"The guerrillas are sticking to the woods because it's hard to track them up there," Giygas says, studying a map with a magnifying glass. The night sky blazes in the contrast with the crackling fire in the corner.
He stands up and speaks to his right-hand man, Everdred, and other men. "Those bastards know the terrain better than any of us. We'll block all access to the woods. Food, medicine – we'll store it all. Right here."
Paula steps in the room and brings a tray of food in. She places the plates of bread, olives, cold cuts, and a bottle of liquor on the table they're at. "We'll force them down, make them come to us. We'll set up three new command posts."
Giygas places three markers on the map. "Here, here, and here."
Paula glances at the map, concealing avid interest.
"Paula," Giygas says, suddenly placing an arm on her shoulder. She stares at him. "Ask Jeff to come down."
"Yes, sir."
She walks out.
.
.
.
~oO0Oo~
.
.
.
Jeff takes out a thin, tall bottle with a pasteur pipette in it. Carol lies in bed sleepily while Ninten stands, watching the young doctor's actions with interest.
"This will help you sleep through the night," Jeff explains. "Just two drops before bed." He uses the dropper and dumps two drops of the liquid into a glass of water. As he places the dropper down and hands the glass of water to Carol, Ninten places the dropper back in it's place, and picks of the bottle, staring at it.
"Very good," Jeff says, watching Ninten's mother drinking the liquid weakly. "All of it. Good."
Carol groans after she finishes the water.
Jeff goes back to his doctor's kit, closes it up, and finishes, saying "Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything. Day or night."
He stops and looks at Ninten, who is smiling, standing beside his mother's bed.
"You or your little doctor." He concludes.
Ninten smiles, and Jeff leaves. "Goodnight."
"Close the door, and turn off the lights, sweetie," Carol says, yawning, and passing the medicine vial to her son.
Ninten places the vial on the bedside table.
Outside the closed door, Paula and Jeff talk quietly amongst themselves after they check to make sure the foyer is empty.
"You have to help us. Come up and see him. The wound is getting worse. His leg isn't getting any better." Paula whispers quickly.
Jeff hands her a small package wrapped in dark paper and neatly tied with string. "This is all I could get. I'm sorry."
Paula sighs, disappointed.
"Captain Giygas is waiting for you in his office." She says.
The doctor moves downstairs, and Paula glances back to the upper bedroom. Ninten has been peeking out from the partially open door, listening attentively.
How long as he been there?!
The boy closes the door quietly.
In the dark room lit only by a fireplace, the voice of his mother calls out.
"Come here, Ninten."
He obeys and walks over to the bed. He takes off his hat and shoes and places them on the floor. Never to take off the bandana around his neck, though. That was a forbidden act to him. He climbs into his mother's bed and snuggles close.
Although sometimes he felt that he might be immature for his thirteen-year-old age, he felt no remorse being babied by his mother and felt no shame cuddling close for a sleep. He tries to avoid it when others are around, though, to avoid the ridicule. Plus he had to tonight anyways, – his room wouldn't be ready for a while.
"Jesus, your feet. They're frozen!" His mother gasps.
They lie there for a second before his mother breaks the silence. "Are you afraid?"
"A little." He answers truthfully as Carol caresses his hair. The wind picks up every now and then and the house timbers moan and creak.
"What's that noise?" He asks, a mixture of confusion and fear in his voice.
"Nothing – just the wind." His mother laughs quietly, holding him closer. "Nights here are different from city nights." She explains. "There you hear cars – the tramway. Here the houses are old. They creak."
The house ironically utters a series of rumbling noises, almost as a demonstration.
"As if they're speaking..."
There was a break in the conversation. His mother pulls her son close again, saying, "Tomorrow I'm going to give you a surprise."
"A surprise?"
"Yes."
"A book?" Ninten asks eagerly. His mother laughs at the obvious guess of the surprise, and says "No, something much better."
Then things took a serious turn when one question escaped Ninten's lips: "Why did you have to get married?"
His mother had to think of a way quickly to explain.
"I was alone too long."
I don't buy that mom...
"I'm with you. You weren't alone. You were never alone."
"When you're older, you'll understand." His mother replies weakly.
Oh, not THAT excuse again.
"It hasn't been easy for me either," Carol says before wincing in pain.
"Your brother's at it again – tell him one of your stories. I'm sure he'll calm down."
Ninten eagerly rests his hand on his mother's stomach, excited to share one of his most favorite passions with his younger sibling. He moves closer to Carol's stomach.
He taps on her abdomen twice.
"My brother..." He taps. "My brother..."
He rests his head on his mom's belly, while the unborn child opens it's eyes in the amniotic fluid, and both mother and unborn listen.
Many, many years ago in a sad, faraway land, there was an enormous mountain made of rough, black stone. At sunset, on top of that mountain, a magic rose blossomed every night that made whoever plucked it immortal. But no one dared go near it because its thorns were full of poison. Men talked amongst themselves about their fear of death, and pain, but never about the promise of eternal life. And every day, the rose wilted, unable to bequeath its gift to anyone... forgotten and lost at the top of that cold, dark mountain, forever alone, until the end of time.
It was nice the way the stick insect was observing the two.
.
.
.
~oO0Oo~
.
.
.
The improvised office is in one of the lower rooms, where the gigantic mill wheel and the wooden gears lie, steel gears shine like metallic stars on a small swatch of black velvet. Tweezers pick them up and put them into place within the workings of a watch. Using a jeweler's magnifying glass, Giygas oils and closes up his pocket watch while he listens to cuplé on a phonograph.
The doctor comes to the door and knocks. Giygas motions for him to enter, which he does.
"How is she?" He asks.
"Very weak," Jeff replies.
Giygas closes the watch and removes the magnifying glass.
"She'll have as much rest as she needs. I'll sleep down here." Jeff continues
"And my son?"
"Your-?"
They are interrupted by Everdred and another soldier coming into the room. "Excuse us, Captain."
Giygas raises a hand, silencing them. He repeats. "My son. How is he?"
"For the moment, there's no reason to be alarmed," Jeff concludes.
"Very good," Giygas says, getting up and picks up a cigarette. But Jeff wasn't finished. "Captain, your wife shouldn't have traveled at such a late stage of pregnancy.
Giygas replies with a mouthful of smoke, followed by, "Is that your opinion?"
"My professional opinion, yes, sir."
The Captain walks up to the young doctor, so they are eye to eye. "A son should be born wherever his father is. That's all." He takes another puff of the cigarette and continues walking towards his men.
"One more thing, Captain." Giygas stops, annoyed. "What makes you so sure the baby is a male?"
Giygas turns around, laughs. "Don't fuck with me." With that, Giygas follows his men outside.
"At eight o'clock, we detected movement in the northwestern sector. Gunfire." They walk over to the left side of the mill. "Sergeant Beyona searched the area and captured a suspect. The other one's his son, here from the town."
The men approach the suspects, who are being held tightly by a soldier each.
"Captain, my father is an honest man-"
"I'll decide that." Giygas interrupts the son, roughly nineteen years of age. "Take your hat off when you talk to me!"
The boy quietly obeys while the sergeant named Beyona hands the Captain a small gauge rifle and a small leather pouch.
"We found this weapon – it's been fired."
"My father was hunting rabbits, Captain." The son says.
"Again – keep quiet." Giygas then proceeds to go through the man's bag. He takes out a piece of paper and reads aloud. "'No God, nor government, nor master?' Just like that – how do you like that?" He shows Everdred, who says, "Red propaganda, sir."
The young man sweats, shakes, holding his hands together tightly, showing obvious signs of anxiety. "It's not propaganda, sir."
"Shh..."
"It's an old almanac, Captain." The father says. "We're just farmers."
Giygas continues to go through the bag, throwing to the ground each and every paper he can see. "Go on." He says.
"I went up into the woods, Captain, to hunt for rabbits. For my daughters. They're sick."
Giygas then proceeds to pull out a half empty bottle of wine from the bag. He uncorks it and takes a whiff. "Rabbits, uh?"
"Captain, if my father says so, he was hunting rabbits." The boy interrupts again. Giygas shoots him a look that would strike him dead where he stood if looks could murder. He corks back the wine and walks over to the boy, bottle in hand.
Then he swings.
Without warning, he flattens the boy's nose with the bottle's bottom. The father screams horrified, but without the guts to intervene.
Giygas lifts the son up, bashing his nose, again and again, leveling bone and cartilage, blood flooding from the wound.
"Leave him alone!" The father yells.
Giygas drops the boy, who falls to the ground spitting blood.
"You killed him, you killed him! Murderer! Son of a bitch!"
He turns to the father and shoots him twice in cold blood, then turns to the son and shoots him once, in the head. Then all is silence. The distant whistle of a train can be heard. Giygas heads back towards Everdred and calmly searches the pouch. He throws out the rest of the remaining papers and then pulls out two dead rabbits by their long ears. He stares coldly at Everdred.
"Maybe you'll learn to search these assholes properly before you come bothering me." He blames.
"Yes, Captain."
.
.
.
~oO0Oo~
.
.
.
Young Ninten awakes from his sleep, wide-eyed. The contrast between silence and the dry rattling moving throughout the room is too much. A soft ululation at the window, which is half open, and the curtains billow. The mill groans, and Ninten is now restless and scared.
Another dry clicking noise.
"Mother. Mother, wake up!" He whispers.
No response. His mother doesn't move.
"Mother, there's something in the room."
Something shifts in the ceiling beams. Ninten looks up, searching. It startles the boy enough to leap out of bed.
Screw this, I'm out of here!
He moves to the edge of the bed, and slowly and carefully places on – just one – of his bare feet on the carpet. It's soft against his flesh, and his muscles relax. Suddenly something the size of a human hand scurries past his feet and hides under the bed.
He quickly gasps in fear and pulls his feet back under the covers for protection.
Then, pulling at the goose down comforter, the stick insect climbs up into the bed. Ninten looks from the opposite side of the bed, clutching a bundle of blankets to his chest. He cocks his head, then, when they both realize they've seen one another, they both relax, and the insect slowly approaches the boy. When Ninten sees the insect has no scary intentions, he smiles.
"Hello. Did you follow me here?"
The stick insect clicks in mandibles.
"Are you a fairy?"
The stick insect regards him with curiosity.
"Look!" He says, excitedly. He reaches to the bedside table, picks up a book, flips through it, and shows the stick insect the illustration. A simple sketch of a fairy.
"This is a fairy." He says, tapping the picture.
The stick insect mimics the fairy drawn in the book. It flaps its wings, turns around, and withing five seconds, it turns into that exact fairy in real life.
Ninten is clearly shocked, not believing this is real, or happening. The fairy is green, with four wings that have a view similar to leaves. It has a human-ish anatomy complete with fingers, toes, two eyes, and pointy ears.
Suddenly, in flies upwards, it's wings fluttering quickly. It places itself in front of Ninten's face and swings its arms to its chest, motioning for the boy to come.
The boy smiles. "You want me to go with you?"
The fairy nods, and points towards the window.
His smile stays, showing interest. "Outside? Where?"