Andrei
I led the two officers inside. I really didn't know how to tell them about my son. And I didn't know how to tell my son about them. I knew he'd be, well, angry to put it mildly. Any mention of anything before the accident just enraged him. Once I'd made a joke he would've laughed at and he just stormed out. I found him three hours later sat on the border of the historic district. Where he used to sit when waiting for Sulu to pick him up for something.
"So, to what do I owe this pleasure Hikaru?" I asked pleasantly. He glanced at me. I knew I'd made him uncertain just by using 'I'.
He looked back at James before answering me. "We, uh, wanted to see Pavel." I stopped walking. "We lost touch." He added hastily.
My shoulders sagged. I gave a pained sigh and turned to look him in the eye. "He won't see you." Of course, they didn't know how literal I was being.
"Well, could you…tell him?" Hikaru breathed softly. My face crinkled in pain. I loved Hikaru like a second son and there wasn't anything I wouldn't give for my son to spend an hour with him. He could probably make him laugh again. It was a sound that I longed to hear. It had evaded me for three years.
"You don't know what happened do you?" I asked bluntly.
"What? Something happened to him?" James asked. I nodded.
"I'll call him, but I doubt he'll stay for long." I said as I turned and set off towards a giant marble staircase.
I fought back tears as I walked up to his room. He hadn't allowed me to get this far in three years. How could I tell them? Hell! I didn't even know what he looked like anymore. To see your child's dream crushed is one thing but for them to not even let you see them for three years after, that is the truest form of torture for a parent. A shiver ran up my spine as I approached the door. It had stayed shut for so long. I knew he'd built himself a replicator up there but it had still come as a shock when he stopped coming for meals and drinks. My son had built an impenetrable wall around himself. A wall, that even I couldn't even begin to guess at how to break it. No-one knew how thick it was either. He had decided that because of what had happened, his entire life should stop. So he had made it. It is only now that I regret telling him to make his life what he wants it and to not stop until he gets it. I never imagined that he would use it like this.
"Malyenki?" I ask through the door. The use of his nickname was a futile hope that he might respond to me calling him 'small one'. No answer. "Malyenki, you have guests. Come and see them." I shouted the last bit. That way he'd know I wasn't joking. "They'll be in the blue room." I heard movement. He was coming then.
I walked swiftly back to Hikaru and James and took them to the blue room. It is called that because it is exactly that: blue. Someone had left the room open with tins of blue paint everywhere. To a seven year old boy, throwing tins of paint across a room was hilarious fun. It had become his favourite room. I don't know if he misses it now.
"He'll see you in here. I'll leave you to catch up." I said and walked out as the first tear rolled down my cheek.
