Land of Tears
November 24, 2003
Tinie-Dancer
A.N: I know. I know. Where the hell have I been? What have I been doing that I haven't updated this story? Well, let me just tell you, AP Calculus is kicking my ass at the moment, along with Physics, and my college applications are kind of taking much more time than I had originally believed it would take. But have no fear; I have finished the second chapter!
One good thing that came out of my short hiatus is that I have a new computer now, woohoo! So now I can't blame my laziness on my broken down p.o.s.
All further announcements will be at the bottom of this chapter!
Thanks to all those who reviewed my story, it means a lot to me. Thanks again!
Enjoy
*
The following day arrived with the typical sunny day and suffocating heat. Everyone in town had decided that staying inside their air-conditioned houses would have been a much better idea as opposed to going out and enduring the heat. Rei would have been one of those cool and comfortable people had she not decided to go to work. Technically, she still had a few days off, but she wanted to finish her piece and perfect it, and she knew very well that staying home would only serve to empower her procrastination and tempt her to take a nap outside instead.
"I didn't expect to see you in so early," Mina said when she popped her golden head into Rei's office.
"I know. I wouldn't have come either, but I'm kind of having writer's block at the moment, and staying at home would only make me want to delete it all and take a nap."
Mina chuckled softly at Rei's comment. "It serves you right for being a perfectionist."
"Don't start, Mina. You may be my boss and all, but you're also my friend. And this friend," she started as she pointed to herself, never once removing her light blue eyes from her computer screen, "is telling that friend," she pointed to her employer, "to leave her the hell alone or else she won't get any article from this reporter." It took Mina a second to process Rei's drivel. "Just get out, Mina! Let me work in peace, goddammit!" Rei yelled, losing all patience with her confused editor.
Sighing, Mina shook her head with hopelessness at her employee, and softly closed the door to Rei's office.
At the moment, Rei wanted to scream. Everything seemed to have been going so smoothly the night before when she was working on her article, but the moment she got back from her brother's party, she could think of nothing that had any semblance to the paper she was writing. Instead, thoughts of a blond haired man with an irritating smirk fluttered through her mind, aggravating Rei to no end. She had barely met the man, but the sheer beauty of his face had left her impressed. Of course, she would never admit this to the public. She had to admit though, that he was handsome, but his egotistical and presumptuous mannerisms were more than enough to make Rei cringe in abhorrence.
Men had never appealed to Rei in all her life. There were the occasional crushes and the semi-serious relationships that occurred sporadically throughout her life, but never once had Rei fallen for a guy so deeply that a life without them made her heart want to stop beating. She was too independent and determined, and it seemed that men were rather allergic to those types of women. She relied on no one to protect her, no one to shield her from the cruel world's glare.
Taking off her fire red glasses, she rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. She didn't know how to write what she had seen, for she had witnessed so much during her time in El Salvador. The faces of the people whose lives were so bleak and uncertain constantly plagued her. Seeing the children with unbound hopelessness almost made her want to reach out and cry for them all.
Another sigh escaped her as she pulled out a picture of herself when she was younger, sitting on a large boulder with a burning red sun behind her, setting across the Serengeti. Her childhood was spent traveling the continent, exploring the infinite Sahara and roaming the plains and valleys of the Serengeti. Her parents had been humanitarian workers; both had been doctors working to help the impoverished peoples of Africa. Her parents had met while on a mission to Nigeria, and six months later, they married. Their marriage was that of a fairy tale, and Rei had envied the ease and happiness they had shared with each other. Darien was born a few months later, and her parents decided to settle down in South Africa. She had been born when her brother was only 3, and together, as a happy family, they had lived in a quiet community in Cape Town. On occasion, her parents would leave for a mission project, but never once did they leave their children for extended periods of time. However, the ending to her blissful days came one night when she was only 7.
Leaning back into her chair, Rei closed her eyes as the memories surged forward. The years afterwards were years that to that day, Rei never wanted to remember. Her brother had been sparred the trauma, for he left Africa to live with one of their aunts in California. Rei had chosen to stay behind. Africa was the only home she knew then, and the thought of leaving it for a country so different, was unimaginable. There was no doubt that she loved Africa. When she was younger, she would wake up before the dawn, and watch the sun rise over the sand dunes in the Sahara. Or at night, she would lie in an open field in the Serengeti, counting the stars that were spread out before her as though they were shining just for her, and listen to the beckoning calls of the wild world around her. It would be so peaceful lying on the grass or a large boulder, as though she were the only one around for miles and miles.
Yet, no paradise can exist in the world today.
Tears began to gather in the corner of her light blue eyes as she brought back her childhood memories. Swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat, she wiped the two or three tears that had burned down her cheeks, and resumed working with an even greater dedication.
Working straight through the day, Rei didn't take another break until almost six. She had managed to finish her article and proof her pictures. The only thing that was left was to format it. Taking a cigarette from her pack next to her phone, she stuck it behind her ear and walked outside to the roof that had been designated as the smoking lounge. Mina was already out there.
"Did you get it all done?" Mina asked between puffs.
"Yeah, pretty much. I just have to format it to the page, and then I'm done." Puffs of cigarette smoke blew out of her mouth in intricate designs as she starred off into the city below. Arizona was so beautiful in the summer.
"How about going out tonight? It'll just be us. I need to get drunk."
"What you need is to get laid. Maybe it'll mellow you out."
"I hope so. So are you in or not?"
"Sure, why not. I'll meet you at the café at about, 10:00?"
"Okay. There's this new club I've wanted to check out. They say it's a pretty hip place."
"Count me in," Rei said as she took the last long puff from her cigarette before heading downstairs.
**
Jed hadn't been able to do much thinking either. Rei had left such an impression on him, even if it was a rather violent impression. He had never met anyone quite like her, and trusts him to know all the single women in the area. Yet it was the fiery Rei, the baby sister of his commander and best friend that had made him yearning for more time with her. True, their encounter had been very brief, but as was said, it was certainly an impressionable encounter.
"Hey Morris! Are you going to keep sitting on your ass and do absolutely nothing, or are you going to get to work?" Darien called out from the other side of the office. They were supposed to be reviewing operative briefs from one of their prior missions, but Jed's mind could not concentrate much on the words in front of him.
"Sure, why not? You're working hard enough for the both of us," he yelled back in reply.
"Smartass!" was Darien's retort.
"None other," Jed muttered to himself as he turned back to his frighteningly large stack of reports. "This job sucks," he sulked before grabbing the next report and settling in for more gruesome hours of reading.
By the time both Darien and he had finished reading the assigned material, the sun had already set, and the entire base was almost desolate of cars.
"Goddamn! What a long day," Jed groaned as he stretched out his tired back. Sitting in the uncomfortable office chairs was going to seriously kill him if he didn't buy a new one. Darien, taking the initiative, had ordered a brand new leather chair for his office, thus so that he didn't have to deal with what Jed was going through.
"You bitch way too much for a soldier, you know that Morris?"
"I'll remember that next time you're complaining about the mosquitoes and having our asses fired at by the enemy," Jed threw back.
"Oh shut up." Laughing, both men began walking out to their respective cars.
"Hey, Darien, can I ask you a question?"
"Is it about my sister?"
Jed wasn't exactly sure how to answer, so he opted with the truth. Darien wouldn't kill his best friend, would he? Not over a question, anyways.
"Yea, but I swear it's nothing that I would ask."
"So it's not a stupid question?"
"Ha ha," Jed deadpanned.
"Well, shoot."
"Okay, how come your sister has an accent, but you don't? Aren't you both from the same family? Or was she like, adopted or something?"
"No," Darien began as he unlocked his car, "Rei and I ARE siblings by blood, it's just that when I was really young, I went to live with an aunt and uncle in California, while she stayed in South Africa with our parents."
"Why'd you leave?"
"What's with the Barbara Walters?"
"Nothing," Jed answered defensively. "I'm just curious. I thought it was kind of weird, that's all. So, why'd you leave?"
"Ugh, Jed, go home. I have a family to get home to."
"You mean you have a wife to go do," Jed suggestively said.
"Go home!" was all Darien yelled before backing out his small car and then speeding out of the parking lot, leaving Jed to think about Rei, and how he was going to meet her again.
Unable to think of how he'd be able to find at such time of night, he decided to get his mind off of that ONE girl by having some fun of his own with another. He was a guy, and he was THE James Morris, Casa Nova of the 21st century. ***
The club was crowded began explanation. Rei had to fight with all the strength in her to make it through the dancing crowd, and she swore that every minute she stayed longer in this place, the more she was going to grow deaf. The bass was so loud that she could feel her organs quivering rhythmically to the music, and it nauseated her.
"Isn't this great?" Mina screamed into Rei's ear. At the moment, they were sitting in one of the various eccentric lounging couches that had been placed around the edges of the club for those who wanted to simply sit and socialize.
"Yea, fun!" Rei sarcastically yelled back. She was not having the best time of her life. she had been expecting to meet at least ONE interesting person during the 4 hours that she'd been there, but as of yet, she had met only desperately perverted middle aged men and boring businessmen who could not be smooth if Casanova himself had given them lessons on seduction.
"I'm going to go dance. I'll be back later!" Mina yelled as she made her way to the dance floor, leaving Rei to fend for herself. She had no idea how she was going to fight off the swarms of ill-wanted men that seemed to grow closer to her by the second. Their beady eyes and greasy hair was making her want to vomit, and the fact that their tongues dragged half a mile behind them did nothing to assuage her uneasiness. Men are disgusting, she thought to herself.
From her seat on the neon pink couch, Mina seemed to have found a very friendly guy who was now practically having sex with her in the middle of the dance floor. Mina's invisible dress had risen to an indecent height as the stranger proceeded to practically ravage her. Mina seemed to have all the luck, for the man was unimaginably hot. With blond hair and sharply chiseled features, Rei did not doubt that she would be doing the same thing Mina was doing if she were her.
The 'fake sex' as Rei had termed it, had been lasting for almost 20 minutes before the couple moved at another angle, giving Rei a better look at the stranger that was now literally two seconds from having sex with her best friend. As one of the dance lights hit the pair, Rei noticed the stranger to be incredibly familiar. In fact, she would bet her life that she knew him.
Mina seemed to have finally been unable to wait anymore for 'THE' moment, so she pulled away from her 'lover boy', as Rei had dubbed him, long enough to drag him with her towards Rei, before yelling, "I'm leaving now. Bye!" and rushing out the front doors with her prey in tow.
But in that one moment that she saw Mina's 'companion', the light bulb of realization switched on as she sat there stunned.
It was James Morris, the guy that was making it impossible for her to forget.
****
A.N: Hope you liked! I'm again truly sorry that I haven't updated it as soon as I wanted to. Like I said, life is really stressin' me at the moment.
November 24, 2003
Tinie-Dancer
A.N: I know. I know. Where the hell have I been? What have I been doing that I haven't updated this story? Well, let me just tell you, AP Calculus is kicking my ass at the moment, along with Physics, and my college applications are kind of taking much more time than I had originally believed it would take. But have no fear; I have finished the second chapter!
One good thing that came out of my short hiatus is that I have a new computer now, woohoo! So now I can't blame my laziness on my broken down p.o.s.
All further announcements will be at the bottom of this chapter!
Thanks to all those who reviewed my story, it means a lot to me. Thanks again!
Enjoy
*
The following day arrived with the typical sunny day and suffocating heat. Everyone in town had decided that staying inside their air-conditioned houses would have been a much better idea as opposed to going out and enduring the heat. Rei would have been one of those cool and comfortable people had she not decided to go to work. Technically, she still had a few days off, but she wanted to finish her piece and perfect it, and she knew very well that staying home would only serve to empower her procrastination and tempt her to take a nap outside instead.
"I didn't expect to see you in so early," Mina said when she popped her golden head into Rei's office.
"I know. I wouldn't have come either, but I'm kind of having writer's block at the moment, and staying at home would only make me want to delete it all and take a nap."
Mina chuckled softly at Rei's comment. "It serves you right for being a perfectionist."
"Don't start, Mina. You may be my boss and all, but you're also my friend. And this friend," she started as she pointed to herself, never once removing her light blue eyes from her computer screen, "is telling that friend," she pointed to her employer, "to leave her the hell alone or else she won't get any article from this reporter." It took Mina a second to process Rei's drivel. "Just get out, Mina! Let me work in peace, goddammit!" Rei yelled, losing all patience with her confused editor.
Sighing, Mina shook her head with hopelessness at her employee, and softly closed the door to Rei's office.
At the moment, Rei wanted to scream. Everything seemed to have been going so smoothly the night before when she was working on her article, but the moment she got back from her brother's party, she could think of nothing that had any semblance to the paper she was writing. Instead, thoughts of a blond haired man with an irritating smirk fluttered through her mind, aggravating Rei to no end. She had barely met the man, but the sheer beauty of his face had left her impressed. Of course, she would never admit this to the public. She had to admit though, that he was handsome, but his egotistical and presumptuous mannerisms were more than enough to make Rei cringe in abhorrence.
Men had never appealed to Rei in all her life. There were the occasional crushes and the semi-serious relationships that occurred sporadically throughout her life, but never once had Rei fallen for a guy so deeply that a life without them made her heart want to stop beating. She was too independent and determined, and it seemed that men were rather allergic to those types of women. She relied on no one to protect her, no one to shield her from the cruel world's glare.
Taking off her fire red glasses, she rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. She didn't know how to write what she had seen, for she had witnessed so much during her time in El Salvador. The faces of the people whose lives were so bleak and uncertain constantly plagued her. Seeing the children with unbound hopelessness almost made her want to reach out and cry for them all.
Another sigh escaped her as she pulled out a picture of herself when she was younger, sitting on a large boulder with a burning red sun behind her, setting across the Serengeti. Her childhood was spent traveling the continent, exploring the infinite Sahara and roaming the plains and valleys of the Serengeti. Her parents had been humanitarian workers; both had been doctors working to help the impoverished peoples of Africa. Her parents had met while on a mission to Nigeria, and six months later, they married. Their marriage was that of a fairy tale, and Rei had envied the ease and happiness they had shared with each other. Darien was born a few months later, and her parents decided to settle down in South Africa. She had been born when her brother was only 3, and together, as a happy family, they had lived in a quiet community in Cape Town. On occasion, her parents would leave for a mission project, but never once did they leave their children for extended periods of time. However, the ending to her blissful days came one night when she was only 7.
Leaning back into her chair, Rei closed her eyes as the memories surged forward. The years afterwards were years that to that day, Rei never wanted to remember. Her brother had been sparred the trauma, for he left Africa to live with one of their aunts in California. Rei had chosen to stay behind. Africa was the only home she knew then, and the thought of leaving it for a country so different, was unimaginable. There was no doubt that she loved Africa. When she was younger, she would wake up before the dawn, and watch the sun rise over the sand dunes in the Sahara. Or at night, she would lie in an open field in the Serengeti, counting the stars that were spread out before her as though they were shining just for her, and listen to the beckoning calls of the wild world around her. It would be so peaceful lying on the grass or a large boulder, as though she were the only one around for miles and miles.
Yet, no paradise can exist in the world today.
Tears began to gather in the corner of her light blue eyes as she brought back her childhood memories. Swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat, she wiped the two or three tears that had burned down her cheeks, and resumed working with an even greater dedication.
Working straight through the day, Rei didn't take another break until almost six. She had managed to finish her article and proof her pictures. The only thing that was left was to format it. Taking a cigarette from her pack next to her phone, she stuck it behind her ear and walked outside to the roof that had been designated as the smoking lounge. Mina was already out there.
"Did you get it all done?" Mina asked between puffs.
"Yeah, pretty much. I just have to format it to the page, and then I'm done." Puffs of cigarette smoke blew out of her mouth in intricate designs as she starred off into the city below. Arizona was so beautiful in the summer.
"How about going out tonight? It'll just be us. I need to get drunk."
"What you need is to get laid. Maybe it'll mellow you out."
"I hope so. So are you in or not?"
"Sure, why not. I'll meet you at the café at about, 10:00?"
"Okay. There's this new club I've wanted to check out. They say it's a pretty hip place."
"Count me in," Rei said as she took the last long puff from her cigarette before heading downstairs.
**
Jed hadn't been able to do much thinking either. Rei had left such an impression on him, even if it was a rather violent impression. He had never met anyone quite like her, and trusts him to know all the single women in the area. Yet it was the fiery Rei, the baby sister of his commander and best friend that had made him yearning for more time with her. True, their encounter had been very brief, but as was said, it was certainly an impressionable encounter.
"Hey Morris! Are you going to keep sitting on your ass and do absolutely nothing, or are you going to get to work?" Darien called out from the other side of the office. They were supposed to be reviewing operative briefs from one of their prior missions, but Jed's mind could not concentrate much on the words in front of him.
"Sure, why not? You're working hard enough for the both of us," he yelled back in reply.
"Smartass!" was Darien's retort.
"None other," Jed muttered to himself as he turned back to his frighteningly large stack of reports. "This job sucks," he sulked before grabbing the next report and settling in for more gruesome hours of reading.
By the time both Darien and he had finished reading the assigned material, the sun had already set, and the entire base was almost desolate of cars.
"Goddamn! What a long day," Jed groaned as he stretched out his tired back. Sitting in the uncomfortable office chairs was going to seriously kill him if he didn't buy a new one. Darien, taking the initiative, had ordered a brand new leather chair for his office, thus so that he didn't have to deal with what Jed was going through.
"You bitch way too much for a soldier, you know that Morris?"
"I'll remember that next time you're complaining about the mosquitoes and having our asses fired at by the enemy," Jed threw back.
"Oh shut up." Laughing, both men began walking out to their respective cars.
"Hey, Darien, can I ask you a question?"
"Is it about my sister?"
Jed wasn't exactly sure how to answer, so he opted with the truth. Darien wouldn't kill his best friend, would he? Not over a question, anyways.
"Yea, but I swear it's nothing that I would ask."
"So it's not a stupid question?"
"Ha ha," Jed deadpanned.
"Well, shoot."
"Okay, how come your sister has an accent, but you don't? Aren't you both from the same family? Or was she like, adopted or something?"
"No," Darien began as he unlocked his car, "Rei and I ARE siblings by blood, it's just that when I was really young, I went to live with an aunt and uncle in California, while she stayed in South Africa with our parents."
"Why'd you leave?"
"What's with the Barbara Walters?"
"Nothing," Jed answered defensively. "I'm just curious. I thought it was kind of weird, that's all. So, why'd you leave?"
"Ugh, Jed, go home. I have a family to get home to."
"You mean you have a wife to go do," Jed suggestively said.
"Go home!" was all Darien yelled before backing out his small car and then speeding out of the parking lot, leaving Jed to think about Rei, and how he was going to meet her again.
Unable to think of how he'd be able to find at such time of night, he decided to get his mind off of that ONE girl by having some fun of his own with another. He was a guy, and he was THE James Morris, Casa Nova of the 21st century. ***
The club was crowded began explanation. Rei had to fight with all the strength in her to make it through the dancing crowd, and she swore that every minute she stayed longer in this place, the more she was going to grow deaf. The bass was so loud that she could feel her organs quivering rhythmically to the music, and it nauseated her.
"Isn't this great?" Mina screamed into Rei's ear. At the moment, they were sitting in one of the various eccentric lounging couches that had been placed around the edges of the club for those who wanted to simply sit and socialize.
"Yea, fun!" Rei sarcastically yelled back. She was not having the best time of her life. she had been expecting to meet at least ONE interesting person during the 4 hours that she'd been there, but as of yet, she had met only desperately perverted middle aged men and boring businessmen who could not be smooth if Casanova himself had given them lessons on seduction.
"I'm going to go dance. I'll be back later!" Mina yelled as she made her way to the dance floor, leaving Rei to fend for herself. She had no idea how she was going to fight off the swarms of ill-wanted men that seemed to grow closer to her by the second. Their beady eyes and greasy hair was making her want to vomit, and the fact that their tongues dragged half a mile behind them did nothing to assuage her uneasiness. Men are disgusting, she thought to herself.
From her seat on the neon pink couch, Mina seemed to have found a very friendly guy who was now practically having sex with her in the middle of the dance floor. Mina's invisible dress had risen to an indecent height as the stranger proceeded to practically ravage her. Mina seemed to have all the luck, for the man was unimaginably hot. With blond hair and sharply chiseled features, Rei did not doubt that she would be doing the same thing Mina was doing if she were her.
The 'fake sex' as Rei had termed it, had been lasting for almost 20 minutes before the couple moved at another angle, giving Rei a better look at the stranger that was now literally two seconds from having sex with her best friend. As one of the dance lights hit the pair, Rei noticed the stranger to be incredibly familiar. In fact, she would bet her life that she knew him.
Mina seemed to have finally been unable to wait anymore for 'THE' moment, so she pulled away from her 'lover boy', as Rei had dubbed him, long enough to drag him with her towards Rei, before yelling, "I'm leaving now. Bye!" and rushing out the front doors with her prey in tow.
But in that one moment that she saw Mina's 'companion', the light bulb of realization switched on as she sat there stunned.
It was James Morris, the guy that was making it impossible for her to forget.
****
A.N: Hope you liked! I'm again truly sorry that I haven't updated it as soon as I wanted to. Like I said, life is really stressin' me at the moment.
