(6) Year 5
One day, when Kevin was five years old, he and Gilbert went to market to buy the week's rations as usual. While Gilbert was busy looking over the options available in the vegetable stall, Kevin saw a couple of younger children sitting on the side ledge of a horse-drawn carriage and went over to see what they were up to. When Gilbert finished buying what he needed, he went over to see what was going on.
These children must be nobles, thought Gilbert, looking at their manner of dress and the style of carriage. The boy had unusual auburn colored hair and the girl looked like a three year old version of Sharon Rainsworth. Both children were fanning themselves with decorative fans.
"You dress like a boy but you don't act like one," Kevin taunted the auburn-haired one.
"I am a boy," the youth scowled as he muttered, then hid his face with the fan.
"Boys don't fan themselves," Kevin declared, raising his sword. "They use weapons."
"A fan is a weapon!" laughed the little girl. "Do you want to see?"
"Fine," said Kevin, standing tall, ready to dodge anything that came his way.
The girl hurled her fan in Kevin's direction. He ducked to the side and the fan hit Gilbert in the knee.
"Ow!" Gilbert clutched his knee and scowled.
"Miss Sheryl!" came a voice from inside the carriage. A genteel looking lady looked out. "You are not to practice your harisen skills on whomever you like. Why you have no idea who this gentleman could turn out to be!" She looked at Gilbert with an apologetic expression.
"I was trying to hit that annoying boy over there," Sheryl pointed at Kevin.
"Manners, dear," said the lady. "Rainsworth women must be ladylike and kind."
"That boy was mean to Rufus," Sheryl said, pouting.
"Boys will be boys," the lady said, with a tone of resignation in her voice. "Now come back in the carriage. We're leaving."
The two children scrambled back in the carriage and the driver cracked the reins on the horses. While trying to cope with the shock of having just seen Sheryl Rainsworth and Rufus Barma as small children, Gilbert didn't notice that his dangling coat belt was caught on a hook on the side of the carriage. When the carriage moved forward, he was jerked off his feet and before he knew what had happened, he was being dragged along the road. He grabbed onto his coat belt and tried to free it, but it was stuck firm, his weight helping to hold it there.
"Stop!" he yelled, feeling the burn of the roadway on his bum.
Suddenly Kevin was there, smacking the belt with his sword. The belt fabric ripped clean through where the hook had held it, and Gilbert was free. His face dusty, he looked up at Kevin.
"Thanks," he said, exhaling. Is that the first time I've ever told him that?
Kevin stood there staring at him, his sword in front of him like a walking stick.
"It's my duty to protect you," the boy said.
"Your duty? To protect me?" Gilbert couldn't tell how much of his confusion came from the sudden shift in Kevin's demeanor and how much came from the fact that he'd just been dragged about twenty feet through the dirt.
"My duty," Kevin declared, clicking his heels together and standing up straight. "As a knight!"
"Uh, o-of course," Gilbert stuttered, pulling himself to his feet.
Gilbert spent the walk home pondering things. He wondered if Kevin had managed to overcome some of his selfishness after all, in his quest to be helpful and knightly, or if this magnanimous behavior was in fact just a cover. After all, he still needs me, so of course he'd try to protect me. Right? By the time they made it back to the apartment, Gilbert was suffering from a nervous stomach again.
)(
One night, after a day of frequent coughing, Kevin flopped down on the sofa next to Gilbert and put his head on the man's lap, which was certainly unusual.
"Are you okay?" Gilbert asked Kevin.
When he got no response, he put his hand on the boy's forehead.
"You've got a fever," he announced, barely hiding the concern in his voice.
"Hmm," mumbled Kevin. His eyes flickered shut, and a soon after, the boy was asleep, his breathing audibly shallow. Nervous tension gripped Gilbert's stomach.
Fevers can kill children.
He looked down at that innocent, sleeping face.
If Kevin dies, those people he's destined to kill…would live. But…I don't want him to die…
Gilbert's shoulders shook and his eyes filled with tears.
I don't want to be alone.
to be continued