Before I went out with Drev around the town, I had a small argument with Mom about showing him around because I really didn't want to go. When she asked me the reason why, I answered that I was afraid of his eyes which was only partly true. So she explained to me the case of having heterochromia iridium and said that it was nothing to be afraid of.
I showed Drev to the abandoned building except that it wasn't actually abandoned. I know a lot of people who hang out here. IG used to be an apartment but after an explosion of short circuit that caused fire, it wasn't renovated anymore. Just left here to rot. Drev eyed the graffiti on walls, weeds growing everywhere, ciggarette butts and broken bottles of alcohol scattered on the ground, there were even bullet shells.
He gasped behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see him looking down on a lighter. "The place is safe. It just looks dangerous but safe," I assured him. I don't know what his story is but he seems to be never been to this type of place. He doesn't even know how to tie his shoelace, Mom did it for him. Who are you?
I continued walking. He did too, with his head bowed down and without his hair to cover his eyes for it was tied into a low ponytail. As I kicked shattered glasses on the way and told him the story of the building, which part is which, while my mind is preoccupied of thinking why he came here in Keva, why he was panting and holding a branch.
"Icaro!" I called softly. Icaro is the cat who lives in the building, I named him myself. The reason why I took Drev here is for him to see the cat. They have the same eye colors, but I never thought it was possible for a human to have it. For me, Icaro is special, and maybe that's what my parents think of Drev too.
Icaro appeared as I took out the food I brought from my pocket. He is neither small nor big, I wish I could take him home but I thought this is his home. I bent down to rub his neck, he closed his eyes and meowed, then I gave him the food. I stood straight, glancing at Drev. "Do you like cats?"
He smiled, looking down at Icaro. "I only saw them from books, this is the first time I saw one." He bent down to pet Icaro, to the spot where I petted him.
I studied his smile and realized he was telling the truth, genuine and innocent. I frowned. "Are you serious?"
"Oh." He looked embarassed. "You can see them everywhere?" I got confused because last night as he watched TV, he asked my parents what was that heavy box with people inside. I nodded anyway to answer.
They looked into each other's eyes, silent and observing. He enveloped the stare and I could feel the happiness within him. "His eyes...are like mine."
I bent down next to him. "I'm sorry about yesterday. It was my first time to see someone with..." I didn't finish my sentence to not offend him, I just pointed at my eyes.
He smiled. "It's okay."
The next place was the cemetery. There were a couple of kids around ten running around, stepping onto tombstones. This is one of the good place in my town. Although this is where you send the dead bodies to be buried, it looks beautiful like the type of place to propose. The grass is greener than Mr. Llekan lawn and there were flowers of different colors and kinds. Dead but alive.
The angel statues were of thick dust, most of the paints were peeled off revealing the gray cement. It even had moss growing on it. Tombstones were everywhere. But it's not what makes me love the place. It's the history. Not really history, more like fictional history that was told to scare off children from leaving the house as the night falls or for the teenagers to stopped from breaking their curfew, if ever it still scares them.
I know they were made from the creative mind and pure lies but I love the stories. But my Dad said it could be true but exaggerated, it has been around since he wasn't even born.
"They said before this place was officially turned into a cemetery, there were people buried alive. And that when a virgin is sacrificed, they will all rise." I glanced at the tree near one of the grandest tombstone, it is the tombstone of Sergeant Ford. I wondered how it is still standing up to now when it has been hundreds of years. "That tree, that's where you tie the sacrifice."
"Why buried alive?"
I sat on the ground. When I was young, I was afraid to step, what if they hunt me down for being disrespectful, for stepping on their ground? But it doesn't matter anymore. In my religion, dead is dead. After we die, no more thoughts, no more spirits. We believe that heaven and hell don't exist. We just die.
"Because they didn't obey the law Sergeant Ford made for the goodness of everyone. But some says the real version of the story tells that they fed on human blood."
He sat on the ground, resting his back against one of the tombs. "Which do you believe?"
"None. I just love passing down the story. It's not true anyway." I stood up, brushing dirt off my jeans. The sky started to darken as nimbus clouds approached, it was on the report that it will rain today. Kids raced for their home their hands held up on their head to cover themselves from the rain, as they yelled enthusiastically at each other as a mark of speed.
I turned to Drev, looking up the sky with my arms spread wide to feel for any droplets. "Do you want to go home? It will rain but it will passed soon. The weather report says it will only be mild."
He nodded. "Okay." I wasn't sure if his "okay" agreed or disagreed with me but I grabbed his wrist anyway. And he followed without a question like a mute kid held by his mother in a busy street. We stayed under the tree, watching the rain fell by drops until it started to fall faster.
I hugged myself as the raindrops started to fall on our shirts. He seemed contented this way. I leaned on the tree as I watched him stare at Sergeant Ford's tomb.
"What do you think of him?" he asked.
I nodded towards the tomb. "Him?"
"Yeah," he answered silently, it almost came out as a whisper, I mean his normal voice is like a whisper except when we were at the lake and he yelled for my attention. He looked at the epitaph, by the looks of it, it was made later than the tomb. It says: Sun may set, and also they. But I shall remain.
I thought of an honest answer. No one asked me that before. "I think he was a hero. He died saving people from the Tualian invaders. How about you?"
"Tualian...invaders?"
The more I spend time with him, the more I think he knows little about things. "Soldiers from Tualia who tried to conquer Keva. They attempted to own the place but Sergeant Ford got them."
I read a biography about him and it said it was hundreds of Tualian invaders against barely a hundred Kevan soldiers. It amazed me how they won, and it's funny to me how it was called Tualian-Kevan war when barely thousands were involved for it to be called a proper war. But I wasn't there and maybe the use of weapon was the reason why it was considered historic. The Kevans were bare-handed because their infantries were the first spot attacked by the Tualians. They had no choice but to hand combat Tualians with weapons, or it was said, through great intelligent planning and strength.
Drev remained silent, still staring at the tomb. I wish he would tell me about Mierkova. I know a milkman of Mierkovan descent, I don't know if it's true or he only lied to the six-year old girl of one of the household he was delivering milk to that up 'til now part of the girl believed him although she started to suspect it was only a lie. Whenever I ask about Mierkova, he couldn't answer a thing. All he said was, "It's a great country."
But I couldn't tell if he means it. Mierkova is secretive. TV shows and movies never talk about the country. Funny because I have heard a lot from countries who are thousands of miles away from Keva but not Mierkova that is connected to our land without guards on borderlines.
I know nothing about Mierkovans, but for now, hearing a Mierkovan accent from Drev is enough. His words are clearly pronounced and slow, unlike Kevans that almost sound like mumbling all the time. There was a throaty sound in his accent and he stresses on different syllables.
The rain stopped, but streams of muddy water were left, flowing down a cement ditch and small gordion birds were swimming on puddles. The air smelled fresh and damp. There were only few drops of rain on our shirts but our hair was wet.
"You should cut your hair," I said nodding to his hair that was tied in a ponytail. He touched it and looked down, but didn't reply. "Why do we hear nothing from Mierkova?"
He tapped the nearest puddle with the tip of his sneakers lightly, enough to cause circular waves around his shoe. Then a single thunder boomed, causing him to jerk and his foot landed harshly on the puddle, splashing water to our face.
I gasped, a drop of muddy water sliding down my nose. He panicked. I stopped him halfway of taking off his shirt, I assumed it was to be handed to me to help myself wipe off the dirt. "It's fine," I said.
He looked at me. Again, it's strange to look into his eyes. "Sorry, I-I didn't mean to," he stuttered. I didn't reply so he turned to the sky and stared at it in silence. With his back turned on me, I glared at him as I wiped my face with my own shirt. Oh god, he is really weird.
"If you wanna know about Mierkova, why don't you go there by yourself?" I was amazed as I thought that the question would be rude if it was from Nuvian, but with his accent, he sounded like an innocent toddler.
The sky started to brighten again. I like the Kevan weather. It would be raining behind you but infront of you is the shining sun. I turned to Drev. "I wish I could, but people from my town who went there didn't go back again." I didn't tell him that we should go home to change our clothes to avoid catching cold and that we should continue the tour on the other day. I just started walking, knowing he will follow.
"Maybe they love the place and don't wanna go back again?"
I jumped to grounds to avoid stepping on puddles. He followed my steps. "And leave your family behind? Not even a letter over the years?"
He grunted as he jumped. "You shouldn't go there."
I didn't know if he said that as a conclusion that it isn't safe there because of what I said or because he is from Mierkova and he knows everything from that strange country.
When we arrived, lunch was already made by Mom. She only stayed for a moment before she left us to bring meal to Dad who was in the farm to fix ditches that was overflowed by the rain. It always happens every rainfall.
Our dining table was a long wooden rectangular table of mahogany wood. I sat on my Dad's usual place where the leader of the family sits to portray superiority. Drev attempted to sit on my side but I told him to sit right across me, about three meters apart.
He smiled, jumping on the sit excitedly. "It's good to be finally able to sit on this side of a table."
"Why?"
He drove a knife to his piece of lamb. His excitement faded from my question, his head bowed down again. I hate it when he looks down, he should go around chin up to show his beautiful face... with his eyes closed. I'm still not used of seeing his eyes, though it would be okay if he was a cat like Icaro. He replied, "It feels good, I am always not allowed to sit on this side of the table back in my home. It was what I remembered but not the whole part of it anyway. I don't remember much but there are things that I do and I'm suddenly reminded piece by piece."
Amnesia after hitting his head? Maybe. But I won't ask him, I don't want him to think that I am concern because I'm not. I am curious though.
It was actually a first. He doesn't mention his home unless when asked. I should tell Dad to let Drev sit right across him. Nuvian would be jealous, he always wanted to take the spot.
We ate in silence, only the noise of our utensils against the plate could be heard. As we ate alone together, I felt happy that I could watch him move without my family saying that I like him. They are paranoid about that. When we were on a carnival last month, I watched this guy prepared his tent and my family joked that I like him all the way home. And I don't care if Drev catches me staring at him, I am the daughter in the house, he is only a guest.
I don't know if he noticed me because he enjoys the lamb, but surely he does right? You could feel it when someone's looking at you. But anyway, he moves in refinement. Should I say much formally, noting the chewing with mouth closed and only pushing another piece of lamb if he had swallowed the first one, and his way of holding the fork and knife, and as he put down one of them to reach for his glass of juice.
He suddenly shot me an unexpected glance, as his green-and-blue eyes looked into mine I was taken aback for a moment. My heart beating fast. "Why are you watching me?" He asked after he took a gulp.
Is it the Mierkovan accent or Drev that could make rude questions into something else?
credits to Google for the pictures.
Very good story, congratulations, luck.