Especially considering that I am only twenty eight.
I was on my way to the postoffice when a teenage boy had showed up from out of nowhere. He had me on a dead grip and I would have swung my bag at the boy and screamed for help, if I had not realized that the boy was crying. So I did the only thing I could do; I patted his back and told him not to cry.
As I wondered how I could escape becoming a spectacle on the pavement, a young man burst out forth from among the crowd. "Al!" he called, before he stopped dead in his track. His face - which was as alien as I had ever seen with his golden eyes - went pale in an instant, and he whispered a word. "Mother..."
Honestly, do I really look like the mother of not just one, but two children?
A shortwhile later, the three of us found ourselves in a small tearoom near the Tube station, staring at our tea cups in an awkward silence. The young man opened his mouth as if he were trying to say something several times, but each time he closed it again almost straight away. The boy - I would guess to be seventeen, maybe eighteen - seemed to be trying to hide behind his cup; an anatomically impossible feat, if you ask me.
Finally, as if to save his companion further embarrassment, the older of the two said, "I really apologize about my brother's behavior, Miss...?"
"Cornwell. Patricia Cornwell," I introduced myself. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister..."
"Edward Elric," he replied, "and this is my brother Alphonse."
I sniffed at the older one's name but nodded at both of them nonetheless.
"As I said, I'm really sorry. Alphonse here, uh..., is not really used to London. Must be sunstroke, or something." I watched as the young man continued to apologize profusely, taking note of his foreign accent. Did they come from Germany, I wonder, or was it America? And how on Earth could the boy have gotten sunstroke, given the complete and utter lack of the sun itself?
"I don't know if I should be pleased or horrified of the idea that your brother here has mistaken me for your mother," I admitted to the older brother.
"I'm sorry!" The younger one finally opened his mouth. "It was rude of me! I didn't mean to offend you or anything!"
"Calm down," I told him, using my occupation as a governess to my advantage in the tone of my voice. If there was ever a perfect moment to benefit from my job, then this was it. "I am not offended in the slightest," I lied to him. "It was an honest mistake. Apology is accepted, and there should be no further fuss over this incident." I took a last sip of my cooling tea. "Now that everything is settled down, please excuse me as I continue with my errands."
The younger one looked at me longingly as I stood from my seat, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. I was thankful that the older one had enough sense to nudge the boy back to his self. They followed me out of the tearoom, apologizing once again as I bid them farewell.
The story would have ended there, but of course, like any other time, it was not the case with me. I felt the brothers' eyes kept following me as I turned and started to walk away, so much that I just could not bear it. It wasn't even four steps before I turned to them again, much to their surprise, I'd imagine. "If you ever have the need for my presence," I told the brothers. "I am situated with the Patterson family in 17 Covent Garden. Be advised and let me know before a visit."
And this is why I should have been a nanny instead. This weakness toward vulnerable boys will be the death of me one day.
The brothers gaped at me in a very un-gentleman-like manner, but I found myself not as disgusted as I should have been. Even now, as I have come back to my room on the second floor of my employer's house, writing today's happening into my journal, I still cannot fathom what it is about those two brothers that has made me let my guard down. I hope there will never be a day in my life for me to regret giving them more than a passing acquaintance.
Though...
Now that I allow myself to admit, the older brother does remind me of my own dear little brother, who went missing in one of those bombings back then.