Irish Fiction: We Come Back: Vol. 1: Chapter 6.3-Good Night Sun
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Good Night Sun
I allowed my father to walk me to the stairs,
and rather than go outside, I decided to go to my room. Before doing so, I held my father’s arm and kissed him, and gave him the strongest hug I could muster.
“I love you Papa,” I whispered letting tears fall on to his jacket.
He squeezed me tighter, carefully keeping any sign of a wet eye hidden, and let me go up to my room, staying at the bottom of the stairs until I had disappeared from sight. He decided he would take a brandy in the drawing room before heading up to bed, to calm his flustered nerves. While he was pouring a drink, Aubrey came into the room, looking for Raea.
“She went up to her room. She has endured quite a lot as of late.”
Before Aubrey could respond, his ring lit up.
He said goodnight to his father, and hugged him before he turned to go upstairs. He stopped at the doorway of the drawing room and looked back. His father was sitting by the fire, completely consumed in thought. If he had shown any sign of even noticing Aubrey’s lingering presence, Aubrey would have comforted him, but as he did not, Aubrey felt no guilt in leaving him to drink his brandy.
When I reached my room, I sighed, mostly from exhaustion.
I lied on my bed for a minute, before deciding to message Aubrey. He was almost never home, and I valued his company so much that I wanted to visit, even if I had to do it in my room. Only moments after I sent it, I heard a soft knock on my door.
“Come in,” I called.
He opened the door and came in. He asked if I wanted to Trix to join us, and I did, but not yet, having been reminded of my need to speak to him about her alone. He opened the window-paned door in my room that led out to my terrace. It was a warm beautiful night, and he set up my two loveseats with blankets, and rang for Andean.
“Before Andean gets here Aubrey, I need to speak to you,”
I gestured for him to sit on the bed.
He did, rather curious as to what I wanted to say, though he assumed it was to do with my visit to Earth. Needless to say, he was rather surprised to hear me ask about his feelings for Trix. During a few different points of the brief, yet intense conversation he noticed tears well up in my eyes, though I suppressed them.
'Why had she become so emotional
Should he have hope she cared for him more than she was saying? He had kissed Trix, and knew she didn’t know that, but still.' I had stood up and was now leaning against the terrace wall looking out into the night. He had mistaken my silence for longing, and as he got up to touch my shoulder, Andean knocked. Aubrey answered it regretfully, requesting tea for three, and asking Andean to send Trix up as well.
He threw a blanket over me, and went and opened the door for Trix. Seeing her standing there in her lovely spritely manner, bouncing back and forth on her feet, her eyes sparkling with honesty, he knew not how to behave. Trix immediately went to me before he could utter a word, and braided my hair loosely for me. She knew I loved it, and in that prior moment, her shyness in seeing Aubrey look at her, overcame her. When Andean knocked, Aubrey let him in.
“Out on the terrace please, Andean.”
After Andean had set out the tea and biscuits, and had gone back downstairs, there was a small stone fire pit that Aubrey had taken the liberty of lighting in order to ensure warmth to all.
We all sipped our tea in silence, each feeling a bit better because of it.
“Raea, do you want to tell me what has happened, or do you want Trix too, as I am sure she knows?”
I thought about it for a moment. I knew there was no secret I could keep for long from him, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to know everything. Trix didn’t know the recent update from my father, and I decided in that moment that it would remain a secret between my father and me, until further notice.
“Trix, will you tell him?” Trix nodded, and told from the beginning to the end, an exact play by play of what she had seen occur, what I had told her occurred (with the exception of the physical intimacy bit), and how it appeared to her.
Meanwhile, we passed the Peacon around, letting smoke rise around us.
It was really quite healing, and made everything in my life seem much more manageable, especially during times of high stress, such as these.
When Trix had finished summing up the past two days, which seemed like it really should have been a year’s worth of change, Aubrey felt he understood everything. Why I hadn’t responded, why his father looked as if he had aged fifteen years overnight, and why his mother seemed to be in her own world. They were all afraid, and he was hurt.
“Raea, you cannot see him again.”
“I beg your pardon, Aubrey?”
I stirred uncomfortably in my seat, as did Trix. Aubrey had never told me what to do before. I didn’t like it because I respected his opinion above everyone else's.
“Come on Raea. You've had the consequences explained to you,” he stated as if there was nothing more to be said.
“And?” I shrugged; if he could pretend that it was an easy choice, so could I.
“And? Do we mean so little to you that you can give us up that easily for some… human?” he was clearly more upset by these events than I realized, and had stood up as if to leave.
“I didn’t say that and you know that’s not true,” I whispered, holding back tears.
Now he was the one who was sorry.
He took a deep breath to steady himself. He was used to catering to my emotions as my closest friend, when it was called for, and in this case, it certainly was, for I appeared to be in no state to cry anymore that evening.
“I apologize. Of course I know you don’t want to leave us. I know you have a plan of action, as you always do. Forgive me. I am very tired, and I think I will turn in.”
When he stood up to leave, it felt as if my heart would break.
I could barely handle my father’s disappointment though it came rarely, but the idea of Aubrey being disappointed in me, was not something I was prepared to handle. I grabbed his hand. He looked down at me in my love-seat. He never meant to hurt me, in fact he did his best to avoid it, but trying to find the words to express how close I was to danger, and how much that harmed him, slipped through his fingers. He couldn’t even allow himself to feel the pain that I was clearly in love with someone else.
Instead he spoke in Etherian, “When you are gone, I wish you were near, send me your love, and I’ll know you’re here.”
My stone lit up as a tear rolled down my cheek.
I was, after all, a hopelessly emotional creature, more so now than ever. My father had told us all once, a long time ago, that he had believed at some point I had been Calypso, the goddess of the sea, and therefore was still quite capable of procuring a storm of emotions.
“I think I will turn in as well,” Trix stood up, suddenly feeling very tired also.
I told myself not to take it personally, and reminded myself of how tired I in fact was too. After Aubrey and Trix had put the fire out and helped me close up the terrace, I set fire to my candle by my bed, and crawled in.
By the time my candle had died down, I was far away in the world of rest and relaxation.
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