Genre: Romance
Rating: NC 17
Disclaimer : Standard disclaimers apply. The characters belong to Shalz R.
Chapter 15 : Part Four : Five Glorious Days
Ian was lying in his sleeping bag, his hands behind his head, his legs crossed, his eyes closed; some old favorite song was doing rounds in his mind and he was moving his head lightly to the melody.
He was thinking of the day went by, and was smiling at the prank that he was going to play the next day. He was going over the conversation with Sonya again and again. And each time it left him feeling that she was finally taking it easy. He was silently making his plan, when he opened his eyes and just at that moment he noticed a movement. Turning to right he saw that Sonya was sitting up. She was only up on her elbows for a while and then she sat up looking to out towards the stream right in front of her. The stream was some way off and they couldn't see it, from where they had camped, because of the trees and undergrowth. She hadn't seen that Ian was also awake. She looked this way and that, and Ian lay still and just looked at her and smiled. It seemed as if she couldn't make up her mind about something.
"Deep in thought?"
Sonya looked back, startled, with a gasp.
"Did I disturb?" he asked, mocking her uneasy look from the evening.
She understood that and smiled, "Not at all!" she answered. Ian sat up.
"What's the matter? Can't sleep?" he whispered.
"Yeah. It is a bit warm tonight, isn't it?"
"So it is. So what was it that were you wondering about?"
Her eyes widened with surprised that he knew. He smiled wider. She answered after a while. "I was just wondering whether to go towards the stream. It'd be cooler there!"
"Alone? It is late and this is not your home wood. This is a camp site and there are many around."
She nodded, "Yes."
"Yeah", she thought, "As if in home wood you let me go alone. Even there you insisted to coming along when it was late!"
"I could come with you if you want. I can't sleep either."
Sonya smiled wide and agreed. She was just getting up when she was reminded of Evan. "But then if we both go, Evan will lie here all by himself."
"Don't worry. I'll place him next to Adrian." He said and picked up Evan with his sleeping bag and put him next to Adrian, without as much as stirring him. And started out towards the stream.
Sonya was still standing there, looking keenly at Adrian.
"Hey!" came Ian's hoarse whisper. Sonya looked up. "Come now!"
She came hopping about. "Ian, how would Adrian know that Evan was lying with him?"
Ian chuckled, "I know Adrian better than you. He's a light sleeper. He's a bodyguard by profession. I think they are made that way. But they also need sleep. For me, I think Adrian gets way too less sleep than he should and I'd be glad if slept more. But he's not like that. He sleeps less and light. The slightest sound wakes him up."
"Was he then awake now? He didn't look awake?"
"I think he was sleeping because he was tired. But if was awake and listening to us talking, then I wouldn't be surprised." They had reached the stream with this.
Ian chose a tree to sit against some feet off the stream shore, but Sonya went ahead and chose a biggish stone to sit on and let her feet fall just above the water surface. She sat quite back on the stone and her feet did not reach the water. She inched ahead until she was quite ahead. Then she turned a bit and folded one leg beneath her while letting the other slip onto the waterside. Now she could touch the water.
Ian sat quietly by the tree and watched her trying to reach the water. He saw her foot gently touching the water over and over again, sending ripples down with the waves that were hitting the stone softly.
"You know Adrian for a very long time?" She woke him from his thoughts.
"Hmm" he looked up at her, "More than three years now." She was looking far ahead past the stream. He drew a breath of relief on knowing that she hadn't caught him staring at her foot, and resumed admiring the toe creating ripples.
"And how long do you know Tyler?" she turned back all of a sudden, throwing him off his guard.
He remained dumbstruck and didn't reply for a while and she thought that maybe he was sleeping and she woke him up. She did wake him up but not from a sleep. Ian realized that he had again got away and said, "You said something? Sorry, I didn't hear it."
She smiled and repeated her question.
"Oh, Tyler, he and I have been together ever since school."
"School?"
"Yeah. Both of us were the most infamous pranksters at school. Until sixth grade we spent half the day outside the principal's office. But we were good at studies too. We always caught up during the last days and scored good marks. Our mothers were very strict in this regard. I didn't create too much trouble at home. Except for Dee sometimes. She was anyway jealous because I was Mom's favorite. But she always evened out when Dad got home." he laughed softly. He realized that he had gone babbling about himself again and she might not be interested. But when he looked at her he found that she was very interested. Still he stopped right there.
After some time of staring into the water, she again asked, "You are very close to your sister as well, isn't it?"
"Yeah." he said and his face said how fond he was of his sister. "But I'm closest to Mom I think."
"Really?" she looked a bit amused. It wasn't everyday one would hear of a well-established man to still be so attached to him mom and admit it openly. She smiled and he saw the amusement.
But he didn't mind. He just smiled back "I really am. She's like a friend. I confide in her almost everything." he smiled and then added thoughtfully, "It really is a great thing to have someone with whom you can always talk."
Sonya's amused look changed to that of understanding and she nodded, "Yes, that's true." her smile was more subdued now and a moment later she sighed as if longing for having someone she could always talk to.
"Mom has been a great support to me, always." he continued, after some time. "Dad is a different kind of support. He is fun." he smiled wide and his tone changed from thoughtful to playful, "and Dee needs support. You know she is so silly, that I had to choose even her dates for her."
"What?" she exclaimed wide-eyed.
He laughed and sat up straighter as if now really getting into conversation. "I mean, she is so silly, that I really could not trust her with anyone. I remember once when we were children. We were in school. Dee is seven years younger, by the way. I always was very protective about her. I was in the school next door to hers. She was probably in the fourth grade then, or maybe third. But she was very little. She carried lunch packs from home, even though I used the school canteen along with Tyler.
For some days, I remember, I had noticed her as being very quiet. She was always quiet but in those days she was looking as if she were scared. I tried to ask her a few times but she said there was nothing. And yet, she became startled at small noises, and even though she was always a crybaby, then it really took one little thing after another to make her cry. She never had a big appetite but those days she would eat more than she usually did and most often food was something she demanded the first thing after she got home and even then she seemed to be getting weaker.
At first I thought she was just spoilt by dad, but then I saw one day when she came home that ... her face was a little muddy like it gets when you cry and there was a little mud on her clothes as well. I thought she had slipped or something and that was what she told when I asked her. Her knee seemed to be hurt so I picked her up and took her to the room, where I washed the scraped knee, changed her clothes and put her to bed. Mom was not at home that day, so I went to get her meals myself. Just as I opened the door to come inside I heard her muffled crying. Then all her being scared and crying so much and startling came to my mind and I felt that probably the reason was something else, which she was scared to tell. Probably someone at school or somewhere else was troubling her. I felt angry at myself for neglecting something like that. She hadn't heard me coming in and continued to cry, with her face in the pillow. So then when I sat down beside her, she stopped immediately and tried to sit to eat. I gave her the food myself, and asked very gently how did she fall! She just said that she slipped. But I was not satisfied.
Next day I told Tyler about it and even in those days Tyler had a great network. He knew a lot of girls in Dee's school. By the end of the next day he came running to me and said that some boys from our school used to stop children from either school and snatched their lunch bags or money or whatever they had to give. I was extremely angry but Tyler stopped me saying that they were big guys and I possibly couldn't fight them and I should probably get my dad. I had a good mind to do the very same thing but I couldn't let them go just like that. I told Tyler I was going home early and wouldn't be staying for practices. Tyler agreed only after making me promise that I would not pick up a fight with the boys.
Then I quietly followed Dee home at a safe distance so that she wouldn't see me. That morning I had dropped her to school, so she had probably eaten her lunch. But everyone knew she was a rich kid and would always have something she could spare. So I knew the boys would be waiting. And I was right. It was just two boys but both of them were bigger than me. I was still at a distance when they came out of an alley and stopped Dee. They had their backs to me and didn't see that I was following Dee. They were ransacking her bag when I got there, but I was so extremely angry that I just ran into them with my bike and they fell. One of them recognized me as the Maxwell guy. Since I was younger they thought they had a chance of some more money. What happened next was an ugly fight. One of them asked me to hand over my bag and I handed over a punch in his jaw. And told him that it was for hitting my sister.
The fight would have gone long with all of us in the hospital for many months but for Tyler. He knew me too well to know that I'd never keep that promise. He had followed me! He didn't get into the fight; Tyler is not the sort of person who'd ever get into a fight unless it was entirely unavoidable. He'd try and solve the matter without fight and I appreciate that. He stood on the edge of the alley and saw that I had broken my promise. He ran back to an ice cream parlor that we frequented a lot and the owner was an ex-employee of dad.
In a few minutes, they both came running, old Mr. Gomes and his son along with Tyler. The two men still had even their aprons on! They came and pulled us apart. At that time I was sitting on the chest of one of them pounding him while the other was pounding me from the back. None of us was in the position to even stand properly but we were hell bent on a fight. His very muscular son got hold of the boys and Mr. Gomes held me. Tyler had probably spilled the entire story to them on the way. I looked around and saw Dee crouching in a corner scared white. She had never seen me fight before and especially with such guys. Mr. Gomes took Dee and me to his shop and his son pulled the other two by their collar. All along the way he scolded me for not calling my father. And Tyler went on saying that he had said so. Though one look from me was always, and is always, enough to queiten him.
We sat there and Mr. Gomes cleaned us up. I told him not to tell my dad of the fight and he shook his head saying that it was too late for that now. And just at that moment dad's car drove up. I stood up and so did the guys. What they thought was now that dad was here he'd give a sound treatment to them, but what they did not know was I was in for a similar treatment. He came and thanked Mr. Gomes and Tyler, picked up Dee and put her in the car first. Then he came back. I was scared, really I was, but I knew I had done the right thing so I just stood. Then Mom stepped out of the car. I didn't know that she had come too. A policeman was already there, and I knew dad would be more than ready to hand us all in. But Mr. Gomes talked him out of it. He let off the boys with a warning and got me home.
All evening he did not say a word to me. I was very upset with dad for not understanding my point of view. Mom was with me. She said she understood my protectiveness for Dee as being her elder brother but sometimes, it is a good idea to let the parents handle it. What happened that day was not only bad for his reputation, but also it could have resulted in any of us getting seriously hurt. Then she told me that dad had found out about the boys and they were not from very good families. And so had got into such habits. He had sent money for the treatment and education of the boys to their parents or guardians.
I was very proud of my father and at the same time I felt he wouldn't be as proud of me. I went to him. He said he wasn't unhappy for I loved Dee so much, but instead of fighting them, I should've told him about it and taught Dee to take care of herself. I wouldn't always be there to fight for her. I argued that she is too little and he laughed and said I was too and today I had proved it!" Ian smiled. "It’s been so long and Dee is still the same. Seriously Stupid!"
He realized that he had been speaking too long and looked over at Sonya expecting her to be asleep or at least sleepy. But he was surprised to see that she was wide-awake and totally interested.
"Dee is lucky to have brother like you. And Tyler to have a friend in you."
"And you?" he teased her.
She straightened, "Yes. Me too!"
"Shouldn't we be going back now?” he said, "We have to get up early tomorrow!"
"Yes."
"Come!" he said getting up.
They had gone a little way in, "Ian!"
"Yes!"
"I think, your father would have been very proud of you."
Ian smiled, "I like to think so too."
They crept into their bags and Ian had pulled Evan back to him.
Ian was amazed at himself for being so open with her. "Its funny I told her so much about me without thinking twice. I wanted to but I would go into such details! I hadn't even thought of that! I have never told even Adrian about this!" Puzzled but not unhappy, he closed his eyes to catch some sleep.
Sonya too was at a loss to understand the sudden turn of conversation and Ian's openness! "I wonder why Ian was talking to me so much. Its quite amazing that he would want to share things so personal as this."
A lot of night had passed near the stream and sleep came to them eventually.
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