I slowly stumbled off the train and glanced around the crowded station. Over in the corner was my Aunt Mahtava, waving her bare hand at me. I slowly walked through the masses of people and stood awkwardly in front of her. "Hey." I mumbled.
"Hello Maxima! How are you? Let my nephew take your bag." She turned to a blonde boy that was standing slightly behind her, pressed against the wall. His blue eyes pierced me like daggers and I took a step back. "Incendie, sois poli, dis bonjour. Aussi, s'il vous plaît prendre sac Maxima pour elle!" Mahtava spit out a language I was only vaguely farmiliar with. I understood the words 'please' and 'bonjour'. I also registered his name meant 'fire'.
"Oui, ma tante." He replied, and reached out to take my small suitcase. "Hello, I'm Incendie. But you can call me Iggy. It means the same thing, just in English."
"I'm Maxima." I told him, pulling my bag back. "I can take care of my own possessions, thank you very much."
"Peu importe." He mumbled in what I believed was French. How annoying. Then again, I would have to get used to it, being in France and all. "Ma tante, je crois que nous sommes prêts à aller."
Aunt Mahtava nodded and told me to follow her. I slowly did, the straps of my plain black bag digging into my palm, my backpack bouncing with every step I took. I almost considered giving a bag to Iggy but decided against it. I could take care of myself. I gingerly switched hands and shook out the hand, now with angry red marks showing the outline of the strap. "Va chercher la voiture, Iggy."
"Oui, ma tante Mahtava." He mumbled and walked off as soon as the last word was out of his pale pink lips. We were now outside on the curb, cars going by us at twenty kilometers an hour.
"So, Maxima, how was your life in Canada?" Surprisingly, Aunt Mahtava didn't have a very heavy French accent. I could understand her and her nephew, my cousin, very well.
"Good, I guess." I kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk and watched it fall off the curb and into the middle of the road. A taxi ran over top it and the air moved it a few inches.
"I guess?"
"I didn't have many friends. I was a loner." I told her nonchalantly. A light blue car pulled up in front of us and Iggy got out of the driver's side. He came over and took my bag, putting it in the previously popped trunk. Slowly, I climbed in the back seat and grabbed my book. I had decided to immerse myself in it, I didn't want to talk. Sadly, these French people made that extremely difficult.
Question after question was asked by my Aunt Mahtava. She was turned around to look at me, her bright red lipstick covered lips moving up and down in synchronization. Eventually I turned to look out the window and gave my new guardian a dismissive shrug. Surprisingly, she had avoided the reason I was here. The reason I wasn't sitting on my bed in my blue and brown room, listening to music and getting lost in book after book. The reason that she was, like I said earlier, my guardian. I should give the lady a prize.
A few hours later we arrived in a little village. A small wooden sign read 'Bois. Nombre de personnes: 481'. Bois? Didn't that mean wood? I was going to be living in a town called wood with a population of 481? Well then.
We pulled up into a small house with acres of land around it. The trees that lined the property were bountiful with fruit and a small garden lie under the window. Bird houses were nailed to the bark of the trees, painted in elaborate patterns. "We're here!" Mahtava sang out and again spoke to Iggy in the language I didn't understand. "Trouver des sacs de votre cousin et rencontrer votre oncle dans les avez bien un peu de travail avant le souper."
"Dois-je faire?" Iggy whined and I let out a small laugh.
"Oui, vous garçon paresseux. Maintenant, partez!" She exclaimed and smiled. "Come on, Maxima, lets get you settled." I grabbed my backpack off the seat beside me and followed her upstairs. Iggy came behind my other bag in tow. Aunt Mahtava led me to a small room, a brass framed bed was off to the side. A gorgeous black floral pattern was sewed into the white background that was my comforter. A few pillows matched and my room was painted in a similar scheme. The one wall by my window was painted in a soft yellow, and instead of a window sill there was a window seat. The cushion cover matched the wall, the pillows did too, little sunflowers being the pattern. A small brown wooden chest of drawers was off in the corner and a small bedside table that matched was beside my bed. "What do you think?"
I ran my hand down the intricately carved, black wood of my door and took it all in. "It's gorgeous." I breathed and lay my ripped backpack on the gorgeous blanket. I looked at my Aunt and gave her a small smile. "Thanks."
"Your Welcome. Now, supper is in an hour. Go ahead and get settled. We own quite a few acres of woods and they are gorgeous for walks." She silently closed the door behind here and I heaved my suitcase onto my bed. I easily put my small amount of clothes into the drawers and put my book, iPod and journal on my bedside table. I tucked the suitcase and backpack under my bed and picked up my journal from where I had put it down seconds ago.
In seconds I was sitting by the window, the soft yellow curtains parted to let the sun in. I saw the green grass shone in the setting afternoon sun. In the distance was the wood Mahtava told me about. If I were going to go for that walk, I would have to write quickly and be out the door in ten.
Saturday,
Ever since the 'incident' I've decided time is meaningless. Did that sound as cheesy as I thought it did? Well anyway, I've decided to never rely on the date if I can help it, so, I am not going to write it. I am only going to write the day. I guess I can say it's somewhere in the summer. Happy? Anyway, I've arrived in France. Everyone talking French is DRIVING ME INSANE. Iggy is pretty cute, too bad he is my cousin. Oh, god, That sounded wrong. Anyway, I'm off for a walk.
~Max
I closed my beaten leather journal and lay it down on the cushion, with a quick, fleeting glance outside I realized I could climb out the window. Lattice ran up the side of my house making an easy escape. Carefully I creaked open the window and unhooked the screen. I moved it to under my bed and stuck my feet out the newly opened window. "Il y avait une bombe à la Turquie dans mon pantalon!" Was shouted from downstairs and I laughed. Turkey, bomb and in my pants in the same sentence. Wow... a small smile playing on my lips, I flipped myself around and lowered myself, gripping onto the windowsill. Slowly, I brought my foot down, and then a hand. Hand, foot, hand, foot.
Eventually, I was standing on the ground, facing the white stucco wall. I turned and began to walk towards the woods. At the last minute I turned left and went towards a little dirt path. So I wouldn't fall, I carefully maneuvered myself around the rocks and roots. Eventually I had found a little clearing. It was nice and simple. Just grass with trees surrounding. I bet I could build a nice little fort here. Sighing, I lay back and took in the bit of golden rays streaming through the hole in the trees.
"Qui êtes-vous?" A voice called from the edge of the wood. Startled, I sat up and turned, facing the voice.
"Huh? Je ne parle pas le français." That was all I had retained in my many years of FSL. And it basically went against the sentence it was. Did that make sense.
"Oh? And you were still able to say that?" The voice turned into a shadow which turned into a person. It crossed the short distance between us and kneeled in front of me.
"Yes. So what did you say before?" I stared into his Onyx eyes and marveled at the way his dark hair fell into them. His hair wasn't like most guys, greasy and messy, his was freshly washed. It wasn't exactly perfect, some of it stuck up in the back, but it was extremely cute.
"I asked who you were. I thought you would understand, it is France and all."
"I just moved here from Canada. Now, if this is 'France and all' how do you know English?"
"I gotz skillz." He smirked at me and I couldn't help but smile.
"Apparently, considering you butcher the language so well." I was now kneeling in front of him, eye to eye. He shrugged and I gave a small laugh.
"You never answered my question."
"I'm Maxima. You can call me Max. Whats your name?" I sat back on my heals and folded my hands together. Somewhere a mocking bird was being annoying. I sent it a look.
"I'm Francois. All my friends call me Fang, though."
"How do you get Fang from Francois? And what does Francois mean?"
"I don't know where my friends got Fang from and Francois means free." He told me, picking some grass out of the soft earth. "Whats Maxima means?" I knew very well he knew what it meant. It was French after all.
"Greatest." I told him. "It's like the word Maximum."
"Where are you staying?" he asked me.
"Stalkerish much?" He smirked at me. "I live in the white stucco house with my Aunt Mahtava Dubois." I pointed in the general direction of my new found abode.
"I live with my parents, Corbeau and Ondine Noir."
"They have gorgeous names. And your last name suits you."
"Who says that's my last name?"
"Your parents...?"
"Well yea, it is my last name. I wish my last name was diable."
"Devil?" I questioned. He gave me a wicked smirk.
"Ya."
"Well then." I stared off into the almost completely set sun and heard the sound of bells in the distance. "I have to go."
"Bye. J'ai le sentiment que je ne vais pas pouvoir dormir ce soir, pour le moment la réalité est toujours préférable à mes rêves."
He got up and sunk into the shadows. I waved and just sat there for a second. What had just happened? I repeated the last part in my head 'J'ai le sentiment que je ne vais pas pouvoir dormir ce soir, pour le moment la réalité est toujours préférable à mes rêves.'
I have to try and remember that, I thought. Slowly, I got to my feet and sauntered through the foliage.
"Francois. Fang. Francois Noir. Fang Diable. Fang Noir. Francois Diable." No matter how I said his name it sounded beautiful. Too soon, I was back in the yard. The sun long over the horizon. A worried Aunt was sitting on the step, ringing a bell. "Hey, Aunt Mahtava!" I called out. Her worried face grew relieved and I sighed, searching. I saw no anger and I was relieved.
"Where were you?" She asked quietly. "You could've been killed. Vous savez ce qui aurait pu arrivé? Je veux dire, il n'est jamais arrivé, mais il pourrait y avez été un violeur ou un meurtrier notre dans les bois. Vous pourriez avoir été kidnappé! Eh bien laisse simplement avoir ... patientez un instant. Je parle po .. oops. I was talking in French, I'm sorry. Lets just have supper." She grabbed my hand and led me inside.
I followed and sat at the large ornate dinner table, thinking of the dark guy who had graced my life. He couldn't be much older then my fifteen. Seventeen at the most. Maybe... I sighed inwardly and continued to think of my dark angel. My dark diable. I was snapped out of my reverie with...
"Tomorrow were up at six am!" WHAT?!