by Leyton, Bisi
“No, David’s harmless. It’s just a bump.” Wisteria laughed.
“A bump? You’ve got bruises down your neck, Wisteria, and look at your arms. Who did this?” her mother exclaimed. “Was it Bach?”
“No, no! Why would you say that?” Wisteria was startled that her mother arrived at that conclusion.
“Because he attacked Coles. That boy is dangerous.”
“He was defending Garfield.”
“Okay then, who did this?”
David walked back into the house and stormed upstairs.
Her mother looked up at him as if to say, I’ll deal with you later. “All right, so tell me: who did this?” Her eyes searched Wisteria’s for clues.
Disliking the silent interrogation, she looked away. “I just fell over.” She slipped out of her mother’s reach and walked into the kitchen.
“Wisteria, what happened to your hair?”
Turning back, she saw her mother standing beside the dark green scarf, which was now lying on the floor. It had fallen off.
Hurrying to Wisteria, she ran her hand over Wisteria’s bald head.
“It’s nothing.” She tried to sound happy.
Her mother’s expression turned from worry to horror at what Hailey and her friends had done. “Tell me.” Her mother’s voice became low and firm.
Wisteria shook her head because there was nothing her mother could do. A lot of people on the island were afraid of her mother, but she was neither a soldier nor a scientist. In the grand scheme of things on the island, she was seen as unimportant. Hailey’s, Yvette’s, and Karen’s families were scientists or soldiers and if those people turned against her, the family could be expelled from the island.
Wisteria knew there was nowhere else to go. “It was some kids from school.”
Tears welled up in her mother’s eyes. “We fight all the time. Whoever did this to you is mad. If they just beat you, then I’d know they were stupid. Anyone in Smythe can handle stupid. They cut your hair to send you a message and try to humiliate you. They have to know their message was received.”
The darkness in her mother’s eyes scared her and she said nothing. For at that moment, she was certain her mother would kill Hailey and her friends.
“When you’re ready, sha.” Her mother used the old endearment as her countenance softened and she hugged Wisteria. Then, she left the room, only to return with a bottle of iodine and a handkerchief. “They cut you when they cut your hair. I’ll have to clean it for you.”
“I’ve already cleaned it.”
“I know.” She tended to Wisteria’s wounds again.
“Ah…” She flinched as her fresh wounds were covered in the painful liquid.
Observing her mother’s expression, Wisteria knew that even while her mother appeared calm, she was furious.
When they were finished, her mother actually poured her a shot of Irish Cream.
* * * * *
That night, Wisteria replayed the events of that day. How was she going to face those girls again? When was this going to end? Hours passed, but no sleep came. Getting up, she opened the window to let in the cold air. Even though it was chilly that night, she was boiling inside.
She needed to get out of the house, but couldn’t handle leaving. The roof, she thought. David went up there all the time. Unbolting the metal cage over her window, she climbed out. Standing on her home, she watched the sleeping town as the cold wind blew through her, carrying her tears into the night.
Not a good idea, Wisteria. It’s totally freezing and she didn’t bring her jacket. In the corner of her eye, she spotted someone nearing her home. It was Bach. What was he doing here? Then she remembered he could take this way to Hailey’s home.
Watching him pass in silence, she realized Hailey was right, no one could ignore how Wisteria was different now. She laughed at the irony. She called Bach different when she tried to explain his tremendous abilities. Now she realized why it made him feel like an abnormality. Stepping away from the edge, she sat on the ridge of the roof, where no one could see her.
“Happy birthday,” a voice said.
Horrified, she looked around and saw that Bach was standing on the roof only a few feet away. In his hand was a brand new instrument. A Spanish guitar, which he held out to her.
“Huh?” She did not understand what he was doing..
“Who hurt you?” His eyes widened as he noticed the bruises. “Who did this? Coles?”
Your psychopathic friend Hailey Davenport, she wanted to say, but if he confronted Hailey, things would only get worse for her. Also, there was a greater chance her mother would find out and Wisteria had no idea what her mother would do.
“It’s not my birthday.” Changing the subject, she was truly puzzled by the random act. To actually be receiving a gift from this strange young man who seemed to run hot and then cold, then back to hot again. “Why did…? What made you think it was my birthday?”
“You have one every year. I am sure I have missed one. It is supposed to be a gift, Wisteria. I remembered from the Dungeon that you played this.” He seemed to be examining the guitar, and he looked unsure.
“Oh,” she mouthed, taking the instrument. “Thank you. I was just a little shocked you remembered that I played the guitar. You were pretty delirious a lot of the time in the Dungeon.” Running her fingers over the golden brown wooden instrument, she could see that it was brand new and nothing like the tattered one she played in the Dungeon. Plucking the strings, she started to tune it and was soon strumming quietly. As she played, she walked up and down the roof.
“I never forgot,” he replied.
“It was the one thing my father taught me.”
“I thought you could take it in good faith until I returned your necklace.”
“Nah, I don’t really care about that.”
Though her affections for Steven were dead, she was still suffering the aftermath. The red stone necklace was double tainted now, since Bach was making one for Hailey.
“You made it. Does that not make it special to you?”
“I made it as a gift for someone who continues to remind me, that he’s…that I’m such an idiot.”
“You made this for Steven.”
“How did you know?”
“You told Enric you made this a few months ago when you were on the island. I know you and Steven are close. Every time I see you, it seems you are with him,”
She put down the guitar. “Steven? Was that why you’ve been behaving so weird?”
No answer came from him.
“There’s nothing—and I mean nothing—going on between me and Steven. Why would you say that?”
“I am sorry,” he said. Moving toward her, he raised his hand as if he wanted to put it on her shoulder, but then he stopped. “I guess I was jealous, because he is not different like me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you and you can’t imagine how different he is!”
“Steven—”
“I don’t want to talk about him.” Picking up her instrument, she started strumming again, but this time, she played something fast that matched her agitated mood.
He seemed to study her as she played. “I have never seen you wear one of these before.” He touched her scarf and started to unwrap the fabric.
Grabbing it before he could finish, she protested. “It’s nothing.”
The material tumbled down. “No.” Dropping the guitar, she dove for the cloth.
“You cut your hair?” He looked bewildered. “It looks beautiful.”
“No it doesn’t!” Grabbing the scarf, she began retying it around her head. “I didn’t cut my hair. I wouldn’t do this to myself.”
“Who did this to you?”
“Hailey heard I slept with Steven, so she came over to teach me a lesson.” As she searched his eyes for some support, she found only his blank stare.
He thought it was true.
“I didn’t and I’d never touch a cockroach like Steven.”
>
“Apparently, he does not have the same opinion about you.”
“I mean, he was acting like a complete idiot when he saw the biters in town. Then, he panicked and tried to kiss me. I can’t believe he’s saying that I did him, in addition to all his other lies!”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing.” There was nothing anyone could do. Hailey was the daughter of the head of the leadership council and considered more important than she was. Her family could make Wisteria even more miserable and her family’s life into a living hell. Maybe the girls would get bored, once it was obvious Steven had lost interest in her. This was just one of his jokes, after all.
If not, perhaps Steven could be reasoned with to stay away from her.
* * * * *
As she walked back to the ridge of the roof, Bach’s heart went with her. Someone had tried to hurt her. Tried to damage what belonged to him, and who he belonged to.
He started to feel dizzy from the volumes of strangle weed planted in the front of her house.
“Thank you so much for coming and for the guitar. It’s perfect.” She gave it back to him.
“No, it is yours, Wisteria.” He refused to take it. “Do you not like it?”
“No, I love it. It’s so beautiful.”
“Then keep it.” He kissed her neck. Knowing—hoping—his touch would soothe her pain, but he hadn’t come here to comfort her.
“Bach.” She used her instrument as a shield as she moved away from him. “It’s a bad idea. You won’t understand.”
“You are right. I do not get why you would refuse something you apparently love,” he whispered while rubbing her forearms and taking in her scent.
“If I accept your kindness, then I’ll have to face the consequences. I don’t know if I can face those.”
“You cannot face accepting my kindness, or is it accepting me that you cannot face?”
“Um…?”
“Tell me that you do not feel the same,” he whispered. “That the moment you first saw me that I did not get inside your head. Tell me that you do not think about me all of the time when we are not together?”
The dark-eyed girl did not answer.
Wishing he could will her to speak, he pressed her against his chest. Briefly, he noticed a black spot at the base of her neck, where he had kissed her, and then it was gone. “Okay, Wisteria. Then tell me that you want me to leave, and that you do not care if you never ever see me again.” He felt like someone else was speaking for him, once again. The questions became pointless as he found himself still planting kisses along her neck and the sides of her face.
“I can’t tell you that, Bach,” she replied softly, her voice breaking. “Because it’s not true.” She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly.
Desperately wanting to kiss her luscious-looking lips, he leaned into her.
Wisteria reached up to him, tugging his head down as she stood on the very tips of her toes, seemingly just as eager to taste his lips.
“Wisteria, I cannot.” He broke away before it happened. “I do not want this.”
* * * * *
Wrapping her arms around herself, she moved away from him. Once again, humiliated and feeling foolish. “Goodnight, Bach!” She strode angrily to the side of the roof in order to climb down.
He grabbed her and held her back
The guy came here just to tease her, yet again! Didn’t he know he was hurting her? Didn’t he care? “I’m tired of all this nonsense. I’m actually tired and need some sleep. I’m done with this. All of this!” She should’ve left the roof when she saw him appear. “Let go, so I can go.”
“Wisteria, it is not that.” Exhaling heavily, he released her. “My people could kill you if they knew I wanted you.”
This wasn’t at all what she’d expected him to say. “What?”
“I am in love with you. I do not know why, but I am. And it is selfish, because I just want you for myself.” Sadness filled his eyes as he spoke.
“Why would they do that to me?”
“Because you are human and because we see humans as Terran, or dirt people.”
“And you believe that too? So why are you here, living among us, if we’re so disgusting?”
“You are not disgusting. You are beautiful.” Rubbing his temples, he seemed troubled and bewildered. “I came to Terra as a rite of passage. To be considered a man, to take a journey and experience the wild.”
“The wild?”
“I chose Terra, or Earth, because I came here as a child. Your people treated me so badly in the past. When I learned about the Nero disease, I wanted to see your world.” He paused. “You were right when you said there was something wrong with me.”
“Bach, it cannot be that bad.” Stepping up to him, she stroked her fingers along his biceps.
The sweet motion made him smile at her, but he still looked distressed.
“Like about Garfield, you let him live with you. And now you’re here with me.”
“You are not like the rest.”
“Neither are you. You’re not so cold and cruel like Enric or patronizing like Felip. They think they’re better than us. You just hate people because you’re a jerk, Bach.”
“Ha.” Bach laughed. “A jerk?”
“You’re a big jerk.” As the final word rolled from her lips, he kissed her.
She was stunned for a second. His lips tasted like a strange, tantalizing spice.
He squeezed her against his larger frame and rested his right hand on the small of her back.
She fidgeted, unsure about what to do with her hands. She tried to kiss him back, but she struggled because she was so short.
Then the kiss ended as he let go of her and walked away to sit on the edge of the roof.
At first, she didn’t know what to do, but then she joined him and he did hold her hand.
He looked as unsettled as ever.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” she said. “If your people are going to kill you?”
“Not me. You.” He squeezed her hand.
“I know what you said, I just can’t say it.”
He put his arm around her and she leaned in close to him.
“There is a way,” he offered.
“A way?” She didn’t liked the way those words sounded. “What kind of way?”
“A bad one.” He showed her the playing card he always carried.
“The ace of spades. Your lucky charm?”
“Lucky for me.” He flipped the card over with one hand. “I can use this to turn you into my Thayn.”
“What’s a Thayn?”
“You would want to make me happy, more than living. As your liege’s desires would be the only thing in the world that mattered to you.”
“How exactly does this work?” She’d seen him use it before or try to use it on her.
“I would ask you, what do you want more than anything in the world? And you would see it.” As Bach spoke, the card turned into a joker and started to glow.
“Modupe!” From somewhere in her mind her father yelled her middle name. “Come on now. It’s me, Daddy. I’ve come for you.”
Glancing into the street below, she saw him walking toward her. The next thing she knew, she was on the street a few feet away from her father, but then he was suddenly gone. The street was empty and she was back on the roof feeling like she’d been slapped in the face. “What happened?” she exclaimed, as Bach put the card away. “Where’s my father?”
“He was not here.”
“But…I saw him.”
“No, the faycard gave you what you wished to see more than anything. Most people would trade their lives for a few more moments of that wish.”
“I can see why.” Feeling dejected by the loss of her father’s presence again, she suppressed her tears, still stunned by what she’d just seen.
“I would only have to ask you if you will follow. Most times, one would say they would follow me anywhere.”
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“How many Thayns do you have?”
“None. I have no interest in servants. I know that the person you are would not want that kind of life.”
“So why do you keep the card around? Tear it up. Don’t use it,” she said passionately. “Why even hold on to it?” To her surprise and joy, Bach ripped the card in half and threw it over the edge of the house. The card disintegrated into a shiny dust. “Wow, I can’t believe you did that.” She looked down as the glittery dust blew over the street.
Putting his hand into his pocket, he brought out another ace of spades. Flipping the card over, it became three identical cards. “The faycard is part of me.”
“And you can use this at any time?”
“Now that you know what it is, I cannot ever use it on you, unless you want me to.”
“Wisteria?” her mother called.
Getting up, she crept to the other side of the roof and peered over.
Her mother was looking out of the window, but she didn’t look up.
“I should go,” she said to Bach.
“Meet me at Barton Lake, tomorrow morning at seven o’clock. I have something for you that will blow your mind.” Kissing her again, he leaped down and vanished into the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Bach left Wisteria’s home with mixed emotions. Relieved because she was finally his and she had admitted how she truly felt about him. He was furious to learn that people in this community had hurt her. He was worried about what would happen if the Family found out and he was still uncertain if she would leave the island with him.
Instead of returning to the apartment, he went to Barton Lake and waited by the water, deciding what to do about everything. As he reflected, he heard someone approach in the darkness and soon saw it was Wisteria’s mother.
The woman moved through the moonlight, stopping a few steps ahead of him. “It’s curious to see you out during the curfew. But then again, you can take care of yourself, right? You have a way with the infected.”