Chapter 17. Visiting the Village
1473 Words
Chapter 17 Village Life
"It's too hot." Dan lied with his eyes wide open.
The fact of the matter was that he had come running to her exit from the airport. The exits for international flights and domestic flights were a bit far apart, and the two planes had landed at almost the same time. If he wanted to pretend that he had come to pick her up, he had to run, hence the profuse sweating.
"Thank you for your for coming to pick me," she appreciatively said, smiling.
He took her suitcase and led the way to the parking lot to find the car he had allegedly used when coming.
The parking lot was not big, and there were not many cars. The two of them walked around in a circle and could not find the car he was looking for.
"Where did you park?" She was surprised. "The place is scarcely parked, yet you can't find your car? Well, there are surveillance cameras in here, it possibly can't be stolen."
"Stand here and don't move, please. I'll look for it again. I didn't pay much attention to the location when I drove in a few minutes ago as I was in a hurry to meet you. I will definitely find it if I look again," he simply told her, as if it was the most normal thing to say in the circumstances.
Well, he did not express his discomfort for lack of foresight, but he silently scolded Max in his heart.
Max vowed that he would arrange everything in New England by making sure that the arrangements were precisely up to date. However, was this first flop in the initial stages indicative of a bigger mess? There was nothing he could do other than biting the bullet and continue pretending that all was fine.
He walked around the parking, looking at each car carefully because Max had told him that it was a blue car with a specific license plate number. He had not revealed its brand.
His eyes widened in shock when he finally found it. It was an agricultural tricycle!
To give effect to his disguising game, Max had deemed it better to arrange for him a low-key car. However, looking at the vehicle, he wondered if it was not a little bit too low-key!
There was an old man dozing off in the driving seat, presumably the apparent driver arranged for him.
Countlessly cursing Max in his heart, he knocked on the car door twice.
The old man woke up immediately, smiling like a peony, and the wrinkles on his face were all smiles.
He opened the door and jumped out of the car. It was their first time meeting but they acted so familiar with each other as if they had just separated.
"Look at me. I always doze off when I'm old. Have you picked up your wife?" He put up an act for the benefit of the beautiful lady standing behind Dan, whom he had presumably taken to be the wife.
Dan nodded his head.
"Where is she?" He posed, looking around.
Roslyn, who was standing not far away, met the old man's eyes. She smiled politely at him.
"Come here, girl. I'm here to pick you up," he amiably informed her, grinning.
He approached and greeted her enthusiastically. Roslyn was momentarily stunned by the old man's amiability and it took her several seconds to react before she started dragging her suitcase.
"I'm Dan's uncle, his distant relative," he introduced himself.
This charade amused Dan as he could not tell when he had had a distant uncle. However, he had to admit that the person Max had found was really good, and he did a good job of covering up the fact that he had just arrived in New England.
Dan was yet to realize that if he told a lie, he would have to cover it up with countless lies, and the development of things was becoming more and more uncontrollable. Just for how long was he going to keep to his game plan?
"Hello, uncle," Roslyn greeted the old man, startling Dan out of his thoughts.
"Hello. I'm pleased to meet you. If you may excuse me, I would like both of you to get in the car."
After the two got in the car, Dan's face depicted worry as to whether Roslyn would be comfortable with the drive in such a car.
On the contrary, Roslyn was a little excited to ride in such a car for the first time!
Nevertheless, it was bumpy all the way. Dan cursed Max in his heart because he had asked him to arrange a car that suited the poor boy's status, not the damn farm tricycle! Besides, if this contraption drove to the destination, people would vomit.
In fact, before they had made even one-third of the journey, Roslyn could not stand the bumps of the car and vomited everything in her stomach on the side of the road.
"Drink some water," Dan advised, unscrewing the bottle cap and handing it to her. She took two sips and felt much better.
Suddenly, an idea cropped up in his mind and he suggested it to her.
"Life in the country is very hard. You can't bear the hardship here. You will not be able to adapt to the place where you live later. Let me send you to the airport and you can take the afternoon flight back. There is a flight from here to Worcester in the afternoon. It's just in time to go back now."
"Save your breathe. I'm not going back," She firmly refused, shaking her head vigorously.
Seeing that she could not take the tricycle, the old man called for an old Volkswagen. Though not in a pristine condition, it was much better than the tricycle, and they finally arrived at the home smoothly.
The gate was opened to a spotlessly clean yard. Max strode out from inside, extended his hand and greeted Roslyn enthusiastically.
"Hello, I'm Max, Dan's best friend."
"Hello..."
She had just stretched out her hand, when Dan grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.
"Let's go in, ignore him."
He put his arm around her shoulders and walked past Max , who was shockingly transfixed. Since childhood, he had never seen Dan so nervous about any girl.
What, it was just a polite handshake!
"Dan, you are ignoring me after I have done my job..."
Dan turned around and glared at him and he immediately shut up.
The two walked into the room and were stunned. The clean and tidy room had only one bed with two pillows.
On the only table in the room, two sets of toiletries were placed side by side.
Max had arranged the room deliberately, but Roslyn did not know. She thought that all this was done by Dan himself. Thinking of the night before when they had been separated by the phone call, she could not help but blush.
"If you are not with the arrangement, I can rearrange it," he suggested after seeing her hesitation.
"No, just like this..." Her voice trailed off.
Dan explained that he had suddenly come to his hometown because his old man was sick. He further said that he had seen to his medication and would be fine soon.
He could have gone back immediately, but there was a house that needed to be demolished and he had to sign a consent form and wait for a few days before going back.
This explanation sounded plausible and she did not doubt it at all.
They had a rural meal in the evening. The neighbor aunt brought over four dishes and a soup, including stir-fried chicken, mushroom and potato slices, stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat slices, steamed sea bass and wild vegetable egg drop soup.
The food was very much to her liking. She ate a full bowl of rice. When they were full and satisfied, they were faced with further predicament when they were about to rest.
Although the yard was clean, the house was old and there was no separate bathroom. To take a bath, they had to boil water and carry it to the bathroom.
Dan brought the hot water and bath tub into the house, told her to lock the door and went out.
He did not go far, but stood in the yard smoking. He could hear the sound of water splashing in the room through the gap in the window. He felt a little hot and restless.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a bucket falling to the ground in the room, followed by Roslyn's loud, terrified screams.
"There's a snake!" She shouted.
He kicked the door open and rushed in only to be met with her curvy, nude self.
- Writer
