Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter, please enjoy!
UPDATE: I am terribly sorry that I accidently uploaded the wrong chapter yesterday. Obviously I cannot count til seven -.- Anyway, I hope everything is correct now ;)
Over the next couple of days Michael seemed to spend more time at the home for peculiar children than at his own home. He and his daughter were having dinner with Alma and the children every evening. It had begun the day after Alma and the children had been over at Michael's house for dinner. He had not been invited and had simply asked if he could join them for dinner and Alma could not find a reason as to why decline his inquire. From this day on he help her shop and worked in the garden. Alma could not bring herself to tell him that Fiona could do everything he did in just a blink of the eye. But he managed to fix the light in the cellar which had been broken for over a week now. All in all, Alma had come to value his help greatly. She did not understand fully why he spent so much time at their house but she guessed that he must feel pretty lonely since his wife had died. To be honest, she didn't mind the company either. Having lived on an island for over seventy years had also taken a toll on her as she had felt pretty lonely from time to time as well only being surrounded by children. Not that she would not love her children, quite the contrary to be exact but with no other adults around life soon became very…monotone. Of course she could always call her sisters because they could of course understand her very well. As a young ymbryne she could not understand why some of her sisters refused to care for children on their own. In the beginning she had enjoyed her independence too much to even consider teaming up with other ymbryne. But soon she understood. There were hardly ymbrynes that were living in a relationship. There were of course some who had found love in another ymbryne or peculiar but that was far from common. After all only peculiars were able to enter loops so there were not many options to choose from for an ymbryne. For a long time, already when they had not yet lived inside a loop, Alma had talked herself into believing that she could not be in a relationship because that would mean that she was putting someone before her children which she vowed never to do. She told herself that every night before going to bed and in the end, she believed it. Looking back, it had only been a protection mechanism to get over some horrible encounters with men before she had found her children. Most of her dates or short relationships had ended when the man finally realized that something was odd about her. Hardly anyone had ever found about about her peculiarity, often men were claiming that she was 'crazy' and some even went as far as calling her possessed by a demon. She was probably not the easiest person to be around anyway even when you forgot about her peculiarity. It was probably not meant to me-that's at least what she had told herself. No matter how hard she tried however those words didn't help to dampen the heartbreak over every single time that she had been dumped. But now that they were not living in a loop anymore everything could change. Could. If it were not for the voices in her head still telling her that she was about to neglect her children. She had spent so much time in talking herself into believing that she could only ever have either a man or her children that it seemed almost impossible now for her to think otherwise. She would never say it out loud but enjoying Michael's company always led to her feeling guilty. After all he was now consuming time that she had before spent with her children. This was a daily struggle and the mixture of joy and guilt often made her cry herself to sleep.
Alma was deeply lost in those thoughts when Michael entered the kitchen where she was washing the dishes.
"You know, I don't understand why you refuse to use the dishwasher. It would make your life so much easier." He grabbed a towel that had been carelessly thrown over the back of a chair and started to dry the dishes.
"Oh, it's a habit I guess. I also find it quite relaxing. It gives you time to think." Alma answered mindlessly. Michael looked at her closely. How could he have missed the dark circles under her eyes and the way her shoulders had sagged? There were several loose strands of hair and her make-up was slightly smeared as if she had brushed over her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked tired, really tired. Slowly as if not to startle her he placed a hand on her forearm.
"Alma, are you alright?"
She looked up directly into his eyes. For the first time he understood why people called the eyes the window to the soul. The only problem was that right now he didn't like at all what he saw behind this window. Worry, pain, guilt and fear. He had the sudden urge to take all those bad feelings off her and replace them with joy and happiness.
"Of course, I am fine. Do not worry about me."