Fires in Hearts
by Aivars Liepa
I need say great thanks to Karen Mollet
for her patience into editing out my errors of grammar,
and making good comments about this story.
Writers notes:
1) this story is wroted into continuity of "Sisters", but stays independent of the main story. In continuity, its a prequel.
2) there is lot of sad scenes, and one scene where harsh language and curses are used. If such a things offend you, read no further.
3) all the persons and events into this story are fruit of my imagination. You may agree or disagree with my looks. If you disagree, I may only suggest you taking a pen and writing to me with your comments. I will be glad to hear praises too.
And now to the story.
Fires in Hearts
Forest fire.
Nothing can be more deadly for any small animal than to be caught in it.
"Except forest fires started by humans," Geegaw cursed.
He and few other small jungle animals were standing neck-deep in a pool of water, half-covered by an overhanging rock outcrop.
Two hours ago he was a medium-prospecting aviator doing somewhat dangerous, but profitable, cargo and passenger runs over southwest Asia. Now, his plane was turning into ashes at the clearing, his partner was dead, and he will not bet a dime on himself getting out from here alive.
Fire was raging around them, fed by napalm and dried-out jungle foliage.
The lack of oxygen and poisonous smoke had already made the two weakest girls faint and he was holding his passenger's nose out of the water. They all had wet rags tied around their faces, but still the smoke was getting through.
"Soon all the wood will burn out..." a large fruit bat said.
Before Geegaw could reply, behind them was a loud crash. The next moment, chips of rock and glowing coals started falling around them.
One of the bats cried when a burning coal hit him on his shoulder. They all took a deep breath of air and dived underwater to escape the rain of fire.
When the small mouse in his hands stopped moving, Geegaw surfaced again. Coals still fell, but now in a much less rate than before. It seemed that the tree had broken and shattered on the rock.
"Oh, no! Don't die on my hands!" Geegaw turned his attention on the mouse girl he was holding. He slapped her nose few times before she coughed and spat out a mouthful of brown water, then, after see her breathing stabilized, he again tied a piece of his sleeve around her head. Only then did he straighten his own mask.
Five... Five had made it out from the doomed jungle. Only five from the large village...
The fire continue raging, but Geegaw's thoughts turned back for a time... to a faraway island, three months earlier...
"Today you are most beautiful," Geegaw whispered into his partner's ear, slowly stepping into immortal Strauss waltz rhythm.
"You too..." girl whispered back.
"I love you, Jenny..."
The gray mouse blushed.
They were dancing on roof of a small bungalow, together, with the few other pairs of mice, bats and rats. Music was provided by a human's gramophone below, where there, too, was one pair slowly turning in dance.
"I... love you too...." the girl whispered.
"Jenny..."
"Yes, Gee?"
"After this one travel, I will have enough money to settle down. And I will ask your parents to give blessing to our marriage."
"They will agree."
"And if they do not, I will kidnap you..."
"And we will be together..."
"Forever..."
The music had ended, but they were still moving; looking into each other's eyes and seeing nothing else...
Sharp coughing returned Geegaw back to sour reality. The girl he was supporting had lost her mask.
"O, come on!" he sighed, straightening her and tearing another strip from his shirt for a makeshift filter. "Don't give up, listen! We will get out of this..."
"No..."
"Hold together!"
The fire continued burning.
It was night, but the glowing coals that were shattered everywhere were still providing enough light, when the survivors waded through the pool and out on the hot ground. Around them laid a wasteland. Few trees were still standing without leaves and branches--bare skeletons. Ashes covered all - ground, pool water, their fur.
Geegaw slowly walked to the small mound of twisted metal at the middle of the clearing and kneeled.
"Forgive me, Jim..." he whispered.
The girl he had saved limped toward the village. She looked at the place with big eyes. Probably, she was still in shock, her mind not managing to cope with reality.
"All dead..." she was whispering. "All dead... All dead..."
Three bats were talking among themselves near the pool. Then the biggest one came to Geegaw.
"We will try to reach the village to the hills west of here. We will fly. Sorry, Gee."
Geegaw tensed. They were right, of course. They had helped him and the girl to escape from the fire, risking with their own skins, but now... Now they would only be slowed down by him. Pragmatism always won.
"Will you pass word about us, when you get to the village?" he asked, in a failing voice.
"Sure, Gee. We will ask them to come after you."
"I think I will try to reach the river."
"Farewell, Gee."
The bat returned to the two others, and then they all took to the air. Geegaw looked after them. The girl was flying unstable, and they may be forced to carry her... They can't carry him and Sumio...
Geegaw again started searching the ashes around the remains of the "Albatross"...
Sumio walked through the destroyed village. Few hours ago there was life. Children played their games, elders did the adult jobs. She was busy taking images for her newspaper. An American pilot was sitting with a few locals, bargaining. An Englishman was standing in the village center, looking at the sky...
Then they came...
Explosions shaked ground, and smoke appeared to the east of the village. Human aircraft, at high speed, shot over them dropping more bombs.
"Air raid!" someone shouted.
The Englander caught her hand and start dragging her after him to the fish pool at the end of village, together with few other locals.
"Gee! To the plane!" The American shouted.
"Too late!"
"No! You will burn if you stay!"
New explosions, much closer than before. They were a dozen meters from the pool, "Albatross" engines were roaring, the plane turning around on the runway to take off.
And then a bomb hit the village; square in its center. She didn't see much. Geegaw and a few locals were shielding her from the worst of blast and she, together with them, flew and landed in the pool, but while she was in the air, she saw the firewall catch the plane and it exploded...
Of the next few hours, she remembered only pieces. The fire. The smoke. The hands that held her up. The voice that gave her strength to survive...
Sumio took a last look at the village. The only way to tell where the huts had been was to look for the shattered tools and pots.
She limped back to the pool and found only the pilot, staring at the remains of his plane.
"Where..." violent coughing bent her over, breaking her speech. The pilot caught her before she fell. "Where'd they go?" she whispered.
"To another village. They promised to send rescuers after us."
"They dropped us?"
"We were ballast to them. We can't fly, and they couldn't carry us. We would only slow them down..."
"We will never escape..."
"Maybe. But you can't tell that without trying."
A group of mice were sitting on the small, human-made piers at the riverside and looking upstream.
"See anything, Jim?" the small, brown mouse asked from the rollchair.
"Nothing," the long, gray mouse reply, lowering his looking-tube and raising a glass of distilled water to his lips.
"Damn! Won promised to be here yesterday."
"It's East. There is no rush. A day sooner, a day later..." brown mouse with yellow paws noted philosophically.
"No rush... Hell! I am feeding you all for weeks! You do not eat leftovers! And these jungle devils too!" brown mouse cursed.
"Calm down... Here he sails..." the second mouse said, turning his looking glass to the meandering river.
The others both jumped up and peered at the small boat, which slowly slid downstream. It appeared to be made from one big leave.
"It can't be Won! Oh, if he got a small boat instead of the jonka, I will strangle him personally!" the small mouse screamed.
"Calm down, it's not Won. It's some Westerner... And he is having problems with steering... Dick, lets go help him!"
Dropping the looking glass, both big mice ran back to the shore, down below the peers where a small boat with six sleepy mice stood. After some shouting, curses and screams, the boat pulled off from shore and rowed to intercept the small boat at midstream.
They caught up with it and Dick jumped over to the other boat. He only started to talk, when stranger fell forward, loosing conscience.
"He is burning with fever. Jim! Eddie!" Dick called to shore. "Get a doctor!"
With the help of the rowers, they got the ill mouse over to their own boat, and then Dick noticed another mouse, covered with rags, at the bottom of boat. He looked closer.
For a moment he thought he was seeing a corpse, but then a faint moan escaped from her lips and Dick straightened.
"There is another!" he shouted.
Soon both boats were closing in on the shore, where a mob was already gathering to look at the victims.
Geegaw opened his eyes, silently wishing for the dream to stay... It stayed...He didn't awaken in a wet jungle, or in a shaking boat... He was in a bed, under a white-painted roof... But how did he get here?
"Hello? Are you awake now?" a pleasant voice asked.
Geegaw turned his head, and saw a middle-aged mouse at his side.
"It's not a dream this time?..."
"No, it isn't. My name's Silvia. And yours?"
"Geegaw..."
"Geegaw... Family name?"
"Hackwrench."
Silvia lowered her ballpen.
"Geegaw Hackwrench? What's that for a name?"
"My name."
Doctor looked at him carefully.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"For all... my life..."
"Good. How are you feeling?"
"Never better... for a year..."
Doctor raised her eyebrows. "You lived in the jungle for a year?"
"I'm not sure... lost count of days..."
"What happened to you?"
"Get caught... in firebombing... Lost plane... lost partner..."
Doctor suppressed exclamation of shock.
"Who is the girl?" she asked after a moment.
"Girl?" Geegaw whispered slowly.
"We found a girl with you. She is still unconscious."
"Sumio... She was my passenger... was together with me..."
Geegaw walked down the hospital hallway, only slightly balancing on his stick.
"Great," doctor Silvia Hardi walked at his side. "One more procedure, good training, and no one will tell you once needed a stick to walk."
"Walk yes. But can I fly?"
Her answer was uncomfortable silence.
"You can tell me. I can stand it."
"I'm afraid your legs will no longer stand the long stress. The stiffness will disappear, the muscles will grow back, but the bit into cords... And your heart too is..."
"What with my heart?" Geegaw stopped and turned to her.
"I don't like the side-sounds of it. It definitely needs to be tested better..."
"I'm leaving tomorrow."
"You can't!" Silvia caught his hand.
"I can and I will! I was lost for a year and two months!"
Silvia shaked her head.
"A week now will make no difference, Geegaw..." she said.
Geegaw made no reply.
Geegaw knocked, then pushed the door open.
The young mouse pulled herself into sitting position, smiling a timid smile to him.
"I'm leaving early tomorrow, on a cargo ship, to Bangkok. I came to say goodbye..."
The smile stayed on Sumio's face, only her features shifted little. One who can read faces easily may tell the smile was forced now. Unfortunately, Geegaw wasn't one. Silvia was. And she knew what would be said next. The lies. Lies for safety, but lies anyway...
"I knew... all the time... Good luck."
"Don't worry, doctor Silvia will take care of you... She's a good doctor... You will recover, and..."
"It will be all okay with me, Gee. Don't worry..."
After some silence, Geegaw limped out of the room.
"She loves you!" Silvia said, looking at Geegaw packing his bag. Not that there was much to pack - a pair of new shirts, pilot's goggles, and the polished stick he still was carrying with him. "Why?"
"I promised to return. And I will keep my word. Always."
But Geegaw couldn't raise his eyes to meet Silvia's look when he walked away from hospital.
The plane landed and Geegaw jumped out from wheel compartment as soon as it slowed down. He fell on all four, turned over and dashed out from the runway. Over halfway through the field, he had to stop from a dull pain under his ribs.
"Damn, Silvia! It's nothing!" he cursed, slowing down to a walk. After a few moments, the pain left. Geegaw start running again.
Here was the place he would live for the rest of his life...
The summer house; on the roof they had danced that last time...
The palm forest; they had walked through it so many times...
The fountain, at which they had kissed for the first time... After the mad run from the house cat, whose milk tasse they had drained together...
This was the village that would become his home, after the long travels...
Geegaw passed the queen's hut, then the hut of the old chief, queen's chancellor...
He could hear her voice from her hut at the end of street... laughing... then words: "See dear? She's trying to walk!"
Another voice, much lower: "I see."
Again, Jenny's voice: "It's so early. She will be something special."
Geegaw frowned. Had some of Jenny's brothers come to visit her?
Geegaw turned around the last corner and now could see the owners of those voices... Jenny, even more beautiful that he remembered... Another mouse in a white shirt, a mountain of muscles... and small child, trying to stand up. She had golden hair and was tipping around on still unstable legs and guguing in baby talk.
"See William! She is walking!"
"Great, great. Come to daddy."
The child tipped toward the mouse, but stumbled and fell. She started crying, and Jenny rushed to calm her.
Geegaw silently stepped back into the shadows...
Geegaw ran down the street, a jungle fire of his nightmares in his head. Jenny was married! She has a child from another! Another mouse was in the place that he had thought was his... And if they weren't happy, then he was as blind as a mole! Damn women! A year had passed, and he was forgotten!! All promises, all swears.... all lies...
He ran, not looking at road, trying to shut off the pain he felt... He ran, 'till his breath shut off, and he fell at roadside and lay there, feeling the coldness of the autumn earth entering his body, cooling him down...
Soon, the physical pain was gone. The mental pain would stay forever...
Geegaw raised his head from the bar and looked at his empty glass ahead. Was it his sixth? Or seventh? Does he care now?
"Another!" he called, dropping another human dollar on the bar.
Barmouse look at him, his face showing compassion.
"Man, You will solve nothing by drowning it in whiskey," he said, slowly filling the glass to half and placing it on the bar.
"What do you know... I... I nearly died... A year.... A damn long year I walked through a jungle... I climbed hills and waded swamps... Laid down with fever... I froze like a dog at nights, when I couldn't make a fire and had no roof over my head... I walked, and the one thing that kept me going - SHE!!!SHE IS WAITING FOR ME!!! I NEED TO RETURN!!!"
Geegaw fell back on the chair, he had rised to shout out his anger.
"Only to find, she wasn't..." the barmouse sighed. "Man, the story is as old as the universe..."
"Yes, she wasn't... When I returned, I found her with a child on hand, and another at her side..."
"Such is the world, friend... But drinking will not help you. What did you do when you found that out? Beat him? Or her? Or both?"
"I ran away..." Geegaw whispered. "I feared, I would kill her, when I looked at them. God, how beautiful she was..."
"And the worst is, You are still loving her..."
"Yes..."
Barmouse looked at Geegaw, then poured another glass and put it at his side.
"I am poor advice-giver, man... But maybe you need to talk with her?"
"Why?" Geegaw looked at him.
"Well, it may do nothing... You will never know..."
"What I will never know? That she is happy with him?!! That they are having child so old, they had to make 'im a week after I left?!! THAT, I will not know?!!"
"You're afraid of finding out the truth."
"Yes I am! Darn right I am! Afraid! Do you know, I fought a snake with my bare hands in that darn wet jungle! Afraid..."
"Then write her a letter. Let her know you are back and alive. If she felt something toward you, she will come to talk..."
William Lait took another mouthful from the bottle of whiskey and again read the paper he was holding in his hands. He was sitting at his most beloved place, hidden from all the world by bushes, with a beautiful view at the bay and sandy beach. He was looking not at this beauty, but at a stained piece of paper.
""Dear Jenny..." whore!... "I have returned." Yes, You have, mister. Now what? "I couldn't earlier..." Hear, hear. Make a child and run for hills... Maybe you have a conscience, mister Ge-eGaa-w? "Remember our promises? I feel we need to talk..." Talk! WE need talk, mister! We! And I will talk with you heavily, I swear! "I will wait at the Sammy's place two days from today..." Yes, You will wait. Very long, you will wait! HA! No way, mister Gee--Gaa-w! She's mine now! And she will not go! Yes, she will not go. Know why? Because I read this letter! And she will never get it! Whore! I know, I know... She would have run after you, had she only known... Whore! "If I meant something in your life, I ask you to come." Meant? You're right, mister! Very much, you meant to her. Only now she is mine! And will stay mine! Mine! Mine!"
"Wrote to her?" the barmouse asked, placing glass before Geegaw.
"Yes. Thanks, but no drinking today."
"As you wish." The glass was given to another mouse. "And?"
"And nothing."
"How long ago did you get the courage?" the mouse looked into Geegaw's eyes.
"Eight days back..." Geegaw sighed. "I waited. First day, I feared I couldn't look into her eyes... Second day was even worse... I felt guilty... Then passsed day, another... I hoped less, but still hoped... Today I understand... She will not come... I knew that from the beginning, but fooled myself with hope..."
Barmouse sighed. "At least, now you can be sure."
"I wish I hadn't done that... Then I could at least hope..."
"Head up, boy! You're young. You'll see. Someday, you will meet your girl."
"Maybe..."
"Miss Sumio," doctor sighed.
"You have the results?"
"Yes," the salamander nodded. "We got them by courier an hour ago."
Sumio licked her dry lips.
"And?" she whispered.
"I'm sorry. Tests confirmed my first diagnosis. You have leukemia."
There was silence.
"I'm sorry. It is in an early stage and there is a possibility chemio- or radio-therapy could help, but both are nearly impossible for us to get..."
"How much?"
"How much what?"
"How much time do I have?"
"Not much, I am afraid. A year, maybe two. More, if you get proper care and medicines..."
"Thank you."
Sumio stood up.
"If you stay here, we may try to obtain the necessary chemicals..."
"No, thank you, but I am leaving."
"As you wish. Here are your papers. Any doctor will help you after reading them. Painkillers, and maybe you'll get lucky with chemio-therapy..."
"Thank you, but you know what the odds are..."
It was a sunny spring day, and early warmness was flowing over the San Francisco bay. All nature was reborn.
Even those who were living in human houses, and thus feel the change of season less, feel better at this time of year. So was SenSan, a young rat.
"Hi, Jimmy!" he shouted, running into room. "Is our deadboy here?"
"Gee? No, he said he will be late today. What's up?"
"If you only saw the girl who is looking for him!"
"Girl? Looking for Geegaw?" Jim's eyes bulged. "For that grumpy excuse of mouse?"
"I said I would look. She is waiting upstairs, at the entrance."
Geegaw slowly walked through underground tunnels. Another day... Another day, he will have to feel the looks and teasing of his partners. He hoped the plane had gotten built at last and they would start flying again.
'They' was consolidation of three mice. He was the fourth, only hired for his experience in aviation. They needed him more that he needed them. Not that he needed anyone. Now, he was simply existing. The death of his partner, the year in jungle, the traitous Jenny... Somehow his life seemed bleak and dark...
He turned around the last twist of tubes and stepped from the smelly canal into a much drier and lighted tunnel. A few more turns, and he would be at their workshop...
He stepped into the main room, and then someone caught him in a hug. Behind him, he heard cheers and wolf-whistles. When his shock passed, he looked down at the girl who had caught him in a tight hold.
"Sumio..." he whispered.
"Geegaw... I found you at last..."
Behind Geegaw's eyes passed a row of scenes... He and Sumio and Jim In the 'Albatross'... The burning village... The hopelessness in Sumio's eyes... The way through the jungle... The snake, Sumio scared away... The days, when he laid down with fever and Sumio cared for him... Then the days when she was ill and he carried her on his back through the swamp... And then the last meeting in the hospital... The way she was looking after him as he leaved...
"Forgive my blindness..." he whispered. "What a fool I was..."
"It all is over now... We are together..." she whispered back...
Sumio didn't say anything about the paper that was burning like white-hot iron in her purse. She had less than two years left, but she so wanted to live and love...
Fin...
by Aivars Liepa
I need say great thanks to Karen Mollet
for her patience into editing out my errors of grammar,
and making good comments about this story.
Writers notes:
1) this story is wroted into continuity of "Sisters", but stays independent of the main story. In continuity, its a prequel.
2) there is lot of sad scenes, and one scene where harsh language and curses are used. If such a things offend you, read no further.
3) all the persons and events into this story are fruit of my imagination. You may agree or disagree with my looks. If you disagree, I may only suggest you taking a pen and writing to me with your comments. I will be glad to hear praises too.
And now to the story.
Fires in Hearts
Forest fire.
Nothing can be more deadly for any small animal than to be caught in it.
"Except forest fires started by humans," Geegaw cursed.
He and few other small jungle animals were standing neck-deep in a pool of water, half-covered by an overhanging rock outcrop.
Two hours ago he was a medium-prospecting aviator doing somewhat dangerous, but profitable, cargo and passenger runs over southwest Asia. Now, his plane was turning into ashes at the clearing, his partner was dead, and he will not bet a dime on himself getting out from here alive.
Fire was raging around them, fed by napalm and dried-out jungle foliage.
The lack of oxygen and poisonous smoke had already made the two weakest girls faint and he was holding his passenger's nose out of the water. They all had wet rags tied around their faces, but still the smoke was getting through.
"Soon all the wood will burn out..." a large fruit bat said.
Before Geegaw could reply, behind them was a loud crash. The next moment, chips of rock and glowing coals started falling around them.
One of the bats cried when a burning coal hit him on his shoulder. They all took a deep breath of air and dived underwater to escape the rain of fire.
When the small mouse in his hands stopped moving, Geegaw surfaced again. Coals still fell, but now in a much less rate than before. It seemed that the tree had broken and shattered on the rock.
"Oh, no! Don't die on my hands!" Geegaw turned his attention on the mouse girl he was holding. He slapped her nose few times before she coughed and spat out a mouthful of brown water, then, after see her breathing stabilized, he again tied a piece of his sleeve around her head. Only then did he straighten his own mask.
Five... Five had made it out from the doomed jungle. Only five from the large village...
The fire continue raging, but Geegaw's thoughts turned back for a time... to a faraway island, three months earlier...
"Today you are most beautiful," Geegaw whispered into his partner's ear, slowly stepping into immortal Strauss waltz rhythm.
"You too..." girl whispered back.
"I love you, Jenny..."
The gray mouse blushed.
They were dancing on roof of a small bungalow, together, with the few other pairs of mice, bats and rats. Music was provided by a human's gramophone below, where there, too, was one pair slowly turning in dance.
"I... love you too...." the girl whispered.
"Jenny..."
"Yes, Gee?"
"After this one travel, I will have enough money to settle down. And I will ask your parents to give blessing to our marriage."
"They will agree."
"And if they do not, I will kidnap you..."
"And we will be together..."
"Forever..."
The music had ended, but they were still moving; looking into each other's eyes and seeing nothing else...
Sharp coughing returned Geegaw back to sour reality. The girl he was supporting had lost her mask.
"O, come on!" he sighed, straightening her and tearing another strip from his shirt for a makeshift filter. "Don't give up, listen! We will get out of this..."
"No..."
"Hold together!"
The fire continued burning.
It was night, but the glowing coals that were shattered everywhere were still providing enough light, when the survivors waded through the pool and out on the hot ground. Around them laid a wasteland. Few trees were still standing without leaves and branches--bare skeletons. Ashes covered all - ground, pool water, their fur.
Geegaw slowly walked to the small mound of twisted metal at the middle of the clearing and kneeled.
"Forgive me, Jim..." he whispered.
The girl he had saved limped toward the village. She looked at the place with big eyes. Probably, she was still in shock, her mind not managing to cope with reality.
"All dead..." she was whispering. "All dead... All dead..."
Three bats were talking among themselves near the pool. Then the biggest one came to Geegaw.
"We will try to reach the village to the hills west of here. We will fly. Sorry, Gee."
Geegaw tensed. They were right, of course. They had helped him and the girl to escape from the fire, risking with their own skins, but now... Now they would only be slowed down by him. Pragmatism always won.
"Will you pass word about us, when you get to the village?" he asked, in a failing voice.
"Sure, Gee. We will ask them to come after you."
"I think I will try to reach the river."
"Farewell, Gee."
The bat returned to the two others, and then they all took to the air. Geegaw looked after them. The girl was flying unstable, and they may be forced to carry her... They can't carry him and Sumio...
Geegaw again started searching the ashes around the remains of the "Albatross"...
Sumio walked through the destroyed village. Few hours ago there was life. Children played their games, elders did the adult jobs. She was busy taking images for her newspaper. An American pilot was sitting with a few locals, bargaining. An Englishman was standing in the village center, looking at the sky...
Then they came...
Explosions shaked ground, and smoke appeared to the east of the village. Human aircraft, at high speed, shot over them dropping more bombs.
"Air raid!" someone shouted.
The Englander caught her hand and start dragging her after him to the fish pool at the end of village, together with few other locals.
"Gee! To the plane!" The American shouted.
"Too late!"
"No! You will burn if you stay!"
New explosions, much closer than before. They were a dozen meters from the pool, "Albatross" engines were roaring, the plane turning around on the runway to take off.
And then a bomb hit the village; square in its center. She didn't see much. Geegaw and a few locals were shielding her from the worst of blast and she, together with them, flew and landed in the pool, but while she was in the air, she saw the firewall catch the plane and it exploded...
Of the next few hours, she remembered only pieces. The fire. The smoke. The hands that held her up. The voice that gave her strength to survive...
Sumio took a last look at the village. The only way to tell where the huts had been was to look for the shattered tools and pots.
She limped back to the pool and found only the pilot, staring at the remains of his plane.
"Where..." violent coughing bent her over, breaking her speech. The pilot caught her before she fell. "Where'd they go?" she whispered.
"To another village. They promised to send rescuers after us."
"They dropped us?"
"We were ballast to them. We can't fly, and they couldn't carry us. We would only slow them down..."
"We will never escape..."
"Maybe. But you can't tell that without trying."
A group of mice were sitting on the small, human-made piers at the riverside and looking upstream.
"See anything, Jim?" the small, brown mouse asked from the rollchair.
"Nothing," the long, gray mouse reply, lowering his looking-tube and raising a glass of distilled water to his lips.
"Damn! Won promised to be here yesterday."
"It's East. There is no rush. A day sooner, a day later..." brown mouse with yellow paws noted philosophically.
"No rush... Hell! I am feeding you all for weeks! You do not eat leftovers! And these jungle devils too!" brown mouse cursed.
"Calm down... Here he sails..." the second mouse said, turning his looking glass to the meandering river.
The others both jumped up and peered at the small boat, which slowly slid downstream. It appeared to be made from one big leave.
"It can't be Won! Oh, if he got a small boat instead of the jonka, I will strangle him personally!" the small mouse screamed.
"Calm down, it's not Won. It's some Westerner... And he is having problems with steering... Dick, lets go help him!"
Dropping the looking glass, both big mice ran back to the shore, down below the peers where a small boat with six sleepy mice stood. After some shouting, curses and screams, the boat pulled off from shore and rowed to intercept the small boat at midstream.
They caught up with it and Dick jumped over to the other boat. He only started to talk, when stranger fell forward, loosing conscience.
"He is burning with fever. Jim! Eddie!" Dick called to shore. "Get a doctor!"
With the help of the rowers, they got the ill mouse over to their own boat, and then Dick noticed another mouse, covered with rags, at the bottom of boat. He looked closer.
For a moment he thought he was seeing a corpse, but then a faint moan escaped from her lips and Dick straightened.
"There is another!" he shouted.
Soon both boats were closing in on the shore, where a mob was already gathering to look at the victims.
Geegaw opened his eyes, silently wishing for the dream to stay... It stayed...He didn't awaken in a wet jungle, or in a shaking boat... He was in a bed, under a white-painted roof... But how did he get here?
"Hello? Are you awake now?" a pleasant voice asked.
Geegaw turned his head, and saw a middle-aged mouse at his side.
"It's not a dream this time?..."
"No, it isn't. My name's Silvia. And yours?"
"Geegaw..."
"Geegaw... Family name?"
"Hackwrench."
Silvia lowered her ballpen.
"Geegaw Hackwrench? What's that for a name?"
"My name."
Doctor looked at him carefully.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"For all... my life..."
"Good. How are you feeling?"
"Never better... for a year..."
Doctor raised her eyebrows. "You lived in the jungle for a year?"
"I'm not sure... lost count of days..."
"What happened to you?"
"Get caught... in firebombing... Lost plane... lost partner..."
Doctor suppressed exclamation of shock.
"Who is the girl?" she asked after a moment.
"Girl?" Geegaw whispered slowly.
"We found a girl with you. She is still unconscious."
"Sumio... She was my passenger... was together with me..."
Geegaw walked down the hospital hallway, only slightly balancing on his stick.
"Great," doctor Silvia Hardi walked at his side. "One more procedure, good training, and no one will tell you once needed a stick to walk."
"Walk yes. But can I fly?"
Her answer was uncomfortable silence.
"You can tell me. I can stand it."
"I'm afraid your legs will no longer stand the long stress. The stiffness will disappear, the muscles will grow back, but the bit into cords... And your heart too is..."
"What with my heart?" Geegaw stopped and turned to her.
"I don't like the side-sounds of it. It definitely needs to be tested better..."
"I'm leaving tomorrow."
"You can't!" Silvia caught his hand.
"I can and I will! I was lost for a year and two months!"
Silvia shaked her head.
"A week now will make no difference, Geegaw..." she said.
Geegaw made no reply.
Geegaw knocked, then pushed the door open.
The young mouse pulled herself into sitting position, smiling a timid smile to him.
"I'm leaving early tomorrow, on a cargo ship, to Bangkok. I came to say goodbye..."
The smile stayed on Sumio's face, only her features shifted little. One who can read faces easily may tell the smile was forced now. Unfortunately, Geegaw wasn't one. Silvia was. And she knew what would be said next. The lies. Lies for safety, but lies anyway...
"I knew... all the time... Good luck."
"Don't worry, doctor Silvia will take care of you... She's a good doctor... You will recover, and..."
"It will be all okay with me, Gee. Don't worry..."
After some silence, Geegaw limped out of the room.
"She loves you!" Silvia said, looking at Geegaw packing his bag. Not that there was much to pack - a pair of new shirts, pilot's goggles, and the polished stick he still was carrying with him. "Why?"
"I promised to return. And I will keep my word. Always."
But Geegaw couldn't raise his eyes to meet Silvia's look when he walked away from hospital.
The plane landed and Geegaw jumped out from wheel compartment as soon as it slowed down. He fell on all four, turned over and dashed out from the runway. Over halfway through the field, he had to stop from a dull pain under his ribs.
"Damn, Silvia! It's nothing!" he cursed, slowing down to a walk. After a few moments, the pain left. Geegaw start running again.
Here was the place he would live for the rest of his life...
The summer house; on the roof they had danced that last time...
The palm forest; they had walked through it so many times...
The fountain, at which they had kissed for the first time... After the mad run from the house cat, whose milk tasse they had drained together...
This was the village that would become his home, after the long travels...
Geegaw passed the queen's hut, then the hut of the old chief, queen's chancellor...
He could hear her voice from her hut at the end of street... laughing... then words: "See dear? She's trying to walk!"
Another voice, much lower: "I see."
Again, Jenny's voice: "It's so early. She will be something special."
Geegaw frowned. Had some of Jenny's brothers come to visit her?
Geegaw turned around the last corner and now could see the owners of those voices... Jenny, even more beautiful that he remembered... Another mouse in a white shirt, a mountain of muscles... and small child, trying to stand up. She had golden hair and was tipping around on still unstable legs and guguing in baby talk.
"See William! She is walking!"
"Great, great. Come to daddy."
The child tipped toward the mouse, but stumbled and fell. She started crying, and Jenny rushed to calm her.
Geegaw silently stepped back into the shadows...
Geegaw ran down the street, a jungle fire of his nightmares in his head. Jenny was married! She has a child from another! Another mouse was in the place that he had thought was his... And if they weren't happy, then he was as blind as a mole! Damn women! A year had passed, and he was forgotten!! All promises, all swears.... all lies...
He ran, not looking at road, trying to shut off the pain he felt... He ran, 'till his breath shut off, and he fell at roadside and lay there, feeling the coldness of the autumn earth entering his body, cooling him down...
Soon, the physical pain was gone. The mental pain would stay forever...
Geegaw raised his head from the bar and looked at his empty glass ahead. Was it his sixth? Or seventh? Does he care now?
"Another!" he called, dropping another human dollar on the bar.
Barmouse look at him, his face showing compassion.
"Man, You will solve nothing by drowning it in whiskey," he said, slowly filling the glass to half and placing it on the bar.
"What do you know... I... I nearly died... A year.... A damn long year I walked through a jungle... I climbed hills and waded swamps... Laid down with fever... I froze like a dog at nights, when I couldn't make a fire and had no roof over my head... I walked, and the one thing that kept me going - SHE!!!SHE IS WAITING FOR ME!!! I NEED TO RETURN!!!"
Geegaw fell back on the chair, he had rised to shout out his anger.
"Only to find, she wasn't..." the barmouse sighed. "Man, the story is as old as the universe..."
"Yes, she wasn't... When I returned, I found her with a child on hand, and another at her side..."
"Such is the world, friend... But drinking will not help you. What did you do when you found that out? Beat him? Or her? Or both?"
"I ran away..." Geegaw whispered. "I feared, I would kill her, when I looked at them. God, how beautiful she was..."
"And the worst is, You are still loving her..."
"Yes..."
Barmouse looked at Geegaw, then poured another glass and put it at his side.
"I am poor advice-giver, man... But maybe you need to talk with her?"
"Why?" Geegaw looked at him.
"Well, it may do nothing... You will never know..."
"What I will never know? That she is happy with him?!! That they are having child so old, they had to make 'im a week after I left?!! THAT, I will not know?!!"
"You're afraid of finding out the truth."
"Yes I am! Darn right I am! Afraid! Do you know, I fought a snake with my bare hands in that darn wet jungle! Afraid..."
"Then write her a letter. Let her know you are back and alive. If she felt something toward you, she will come to talk..."
William Lait took another mouthful from the bottle of whiskey and again read the paper he was holding in his hands. He was sitting at his most beloved place, hidden from all the world by bushes, with a beautiful view at the bay and sandy beach. He was looking not at this beauty, but at a stained piece of paper.
""Dear Jenny..." whore!... "I have returned." Yes, You have, mister. Now what? "I couldn't earlier..." Hear, hear. Make a child and run for hills... Maybe you have a conscience, mister Ge-eGaa-w? "Remember our promises? I feel we need to talk..." Talk! WE need talk, mister! We! And I will talk with you heavily, I swear! "I will wait at the Sammy's place two days from today..." Yes, You will wait. Very long, you will wait! HA! No way, mister Gee--Gaa-w! She's mine now! And she will not go! Yes, she will not go. Know why? Because I read this letter! And she will never get it! Whore! I know, I know... She would have run after you, had she only known... Whore! "If I meant something in your life, I ask you to come." Meant? You're right, mister! Very much, you meant to her. Only now she is mine! And will stay mine! Mine! Mine!"
"Wrote to her?" the barmouse asked, placing glass before Geegaw.
"Yes. Thanks, but no drinking today."
"As you wish." The glass was given to another mouse. "And?"
"And nothing."
"How long ago did you get the courage?" the mouse looked into Geegaw's eyes.
"Eight days back..." Geegaw sighed. "I waited. First day, I feared I couldn't look into her eyes... Second day was even worse... I felt guilty... Then passsed day, another... I hoped less, but still hoped... Today I understand... She will not come... I knew that from the beginning, but fooled myself with hope..."
Barmouse sighed. "At least, now you can be sure."
"I wish I hadn't done that... Then I could at least hope..."
"Head up, boy! You're young. You'll see. Someday, you will meet your girl."
"Maybe..."
"Miss Sumio," doctor sighed.
"You have the results?"
"Yes," the salamander nodded. "We got them by courier an hour ago."
Sumio licked her dry lips.
"And?" she whispered.
"I'm sorry. Tests confirmed my first diagnosis. You have leukemia."
There was silence.
"I'm sorry. It is in an early stage and there is a possibility chemio- or radio-therapy could help, but both are nearly impossible for us to get..."
"How much?"
"How much what?"
"How much time do I have?"
"Not much, I am afraid. A year, maybe two. More, if you get proper care and medicines..."
"Thank you."
Sumio stood up.
"If you stay here, we may try to obtain the necessary chemicals..."
"No, thank you, but I am leaving."
"As you wish. Here are your papers. Any doctor will help you after reading them. Painkillers, and maybe you'll get lucky with chemio-therapy..."
"Thank you, but you know what the odds are..."
It was a sunny spring day, and early warmness was flowing over the San Francisco bay. All nature was reborn.
Even those who were living in human houses, and thus feel the change of season less, feel better at this time of year. So was SenSan, a young rat.
"Hi, Jimmy!" he shouted, running into room. "Is our deadboy here?"
"Gee? No, he said he will be late today. What's up?"
"If you only saw the girl who is looking for him!"
"Girl? Looking for Geegaw?" Jim's eyes bulged. "For that grumpy excuse of mouse?"
"I said I would look. She is waiting upstairs, at the entrance."
Geegaw slowly walked through underground tunnels. Another day... Another day, he will have to feel the looks and teasing of his partners. He hoped the plane had gotten built at last and they would start flying again.
'They' was consolidation of three mice. He was the fourth, only hired for his experience in aviation. They needed him more that he needed them. Not that he needed anyone. Now, he was simply existing. The death of his partner, the year in jungle, the traitous Jenny... Somehow his life seemed bleak and dark...
He turned around the last twist of tubes and stepped from the smelly canal into a much drier and lighted tunnel. A few more turns, and he would be at their workshop...
He stepped into the main room, and then someone caught him in a hug. Behind him, he heard cheers and wolf-whistles. When his shock passed, he looked down at the girl who had caught him in a tight hold.
"Sumio..." he whispered.
"Geegaw... I found you at last..."
Behind Geegaw's eyes passed a row of scenes... He and Sumio and Jim In the 'Albatross'... The burning village... The hopelessness in Sumio's eyes... The way through the jungle... The snake, Sumio scared away... The days, when he laid down with fever and Sumio cared for him... Then the days when she was ill and he carried her on his back through the swamp... And then the last meeting in the hospital... The way she was looking after him as he leaved...
"Forgive my blindness..." he whispered. "What a fool I was..."
"It all is over now... We are together..." she whispered back...
Sumio didn't say anything about the paper that was burning like white-hot iron in her purse. She had less than two years left, but she so wanted to live and love...
Fin...