Thirteenth of The Blue

IX

IT IS MINUTES AFTER midnight when Geiki hit the bed. After leaving the spectacular view with the aid of the moonlight and retracing their way to their rented hut, they packed and left for home. Geiki drove the vehicle like there were thousands of demons chasing him while Leigh fastened the seatbelt, tilted her head, and fell into the hole of deep sleep. None of them acted indifferently but they felt too tired after enjoying one full day with each other. It is midnight when Geiki parked the car at the front of their house. Leigh who woke minutes before they reached their destination, jumped out of the vehicle and said goodnight to him before reminding him he should wake up early in the morning for the field trip.

            He stared at the ceiling for some time, with some wild thoughts hovering over his mind. The thought of the embarrassing attempt to land a kiss on the lips of his best friend came haunting him like a boogeyman under his bed. If only the thought is a boogeyman, Geiki will sure reach from under and tear the head off the body of the scary imaginary creature. But it is just a thought and not even near to any imaginary creature lurking under.

            Then there came the flashes of faces in his eyes, people, figures, creatures or whatever they are, like they are movie trailer playing on eerie surface of the ceiling of his room. There were booming voices and sounds of metals colliding against each other like they are played by a loud subwoofer somewhere in the corners of the room. They are characters, he realized. Those which belong to a dream that visits once a year, clip of memories from the forgotten parts of the nightmare. His mind is skyrocketing and he cannot hold a firm grip of it, he will surely go insane of he do not do something to push the thoughts aside.

            Just then, the door came wide open. No one will dare opening the door of Geiki without knocking, not even Mary. It will be like walking into the lion's den. He should be reciting words with a sharp tone when Leigh came in who was dressed in thin peach pajamas and sleeping gown. Her feet was wrapped with a pair of furry slippers designed like a bunny with ears protruding sideways and eyes that seem twirling as if stunned by a hammer blow. An automatic smile crossed Geiki's face.

            "Aunt Mary is still up," she began reasoning out. In the Philippines, it is customarily to call the parents of your closest friends aunt and uncle, a social way that the country is proud of. She is a natural born US citizen yet a full blooded Filipino. "She ushered me in when I asked if I can sleep in here. You know.... We are doing this since we are kids, and maybe we should make use of time before they call me away from you."

            She had spoken too much; Geiki frowned, his brows almost meeting with each other. It felt to him that Leigh is reasoning like a kid caught eating candies before bed. Yet he smiled with the sweetest one he can come up with.

            "Come on, come here." He slammed his open palms on the queen size bed a couple of times. "This has been your bed too for how many years. Even yours are mine."

            He is right. During those past years, Geiki's bed has been Leigh's. They fell asleep when they are both tired on the carpet clutching toys. They will spend hours rolling and laughing together on bed and eventually go silent and be sent to dreamland one embracing the other when they are teens. They still do sleepover now that they are fully grown matures but do it lesser than they did years ago.

            And before Geiki's invitation expires, as if it will, she took her trek across the floor. Each of her fluid and soundless step, Geiki imagined her walking down the aisle to meet him before the altar. As she neared towards the bed, her garments do not register in his mind, but replaced with a silky white gown. He is sure he had fallen in love with his best friend. He felt floating so light as if a fall from bird's wing carried by the wind, while a burning sensation seems to heat up from his chest. Then the ecstasy of his imagination faded when she sat on the edge just beside him.

            She looked down at the lying Geiki, the aftershock from the state of high from a natural biochemical called love is slowly drifting away from his being. "And I am here for another reason," she gave a tired smile. "So I can fetch a pail of water and bathe you with an ice cold full of it if you happen to be lazy enough to stay too late in dreamland for our field trip."

            "Oh, men," Geiki complained like a child sent to bed early and was deprived of playing video games. "She sends away my ladies and then she plans to carwash me while I am chasing Taylor Swift on the white beaches of a virgin island in dreamland."

            "Life is not really fair, young man." She said while curling like fetus on the bed, her face few inches away from Geiki's. "I miss this bed."

            "She doesn’t miss you!" He spat out acting a little bit angry or annoyed, addressing the bed as a female as if a vessel dubbed with feminine names.

            She did not respond. She just stared at him, her mind lost in some invisible tunnel ways inside her head. It took many seconds and it made Geiki feel uncomfortable. Maybe he embarrassed the lady beside him after all. He held the words he should be spitting, looking and observing at the almost unblinking Leigh.

            "I don't know how you plan waking up early," she finally said after some terrible agonizing seconds she went silent. There is a cold serious tone about her voice and Geiki does not like it. He felt being choked by something that does not exist. "But I am going to sleep."

Then she closed her eyes.

            He wants to respond but cannot find the words to fire back at her. He laid there, his sight on the closed eyes of Leigh. And by just merely looking at her sleeping friend, it is enough to conclude she is an angel that has fallen from the heaven. This is the girl he dreamt to be with for the rest of his life.

            His mind entered another state, half dreaming and what is left awake is imagining days they will spend together. They will have summer vacations over the country. Some of the cold nights they will stay awake and look at the stars. Then suddenly, Leigh's eyes flung open. She was surprised that he almost jumped and run like he found a dead person who just returned to the land of the living. He thought she have already fallen deep asleep.

            Leigh was surprised to see Geiki with a face almost turning white as paper. "You look like you saw Count Dracula just jumped out of a coffin."

            "I thought you were already asleep," he said so fast as if really explaining Dracula just materialized in front of him. There was no doubt; he was caught off his guard fantasizing about her.

            "No," she shook her head. "I forgot something."

            As if a snake leaping out from a coiled position, she landed a kiss of Geiki's lips. An action that only took two seconds and was felt fast he did not have time to react. Two seconds of ecstasy like being sent to heaven and back in a small amount of time. Then, she pulled back.

            "Now there were no lightnings and thunder," she winked, smiled then turned around.

            Geiki was left there, staring blankly at her still uncomprehending what just occurred. Was he dreaming, but he is sure he is not. He will be left there, dumbstruck for few more minutes until sleep finally comes settling a blanket of darkness over his eyes while he will be taken deep down stumbling to an unknown dream.

                                                                                            -KM-

A BLACK PHYTON SLOWLY slithered its body up a low paper tree, its eyes trained on a winged animal that appears like a figure of mixed hues in his eyes. The owl is cooing loud like it owns the woods it happened to land on this night, the bird, oblivious to the nearing threat that crawls under it.

            Eyes were focused on the kill-in-the-making, watching the scenario unfold each second with growing interest. This is the same one that interrupted Geiki's would-be assassin. He projected the snake that crawled soundless and too slow as the devils, their force, while the unsuspecting winged animal was either Geiki or the angels.

            As if the fates of the two animals have to do with whose side is going to take the glory once and for all, he watched with all curiosity if the snake can make the perfect silent kill as it yawned its mouth at the back of its target. Maybe the owl will escape from the obvious painful and slow death as it ceased its annoying coos like it is suspecting the danger that lurks behind. Just a second more or two, the snake is about to strike a bite somewhere on its prey's body while it wraps its whole length coiling around it on a dead grip, when some loud flapping of wings came too near and drove the bird on flight away from the grave danger.

            Something with a pair of huge wings landed in a distance from his back. But he did not bother to look at it, he seem to be more interested at the snake and he watched it shyly descends from the tree.

            Then another pair of wings battered the dawn air. Then here comes another, and many more coming. He faced those who have just landed behind him forming a column and counted half a dozen. Then he looked up to those whom he summoned who are still at flight, crowding the dawn sky like huge bats numbering less than fifty.

            And as he walks away from the snake that is slithering away to the other direction, a shinny glint suddenly came and went on his eyes. It is a sign of simple contentment. Contentment that war has just began...  Again.