want anybody to know about it. Did you tell Aiko?”

“No.”

“Fuck you. You are lying.”

“No, I am serious. Look, I am not stupid, and I know what confidential means. I won’t betray your trust, and in return, you won’t either. Plus, I am already in lots of shit by being your friend. I wasn’t joking when I told you that Aiko compares me with you. She does that,” he said.

I laughed.

“I am serious.”

“First of all, don’t sugarcoat it, and second, I don’t give a fuck about money. I could even transfer enough money to your account that you won’t need me for a lifetime. What you do with it makes me concerned. Let’s say you go and buy a Ferrari with it. How do you want to explain that to Aiko, huh?”

“Ferrari would be nice, but I don’t need it now. When I said a car, I meant a Toyota or Honda or something like that. Second, I could tell her that I inherited it from a dead member in our family,” he said with a smile.

“Seriously, tell me how you want to tell your family and Aiko about how you got the car, then you have yourself a deal.”

“Well, I’ll tell them that I borrowed from you. I don’t need to lie about it.”

“You just told me that Aiko compares us.”

“She does, but what can I do about it? If she wants you, she can have you. Plus, the car is for me, not to impress her. I need it to go to work.”

He knew how much I loved Calysta, and he was using it against me. It was a kind of joke that he told me that I could have her girlfriend. He loved her, and we both knew that too.

“No deal.”

“Oh, come on. You know I can’t lie to her, but I won’t tell her your secret, I promise.”

“When did you become such a child?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you look like one of those spoiled children in the mall that cries to embarrass his parents to buy him the toy he wants.”

“With all respect, fuck you, you fucker. Second of all, no one suspects you to have that much money to lend me. After all, you are working in trades.”

“As a volunteer.”

“Just forget about it. As I said, you are an ass.”

“Well, if you just give up like that, I won’t trust you to have a penny from me.”

“Well, I’ll tell her to ask you how you made the money.”

“Now you are dumping your shit on me?”

“I don’t understand you. Why aren’t you telling Calysta the truth? It’s not like you are a drug lord and doing money laundering.”

“Are you seriously that dumb? How can I tell her? Hey, Calysta, you know, your boyfriend happened to be a millionaire, and he forgot to mention it in a year and a half. Oops.”

“The problem isn’t how you want to tell her. The problem is if you are willing to tell her.”

“Sure, why not?”

“So give me the green light?”

“Green light of what?”

Before I knew it, he called Calysta to come over. I jumped over him to stop him while he was laughing. It was a stupid move. It just made Calysta more curious. She came over. I was trying to make him shut up by throwing my hand in front of his mouth while he was dodging it by moving his head, which was a mistake because it made her more curious. He just put it out there and told her that I had something to say to her. It was like mercy killing. The first thing that came to my mind was what a bastard Marshal was. Second, what should I do? Now I had a window to tell her.

In a matter of seconds, I was under her spell. Her beautiful eyes and smile put a spell on me that I had to tell the truth or I would get cursed for a lifetime, but how? My brain froze.

“Come with me,” I said to her while I was heading toward the balcony. She followed me like a good girlfriend.

“What is it, Agustin?” she asked me while she was following me.

“I’ll tell you when we are outside,” I answered.

When we were outside, I took a deep breath. I was excited. It was like the time I asked her out. I had no idea how to do it. That time, I was lucky. We were both on the same page. She only needed me to find courage, but she had no idea what I was going to tell her this time.

When I looked inside the house, I noticed that everyone was watching us.

“You know that I have lots of hobbies, right?” I said.

She nodded.

“And you know about my skill in mathematics, right?”

She nodded again. This time, she narrowed her eyes and raised one of her eyebrows slightly up while she was smiling. She does that sometimes. I interpreted it as “Either you tell me now or you will see my dark side,” which she never said to me in words. Usually, it happened when she was curious. If I want to scale it between one and ten, it would be an absolute ten. There wasn’t any space for wiggling in it, so I had to come clean fast or wait to see my punishment.

“Well, one of the hobbies that I have is doing the market things. Three years ago, it wasn’t such a big deal. I started with a thousand dollars. Fast-forward it to now, I have almost forty-four million dollars.” There, I said it.

“What?” she responded with a huge surprised face. I raised my shoulder in a way that meant I didn’t know what else to say with my stupid face.

“What do you mean you have forty-four million dollars?”

“I don’t know why people make such a buzz about it. It is just a hobby that I have. It is money that I am playing with. In Wall Street, it isn’t that much.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Here comes the thing that I was afraid of the most, I thought.

“You know how private I am with things I do. I didn’t want to draw too much attention toward myself. In the beginning, I was afraid that I would get more isolated, so I kept it to myself like many other things. Then Marshal found out about it by accident. Now the son of a bitch wants to borrow some money from me to go and buy a car, but in order to do that, he had to expose me.” Here I thought that I had taken my revenge.

“I don’t understand,” she asked with confusion.

“Obviously, he doesn’t have the money, so he had to borrow it from me. The thing is, if he gets the money, and as stupid as he is, he goes and buys the car, then Aiko would ask him where the hell he got the money. He has to come clean. I mean, he has to expose my secret.”

“No, I mean, why didn’t you tell me?”

“As I said, I don’t talk about it like my other hobbies. I know, I am stupid, but can you forget about it and get back to the party?”

“Agustin? I don’t care about the money. It isn’t mine, but hiding it from me, it hurts.”

“I could lose it all tomorrow. That is all the point. One day rich, another day poor. That’s how it is to play in the market.” Well, it was not true. I knew the rules, and I learned how to play. I was like a hacker who controls someone else’s computer, and it didn’t matter what the host does. That person was at the mercy of the hacker. She wasn’t convinced with what I said either.

“I hate Marshal. He turned a good night into a complete nightmare,” I said and hoped she would leave it alone, but she didn’t budge. She just gave me a disappointed face. I looked at the lake. It was dark. The sound of frogs and other night creatures filled the silent night.

“I made a mistake by not telling you. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” I said it finally. I looked back at her and waited for her response. She gave me the silent treatment. I knew she was angry and disappointed at me for not telling her. She wasn’t a money person either. She was just disappointed in a person she didn’t expect to. Half an hour earlier, the same person gave her the best present she wanted in her life, and half an hour later, the same person kept a secret from her for almost their entire relationship. What could she do about it? I knew how hurtful it was.

“I don’t know, Agustin. Maybe you are hiding another secret from me and not telling me. How can I trust you now?”

“To be honest, there is another one, but I have to die first to tell you that. It is the most embarrassing one.”

“Agustin?” she said it with a low voice and anger that sounded like a shout.

“I can’t tell you that. Sorry. I love you, but I have to keep this one for a while.” I smiled.

“What is it?” She showed me her agitation. Now that I got her curiosity excited, I dropped the bomb.

“I am a virgin,” I said while smiling and being embarrassed. Somehow, my stupid body responded to it too. I felt something aroused down in my body.

She tried to hold back her laugh, but she couldn’t. First, she smiled. Second, she put her hand on her mouth to prevent herself from making any sound from her laughing. And finally, she just gave up and started laughing while she was avoiding having eye contact with me. It was an embarrassing moment for me, but I had no way out of that conversation.

After she had her laugh, we went inside. I had to come clean. There was no reason to keep it secret anymore, so I told everyone about my market business. The reaction was as I expected. Everyone was shocked, except the people who already knew. The eyes of Bernadina’s new boyfriend popped out. Bernadina and Aiko were speechless. Then all at once, they started chatting with one another. After that, they bombarded me with lots of questions, which I answered patiently. They asked me the same questions that Calysta already asked me about. I became the center of attention again. Now some of them wanted to invest their money in the little company I made.

After lots of conversation and dancing, we decided to go to the bedroom. The three girls went into the same bedroom. They were so excited about it because it reminded them of the old times they were sleeping over each other houses. They also had a lot to talk about. Mr. And Mrs. Kenward went to a separate room, which left us in one room. Bernadina’s new boyfriend was wondering what to do. It felt kind of weird to sleep with a guy whom I had just met, so I told him and Marshal that I would sleep on the couch. Marshal also had the same feelings, so he said he needed to talk to me and excused himself to go to the same room. It only became beneficial for the dude. He got to sleep alone in the room. No matter how bad we were in his eyes, he got the better end of the stick.

I lay down on the couch, watching the ceiling, and Marshal lay down on the other side of the sofa. Our position on the L-shaped couch was like our heads were close to each other and our feet far away.

“Why do I get to sleep with you?” I asked him.

“Do you think that I am happy to sleep with you?” he responded.

“Somehow, I felt claustrophobic when I realized that I was about to sleep with that dude,” I said to Marshal. He smiled.

“Same here. Where do you think Bernadina found him?” he asked.

“How should I know? A dork shop maybe.”

“What you guys are doing here?” Calysta asked. She was wearing her pajama. The pajama was silver silk with solid black lace and a short sleeve matching her silver silk trouser. She looked hot. It was like she just came out of a photo shoot for a magazine. It took my breath away. My brain, as usual, became useless. I never saw her in her pajama. My virgin body got excited too. My animal instincts—or that “basic instinct,” as people called it—was worked up thoroughly. I wasn’t alone. Marshal got excited too.

“Huh?” I swear that was the only noise that came out of my mouth. I didn’t know what I would do if Marshal weren’t beside me. My instinct was shouting at me and telling me, Who gives a fuck? Just do it! And my penis, like a foot soldier who had been shouted at by a high-ranking officer, didn’t know what to do; it did the worst thing. In order to cover up the embarrassment, I sat up and acted cool. Marshal did the same. I couldn’t blame the son of a bitch. We both were hopeless. Calysta was smiling. I didn’t know if she found out or not, but I hoped for the best. My earlier confession to her about my virginity wasn’t any help either.

“I said, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the bedroom?” she asked again with her mysterious smile.

“I was awed by the beauty of the house and the lake, so I thought I should spend the night here and enjoy every second of it,” I said and then threw the ball to Marshal. “What’s your excuse?”

Calysta giggled. Marshal didn’t expect me to backstab him, so he just gave in laughing and accompanied Calysta.

“Seriously, you guys are the worst. Do you do that to all your guests? What if he goes and complains about you to Bernadina, huh?” she asked while she had a smile on her face. She wasn’t angry at us. She was just concerned.

“First of all, why should I care? Bernadina is your friend. She is your problem, like Marshal is to me. Second of all, that guy is dreaming, only the devil knows what, on that comfortable bed. If that brat goes complained about us to Bernadina, he is a dork AND spoiled,” I answered. Calysta smiled while she was signaling us with her both hands to bring down our voices.

“Agustin, I had no idea that you were like that,” she said and tried hard to sound disappointed, but I didn’t buy it. Anyway, now I had more troubles and concerns than thinking about a guy I didn’t care about. I was distracted by how beautiful and sexy she was. I just wanted to hold her. I wanted to kiss her so bad that I thought I would die if I didn’t do it. I was wondering why Marshal was there on the couch. If Marshal wasn’t there, I could be alone with her. Who knows? Maybe I would get lucky too.

Then she came and sat beside me on the couch. Her perfume made me more confused and hornier. I was about to lose it at any time—what a feeling. I felt so hopeless. Were all men like me? Or was I the only weird one? Anyway, who could judge me for having those kinds of thoughts? It was natural. I was meant to be like that—to be a horny teenager who was confused about what to do with this beautiful creature. I was curious what was under her pajama or, even better, in her trousers. I had a general image of what a breast and a vagina looked like. They were everywhere in science books, but I never saw the real one. The real one was sitting right beside me. I became impatient for that very reason.

“Agustin, are you all right?” Calysta asked. She was sincerely concerned. Marshal was looking away and smiling. The son of a bitch knew what feeling I had. If anyone looked at me with the face that I made, they would realize that they should stay far away from me or even run from me. I felt my head was burning from inside out. It wasn’t that hot, but I knew I was sweating anyway. My mouth became dry. My hands were shaking from the excitement that I had. If she touched me, if I felt her soft skin on any part of my exposed skin, I knew nothing could stop me. Even an army of men. Nothing.

“Ye-ye-yeeeh,” I managed to say. Then she put her hand on my head. The moment she did that, I felt a rush of blood in my vein. My heart started beating fast, and above all, the junior Agustin was rising and getting harder. Now I had difficulty breathing. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to take her shirt off. I wanted to kiss her long, beautiful neck. I wanted to suck one of those nipples until she screamed from sucking it too hard. I wanted to kiss every part of her body from head to toe, and if I managed to not cum by that time, I wanted to introduce my junior to her junior.

I knew the moment I was inside her, I wouldn’t be able to hold back my sperm. It was too much work for my virgin body. The heat was rushing from my head to my chest, which made my breathing more difficult. I was really close to losing it. I was afraid at the same time. I was worried that I would do something stupid and make her scared of me for the rest of my life. She never saw this side of me. I was scared of myself. I was on edge. I was close, really close to losing it all. I knew that nothing good would come from losing myself. The dilemma was getting harsher. My heart was beating faster than before, and the blood was rushing down to my penis. I couldn’t hold back anymore. The feeling was like a person who has been thirsty for water for quite some time but never found any drop of it for days in the ocean, and out of desperation, he drinks the ocean’s water.

“Can you bring him a glass of cold water? I’ll keep an eye on him for you until you come back,” Marshal said. I couldn’t even breathe to say thank you. It was too much task on my hand. Calysta rushed to the kitchen to bring me some water.

“Hey, get ahold of yourself. Are you crazy?” he told me the second Calysta was out of sight.

“Thanks,” I managed to say through my hard breathing. That was the only time that I thanked him sincerely and didn’t insult him. I owed him my whole relationship. I was about to lose it all if it wasn’t for him.

“Just keep her away from me. Can you do that?” I begged him. He understandably shook his head and came and sat right beside me. He put his arm around me and firmly held me tight to himself. I think that was the best strategic move he made. He put himself between her and me. Now I calmed down a little bit, but I was a far cry from settling down.

Calysta came back with water. Marshal took the glass and handed it to me, and he thanked her for me. The cold water gave my body a shock when I drank it, and it was soothing. I was getting back my control. I was looking down and tried not to look at her. I knew the moment I looked at her, I would lose it all over again. I loved her. I didn’t want to do anything stupid to her. That was the first time I was close to losing control. I could have destroyed the whole day or any image that I made this entire year. I worked too hard for it to lose it.

Then Calysta came and sat on the other side of me. That sweet smell came back again. Now she was more concerned about me. Her blue eyes were locked on me. Her concerned face made me hornier. Was there any glimmer of hope left for me that she could turn off my beast mode? I wondered. Anything about her was enticing. Marshal was smiling at my bad luck. He couldn’t tell Calysta to leave me alone because she was my girlfriend. I was glaring at my lap while putting my left hand on my forehead so I could block her from touching my head again. She had no insight into the situation. She worried about me, but it wasn’t a perfect time for her to be. Out of the blue, she put her hand on my lap and started rubbing my lap.

Are you kidding me? I thought.

Marshal laughed, and Calysta glared at him for laughing at me. “Sweetheart, are you okay? What’s wrong?” she asked me with lots of concern. I was looking up in my brain in search of an evasive answer for her. No luck. I stood up and excused myself to go outside. Maybe fresh air could help me clear my head. In the meantime, Marshal was laughing heartily. He was really close to wetting his pants, but it bugged Calysta more.

“What is it? Why don’t you tell me what is going on? Did I do something?” she asked. Her voice was a knife in my heart. How could I ignore her? I wanted to answer her, but how could I?

It just made Marshal laugh harder. I was pissed off for his childish act, but I understood him. If I were in his shoes, I would do the same.

“Oh, It is nothing. I just need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back,” I responded. I don’t know why I said bathroom. At that moment, I thought it was less insulting to her. However, when I said the word bathroom, it made Marshal laugh so hard that I could see the pain he had to take in, to breathe, so instead of me, the bastard ran to the bathroom. Only devil knows what he thought of me when I said bathroom. In the bathroom, I could still hear him laughing. The situation was getting ridiculous by the minute. Calysta was confused by Marshal’s actions and my odd behavior. His laugh in the bathroom was so loud that Aiko and Bernadina came down to see what was going on. I was getting more embarrassed. I noticed that Bernadina was wearing light-pink pajamas with a Japanese anime character on them. The anime character had a frozen wink on the right side of her chest where her tit was poking out of her shirt. I just needed to see that to make myself more miserable. I got hornier, and add to that, my dick thought it was an excellent time to get hard in my pants. I could see it. I had to sit down to hide it again. Aiko was wearing a Pajama and shorts. It was steel-blue satin silk with lace trims. It had a V neckline with a contrast lace trim. She was really sexy in it. I could see her tit crack. The situation was dire. I put both hands on my eyes to block all those forces of nature. I needed help, but there was no one to help me out.

Then I felt a delicate finger on my shoulder. I knew in a heartbeat that it was Calysta’s. I didn’t need to see her to realize it was her. She asked me with a concerned voice again if I was all right. That was the last straw; I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I took her hand and forced her to follow me outside the house. Her warm hand in my hand made the matter worse. Once we were outside, I made sure no one was watching, and I sheepishly confessed to her by showing her my hard junior. I explained to her bit by bit what was happening to me the moment I saw her in her pajama. Her reaction was cute. She put her delicate hand on her mouth and started laughing while I was explaining to her with anger and frustration. Her body was shaking. Her beautiful eyes were closed, and like Marshal, she put her other hand on her abdomen to stop herself from the pain that was coming from the hard laughing she had. Her huge pointy tits were bouncing in her pajama. She was torturing me unknowingly. I told her that I needed to be alone for the very reason she knew now. She couldn’t move an inch. Her laughter was priceless. I never saw her laughing like that. The situation was so ridiculous that it made me laugh too, but it wasn’t like Marshal and Calysta. It was kind of a pissed-off laugh.

I looked at the horizon. Those beautiful and colorful trees in the daytime, now it was painted in black by the hand of the night. It was peaceful. It was the only thing that I really needed. I listened to the music of the darkness. I couldn’t tell it was the house cricket or the tree cricket that was singing side by side with frogs. They were all desperately singing for their mates, I guess.

I walked away from her. I wanted to stay away from her as much as I could. I tried to find a quiet place to hide. Living among humans was difficult. These few years since I met Marshal became a kind of blessing and curse for me. I was happy to be part of the group. I never had friends, let alone have a beautiful girlfriend. Every action and response from them were mysteries for me to solve. I couldn’t tell what people were thinking. Sometimes they laughed at my honest answer and found me a funny person. However, I found it amusing how my anger and rage made others laugh. Was I missing some lines? These kinds of thoughts made me wonder. That night was the same. I couldn’t tell why Calysta found it so funny to laugh about my condition. Wasn’t it weird? I just confessed to her about a perverted person, but it made her laugh more. I don’t know how, but the darkness of the night became my companion. That darkness took in all my bitterness. I had a little time to review all those scenarios and still couldn’t figure out those people’s reactions.

A few minutes later, I was ready to go back to the house, and when I got there, I saw everyone looking in my direction. Calysta had a mischievous smile on. I couldn’t complain about it. I was happy to see her like that. I wanted to hug her, and this time, it wasn’t because I wanted to have sex with her. This time, I wanted to hug her because I needed her to embrace me, but I was too shy to do it in front of my friends. I went and sat on the couch right beside her. I took her hand and locked my fingers to hers. After that, I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and then whispered how sorry I was about the whole situation in her ear. She just responded to me by kissing me back.

We all talked a little bit more that night, a few laughs here and there. We didn’t bring up the subject again. After that, the three girls went back to their bedroom, and Marshal and I sat there on the couch. Marshal wanted to talk and tease me more, but I was drained and not in the mood, so I just ignored him and lay down on the couch. It was a big day for me. Too many things happened in a short amount of time for me to process—the stress I had when Calysta saw her portrait, the revelation of the fact about Calysta’s past, my embarrassing confession to Calysta about my virginity to keep from her mind the secret I kept from her for almost our entire relationship, and then a few hours later, telling her how perverted I was. It was too much to process. I just wanted to sleep and put this stressful day behind me. I was too hyper to sleep. I was thinking too much. I was reviewing the whole scenario again and again in my head. What if I told her that instead of this? Or took different actions for those scenarios? Finally, my body gave up, and I slept.

 

Next Day

 

I woke up with a scream.

Then the second scream made me jump out of the couch. I almost turned over the whole table beside the sofa. Marshal woke up as well. He was confused too. His puffy eyes became wide. Our hearts raced. We were wondering what happened. We were looking at each other for an explanation. The time was still.

The third scream, which was longer, made me run toward it. I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t check to see if Marshal was following me. The adrenaline was pumping in. The screams were coming from upstairs. I was taking two and three steps at a time. When I arrived upstairs, I noticed the room that Calysta was sleeping in was empty. Then I ran toward the other room. Bernadina’s boyfriend was at the door of his bedroom. He was confused too. I passed him in the hallway heading toward the last bedroom.

Finally, I arrived at the source of the screams. In the last bedroom, in which Mr. And Mrs. Kenward were sleeping, I saw Calysta lying on the ground close to the door in the arms of Bernadina.

My whole world went black. I couldn’t believe my own eyes. My feet were pinned down to the floor. I couldn’t take one more step. Calysta’s head fell loosely in the arms of Bernadina. I saw her closed eyes. Her arms were hanging lifelessly on the floor.

I was scared. I was wondering what happened to her. I just stood there, not daring to take one more step. I was about to cry at any time.

I sensed that someone was standing right beside me, but I couldn’t turn my head around.

It was Marshal. He walked into the room. He looked down at Calysta and then in the other direction.

Then I heard a voice that was more like moaning. It was coming from the other side of the bedroom. A female voice was begging anyone who was listening to save him.

I couldn’t articulate what she meant by saying “Him” until I heard his name.

“Liam . . . Honey . . . Open your eyes.” She was sobbing while begging her husband. “Please . . . Please . . . Please open them . . . Liam . . . Liam.”

I don’t know what force made me walk again. I walked into the bedroom. The first thing that I noticed was Aiko beside the bed trying to make an emergency call. When she heard the voice of the operator, she started talking and explaining the whole situation. She couldn’t speak clearly. She was half crying and half talking.

Marshal asked her to hand in the phone. He was more in control of his emotions.

I looked at the bed where Mr. Kenward was sleeping. His eyes were closed.

Mrs. Kenward was still shaking him and begging him to open his eyes.

Bernadina was holding Calysta while she was crying.

Marshal went to bed and put his two fingers on one of Mr. Kenward’s wrists while talking to the phone. He was getting instructions over the phone on what to do before the ambulance arrived.

While he was doing the things that the operator asked him to do, everyone was watching him. The eyes were filled with tears.

I could see a dim light of hope in the eyes of Mrs. Kenward. She was crying while holding his other hand in hers. I could see the desperation in her eyes. She was begging silently to have her husband back.

Marshal was still holding Mr. Kenward’s wrist. He was trying to find a pulse.

“I can’t . . . I can’t feel it,” he said with a sad tone, and with that, the tears found a way to his eyes.