The Song Of His

4. Ran away with Mrs. Cane

The talk was everywhere when I came out of my last class. The talk about the most handsome male species walking the dull corridors of the school. And everyone wanted to know more about them. Know if they were models or celebrity's kids. Guys wanted to hang out with them in hopes of their dream girls just to talk to them, while girls wanted a piece of the mysterious Adonides. The only useful information that came floating with the rumours were their names and that they had to relocate due to some mysterious reason to a coastal city. Well, the city did yield many notable people and the life here wasn't all that boring, though it had a below average population.

I shook my head to throw those thoughts out of my brain for some peaceful time. But brain being brain went back to thinking. And this time it was again thinking about those Adonides, that it had been doing the entire day, no matter how many times I tried to stop it from doing it.

West Zervos. That was the name that had been embedded into my head for he whole day. The rumours that the Adonides had deep mesmerizing voices made butterflies flutter in my stomach. I always had a thing for deep voices. Let alone the owner of the deep voice was drop dead gorgeous.

Another rumour had it that they were very anti-social. If one wanted to be stared at awkwardly and then being rudely chased away, that one had to just walk up to one of those Adonides and greet him with a cheerful hello! That would do the job perfectly.

Shaking my thoughts away for the umpth time, I looked up to find Lavinia skipping her way towards me. The big smile plastered on her face had me wondering what might have transpired to have her grinning to the extent of tearing her lips. Even the Cheshire cat would be jealous of her right now.

With a final skip, she stood before me leaving all her front teeth for display. I just stared at her unable to ponder what she was doing.

"You know what? Mr. Handsome shot down Kassandra for clinging onto him!" I knew it, she couldn't keep whatever it was in her stomach. She had to spit it out to anyone!

"Mr. Handsome?" I rose my eyebrow in confusion. Who had she named like that?

"Dylan Barbosa," she resumed grinning like a loon.

"And what nickname have you given the other two?" I asked curiously.

"Mr. Hot for Kai Barbosa and Mr. Sexy for West Zervos." I could tell that she was proud of her naming skill but not me. I felt my unintentional nicknames was far better than her cliche ones. Green Adonis, amber Adonis and violet Adonis. The colors were from their vivid eyes to distinguish between them. I happened to get a chance of looking into the eyes of other two during the classes. I know, those nicknames weren't very creative, hence not a very proud-worthy accomplishment.

Coincidentally, I happened to share a few classes with all of them. Though, I tried my level best to steer clear of their path, for I knew that they were like my wildest fantasy, I still couldn't stop myself from observing them.

I cherished their presence from afar. It was more like looking at the celebrity when they walked past you and that was how I was going to keep it. Only had I known that destiny had other plans for me.

I could hear Lavinia's blabbering in the background while I nodded absentmindedly at her words. My real attention was actually taken up by the missing boys. Where had they disappeared all of a sudden? Was it really a publicity stunt or was it all real? Well, it did look real. The walk back home had a very chatty Lavinia and a spaced out me.

"Carlene, you are listening to me right?" She grabbed my elbow to get my attention.

"Of course." I blinked a few times trying to recall what she had last said but came up empty. But it didn't really matter my best friend, she shone a brilliant smile and resumed with her talk about the Adonides. I came to a stop when we reached Lavinia's home and I gave her a quick hug which I usually did whenever we reached her home before waving once. And I was off to my home sweet home.

It took another fifteen minutes to reach my adobe. A familiar tin blue truck parked in our driveway turned the ends to my lips up. The thought of coming home to find mom cooking in the kitchen was euphoric! It was rare to find her home at these times since she worked night shifts and many a times took up day shifts too to make the ends meet. Being a single mother who was just a high school graduate was pretty hard for her. But she never let me work to help her. She always wanted me to study well and end up better than her in the case of job. That was what she always keep telling me.

Being my mother's daughter, I too had her habits of saving money. Instead of taking up a bus back home, I opted for walking to save extra dollars. I tried to take home made sandwiches as lunch to cut down the expenses. That was one of the reason why I had learned to cook. Not only that the regular house chores, good grades and kitchen gardening to prevent frequent visits to the supermarket was my part of the job, it made me feel like I was contributing something back to my mother.

I walked in to smell fresh lasagna aroma all around the house. Changing into my slippers, I dropped my backpack on sofa before making my way into the kitchen. Over there, working behind the kitchen island was a beautiful lady with an apron. Her faded trousers and a light pink shirt had fresh stains from the various sauces she used in the recipe. After all, she was my one hell of a messy mother who didn't own an apron, not that we couldn't afford it. It was just that she didn't like an 'adult's bib' around neck. Her caramel hair and light eyes twinkled in the sunlight, that was pouring in through the window. She looked more active and enthusiastic than she usually did. The light in her eyes sparkled when she looked up to meet my eyes.

"Carlene! Why didn't you say that you were home?" She asked stirring something in the pan. The smile on her face and the warmth in her tone refreshed me making me not feel tired anymore.

"I didn't know you were home today." I sat on the stool on the other side of the island and watched her curiously for sometime before asking, "is someone coming over today?"

She smiled looking at me before removing the pan from the stove and plated the fried veggie, "why? Should I be cooking only if there's someone coming over?"

"I didn't mean it like that," I poured myself some orange juice and took a sip.

"I know." She flashed another smile in my way before removing the lasagna from the oven. My mouth watered at it's sight as she cut a part of it and put it into my plate.

"One of the customers from the restaurant offered me a typewriter's job after seeing how fast I've become in using the keyboard. The salary is much better than both of my jobs put together and the working hours are lesser," she stated plating herself some of the lasagna.

Swallowing the half chewed bite, I replied, "well, that's a great news! You will not be as tired as you usually get! From when are you starting?"

"He called me for an interview the coming Friday. They will inform about the other details after that. I am just so nervous and excited about it." I could see the enthusiasm mixed with the fear of rejection exhibit on her exhausted face. To ease her anxiety, I got up from my and walked around the island until I reached her before engulfing her in as tight hug as I could exert.

It was our usual, hugging each other tightly whenever the other one felt like they would sink a titanic with their nervous energy. And it did help. The bear tight hugs spoke in volumes about how we were there for each other, having each other's backs.

"I believe in You. You will rock it," I whispered in her ear before withdrawing back to look into her tearing eyes.

She delivered an adoring smile as she whispered back, "thank you."

I grinned back in reply. It felt good to make her feel relaxed. After all the hardwork she did, at the very least, she deserved that. She was my everything. I never knew who my dad was. The only thing I knew about him was that he was in navy when my mom met him. They had briefly been together before he went off with a mission for six months. My mom never found him after that. She couldn't even say if he was alive or not.

She always had a look of distant memory running through her head, like it pained her to talk about it. About him. So, I didn't pressurise her with further questions. We avoided talking about him.

"Carlene, sweetie. Can you please take this to the Blackgoats? I heard Ronda arrived this morning," mom asked handing me another bowl of lasagna that she had cooked.

Mumbling a sure, I took the bowl from her and headed out to our neighbours.

*******

"Why don't you sit down, darling?" Mrs. Blackgoat suggested as she went into the kitchen with the bowl of lasagna. Mr. Blackgoat was busy staring at the repeat telecast of a recent baseball match. His eyebrows furrowed into permanent frown. His lips pursed in a thin line.

He was quite intimidating to even look at. It always made me wonder: was he frequently annoyed or had he born that way?

The abruptly slow paced stamping of foot echoed through the house dragging my attention towards the stairs where Ronda Blackgoat, mother of Mr. Blackgoat climbing down the stairs. Her eyes lightened up as her lips turned up at their wrinkly edges. Sometimes, it made me wonder how she ended up with a no-smile-Mr. Blackgoat, her son. Just because the mother was all smiles and rainbows but the son always had a gloomy cloud hovering over his head.

"Carlene, my darling! How are you?" Ronda doddered her way towards me making me immediately get up and go to her aid.

"I'm fine. What about you? What about your walking stick, that old chap of yours?" I asked looking around to spot her wooden cane.

"Ran away with Mrs. Cane," Mr. Blackgoat deadpanned still staring at the cheering audience on the television screen.

Ronda chuckled at his words, shaking her head, "don't mind him, dear. He's a bit sour from not being able to eat his favourite desert."

Mr. Blackgoat's frown deepened at his mother's words but he didn't care to acknowledge it more than that. I just gave a tiny nod in reply. Being diabetic caused excessive grumpiness in Mr. Blackgoat, especially when he had a sweet tooth with a nasty mouth. It was very hard for the snarky comments to stay in his stomach but whenever Ronda was around, he miraculously kept his trap shut. Mother's magic, I'll tell you.

Ronda nodded towards the door to the patio. Surely she would want to spend most of her time in the sun. She loved sun like anything! Whenever she could, she always preferred sitting outside, tanning under the sun. Even when it was the hottest day of the century, she would rather bake in the sun than go inside. Even though it was night already, she was keen to step out for once, must have been the weather.

The patio was nothing much, it was open, allowing a view to my home, with some chairs and a low wooden coffee table. The grass was recently cut and the only thing separating my house from Ronda's was the narrow cemented path that led to my backyard. We sat there savouring the silence of the night and clear sky. Somewhere far in the trees, a owl hooted in the calm night.

"How is your school going?" Ronda finally spoke grabbing my attention.

"It's fine. But I think you've heard about the incident that took place?" I asked her still intrigued by the mystery behind the disappeared boys.

"What incident?" Clearly she hadn't heard about it, yet. After all, she had only arrived today after a long vacation.

"The incident of two boys drowned into the ocean and disappeared," my words immediately made the color from her face drain. It was clear she knew something, something that none of us had an idea about.