Young Writers Society

It was warm, nice, pleasant. Just lying out there under the moonlight. Iris felt her cheeks move as the ends of her mouth curved up in a smile. It was probably her first smile in ages. Looking at her now, it wouldn’t seem comprehensible that she had actually had a very pleasant past. A normal life, like a normal child, from who parents expected great things. Parents always thought their children were special, and Iris had been the only child in her family, so all the hopes and bets were on her to do something great in her lifetime.

But by great, if they didn’t mean having some sort of strange invisible vibes around her that would slash out at anything anytime, completely unpredictably, then they were looking in the wrong category. Having said that, it was also one of the things that differentiated Iris from the other kids her age. She’d always known she was a little bit different and thought everybody was a little different from the other. She had thought she would fit in naturally like everybody else fitted, by putting their differences aside and being friends.

However, that was just her imagination, the small pretty world that she’d always lived in. The world of fairytales. Iris closed her eyes as she remembered her past life and how her powers had first begun to reveal themselves. She was as delicate and gentle as her name implied; the flower that bloomed in spring with all the other pretty flowers. Every flower was different, so was she.

The first time she felt something around her, like an aura, it was when she was watching cartoons on the TV and had been too excited. She’d been jumping up and down like a mad child, silver hair flopping with her movements. What she hadn’t realized was that the furniture around her had begun to vibrate slightly. Iris continued jumping, in fact, she remembered getting on the sofa and jumping on that as well.

Despite the warnings of her parents earlier about jumping on things, she did it anyway. Jumped and fell. Her head hit the floor and at that moment, a pencil fell from the shelf. A book fell from the table. A small ball rolled over to one side. More things would happen. Iris sighed softly and rolled to one side, watching a leaf fall to the ground beside her. She didn’t want to think any further. Iris closed her eyes and let the sleep take over.

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

I couldn’t sleep. Why couldn’t I sleep that night? Was it the new bed? Maybe, I was too used to my old mattress that would at least move underneath my weight and make the shape of my body as I would lie on it. However, this was a very strange bed indeed. The mattress wouldn’t even budge underneath me. It felt no different than sleeping on the hard wooden floor that would at least creak when I walked.

I gave up trying to struggle myself to sleep and got up. I treaded over to the door but stopped just before opening it. I could hear something. Muffled voices. And thanks to the years of extra training, trying to sharpen all my senses, I could tell who they were. Gently opening the door a little without giving away my presence, I peeked at the two figures sitting in the lounge in front of the heater.

They seemed to be lost in their conversation.

‘I haven’t had visitors for a while. You guys are probably the first in years. It makes me happy to see the house get occupied once again,’ I heard Ricky say.

I could see he didn’t used to live here alone by the size of the whole room. The dining table and the lounge seemed to be connected. It was a medium sized table with about eight chairs that rested on the other side of the room, in the dark. Cheryl and Ricky sat on the carpet with their backs resting against the foot of the sofas comfortably.

‘It was so nice of you to do that. I just don’t know how we’ll ever repay you. I don’t have any money on me–’ Cheryl was saying when Ricky quickly held his hands up in protest.

‘No, you don’t have to pay me anything. It’s fine. There’s no harm in letting you guys stay. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if more people started living here. It would actually bring me great joy…’

‘Who else lived here with you before? Your family?’

Ricky nodded and then when he looked up at her, I saw his eyes in the dim orange light. There was a lamp standing just beside him, the only source of light that illuminated a small circle in the very middle of the room at that moment. When I looked at Ricky’s eyes in that light, they could never have looked so sad. What was it that he saw in Cheryl that made him so sad? I may not be good at expressing emotions but I’ve always been able to read them. And I knew that it wasn’t just out of generosity that Ricky let us stay here. I had a feeling it had something to do with Cheryl.

‘I lived with my parents, my grandparents, and… my little sister.’

There was something about the way he said it that made a knot inside my stomach tighten and then loose and then tight again.

‘Wow, that’s a big family. So… what happened?’

‘Oh, you know. The usual. Family moves away due to crisis, leaving me here with my grandpa.’

There was a hint of recognition on Cheryl’s face as she opened her mouth to say something when Ricky nodded instantly, as if knowing what she was about to say.

‘Yes, that old man you saw at the counter today was none other than my grandpa. He likes to sit there for hours, staring into space. I’m the one who really owns the shop. I just let him sit there. I wish I knew what was going on in his head. I mean it’s not like he’s completely unable to talk or anything…’

‘He just chooses not to say it… keep things to himself, just like someone else I know,’ Cheryl completed the sentence in a soft voice.

I wanted to see what her eyes looked like when she said that but she was looking opposite to the light. The entire room was so dark that all the wall hangings, tables, shelves that were aligned with the walls, were barely noticeable. All I could see was a dark small head from here. That’s when it made me wonder who she’d been talking about when she said someone else.

‘What about your grandma?’ Cheryl spoke, breaking the silence.

‘She’s…’ Ricky paused to study her face for a long second after saying, ‘she died a long time ago.’

I sighed to myself thinking, way to go break the small talk like that. She just smiled and said.

‘What was she like? I bet she made your grandpa very happy. I bet that’s what he keeps thinking about, staring off into space like that.’

I was surprised how Cheryl so easily replaced the smile on Ricky’s face which had vanished the second he’d told her about his grandma.

‘Yeah, she was old but never actually acted elderly. She’d always be full of joy and happiness and

always so lively. Even weeks after she died, I still couldn’t believe she was gone. I kept thinking that her voice would soon fill the house in the morning, then she’d come into my room to wake me up. I thought that every night I’d go to sleep.’

‘It was the only thought that let you sleep at night…’

‘Seems like you’ve been there too…’

All I could get now was that the two had somehow stopped talking and were just staring at each other now. I didn’t know why but the knot inside my stomach would never cease to tighten itself. I couldn’t take it anymore. I just had to jump in. I closed the door and made sure to make enough noise to divert their attention towards me.

Their heads spun and eyes darted at me immediately. I thought something pounced at my from inside my chest at that moment.

‘I can’t sleep.’ I said suddenly, feeling defensive.

Ricky smiled and shook his head slightly and also with amusement. What was it that humored him about me? He got up saying,

‘I better get back to sleep. Since both of you can’t sleep, you can keep each other company. Goodnight…’ He said the last word looking at Cheryl and then looked at me, passed a smile, then left.

It was awkward enough to have to steal Cheryl’s precious talk time with Ricky, and to top that, I couldn’t find anything to talk to her about. We just sat in silence, staring ahead at the dark wall occupied with a flat screen TV. The carpet was round with irregular multicolored patterns on it. I let my fingers trace a zig-zagged blue line. The carpet felt thick. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I’d purposely made them aware of my presence. I just didn’t want Ricky to look at Cheryl like that. He didn’t know anything about her. He had no right to…

Then come to think of it. I didn’t know anything about her either. About her past life, why she’d joined the institute… I wanted to ask her right now but I just didn’t have the guts to do it. Almost everybody working as a night guard in the institute has had a rough past. Not everybody can openly talk about it except that one guy whose name rhymed with melon. He just did it for the fun of it, at least that’s what he kept telling anybody who asked.

‘Hey,’ I heard Cheryl say, ‘what’re you thinking?’

There was a pause. ‘Stuff…’ I said.

‘hmm… doesn’t really seem like you just came out of the room.’

I gave her a questioning look but her face remained calm as she said it.

‘It seems more like you’ve been standing there for quite a while.’

‘Yeah, so?’ Usually when I’d say the word ‘so’ it’d come out in a more threatening or rude sort of way but I was surprised to actually hear the word come out softly.

‘So… what’s keeping you up?’ Cheryl asked. She had her hand on one knee and her chin rested on the hand.

‘The stupid bed is what’s keeping me up. I’m not used to sleeping on slabs of hard rock disguised as a mattress.’

Cheryl actually laughed at that. I hadn’t seen her laugh in a while or maybe forever but, that just meant she wasn’t worried about things for once.

‘Want to switch rooms? Mine’s a little too comfortable which I’d hate leaving but I’m willing to do it for you.’

‘Switch rooms?’

‘Ahan.’

‘And move into that pink fluff? You’re kidding me.’ I actually laughed back. ‘Not as long as I still have my dignity.’

Cheryl didn’t laugh back. She stared at me silently. It was a soft gaze that usually came with a worry statement.

‘What?’ I asked her.

‘Nothing.’ But there were no worry statements.

The next morning, I was already at the book shop peering through the window for any signs of night guards outside. Our stay here at Ricky’s humble home might not have been so bad but there was no point of getting used to something that was never going to last.

‘Did you even have breakfast?’

I turned and found Ricky coming through the door. It surprised me a little because the entire store had been so silent and still. The books were neatly kept in rows of shelves that were placed parallel to one another. Ricky caught me texting on my cell phone without looking at the phone itself. Pretty impressive, he must’ve thought. That’s what I assumed but dropped the thought the minute I noticed his dubious eyes scanning my phone.

‘Who’re you texting,’ he asked straight away, putting the tray of breakfast beside me on the bench.

‘Jon, he’s a friend. I’m asking him if the coast is clear.’

I looked back at the screen at the incoming message. Ricky’s eyes were still focused at the screen as if he were trying to read the message. That would’ve been impossible, seeing the distance between us and the fact that the back of my cell was facing him slightly. Whatever thoughts were circling his mind right now, I really didn’t want to know. However, people tend to say it anyway in front of me for some reason.

‘Are you sure you can trust him?’ He asked. I knew he might have wanted to add ‘nothing personal but just wanted to be on the safe side.’

‘Why do you look so worried?’ I added with a grin. I stared outside at the people passing by, minding their own everyday, normal lives, with nobody being falsely charged. It was unfair how all the exciting things always happened to me. My grin widened at the thought.

‘No, it’s just that…’ Ricky hesitated and it seemed like he was thinking of the right words, ‘I don’t want any trouble to befall me and my grandpa if you guys are caught… I mean, surely they would suspect us too for giving you shelter.’

‘Oh…’ I said it with force like I understood every word, even though I knew he was lying. This couldn’t possibly have been the reason.

‘Well… eat up. Enjoy the view and I’ll be going back to work.’ He stood up and began to leave when he turned suddenly and added, ‘Be sure to avoid being seen by the customers.’

I just shook my head when he wasn’t looking. Really, if he was so worried about his fake career of books being ruined or something then he should’ve thought of that before he let us stay at his house for FREE! He was one strange dude. Treating us like he cared too much to let us go and then worrying over getting caught. I doubted he really felt worried about himself, although I couldn’t say the same about Cheryl. Who was she to him anyway…?