“Good morning!” she greeted her colleagues enthusiastically.
“Somebody get laid last night?” Mark, a fellow photojournalist grumbled as he nearly bumped into the happy woman.
“I don’t kiss and tell, Mark,” Seraphina laughed and then knocked on her boss’s cabin door, ready to show last night’s shots.
Things were looking up for her finally. Most of her life she had spent seeing and feeling the happiness through other people’s eyes but never herself being able to hold onto it and experience it. This time, the happiness would be her own and she intended to enjoy every second of it.
♥●●♥
* * *
Chapter 3
“How old are you, son?” the scary-looking man asked Cole after squatting to his level.
“Thirteen, sir,” Cole replied meekly, trying not to look into the man’s eyes.
“If you say so,” the man smiled. “How may I help you?”
“I’m looking for my mother,” Cole said, still not looking at him.
“Your mother? What’s her name?”
Cole hesitated. His mother would not like him coming to her place of work. She was a waitress at the local bar which was known for its rowdiness. She usually was home by the time he woke up for school but that day he woke up to an empty apartment. He tried calling on her cellphone but it went straight to voicemail.
“Son? Her name?” the man reiterated.
“May,” Cole replied barely above a whisper, finally looking at the man.
Something in his face changed and a paralyzing fear went through the ten year-old Cole. Something was wrong, he could sense it. He had been dreading it ever since he stepped outside to look for her.
“Where is she? What did you do to her?” Cole asked, his hands balled into tight fists.
The man gripped his shoulder to calm him down. “Settle down, son.” Before he could continue further, Cole exploded and swung his tiny fists at him.
“I’ll kill you if you hurt her! Tell me where is she!?”
“Whoa.” The man let him swing at him for a bit before gently restraining him. “Are you calm enough to listen to what I have to say?”
Cole was choked up with frustrated tears and simply nodded.
“Good.” He released Cole and then got into the explanation. “She’s at the hospital. Before you go at me with your fists again, let me tell you that she’s alright!” he said hastily. “There was an incident last night and she tried to help one of the waitresses. May just got a few scratches, but Alison had to go to the hospital, so she accompanied her.”
The thundering in Cole’s ears started to reduce slowly. His mother was alright. She had just tried to be the hero once again. She was alright. Nothing bad had happened…yet.
“Do you believe me or should I be worried about more beatings?”
“I believe you,” Cole said in a clear voice.
The man stood up to his full height and said kindly, “Go home. She’ll be back soon.”
“Which hospital did she go to?”
The man sighed as he took in the stubborn stance. “I don’t think your mother would like you showing up there. Go home, son. If you need, I’ll give you a ride.”
Cole shook his head. “My mom isn’t answering her phone. I want to see her.”
“You’re not going to go home, are you?”
No, Cole was not going to go anywhere until he saw his mother with his own eyes and was satisfied she was unhurt.
The man gave in and motioned him to follow. He led him towards the back of the bar and approached an old model Impala. “Get in.”
Cole remained standing on the pavement. “Where are we going?”
“To see your mother.”
“And you’re not lying to me?”
The hulking man sighed and leaned against the hood of the car. Later Cole wondered how the car did not have a dent to show for its owner’s bulk.
“No. Son, if I really intended to take you home, I would tell you even if I had to drag you kicking and screaming there.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“You ask a lot of questions.” He rubbed a weary hand over his face and then answered. “You’re worried and I have a feeling you won’t rest until you see your mother. I don’t want you doing anything drastic so I’ll just take you to see her. May will not forgive me if something happens to you. Now get in.”
Cole’s keen mind caught on to the last sentence and wondered if there was something between this man and his mother.
“Why do you keep calling me son?” he asked once he was inside and strapped to the seat.
A bushy eyebrow went up. “Because you remind me of one,” the man said simply.
“I don’t understand.”
Something flickered on the man’s face. Something that seemed familiar to Cole but he could not place the expression. “I’m Antony Bakers, by the way. I own the bar,” he said changing the subject.
“I’m Cole,” he introduced himself.
“Cole …don’t you have to be in school?”
“I do. But my mom is usually home by the time I have to leave for school and today she wasn’t…” he trailed off.
Antony nodded in understanding. “She’s fine, really. It all happened fast and she must have forgotten to get through to you.”
Cole knew that his mother had a tendency of forgetting things amidst an emergency so what Antony said might have occurred
“You didn’t answer my question,” he persisted after a few minutes.
Antony laughed. “You’re not one for letting things go, are you?”
Cole did not say anything but just waited for a proper response.
“I had a son. He died due to cancer,” Antony said concisely. "There is something about you that reminds me of him. Actually, seeing any kid brings back his memory but you seem to have his spirit. He was quite stubborn about things like you are,” he finished with a tiny smile that quickly vanished.
“You must miss him a lot,” Cole said seriously.
“I do.”
“I miss my dad too.”
Antony threw him a sad look and just nodded. “He’ll always be with you in spirit.”
“That’s what my mother says. I didn’t believe her at first but sometimes I feel like he’s there, watching over us.”
“Your mother is a wise woman, Cole.”
Despite the man’s scary appearance and the stranger danger routine that his mother had drilled into him from the start, Cole was starting to feel at ease around the man now.
“Are you alright?” Antony asked giving him a side glance after another lapse of silence.
“Yes,” Cole nodded.
“Don’t worry. She’s fine. You’ll see.”
They reached the hospital and as soon as Antony hit the brakes, Cole was fumbling with the car lock and was out before a word could be uttered.
“Thanks for driving me here, Mr. Baker,” he said through the window and started running towards the entrance.
“Wait up, Cole!”
Antony shook his head at the boy’s impatience and hurried after him. Cole was standing in the reception area, asking the nurse there about his mother.
“Sir, is this your son?” The nurse asked Antony as he came up from behind.
“Yes,” he said coolly. “My wife was driven to the hospital this morning with another injured woman. May Phillips and Alison Jones?”
The nurse checked her logs and rang someone up before nodding to them. “They’re in room number 56, on the second floor.”
Antony thanked her and gripped Cole’s upper arm before walking with him to the elevator. He did not want to lose the fast-paced boy in the hospital.
“Why did you lie to that nurse?”
“I didn’t want her to think you were roaming around without a guardian. They tend to call social services on that sort of a thing.”
Cole was silent as he absorbed the information. The elevator pinged as they got to the second fl
oor. The sterile smell was starting to get to Antony but he kept a grip on himself and located room number 56.
“Go ahead,” he said, nodding at Cole to enter.
Cole pushed open the door and looked back, “You’re not coming in?”
“No, I’ll wait out here. Go on.”
“Cole?!”
A warm hug enveloped him from behind before he could enter the room. He twisted in the hug and saw his mother’s worried face. “Mom! You’re alright!”
“Of course I am, honey. I’m so sorry I didn’t call. I got distracted and then…” an incredibly guilty look crept over May’s face.
Cole squeezed her tightly and then stepped back to look at her properly. There was a bandage around her right hand but that was it. She looked fine. “It’s okay, mom. I’m just glad you’re safe. How bad is that hand?”
“It’s just a scratch, don’t worry about…” Suddenly she paused and her eyes widened. “Wait, who told you I was here?”
Cole shuffled his feet and hesitantly jerked a thumb behind him.
“There is no-one behind you, Cole.”
He whirled around and sure enough, there was no-one at the spot where Antony had been standing just a minute ago.
“He was right there!”
“Who was?” May asked, perplexed.
“Antony.”
She stiffened. “Antony?”
“Mr. Baker. He drove me here.”
“Honey… Where did you meet Antony?”
Cole turned to his mother and saw her rigid posture. He stared at the ground and nervously tried to reply. “I, uh…”
“I picked him up from your house,” came the reply from behind them. Antony had come to his rescue.
“You what?!” May shouted. A few nurses threw disapproving looks her way and she toned her volume down. “Why did you go to my house, Antony?”
“Calm down, May. He was frantic and I thought he had the right to see that his mother was alright. He called to see why you weren’t home yet and I told him about the situation. He demanded that I take him to see you and I couldn’t refuse him, knowing he has your blood in him. He would have gone looking for you himself.” He paused and gave her a small smile. “You wouldn’t have wanted him wandering around all by himself now, would you? After all, this is the city and he’s just ten.”
Cole threw Antony a surprised look. He had not revealed his true age to him yet he seemed to know it. His heartbeat started to return to normal and he was thankful to the man for coming to his rescue. His mother would have thrown a proper fit if she knew he had been down at the bar. He was not even supposed to know where she worked but by chance he had discovered it one day. She had then made him promise that he would never come near her place of work, for his own safety.
The guilty expression was back on her face. “I’m so, so sorry, Cole for not calling. It’s really awful of me, I know.” She pulled him back into a hug. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“Mom… Relax. I’m not mad at you. I swear.”
She cupped his face and gazed at him fondly. “You might not be mad at me but I’m mad at me. Let me make it up to you, please?”
Cole did not want his mother to feel badly but he agreed, knowing she would not stop feeling guilty until he let her do something.
“Thank you, Antony,” she said, smiling at the man who was filling the narrow corridor with all his hulk.
“It was no trouble, May,” he said, feeling uncomfortable at being the recipient of the gratitude after having lied to her. “He is a good kid. By the way, how is Alison?”
Cole observed his mother and Mr. Baker the whole time they were there and he sensed there was something going on between the two. Both seemed uncomfortable around each other and it was not because of the boss-employee thing since Alison was at perfect ease with him. He wanted to be upfront with Mr. Baker and ask him if he was dating his mother but he did not want to do it in front of his mother.
He did not get the opportunity to ask him that day. Once they were back home, his mom called the school and got him excused for the day. Upon his insistence she rested for a bit and then they went down to his favorite comic book store.
“I love you, you know that, right?” May asked Cole as she stood in the doorway of his room and watched him get into bed.
“Yes, mom. And I love you too,” he said softly.
“You’re not just saying that because of the comic book store visit, are you?” she asked teasingly.
“It’s not just that…the ice cream did it too,” he grinned mischievously.
“Why, you little…!” She hit him lightly with one of the pillows and they just laughed until the color rose in their cheeks.
“I’m glad you’re okay, mom.”
“Me too, honey. Me too…” May whispered before kissing his forehead and wishing him goodnight.
She tucked him in and then turned out the lights. She stood in the doorway for a long time after that, staring tenderly at her son’s sleeping profile and thanking God for a wonderful gift in him.
“May the stars never blink out on you,” she said softly, before withdrawing from the room and returning to work.
♥●●♥
* * *
Chapter 4
Cole flung the towel over the rack and hurried, butt naked, towards the desk, unconcerned that the blinds were open or that the bedroom door was ajar. Glancing at the screen, he saw an unfamiliar number flashing across it.
“Hello?”
“Cole?” A soft, feminine voice asked.
He frowned in puzzlement, wondering who had his private number. Then he remembered the events from two nights ago.
“Yes. …Seraphina?”
“Hi! Good morning! I hope I didn’t wake you up,” Seraphina said, her voice sounding bubbly.
“Oh no, I was up ages ago. How are you?” Cole said, leisurely walking to his closet.
“Couldn’t have been any better,” she replied. “I was wondering if you were free today. There is this hiking trail I would love to check out and the weather is great outside… I was hoping you could join me?”
Cole could not stop his lips from quirking up. She got straight to the point. Hiking trail, did she say? He had been on many dates but never had his first date been to the wilderness. When he thought about it, he was not sure if it was even a date.
“I would love that.” He asked her the details and then offered to pick her up but she refused and told him to meet her at a common point.
“It’s a date then,” she said before she hung up.
The weather was indeed beautiful as Cole drove to the meeting point. The breeze was fresh and cool and the sun was not high in the sky yet. Today was a public holiday which was why he was not at the office slaving away and making others do the same. He had been so busy that the thought of Seraphina had almost slipped from his mind. Now he was glad that she’d called. Maybe her contagious excitement would get to him as well and drive away the sluggish feeling.
“You made it!”
At first glance, he thought the speaker had mistaken him for someone else. The second glance revealed that he had failed to recognize her and not the other way around. Seraphina was dressed in black shorts and a bright yellow tank top that read I Make Myself Laugh and had an image of the famous Jerry from Tom & Jerry holding his stomach and laughing for all his worth.
“You give very precise directions,” he said, staring at her bare legs.
She laughed, drawing his attention back to her face and that’s when he noticed that she was wearing a backpack.
“Do you want me to carry that for you?”
He had come empty-handed except for the bottle of water hooked to his cargo pants and some granola bars in his pockets. She had told him to just bring himself. He had not taken that completely in a literal way. There was a lunch basket in the back of his car prepared by his housekeeper. He figured they would need it afterwards. Ethan had offered to drive him but he gave the man the day off
and took out one of his most normal-looking cars.
“Oh, that’s fine.” She stooped down, slinging the bag to the ground, and drew her camera from it. “It’s much lighter now.”
“Shouldn’t you be off today?” he asked, gesturing at her equipment.
“You mean on account of it being a holiday and all that?” She smiled and shook her head to free her long ponytail from the strap of her camera. “Photographers don’t have a system like the rest of you. Though, I have a feeling that your schedule is also unlike that of others.”
“It is,” he nodded.
“Eighteen hours at the office, I assume?”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re accurate.”
She shrugged. “I guess if one wants to rise up the ranks quickly these days, that’s one way to go.”
Cole did not know what to say to that. It was like she was reading his mind and telling him bits about himself. They started on the trail and chattered as they went along. He kept asking her questions, not giving her much of an opportunity to ask some of her own.
“Where did you grow up?” she finally squeezed in.
“A small town in Kansas.”
She glanced at him with an inscrutable expression and then a smile appeared. “That must have been nice.”
Seraphina had not expected a call from Cole immediately after the party. But two days later, she found herself impatient so she made the first move. The day was bright and perfect for an outdoor excursion. Her spirits rose even more when she spotted Cole at the trailhead. He looked so different from his usual self. The casual outdoor wear fit him snugly, outlining his well-trimmed body and giving him a completely carefree look that was usually missing when he was in the suit.
However, getting him to open up was difficult. He did not give her many chances to ask questions, directing them towards her instead but whenever she managed to sneak one in, she got vague answers in return.
“Actually I was only there only for a small portion of my childhood, so I should say New York instead,” he continued.
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