Niko’s Eye

Chapter 56.

Aisha.

I should’ve made the call by now.

But Aisha had been reluctant, and she was yet to figure out why.

She did not want to entertain the thought that she might be softening up inside of the prison walls.

Ever since a certain motivational speaker had walked into the prison, to speak to the prisoners, she had been feeling different. And she didn’t like it.

"Why is it that the financial cycle echoes a predator-prey cycle?" asked Professor Ignatus, "do you know anything about the minds who created the system? They were minds who thought themselves, and the aristocracy, a superior race, and their system would bring the deaths of surplus population by starvation and fighting among themselves for the means of surviving. So, fast forward a few generations and we have a world that is starving not because we can’t feed them, but because the system prevents it. It isn’t broken, it was built to kill off the poor in cycles both at home and abroad. If you want to survive this next cycle, now that they are close to having robots, I suggest you wake up." And that was the entire lecture. Aisha just got up and left, her bones creaking inside that worn out tweed and what was left of her black hair moving in the corridor channelled breeze of the prison.

She had felt like she was starting to get old faster than she had initially imagined.

I am nearing 50 anyways, aren’t I? Goddamn it Aisha, get a grip. The amygdala is a button they push, an ancient part of the brain triggered by fear. They scare us with so many things to make us easy to control - yet that also brings aggression, societal problems and reduced creative intelligence. So, if you truly want to drive your own brain, to feel its true power and potential - cut out the media, cut out stuff that scares you and replace it with sport, meditation, serenity. It’ll feel odd at first and you might even feel an urge to watch a scary movie to bring the familiar feelings of fear back, but you’ll be okay. So, come join the living. Have the courage to leave the zombie state.

The usefulness of my thoughts evaporated sometime ago yet my mind churns on in the darkness like a runaway motor. When I start trying to do math with curry in my head that I know things are bad. This sleeplessness is my torture. While the rest of the world embraces their dreams, their eight hours of rest, I toss and turn chasing the white rabbit. They have evidence against me in their pocket and a bunch of witnesses that hate me. A train horn honks in the background and the tiny bed shakes. A train. Something from the real world. Soon my mind is back on the evidence, Rãmirez and Sergio. The rabbit is back, he says there is a tea party ahead but all the food is gone. A prison gate slams down the corridor and a police officer is shouting at a prisoner. My eyes open and dart to the window. It looked like it was two thirty in the morning. Outside someone falls over the dustbins, sending the metal-lid clattering to the sidewalk of the prison grounds. My heart is thumping out of my chest. All this anxiety? What’s going on with me?

Alejandro.

Sunlight kisses Isis’ lips to a soft-pink and her hair to ebony; it plays upon her dress, alighting softly upon her skin. Sunlight gives her eyes just the right glimmer as she drops them to her shoes. But there’s something about her that makes me want to see her in the twilight, to wrap her in the velvet black of night and whisper sweetness into her ears.

You said cheeky was good; you let me be myself. We laughed so much, at times you stopping because you knew a torrent of giggles needed to be released. But of everything we ever did, it was looking in your eyes I loved the most. That’s all we ever needed to connect, you and me, just eyes, no words. If we were mute our love would be just the same.

Isis’ eyes were all coffee browns. The centre was a bright mocha, chocolatey and bright. After that it was all latte until the rim of dark roasted beans.

Isis’ eyes weren’t like the wet bark on the oaks, but more of the soft brown rings that gave away the age of the few they felled. Combined with the gentleness of her features and honeyed skin, she could soothe anyone. It was a skill that came to be more treasured than any other. In those brutal times there was nothing anyone could want more than to be with a natural born nurturing soul; and no-one was better than Isis.

Sometimes, her eyes were the softest brown infused with green, as if he held the new spring growth inside. They were the forest floor and the gentle flowers, somewhere to rest and breathe.

Every hand I ever held caused me more pain than words can ever tell, more pain than my memories will allow me to relive. That I am willing to take yours is a story of trust that is born of deep love and a sense that this is but a part of our story, that in times forgotten, in other lives, we were champions together.

He looked over at Isis as she had her head ducked into her textbooks, complete with those thick framed glasses.

"Ice, I love you baby girl."

She swiftly looked up from her books, gushing like a new born baby who’s just seen who her mother is for the first time.

"I love you Dom."

Smiling from ear to ear, Alejandro got up from the couch he was lounging in and moved to the study that Isis was sitting at.

Hovering over her, he said, "As with chemical bonds, the most stable associations require less energy together than separately. It is supposed to take energy to be apart rather than together. Thus in the company of one another, of a good partner, you are soothed to a lower energy state. If it takes energy to stay together, from either partner, the relationship will be reactive and destined to break. When I feel you hand, when we hold hands in physical and emotional ways, I feel my energy level move lower. Sure, the s****l energy elevates, but my stress levels reduce. Being with you is easier than being apart."

"Did you just read some of that from my chemistry book to remix it with your sappy speech about how much you love me?" Isis asking laughingly while reaching out to him to kiss him.

Even without telling a soul it was soon common knowledge that Alejandro and Isis were lovers. It was in the way their gazes lingered on one another, the way their voices became softer and in the shy grins they’d never worn before. In casual conversation they stood that little bit closer than folks usually do, their body language so open and relaxed.

Isis slid her hand into Alejandro’s pocket, teeth softly biting into her lower lip. He gazed at her face, not moving the arms he’d wrapped around her waist. He felt a soft tug from his pocket and Isis pulled away into the soft glow of the bedroom. In her hands was a chocolate bar. "Finders keepers, losers weepers," she said, her voice echoing around the brick row-houses and sending a nested bird into the air.

"You’re only writing chemistry in a month. Let’s go down to the beach."

He looked down at her surprised face, and kissed her light freckles.

Taking her hand in his, they sneaked out of his study and ran out of the house, onto the beach.

Alejandro’s mansion was also a beach house, and it proved no hassle to them for their little escapade.

He felt young and alive as they ran as fast as they could, crashing onto the sand in front of the ocean, and into each other’s arms.

"Skinny dip again."

"Let’s get naked and just lay on the sand. I hope you don’t get crabs in your penis."

Alejandro snorted, pushing down his briefs and ripping off his vest.

They lay naked in the moonlight, waves crashing the shore not far away, Alejandro’s arm draped over her waist. Isis lent in for a kiss, the kind he wanted to last forever, but after a time she withdrew to gaze at his face.

He stared back at hers, the face he loved so much. Alejandro glided his hand over her skin to her face, brushing away a little sand. "Have I ever told you I love you?"

Isis grinned, he said the exact same thing every time. "No, uh uh," she shook her head and fought away the grin.

Alejandro’s hand had migrated to her hair, pushing it back from her face. "Well, I do. And you know what?"

Alejandro heard his words before he said them, folding his lips inwards. "I always will."