Chapter 2 Undiluted Passion

MPD- Chapter Two

"My priceless Diamond"

All traces of sorrow seemed to have vanished and his joy had returned as he held her with passion, and looked at her with interest. Jack twisted his hands nervously together on her lap. How to proceed from here? She had fleetingly considered this moment in the past few weeks, months and probably, years of his absence, but she had no idea when it finally arrived, and it found her so helpless.

''There is something I must go and get,' she eventually murmured.

''There is nowhere I can go. I'm home-alone', Jack replied.

He was true to his words. When Mimi returned, he seemed hardly to have shifted position. Without a word, she handed him the letter which she was carrying in her hand.

As Jack slit open the envelope and began to read. The room became so still that Mimi could hear all the noises outside, the sound of the distant sea, the soft breeze stirring the grass and trees into rustling movement, almost as though magnified. She waited patiently until Jack had finished, not saying a word when he looked at her and then back to the letter, which he re-read three times.

There was a heavy silence. Jack seemed to wrapped up in his thoughts, and Mimi did not want to disturb them. Conflicting emotions surged through him. Painful memories of her past absence........ It was a terribly cynical thought, but there was a distinct air of frustration about the letter Mimi gave Jack. Which was unacceptable from Jack's point of view. At this time, tears flooded Jack's eyes.

"You are leaving, Please don't leave me", Said Jack in a sober mood....... "

"You can't accept this job offer and besides Azuma-city is not a safe place for a single pretty ones like you," please!........................... .(interrupted by Mimi)

" I had already spread my hands to embrace my dreams. I have waited for this job appointment for the period of three months now, as to help my poor family and especially, my brother John, who dropped out of school, ever since my father retired from his work .. Honey, my departure doesn't mean that I won't continue to love you or that I'm leaving you, no... I loved you with all my heart and nothing will change that.... So please bear with me, I beg of you..... Please let us not argue on this", Mimi said pleading.

She had packed her bag ready to go. The traveling tickets had been processed already. She was leaving as though on a jet plane, not knowing when she would be back again. Thinking about leaving her boyfriend, she felt so lonesome in the whole wide and wild again. But the force that was dragging her towards Azuma-city was more than a magnetic pull to which she felt helpless.

Homeward-bound from the fields, nightfall was approaching with the speed of a hurricane, with a sense of urgency as though it had a date with fate. The surrounding bush and trees could not but feel its' darkening ambience enveloping the entire landscape . A mirror riverside weak droughts tried unsuccessfully to spiral into an eddying wind, bringing up dust and dry leaves on the footpath as she sinuously manoeuvred her way gracefully through the many turns and curves that compromised the course of home coming. The evening birds had a field day hopping up and down flapping their wings in a bid to catch and devour the insects that were now chirping and chirruping in their numbers. Here and there a branch leaned across the path as though they paid obeisance to the returning queen.

All of a sudden, there came the hooting of an owl as though it was calling for a halt to the carnage below between the birds and the insects. And as if on a cue, the dust triggered off a bout of sneezes that made Mimi's skin to crawl and get covered in goose bumps. Her mood was changing to that of premonition as each ominous sign tried very hard to out-do its predecessor. As she hit her foot against a stone, her already frayed mood switched gears in the fashion of an auto, and swung into outright fear that sent electrical trickles and shivers through her entire being.

" I will be home soon safe and dry, and then there will be dad's out-stretched arms and the usual warm embrace as welcoming salutation." She mumbled to herself.

The hooting of the owl came again and again in quick succession, And instinctively panic took the better of her. She began to trot and later broke into full scale run, supporting her breasts with her cupped palms. Rivulets of perspiration were now coursing down her face and arms. Her chest heaved up and down with each stride as she sucked in the fresh and invigorating evening breeze through her enveloping darkness, the breeze fanning her face.

On sighting the Ray of light that escaped through the windows of her father's house, her fright, like factory workers on the afternoon retreated, giving way to the chirpy feeling of being home in one piece. This feeling was like an age-long rite she had arrived home breathless from her perambulations, Jack's apartment.

There was always that final heart-exploding gallop into the vicinity of her home. But on this occasion, their neighbor's dog was whining persistently like it had an urgent message to deliver. This left a sudden sinking feeling in her. And instead of rusting in for her cup of refreshing water, she panned her gaze in different directions, becoming aware, for the first time in a long while, the mound of earth that marked her mother's tomb. In that instant, she remembered with panic that dad had not honoured all her efforts with his usual welcoming hug.

"Dad!" she screamed. There was no response. "Where is dad?" she wondered aloud. He was not in the habit of straying away from home in the dark ... and ... and... definitely not on a day like this. She dashed into the house and was abruptly stopped in her track. Dad lay on the settee with most part of his body lying lifeless on the carpet. With his hat askew, he almost looked like Michael Jackson in a death dance in his musical video clip, "Thriller". But this was no video, and the man with the hat askew was no 'Michael', let alone 'Jackson'. That was her father, the first love of her life, her hope for tomorrow that now seemed elusive, the only surviving parent of her nuclear family.

With no mother, and now, father, her world began to crumble before her like a pack of cards. "Dad is dead!" she whispered looking around as if addressing an invisible audience. The dog stuck its head into the room and whined again as though on a condolence mission. She snapped out of her reverie; back to reality, sheer stack reality at that. In the manner of professional undertakers, but without training, she deftly arranged her father's corpse straight on the settee, closing his open eye-lids, and set about informing the necessary relatives. The future loomed before her like a fire-breathing monster, and she braced herself ready to confront it, prepared to take her future in her hands. Tears misted her eyes and rolled slowly down her cheeks like twin stream tributaries ending up a water fall from chin to her chest.... At the top of her voice, she screamed bitterly and her shout of sorrow drew all the neighbors, uncle, aunties, cousins, brother and relatives to gathered and mourned with her.