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A Soldier in Love

Page 22

by A. Petrov


  Michelle sighed and relaxed into the chair. “Rina, there are a lot of things I don’t know any more.”

  “Does that include that Baat guy who dropped you off?” Rina questioned.

  Michelle nodded.

  “How did you end up with him?” Rina questioned.

  “He saved this soldier’s life,” Michelle replied as she nervously folded her hands in her lap. “I’m afraid he won’t come back for me. All this time, I think I was just a burden to him.”

  “I could practically feel the love he has for you radiating off of him. I know he will come back,” Rina said swiftly grabbing Michelle’s hand and squeezing it.

  Michelle shook her head as she tried to hide the sadness in her eyes. “No, I don’t think so.”

  Michelle felt empty. She had truly lost everything. She had lost Serik.

  “Don’t worry after the party tonight, I’ll make sure he comes back to you,” Rina grinned.

  Michelle furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, you’ll see.”

  “Rina, even if he came back to me how could I possibly be normal? With everything I’ve been through just how? How could I be good to him?” Michelle sighed.

  “You don’t have to be normal, just good,” Rina smiled.

  ***

  Serik took the pack of luvoxko to the trader. He watched as he made the intergalactic currency transfer to his account.

  “This should complete our transaction, trader. Thank you,” the man replied.

  Serik continued forward at a steady pace. He was tired, no, more than tired he was exhausted. He had been up all of the previous night thinking of Michelle, missing her, wanting her. He shook his head and tried to concentrate at the task at hand. He had to go back to normal. Serik wondered if life could ever be normal after Michelle. He knew it would be impossible to forget her and so it seemed it would be impossible to move on without her.

  He stopped when he realized there was a temple in the area. He figured the Baat must have created it during one of their explorations on Sora. Although it had been many years since he had stepped foot inside one, he decided he would stop at the temple and speak to a priest. Maybe a priest could offer a soul cleansing to help him let Michelle go. He entered the large doors and stepped into the dimly lit chapel area.

  “My son, you came to see me,” a hoarse voice called out. The small priest moved closer with a lamp.

  “Ahh, well,” Serik began feeling a bit out of place. He tried to remember his last temple visit.

  “Love matters trouble you,” the priest said matter-of-factly.

  He nodded as he followed the priest to a secluded sanctuary. The many dim candles were the only source of light.

  “They do but as you know I am both light and dark,” Serik replied.

  “You are both light and dark for a reason. God created as you as both light and dark to go between the worlds, to gain understanding,” he replied. “She is also light and dark.”

  “But not the same as me,” Serik grumbled and shook his head.

  “To her, your coloring makes no difference. Humans are different,” the priest offered.

  “It will make a difference when I tell her my father was Cabaka. That my father raped my mother and a product of both good and evil was born. I am half of what she hates. I am what she was sent to kill.”

  “But she did not. You are lucky you have found her. She will bring you balance,” the priest said. “Go back to her and ask. Ask her what she wants.”

  “I… I don’t know,” Serik faltered for words.

  “Tell her what you are,” the priest said firmly.

  “What if she rejects me?” Serik said with a look of shame in his eyes.

  “Why would she? She loves you,” the priest laughed.

  ***

  The priest’s words taunted Serik as he made his way back. He wondered if the priest was playing a sick joke on him. As he walked he thought of her, she was the only thing on his mind. He remembered when the first days, those days when she would curl up on the couch unable to speak because she was in so much pain. He shuddered at the thought of the state he found her in. The days when she first withdrew from the memory fog, he had hoped and he had prayed that she would live. Sometimes he would feel selfish for doing so. There were many nights she would wake up crying. Her body would shake with the intensity of her sobbing.

  “Why, Serik? Why was I left?” she would ask.

  He never knew what to say but he knew how she felt. She felt lost and she felt alone. Those were two very familiar feelings to him before she had come along. He wanted to say she was left because he needed her, he loved her but he never did. He just held her. He knew it could never be. He had allowed himself to grow closer and closer to her because he just couldn’t stay away. She was irresistible. He sighed he wished he was holding her now, just being near to her would ease his aching heart. The priest’s words taunted him again as he continued forward. Perhaps it was a cruel punishment for him to tell her the truth, but he would soon cleanse his soul of his wrongdoing.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  “Can I help you with anything?” Michelle offered to Rina. She wanted to be as helpful as possible to her host.

  “Would you mind peeling these for tonight?” Rina gestured to a lot of potatoes on the counter.

  “Sure,” Michelle replied as she began to run water over them to rid them of any dirt.

  “There are families who started farming here. That’s where I got them from. Some people have been growing corn too. We’re having a lot of luck here getting back on track,” Rina explained.

  Michelle nodded and then stared down at the task beneath her hands. It was simple enough, peeling potatoes, but she hadn’t done this sort of thing in years. Sure, she had mopped in the Earth Army. She had even taken her rounds to do laundry but this sort of thing seemed foreign to her. There was something satisfying about preparing your own food. Food, she thought. Real food. Before she ended up with Serik, she had only sustenance, not food. The Earth Army had stripped her of many things, yet, she had blindly followed.

  She had been blindly following many things all of her life. She sat there elbow deep in potato skins as Rina sputtered around the house. It was always when she was alone when she thought of these things. She wished Rina would come back to the kitchen to break the silence that caused the unpleasant thoughts to swarm around in her head. It was one thing to remember the painful past and another to be without Serik but the silence was what really drove her mad.

  Michelle wondered where she would go from here. Surely, she couldn’t stay with Rina forever. Her heart sunk in her chest, would Serik come back for her? She wasn’t sure.

  What would she do? She was a soldier and anything else she had done felt like unreal. She smiled to herself remembering the time Aaron told The Commander she used to be a farmer. Too bad that wasn’t true, she mused to herself, it might come in handy now on Sora.

  She felt a familiar feeling of being out of place. It was the same feeling she had when her parents didn’t return from being called up. It was the same feeling she felt when her evil foster mother had first collected her. It was even there when she was with Amy and Eric in New Shanghai. She wondered if the feeling had ever gone away. She realized it did go away when she was with Serik but without him it had returned.

  She was a soldier with no army to belong to any longer. She had no skills beyond being an elementary school teacher but that seemed like a lifetime ago. She suddenly wished that she had been a farmer on Earth. At least she would have some sort of useful skill. What would she do now?

  “The party will be fun tonight,” Rina said warmly breaking Michelle’s thoughts.

  “It’s very kind of everyone,” Michelle replied with gratitude. She pushed her questions to the back of her mind. She would just have to live for the now. She didn’t have any other choice.

  “You deserve it,” Rina smiled giving her arm a small squeeze.

  Michelle
wasn’t sure if she did. She kept peeling potatoes as Rina told her more about everyone who was expected to come. Michelle said a silent prayer thanking God for Rina. She needed the distraction from her own thoughts or she felt she would soon go mad.

  ***

  Michelle smiled as the people around her laughed and joked. There was a rather large crowd congregated around her. There were mostly humans but a few Baat men. One by one they had come by and thanked her for her service. It felt nice to be appreciated, even if she hadn’t killed any Cabaka. The people were truly thankful for her. The party made her forget for a minute that she was alone and destitute. The others were incredibly warm and welcoming. She figured you would have to be after starting a new civilization on another planet. Seeing another human was reminiscent of seeing a friendly face in a crowd. It felt good and it felt comforting.

  Michelle heard laughter and turned around to see the children were playing. They ran and yelled as they played various games. She felt a strange sense of peace roll over her. She knew it would be short lived but in the moment she felt comfortable.

  “Here,” Ethan said handing her a plate of food. He smiled warmly at her.

  “It’s a hotdog,” Michelle exclaimed immediately feeling a bit childish afterwards.

  She brought the hotdog to her mouth savoring the flavor as thick mustard clung to the roof her mouth. It was a taste of home.

  “Hey, I’ll be right back I’m going to get a beer,” Ethan said giving her arm a gentle and affectionate squeeze.

  Michelle nodded and took another bite of her food as she stood by herself. She looked around again as the party began to thin out. She sighed and put down her plate of food. Being alone was the most difficult time for her; it was when her emotions liked to wage war upon her. There was that nagging little feeling that stayed with her telling her that Serik should be with her.

  There was an emptiness within, a need within her entire being for him. She felt a sadness wash over her.

  “So, Dru and Kyle have combat lessons tonight,” Rina said causing Michelle to jump a little.

  “Oh, OK,” Michelle replied.

  “We can get you some more clothes and other things,” Rina offered kindly.

  Michelle realized that the things she thought held no use to Earth anymore, perhaps still held use on Sora.

  “I used to be a cosmetologist on Earth. I could cut your hair and give you a new look,” Rina grinned.

  Michelle tried not to laugh. “Really?”

  Rina nodded. “Yeah, that’s my plan for getting your guy back.”

  “Why not? I don’t have anything left to lose,” Michelle mused with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “Rina?” Michelle questioned. “If you don’t mind me asking… what’s it like to be with a Baat?”

  Rina grinned and gave Michelle a wink. “I’ll tell you after the party. We can have some girl time and trust me I could use it with my two boys.”

  Michelle smiled to Ethan who came back. After long conversations and a beer or two later the party began to wind down.

  “Let’s go home,” Rina announced.

  “But shouldn’t I be cleaning up?” Michelle asked.

  Rina shook her head. “Not your own party.”

  The two made their way back to Rina’s house. Michelle followed Rina up the stairs to her bedroom.

  “So, where did the boys go?” Michelle asked.

  “They are out sparring at combat training. We decided as a community to start them young. I would protest and say they’re just children but with what happened to Earth… Well, I figured it is probably best to be prepared,” Rina replied decisively. She motioned for Michelle to sit down.

  Michelle nodded and sat on the bed. She watched as Rina retrieved various beauty products and makeup.

  “It’s not like you really need this but I figured it might be nice for you after being in the Earth Army so long. You’re gorgeous I would kill for looks like yours,” Rina muttered as she applied a coat of eye shadow. “But guess it’s a good thing the Baat men worship us. Well, I guess the whole universe does,” she continued.

  “What do you mean?” Michelle questioned.

  “I know weird, huh? I guess we are just really enticing to most males from other planets. Most planets don’t have a high female population for some reason. I don’t know.”

  “How did you end up… err… I mean meet your husband? Or mate? What do you call him?” Michelle asked as she felt the various make up brushes tickle her face.

  Rina chuckled. “I call him husband but he calls me mate. What about your guy?”

  Michelle blushed. “He just calls me baby.”

  Rina suddenly stopped her makeup application and Michelle opened her eyes.

  Rina gave her a very serious look. “Look, Baat guys don’t use terms of endearment lightly. He loves you. To call a woman you don’t love a term of endearment is dishonoring to their culture.”

  Michelle shook her head. “It’s complicated between me and him and plus we were talking about you and Dru. How’d you two meet?”

  “Well, the Baat heard of what was happening to Earth and they offered us asylum. I was lucky I got out just in time. Not everyone was as lucky as me,” Rina said with an expression of remorse and pain. “I met Dru on Baat but we decided to come here. It was kind of strange being stared at all day by every man around you.”

  “What about your son?” Michelle asked hesitantly.

  “On Earth, I was a single mom. That no good baby daddy of mine,” Rina sighed. “Dru, really loves Kyle. For all I’m concerned Dru is Kyle’s dad. Let me just tell you that my Baat guy loves me. He truly loves me and a human guy could never love you like one of these guys.”

  Michelle arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “He loves me with everything he’s got. I… I can’t explain further than that really. They just offer a different kind of love.”

  Michelle shook her head. “No, I think I understand. I understand completely.”

  Rina smiled warmly and ran a brush through Michelle’s hair. Her touch was gentle and careful.

  “Let’s get you fixed up. Guys like it when you get a little dolled up for them,” Rina suggested.

  Michelle wasn’t sure if that was true or not in her case. All she knew was Serik made her feel like a woman, feminine, wanted, and loved. Those were things she thought she could never feel again after joining the Earth Army. She wasn’t sure she wanted those feelings, but she knew they would come along with Serik and she wanted him. Before she could think to protest, Rina got out a curling iron. She shrugged her shoulders and let Rina work her magic. Besides, she had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. What would it hurt to be a woman again?

  Chapter Forty

  I’ve fought hard battles, I’ve captured dangerous terrorists and criminals, yet I’m terrified of this little female and being rejected by her, Serik thought to himself. No, I’m not even afraid of the rejection. I’m afraid she’ll hate me. The one I love, hating me.

  Serik couldn’t bear the thought of the one female in the universe who had accepted him, hating him instead. He could almost feel the sting of rejection, pain, and hate before he even spoke to her. Against better judgment and the advice of the priest he mustered up all the courage he had and stood in front of the house. It was a small community and when he came back in everyone seemed to know just what he came back for.

  He looked at the door in front of him and remembered the Earth custom Michelle had told him about. He knocked loudly and he waited.

  It was going to be the most difficult thing he ever had to do. It has to be done, so I’m here, he reminded himself.

  ***

  “He’s here,” Rina cheered.

  Michelle slowly and carefully made her way downstairs in the high heels Rina had insisted she wear. Michelle couldn’t remember the last time she worse such ridiculous shoes.

  “It’s someone else,” Michelle began.

  Rina shook her head. �
��It’s him. Who else would knock that loudly? Go answer it.”

  Michelle’s heart pounded as she tried to calm herself. She slowly opened the door. She took a sigh of relief when she saw it was indeed Serik.

  She smiled and stumbled forward to him, still unsteady in her new shoes. She had been so nervous that she forgot about how ridiculous she must look. She swallowed as his eyes met hers. His golden and blue gaze was intense.

  “Serik,” she murmured as he wrapped his strong arms around her.

  “Michelle,” he replied as he inhaled her sweet scent.

 

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