Niko’s Eye

Chapter 66.

Isis.

It felt like one of the hottest summer days in the tropics. Girls walked around in their underwears and men gallivanted with their shirts open. Some having pleasant torsos, and others, just a pot belly full of chest hairs.

Everything was peaceful and quite. The wind was merry and cool. Isis sat next to the pool in huge black shades and a white wide-brim hat.

It his her face from the sun.

Suddenly she could hear voices being raised, as if in anger. She was too relaxed to bother herself.

"Some days it feels as if humanity will squabble until the last of the tropical islands have been sold as trinkets in upmarket boutiques," she sighed.

She heard a laugh from behind her and chose against putting in the effort of lifting herself from her relaxation just to see who was it. The person would reveal themselves if they wanted to.

Isis betted that it was Alejandro, he had multiple personalities with different laughs. And it had been a little over a work since he had decided to start working from home so that they can have more time to plan their wedding.

"The greatest aspect of working from home was no more alarm clock. I would wake when I woke, and no matter if it was early or late, that was okay. The day began when it began and ended when it ended. So much stress evaporated. In a short while I awoke at the same time, give or take a few minutes, each day anyway. I developed my own rhythm, my own sense of time that had more to do with nature and my own biology," is what he had said.

Just then, a figure hovered over her for a few minutes before going to sit over in the lounger next to her. She followed the figure’s shadow and saw that it was indeed Alejandro.

"I knew you were spying on me, and why are you half naked?"

Alejandro chuckled lightly.

"Dude, it’s like 890 degrees out here, you’re lucky I’m not walking around here whipping my p***s in anyone’s face."

"Touché."

"How you doing baby?" He asked, slapping on some sunscreen and reclining the lounger.

"You’re perfectly annoying but that’s okay, because it’s as much a reflection of me as anything else. Those days everything goes right I find you so cute, and those days the world bites me I want to bite you. So really, it’s the pressure and stress that messes us up, you and me. Because when I see you properly I soon find that you are annoyingly perfect. I love you more because you are so annoying at times, perfection is boring, we are opposites and in that there is infinite interest and entertainment value."

"That was so random. But if you’re trying to say that you love me, beyond my imperfections, I love you too Birdie."

Isis looked at Alejandro, wide eyes and all.

"Birdie?"

"You know it’s going to be your legal name soon."

She looked at him in shock, and in brooding silence.

They both burst out laughing.

Alex is a proper tool.

Alejandro.

The kitchen was a mess.

Fruit laying everywhere, bottles of gin, rum and passion fruit juice laying on the floor.

Alejandro and Isis were whipping up cocktails for the hot weather. They had left the kitchen in war mode and ran off to the supermarket to get a couple of other things.

They came back, set their new ingredients onto the kitchen counter and got back to work.

Isis plopped herself onto the counter and started eating the pineapples that Alejandro was dicing.

"Mmmh. This is real good."

Alejandro looked up at her, her juicy lips sucking onto the fruit, making him stir.

Goddamn it, can you stop?

He quickly looked down at the chopping board before he would chop his own fingers off because of lust.

"So uhm, when should we start planning the wedding?"

"Alex, I’m like 0.3 seconds away from being drunk, how do I think about such an important day in this state?"

Alejandro smirked.

"Go ahead. I want to see how strong your willpower is."

He watched Isis’ face as she looked back at him in horror, squinting her eyes as if she was being conned.

"You know what? Let the wedding be simple, for just as a minimalist frame accentuates the beauty of a photograph, the minimalist wedding accentuates the beauty of our love. The love of a marriage is simple and pure, it is as the air and water needed daily rather than the firework. That’s what we wanted to show in our simple wedding, that by being so steady with one another we could remain together all of our days."

Alejandro stared at her in disbelief. "Wow."

He picked up the chopping knife again and cut the fruits into perfect cubes in the time it took most people just to peel a potato. Every motion was precise from intense repetition and he prided himself on the machine-like perfection of his shapes. Everything was even, uniform, perfect. His eyes narrowed as he watched Isis pour a ton of gin into the blender, and his mouth tightened to a thin straight line, "Too much, too much!"

Isis burst out laughing. "Right."

Alejandro examined the remainder of the fruits. He turned the peaches in his spade-like hands to look for the sallow brown spots, tossing his rejects into a separate bin with a grunt. Then he picked up the lemons and looked at each one like an art appraiser, taking in the minutia of the details, sniffing a ripped lemon leaf before chewing it.

He looked up to see Isis staring at him.

"What’s wrong?"

"You’re really taking this seriously huh?"

"I just have a lot of experience with this and I appreciate a good drink," he said, shrugging, and a little bit embarrassed.

She walked up to him, locked her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

"Yeah, you do appreciate fine details. One of the qualities I appreciate about you."

Immediately his shoulders eased and his frown softened.

Isis kissed him, softly, her lips tasting like pineapples, mangoes and gin.

I love you.

Sergio.

He was handed a glass of whiskey, on the rocks.

"You look like a bag of nerves, this will calm you down." Said the other man.

Sergio nodded thankfully.

Ice cubes in whiskey gold bring a hue to my eyes that speaks of sunshine and better days ahead.

The whisky turns down the volume on my thoughts. It brings memories of good times past, and I let myself dwell in them rather than think. And in that moment I am here and not, existing in two perfect moments. Somehow it steadies me, gives me the resolve to go on.

He rubbed his temples. "Yeah, uh. s**t has just been wild. I mean, I just found my kid and now my lover wants to blackmail me."

The other man chuckled warmly.

"But we saw that one coming, didn’t we? We’ve just gotta stick to the plan and put it into gear now. So why are you so nervous?"

"I don’t know man, I just, I..."

"You care about her don’t you?"

Sergio sighed. "I can’t say I don’t. But at the same time...she deserves it you know."

"Remember why you’re doing this in the first place. The devil has zero interest in you, Sergio, for what was made by the divine creator must return to the divine creator. To him you are the bug and he so enjoy’s pulling off your wings and watching your suffering. But it’s nothing personal. How could the devil be personal with a bug? No. It is simply a devil of a game. What Satan is after is the destruction of creation, to destroy Earth and all her life forms, to watch them suffer and die. The first step to winning this game is realising that you are in it. She doesn’t care about you. I mean, we knew she would look for a scapegoat, and here we are."

"You’re right. The best bunker plan is the largest community you can keep safe. This is not the traditional nutter running to the hills with guns and ammo scenario, this is the social responsibility version."

The other man nodded in agreement. "Our best bunker plan is not a bunker at all. It’s having a secret base, a private home, and from there planning operations to benefit the local and global society. To beat the beast, we’re gonna bring our best, our A game."

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Well, the proof of good friends is in the challenges of life. Those who pass such trials are your troupe, your running buddies, your real soul-mates.

"You’ve really proved to be a good man and a good friend to me," said Sergio. "So what’s the first step?"

"You know already."

"You’ve got to come back from the dead."