Battle Against Sphinx

Chapter - Six

Paxton

I gasped as Zara said “mom” . Was the great Linda Xanther , Zara’s mom? I could not believe my ears. I was sitting with one my favorite artist's daughter. I could cry from happiness. But the one thing I could not understand was why was she tearing up. Did she miss her mom ?

“Why are you crying?” I asked her. “She is my mom. She left me and dad for some other man years ago. I was like two years old then” she said amidst her sobs. “Even I was one of the biggest fans of her art. Specially once this painting got released. I got very excited and showed this price of art to my dad to which he asked me not to be admired of her anymore. He then told me one day that she was my mother and that the painting depicted her leaving me and my dad for someone else.” She explained.

I was devastated. I knew that she was married again. Like I knew her present husband was the second one but I didn’t know that she had and was the cause of a terrible past. Zara broke into full on crying. Julia sat beside her and side hugged her in comfort. We let her take her time to calm down.

“Paxton, you are one of her admirers right? I could see it.” She added the last part seeing my confused face about how she knew about my likes. I nodded my head in response. “ Tell me more about her. I wanted to know more hour her present life many times but couldn’t dare up to search” she said.

I cleared my throat as I did not know from where I should start . “So, I only know a little about her life right now. She is very good at maintaining her information private. Ok….. she lives in Chile, south America. She is married to an author. He isn’t that famous so I don’t know his name. I just know that his last name is Roberts because there was an issue as to why Linda hadn’t changed her last name.

She has a son , Richard Roberts. She was into painting from a long time and she was a street seller. That was until one of the exhibitors saw this painting” I waved the painting “ and then exhibited it in his art museum that she became famous. After that she has given many paintings which have so many meanings.”

I stopped and hesitated for a while thinking of I should say the interview part. Zara noticed my hesitation and signaled me to continue. “Ok, umm …. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this and I don’t know how you will handle this but she mentioned about you in one of her interviews.

She said that she had a family , a handsome husband who loved her to the moon and a beautiful daughter whom she admired the most but all that was in the past and now she is happy with her husband and her son” I stopped to see her reaction and she looked calm. Nothing like a person would react if she heard this for the first time . I guess she expected this coming. The host has started with his achievement. He started with ruining Zara’s relationship with her mom.

“Thank you” she muttered and I just gave her an assuring nod. “ I need some time guys.” She stood up and went up to the balcony door. We sat in silence not knowing what to do or what to talk about. “ I think we shouldn’t let her be alone at this time” Julia said and we agreed . “Lets go change the topic and get a smile on Ms. Cutie pie” Miles said as we stood up.

He has a talent in giving nicknames. “ I’m pretty sure you would win an award if ‘awards for giving nicknames' exist” “ Thanks man” he said not catching the sarcasm in my tone. I walked shaking my head. “So, Ms. Always emotional tell us something about yourself” he said and she smiled. “At least something good came out from your nicknames” Julia said. “ I was about to say that” I agreed with her.

“So, I’m Zara Xanther and I’m 17 years old. And as you said I’m quite emotional. I’m a dancer. Mainly a social media dancer and sometimes I give performances. I’m one of the students of Mr. Amit Patel. You might have heard of him. He runs an institute in Fremont, California. I upload dances under his social media too”

“So, how did you end up here?” Julia asked. “ You know the beauty of this place. It would have been wonderful if I uploaded a dance video shot here. The videographer was supposed to come in two days. I don’t know what will happen to him.” She said and sighed.

“We can understand how you are feeling” I said. “Lets sleep? I’m tired.” Zara said and we all went back inside. There was a bed for two people so we let the girls sleep on the bed and we slept on the floor .

I was woken up sounds of people talking. I was still closing my eyes and I couldn’t make out any words. Just sounds. Can it be the guy who has trapped us here? Maybe he has a hench man and is talking to him? Maybe he is planning something and what if I could hear that ? We would be able to escape?

With a million thoughts running in my head I slowly tiptoed near the balcony to see him only to meet with the people I know. It was just Julia and miles talking. Maybe they didn’t get any sleep .