Shimmers & Shrouds (Abstruse) (9 page)

I raised my eyebrows at her continuous intervention.
"Do you want to listen more?"

She smiled remorsefully.
"Yes. I'm sorry."

I carried on with my story.
"Dad got settled with his new wife but didn't plan to have a child with her. He thought I would rebel. But there was nothing left to rebel for. After I graduated, I knew I would have to join his business but I was through with this sham."
"Sham?"

This intervening thing might be usual for a chatter box like her. I smiled and told her the inner secret, something nobody knew.
“We are a happy family Oceana, a happy family who isn't. So I enrolled myself in the army. I just wanted to stay away from them. I was already angry at myself for reasons you know now. Alcohol, parties, nightstands... they subsided the urge to die, otherwise there was no reason for me to live, or I think I wasn't really that interested."

Was she even getting how complicated it was?
"But then the orphanage?" she popped up again.

Yes she understood everything I told her.
"I am very relieved when I'm with the kids. I love them. My mom believed in social service, so do I. 'The savior' is just an effort to reach a bit close to her."

While I comprehend with my feelings, her face almost made me laughed. She was… dumbstruck.
"You mean..."

I understood what she was surprised about. "I am it’s
founder, and my salary goes to the orphanage."
"You started an orphanage

"Is that hard to believe?"
I smirked at her. Sure, it was unbelievable.
"Do you know how nice you are?"
My cheeks reddened at her declaration."I am not."
“You're a good man Orpheus, and I'm lucky to know you personally."
"Thanks."
"What else are you planning to tell me?"

I eyed her expressions. How did she know I wasn’t done telling
about my problems?
"I've told you everything." I lied.
"I don't think so."
"You know everything that you need to know, Oceana."

“
Feel free to confide anytime if not today.” She smiled.
"You know, your level of understanding is what attracts me the most." That doesn’t count as a flirtatious comment. I meant it.
"Well... that makes me old enough to be your grandma I guess." She laughed melodiously.
No. That makes you old enough to be in my arms forever.
"Yes." I smiled. Though both of us knew it was a lie.

The dinner.

I wonder
ed how god almighty forgot to put a mute button in the system of this beautiful lovely lady. Unlike all my ex girlfriends, she kept blabbering about her studies, her future plans, the thriller novels and their equally thrilling climaxes, my Reventon, my wardrobe, her wardrobe, and endless questions of where I was taking her. Unexpectedly she was quiet all of sudden when we were half the way to our destination and I noticed she was staring out of the window. Of course I wanted to enjoy this absolute calmness, which I didn’t know was going to last how long. However I grew uneasy when she didn’t speak for a long time.
"Oceana, is everything alright?" I swallowed, glancing occasionally at her, because I knew she was very particular with the traffic rules, If I happen to swerve the car by an inch and she will prefer walking over car ride. There were always some unspoken rules that I had to follow when I was with her.
She looked at me with exasperated dark eyes. "Where are you taking me?"Her voice was cautious.
"It is a surprise." I looked straight. I didn’t want to disclose the secret so early. I was taken aback at grandma’s declaration to bring Oceana for the dinner. Could it be any more comforting?
"You are driving on a deserted road for the past fifteen minutes, what kind of surprise is this?" she frowned. Jesus! Where was she going with this?
"Good things come to those who wait." I smiled, ignoring her hateful glances.
She reluctantly leaned back on her seat, staring out as usual.
 "It’s a Reventon, drive it like one." She muttered.
I increased the speed unwillingly from sixty miles per hour to a hundred. All I could see from my window was a faint blurred painting of the suburbs. I felt uneasy. I was not used to drive with such a great speed. The abrupt silence had started to pierce my ears, so I switched on the radio for the atmosphere to lighten. Surprisingly the station played one of my favorite songs.

‘Everything I ask for.’
I concentrated more on the lyrics, since the song had just started. We had missed a line or two.
Just then I heard her humming along with the song, wow. She was a singer too?
I muted the radio so I could hear her sing, but she stopped, unexpectedly. She turned to look at me with those beautiful big eyes.
"Your voice is fab." I smiled. Hoping she would return me the same thing.
"Thank you, this is a beautiful track." She blushed and blinked her eyes. Smiling like a child. Yes! The stupid jumpy jittery Oceana was back.
I took a sharp left turn, and continued to drive on the now sophisticatedly groomed lawn. The castle was now in sight. And the guards were checking in.
Oceana took a long look out of window and then back at me, puzzled.
"Are we here to take a tour of the museum? Is this your surprise?" She was staring at me with her wide eyes.
"This is my house." I rolled my eyes off into space. My house doesn’t look like a museum… Does it? No. Of course not.
"You gotta be kidding me." she gasped. I wouldn’t blame her, the castle was embarrassingly big. And her shiny eyes, efficiently working with her brilliant brain were taking a usual guess as to why just a small family like ours would live in a castle where an approximate number of seventy people can live comfortably.
"I am not." I glared at her.
I parked the Reventon just a few yards away from the castle. So she could surely admire one of the most beautiful pieces of history. What would one expect from a student who has taken history as one of her majors?
"Christ!! This is an entire castle!" She looked at me in an instant, her mouth had dropped open. I wanted to stay calm, but I couldn't help but giggle.
"You liked it?" I breathed.
"I love it." Her eyes twinkled like never before.
"You've yet to see the inside." I reminded her.
"Wow Orpheus, I can't believe you're taking me in for a free tour!"
"Me too. I am usually not so generous." I winked.
"Very funny." She shook her head. And opened the door of the car, and my grandmother was inside my head in no time. The horror I would be facing if she got to know from Oceana that I didn't act like a man was unimaginable.
"Be seated." I must have surprised her. She was shocked.
"Are we going back?" Her left eyebrow cocked up and her lips were pressed into a hard line.
"No stupid. Courtesy demands" I tried to calm my heart beat. I would be dead someday if she continued with stunning me all the time. I opened my door, closed it behind me, walked towards her side and opened the door for her.
"Sweet." She beamed a smile as she stepped out.
"You should say thanks. And bow a little." I commented, I loved making her angry.
"It’s too late Orpheus. You should have given me this 'rule class' back at home." She started walking away, towards the extra large field of excellently groomed lawn. This girl was a hard shell to crack, but I won't give up on my efforts.
"Can you do me a favour?" I called behind her.
"Go on, Orpheus." She turned to me and smiled, her head was still tilted.
"Please be on your best behavior." I used my hand to emphasize the sentence that I was trying to explain her or she would not take my words seriously as usual.
"What do you mean?" Oh... that breathtaking look again.
I took a minute to compose my senses, and another minute to divert myself so I wouldn’t sound like a duck.
"I have bragged a lot about you here, don't let me down. Okay." I exhaled and looked at her with expectant eyes.
"Okay." she came closer than required. I could almost feel her body right next to mine."Watch out. I am going to be your worst nightmare." She smiled crookedly. Freak!!  There goes my heartbeat again.
 I struggled to fight back the wave of emotions that crowded up my heart. The moon was up in the sky, we were standing and talking where my father had proposed my mom. The breeze was light, gently swaying her hair. She was bathing in the streaming moonlight. Her gaze was on me, intense and unavoidable. I prayed not to do anything stupid― like kissing her.
"Ocea―"
"Orpheus, I am kidding." She cut in. Thank god she stepped away.
I realized I let my breath ease away.  "This is a beautiful lawn!" She exclaimed. "What do you play here? Baseball?"
I was stunned again, the way she resurrected the entire atmosphere into something I was living just a few seconds ago was unbelievable.
"Oh.. You guys don’t play ball. Cricket is the favorite pastime of this country right?" She arched up her left eyebrow again, giving me one of my favourite smiles.
I nodded. Smiling at her absolute innocsence. When she was done with teasing me and admiring the outer beauty of the property, I escorted her to the main entrance. She misunderstood that to be something like a ball room. I chuckled darkly.
My house, like any other historical house was decorated like a sixteenth century castle. The stone carvings and huge paintings of the aristocracy were prime attractions of the media whenever they were invited for some occasions. The curtains were one of the antiques. The silk they were made from was imported from India, then the furniture and other things that were the pride of this fortress since a long time need no such descriptions. She knew about them in a detailed manner. I was flattered. I could see from her face that she was dumbstruck to visit my home.
"It is heaven." The words must have just slipped out of her mouth
"It isn't." I smiled
"That is because you have been here all this while."
She looked around as we walked towards my room. I indicated her to take the stairs if she was planning to follow me.
"No. Because I know heaven is nothing if it doesn't have good people to know it's worth." I was very gentle with her.
"You don't have good people here?"
"I don't know what to say." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Don't say anything." She whispered, and took the lead. She turned over to face me when we reached near the entrance of my room."Okay Mr. Guide." She put her hands on her hips. "Tell me everything about the house."
"You're always so information hungry." I leaned against the wall to have a better look at her, not that I was being deprived of that earlier.
"Like you're hungry for love all the time."
"How do you know?" I was surprised to see that she was way quicker at judging.
"Sixth sense." The tease in her voice was palpable.
I decided to play along. She stepped forward to stand near me. I knew she had the idea of how to trick things out of me. (By being extraordinarily close.) But what stunned me was the fact that I wasn't hiding anything.  "Oceana, you have sixth sense?"
"Yes. Common sense." She tapped her forehead with her index finger.
I laughed, despite of the enormous tension and stress that usually dominated the air when she was around. "You call it sixth sense?"
She glared at me but that didn't help a lot. "Not everybody has it." She pointed.
"Really?" I gazed at her like she was a knight with a shiny white armor and not the college girl who I adored and worshipped in secret.
"Yes." She returned my gaze with mocking smile, and I noticed that I gasped. She clicked her heels and they kind of marvelled at stunning me equally. They looked something like custom made. I'd seen such beautiful footwear’s in Diane's hub. Those were expensive and... Exclusive.
"Do I have it?" I asked, anxiously.
"Can I tell you later?"
"Promise?"
"Promise." She sealed it with her smile.
I opened the door of my room so she could see what it was like. "This is my room." I announced like a happy child. She looked around and on the roof at the chandelier which was my room's specialty. The chandelier, the wallpapers, the royal touch, everything was just special about this room.
"You call it room? It’s freaking a two bedroom apartment!"
"I would call it an exaggeration." I crossed my arms against my chest. Now that was simply more than enough.
She glanced at my wardrobe that was closed and gently touched my recliner. "It’s so beautiful."
"My mother decorated it." I bragged.. I missed her right now.
She sat on it and leaned back to feel the touch of the fabric. She closed her eyes and gave herself to whatever she was feeling right then. I had started to love her more and more with each passing moment. I stood there, frozen, feeling like an intruder to witness such serene thing when it was meant to be enjoyed by her in personal.
"That makes it more precious."
"You bet!" I hit her dialogue back at her.
"Your bed is...." she eyed it and stood up to move closer to my bed. Oh god! Can she place herself somewhere where it was less appropriate for her to just walk near me and startle like she was a ghost and she could just materialize from nowhere? "Well it is―huge!"
"And cozy." I cleared up from her way.
She stopped at my bedside and looked at me with an earnest smile."Shall I?"
"Please madam. It'll be an honor."
She smiled at me and dropped herself on the bed. The part of the bed that she was lying tempted me to join her. It looked warm even though I was standing at the distance of five feet from it.
"Wow Orpheus. It’s exquisite."
I nodded with a playful grin."Now it is."
"Come over here."
"Sorry?" I choked. "Oceana... what if someone sees us?"
She got up, held my hand and forced me to lie down with her. I'd done this before. Why was I so frightened then?