Authors: Arvalee Knight
Rusuto explained, “Wilhelm is making sure Jacob is okay. Eliza told him she hated him and it seems to have hurt his feelings.”
Alric rolled his eyes and kneeled down to the bathroom door. “Eliza? Tell me what happened, okay?”
“No!” Eliza screamed. “No! No!”
“Eliza,” Alric growled, losing his temper.
She sniffled, mostly trembling from fear. “A boy said my hair was ugly.”
Alric mouthed to himself, “What?”
“Don’t worry Eliza darling,” Rusuto took a knight’s stance. “I, Rusuto Macter, will hunt down that devilish fiend and send him back—”
“Eliza,” Nieves tapped against the door. “May I come in?”
Alric looked up at her with great surprise. Hadn’t she been with her friends? The sight of her soothed his heart, nonetheless. She was safe and well. It was almost as if Nieves knew he needed her.
The door to the bathroom unlocked.
“I’ll take care of it,” she told Alric. “Just give me a second.”
Alric nodded his head, slowly standing. “Yes. Thank you.” He couldn’t stop staring at her. Even with the bathroom door closed he gazed at the wood trying to understand. She left the company of her friends in order to settle a Macter family issue? Why? Why had she done that?
Nieves closed the bathroom door and kneeled down to the crying Eliza. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” She used her thumb to wipe away the tears that stained Eliza’s face.
Eliza nodded her head. “He called me ugly,” she muttered.
Nieves took Eliza’s small head into her hands. “Do you know why he called you ugly?”
The little girl shook her head. “He’s mean?”
“It’s because he likes you,” Nieves said in a gentle voice. “Sometimes people have a hard time expressing how they truly feel for another person. Especially when it’s someone you care about. He couldn’t tell you what he was really feeling so he got angry and jealous.”
Eliza wrapped her tiny fingers around Nieves’s wrist. “Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
She slowly smiled though Nieves could see it was hard. “Okay, then. I’ll come out.”
“Good. Because I think Alric’s worried about you.”
Eliza gasped, her eyes widening. “Alric?”
“And Aunty. And Rusuto.” Nieves laughed. “And me, too. And I’m sure Jacob is wondering where you are as we speak. And maybe that boy as well.”
Eliza didn’t hesitate to jump out the bathroom. She ran right into Rusuto’s legs, bounced off and fell to the ground. “Rusuto! Were you worried about me?” At seeing Rusuto nod, she got to her feet. “Let’s go find Jacob so we can play.”
“Alright,” Rusuto said with a jester’s smile. He lifted the girl off the ground and placed her on his shoulders. “You’ll be the look out and I’ll be the pirate ship that wades us through this turbulent crowd.”
“Aye aye, captain!”
Aunty smirked. “Well, I see you’ve handled that well.” She crossed her arms over her chest proudly.
“Why aren’t you with your friends?” asked Alric with bitterness. “What happened?”
Nieves shrugged a shoulder, not really caring. “You were taking so long to meet me at the merry-go-round so I went out to find. On my search I found Wilhelm comforting Jacob and asked what was wrong.”
“Then Wilhelm told you,” Aunty cut in being precise.
Alric pursed his lips with agitation. “You should have stayed with your friends.”
“Well, I didn’t,” replied Nieves. “There’s nothing you can do about it now.”
Aunty gave a soft hesitant laugh while backing away. “You know what, I’m going to go find Wilhelm and see how Jacob’s doing. You two… have fun… and stuff.” She backed up until the crowd engulfed her.
“Aren’t you happy to see them,” Alric continued.
Nieves pulled on the sleeves of her dress, hoping her hands would be covered from the cold. “I am happy to see them but… I just…” She didn’t understand why Alric was making things so difficult.
Alric asked with a harsh manner, “Are you cold?”
Nieves wasn’t sure if he was angry at her for being cold or just being concerned. “Yes. Just a little.”
Alric finally realized that he’d spent most of his birthday running around in search of family members. It was nearly dusk and he hadn’t spent any time with Nieves. Had the hours really flown by so quickly, he wanted to say to her.
“I’ll get you something warm to drink,” Alric suggested, this time more like a host. He turned to find a vendor but Nieves was linking arms with him, sliding her hands into his jacket pocket. She didn’t say anything about it and neither did Alric.
“Let’s go on the Ferris wheel,” she said, turning her eyes to the large round wheel of blinking lights.
Alric narrowed his eyes at the contraption. His first thoughts were, “Is it even safe?” Most of the rides he had seen made horrendous noises. He was just waiting for a large chunk of metal to fly through the air, sailing towards someone’s head.
“If you like,” replied Alric, giving in to his fear.
He just wanted her happy.
†
“They’re perfect,” Aunty said under her voice.
Sailles nodded her head, letting the ebony strands of her hair flail at the movement. “I didn’t believe you but I can see it with my own eyes he’s changed; a lot.”
Sailles remembered Alric with crystal clarity. He was anti-social and shy, hardly ever speaking to anyone. He stayed at their grandmother’s house constantly. It made their parents extremely upset that they had to walk all the way to an old lady’s house and drag back their son. They neglected their grandmother who was alone and very ill.
“He’s smiling.” Aunty hid her own smile behind her gloved hand. “I can’t believe it. Alric is actually smiling.” She watched him take the softballs in hand and stare at them with uncertainty.
“I throw them?” asked Alric to the man.
The man replied in a gruff voice, “Uh-huh.”
Nieves elbowed Alric. “Throw them into the hoops.”
Alric glowered at the softballs with a little bit of irritation. “Is this like that dart and balloon thing?” He hated that game. He nearly hit the woman, who stood next to the balloons, with his dart.
He did hit a few balloons, Alric had to admit. But it also made Nieves laugh at him to see how awkward he was with such a strange thing as a dart.
“Um…” He pursed his lips thin. “I’m not so sure about this.” He went to place the softballs down.
Nieves grabbed his hands. “You have to enjoy everything, even if you’re not good at it.”
“And what about you?” Alric smirked. “You’re not playing any games.”
Nieves smiled courageously as if she’d outsmarted him. “I’ve already played these games before but you, on the other hand, have not. I lived outside the wall and went to carnivals every year.”
Alric huffed. “That’s still not a good reason why you aren’t living life to the fullest.” He was highly pleased to have used Nieves’s own words against her.
Nieves tried to bite back her smile. “Fine. I’ll play if you play.”
“This isn’t normal,” Sailles said to Aunty as they secretly watched.
Aunty didn’t reply. She was in awe of her nephew and pleased he’d finally found something to live for. The sorrowful thing was that the snow would fall soon and once it did Alric would die.
Her fear was not only in Alric but also in Nieves. How would she handle losing Alric, someone she cared for?
Alric wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face into her shoulder. He took down a breath of her scent as she laughed.
“Stop it,” she commanded not really sounding like she meant it. “You’re supposed to be helping me throw.”
CHAPTER 32
Alric sat down at the desk writing down the new statistics. Silvia Macter, a distant cousin, needed a new roof on her family’s home.
Her husband was a small district attorney at the Macter Law Firm. The only time he ever saw her in person was twice. She’d asked permission to marry and then she asked permission for a child. Alric had given both a stamp of acceptance. He didn’t care too much for Silvia.
“Mr. Alric?” The shoji door slid open.
Alric looked up from his paper work to the small boy. He’d seen the boy once in his entire lifetime. It was at Danzig’s birthday party three years ago. “Yes?” asked Alric, calling the boy into the room.
“Sorry to bother you, sir.” He walked into the room without thinking. “Oh, sorry!” Spinning around he quickly closed the door then turned to kneel before Alric’s desk. For a long moment he stared.
“Well.” Alric glared down at the boy with the little patience he could muster.
The boy gasped and began digging in the confines of his pocket. “I wanted… I mean, if you will let me, sir…” He quickly blurted, “We’re having a field trip at school and I wanted to ask you if I could go.”
Alric reached out for the paper. “Where’s the trip to?”
“The museum,” the boy replied, handing over his permission form. “My mom says she won’t sign it unless you say it’s okay.”
Alric took a short glance at the paper, not entirely caring what it said, and gave it his family’s crest stamp. “I hope this is all.” He took the paper and held it out to the boy. “I am, of course, ordering you to have fun while you’re there.”
The boy gave a slight smile. “I will!”
“Alric,” the outside door was quickly pulled open. Nieves rushed in and kneeled down next to Alric with graceful ease. “Aunty and I were talking and she gave me a good idea.”
“So, it’s true?” the boy whispered with mouth open and eyes wide.
Both Nieves and Alric looked at him bewildered.
“You’re the princess,” he said. “Eliza said you were.”
Her lips began to widen into a smile. “I’m not…”
“Perhaps she is,” Alric interrupted Nieves’s honest confession.
The boy laughed a child’s laugh. He stood up, made a small bow, and then raced to the door. He held so much excitement in him. He wanted to tell everyone he knew about the princess who would release the prince from the dragon.
“Alric,” Nieves whispered. “Why would you tell him that?”
Alric shuffled his papers neatly then slid them into top desk drawer. His assistant knew those were the completed works that were either meant to be mailed out or reviewed thoroughly.
“The greatest gift to a child is ignorance,” Alric replied. “Ignorance of the harshness of the world. Ignorance to pain and strife. To know that there is magic in everything that moves and doesn’t move. Ignorance is bliss.”
Nieves felt her skin shiver at his grave words.
“You said you had an idea,” Alric said, plainly changing subjects.
Nieves grabbed the topic with joyfulness. “Aunty gave me the idea of having a picnic in the garden. We were talking when she pointed out an empty place and said, ‘Nieves, don’t you think a picnic there would be nice?’ and I couldn’t have agreed more.
“So, I asked the kitchen staff for a basket of food and they gave me this.” Nieves slid in a basket weaved from dark wood which was extremely heavy for her to move. “It’s filled to the brim with food.”
He rested his head upon his hands, thinking deeply about something Nieves couldn’t understand. It was his choice for the next few days of his life to spend it with either Nieves doing frivolous and pointless things or to be sitting behind that desk filling out financial papers and permission slips. He wondered what the city looked like. How the air smelled and tasted he would never know.
For the first time, yesterday at the carnival, Alric tasted cotton candy. Nieves had scooped up a bag in her arms and ran across the walk way to give it to him. The light of the vendors were clicking on in preparation for the sunset.
“Alric,” she had said to him. “Try some, won’t you?”
He remembered glowering at the pink fluff aghast how anyone could enjoy eating cotton. Wasn’t that meant to be worn rather than eaten? He readied himself to taste something similar to blue jeans but as he slid the weightless substance into his mouth his heart clenched and his mouth watered. Sugar. Luscious pure sugar. It melted onto his tongue.
Nieves smiled so brightly that no vendor’s light could have proven worthy. “Do you like it?” asked Nieves.
Alric slowly nodded. “It is alright.” He took a small bit with his fingers, as was the custom from what Nieves explained to him. Bite after bite he hungered for this cottoned sugar. Nieves walked alongside him down the strip of food and tables and chairs.
Somehow they had arrived at a large gathering, with music and singing. There were songs he’d never heard before. He sometimes heard clips of songs when entering Wilhelm’s car but Wilhelm knew Alric hated music so he would quickly turn it off.
“This is a good song,” Nieves said, capturing his hand in hers. She chucked the empty bag into the nearest trashcan then pulled him onto the dancing area.
He blushed. His entire face burned. “I…” Alric snatched his hand away. “We should ride more rides,” he suggested.
Nieves took his hand, not giving up on dancing. “It’s alright.”
“What?” Had she read his mind? Did somewhere in his sentence he blurt out that he’d never danced before in his life? Or maybe, just maybe, she understood that he never tasted life before. “I’m not so sure I can…”
“Neither can I,” admitted she and that left his heart free. It would have floated from his chest at the feeling of weightlessness. His throat was tightening as she stepped closer to him.