April
wasn’t kidding when she said that she wasn’t good at skating. In fact she
couldn’t skate at all.
When I offered to help her learn, I didn’t expect her to accept my offer but she nodded her head and gave me the okay to lead her along.
We talked about random things while I guided her around the rink but occasionally the conversation would always veer back to Haruka. Or rather the absence of Haruka, which peeved April only because she wanted a witness to the spanking that she had given me at Frank’s. Amusingly enough, it appeared that she thought that she hadn’t spanked me enough.
Because after we finished skating, she went on to completely destroy me in several water balloon fights.
And she completely owned me at golf. But it didn’t bother me at all because I was just happy to see her smile. I was happy to see her so full of life and energy.
We caught dinner at The Garden and while April was in the restroom, a strange man came over to my table. A peculiar dressed man with a peculiar smile.
“Can I help you?” I asked as he invited himself to the seat
next to me.
“You look like a young man who’s in need of a fortune” he
said.
I didn’t believe in fortune cookies and I definitely didn’t
believe fortune tellers. I told him “No thanks” and expected that he would be
on his way but he stayed still.
“C’mon now, just for five dollars you can have the blueprint
for your own future. The keys to your own destiny. Tell me that doesn’t
interest you?” he smiled, extending his hand.
I wasn’t interested in the dream I knew he was trying to
sell me but I gave him five dollars anyway just to make him go away. After a
minute or two of reading my palm, the stranger finally said “One will help you
reach the top. The other will sink you to your lowest bottom. Be careful, young
man, be very careful. The Age of Aquarius is upon you and I’m afraid it’s going
to devour you whole.”
Right as he said that, April came out of the restroom and he gave me a creepy smile that sent a slight shiver down my spine.
“Who was that weirdo?” April laughed as she sat down “A
friend of yours?”
“No clue but he said he was a fortune teller.”
“So he read your fortune? What did he say?”
“Some weird crap about being careful and something about the Age of Aquarius being upon me.”
“Age of Aquarius? So you’re an Aquarius too?”
“No, I’m a Capricorn which is the confusing part.”
“That does sound a little weird. But then again he’s just a
fortune teller. Don’t they get paid to say stupid random stuff like that? You
know I got a fortune cookie the other day that said that my wildest dreams
would soon come true. Well I don’t think coming in third place at Summer
Madness is having my wildest dreams come true. Just thinking about it makes me
upset. I outta go over to that Chinese
shop and shake down the manager for giving away irresponsible fortune cookies
and selling frickin wolf tickets.”
“April…”
“Don’t laugh, I’m serious.”
As the sun started to set and a breeze started to settle, April began to tell me random stories from her past as we walked home. Childhood dreams, middle school crushes, high school goals. She started to give me the blueprint of her entire life.
She asked me about mine too but there wasn’t much to tell
about my story. I had a normal childhood and I had normal dreams. As soon as I
picked up a paint brush, I knew I wanted to be a painter. There was no long
road to discovery for me or a eureka moment. I’ve always known what I wanted
from my life and where I wanted to go.
April told me that she found that fascinating but I thought she was a lot more fascinating as she jumped on my back and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Carry me the rest of the way home” she giggled, rubbing her
cheek against my mine. “It’s your reward for keeping your promise.”
“Promise?”
She clicked her teeth and finger flicked the side of my head
“Don’t make me repeat it. It’s embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing? Oh you mean when I said-” April covered my
mouth with her hands before I could say another word. I couldn’t see her face but something told me
that she was blushing.
“Oh my god, she’s still not back yet? When I see that girl I’m going to put her in a chokehold. Keep ignoring my phone calls, Haru, and see what happens.”
As weird as it sounds, me and April had never been at her
home alone together. Before our outing today, in fact we hadn’t been alone
around each other at all.
“Want some ice cream?”
“You’re still hungry?”
April didn’t seem to think nothing of it but for some reason
I started to get nervous. A type of nervous I was nervous about being nervous
about.
“Figures nothing good
would be on.”
“Jalil, what are you doing sitting way over there?” She patted the spot beside her and crinkled her nose with a laugh “I don’t have cooties you know?”
While she started to complain about something that I wasn’t paying attention to, I tried to keep my eyes from focusing on her lips. Or her eyes for that matter. In fact every physical feature on her face seemed like a deliberate trap to suck me in and make me make a immature move. And like always, she was completely oblivious to it.
When a horror flick came on, she inched closer and grabbed my hand but I was too into the movie to really pay attention. Before I knew it, I was scooting closer myself because I never had a strong stomach for gore and torture. Especially gore and torture that was mixed in with jump scares.
A comedy special lightened the mood but when the commercials came on, April’s smile died and so did mine.
In a brief minute news update, the Brave Wanderers were congratulated for winning Summer Madness and it was announced that world-renown, Symphony Records, had signed them to a major deal. The record label that April had always wanted to sign with.
I was almost afraid to look at her. I didn’t want to see her look of devastation after I had spent hours just to see her smile. But April surprised me.
Rather than a look of devastation, there was a look of indifference. As if she had already accepted the tournament’s outcome and had already accepted her third place.
But still, I felt compelled to say something. I didn’t know
what but I knew I had say something. At least a few words.
“Say Jalil” April
said abruptly. Her eyes were still on the TV but I felt like they were on me.
“What you said earlier today. When you said that we should have won. Did you
mean it?”
I wasn’t just trying to cheer her up when I told her that.
There were a lot of people who thought her and Haruka got snubbed. “Of course I
mean it, check twitter and Simbook. Everyone is saying you guys deserved better
than third.”
“Well I don’t care about everyone. As long as you say we did
good, then that’s all that matters.”
April had always said that I could sleep in her parent’s room but I had always preferred the couch. When April fell asleep on the couch, I made myself comfy and settled for the floor. Something that didn’t bother me because back home in Appaloosa Plains, I used to always fall asleep in the living room, watching late night specials and cartoons.
I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep but I slightly remember my dream. I was a child again holding on to my mother’s arm as we walked through the streets of Tokyoko City. I remember the bright neon lights that would have me tugging at my mom’s sleeve to go here and there, this place and that place, in my never-ending search for the most vivid place in the city. I remember the love and comfort I felt from back then. The security and warmth.
And after that dream, I remembered having another. I remembered a foreign hand guiding me to a foreign land where my parents didn’t exist. She told me that she had arrived to take me for a ride.
A ride that she said I would never forget.
And so said another.
And another that was hidden behind her.
