REBECCA

The first thud had made me frown as I swore under my breath to give Branny a huge knock on her broad forehead. A dragging sound enveloped the air for a long period of time and a piercing cry followed a long bout of laughter then I opened my eyes. "Why would they dare disturb my short moment of fasting"? I mused. A longer and more slicing laughter forced me up from the bed, grabbing my cover cloth and throwing my bible aside, I rushed outside the room towards the direction of the noise forgetting to even put on my sandals. The house was virtually empty: the stewards and chefs and other housekeepers on break, Mama, Papa, Roland, Rachael and Bernard on an anniversary themed picnic, I was supposed to have the whole house to myself and three year old Branny, who refused to join them but instead choose to cling to the hem of my dress and suck her thumb till our parents’ carriage had disappeared from sight and then of course my boyfriend, Aaron arrived. ‘Oh Aaron, I had just really left for a second.’ I protested as I went over and lifted Branny off from the metal sledge, and started wiping off dirt from her dress as she struggled to get back to her play. ‘And it isn’t winter yet!’ I rapidly added. ‘But I wanted to play,’ Branny whined. ‘No playing, not today sweetheart and certainly not on the sledge.’ I patted her hair as I finished brushing off some little dirt from her dress. Looking up, my eyes joined with that of Aaron, and I fell in love with him all over again. Aaron just had the perfect oval shaped face for a boy, slowly budding into a man with hairy smooth skin, perfectly arched brows giving way to black long lashes that shielded baby blue eyes but with a tint of brown. I just could not stop admiring the deep dimples on the right side of his cheeks, near his perfect cupid bowed pink lips shielded by his dark brown stubble. He was a silky brunette, and smelled of massive masculine musk that sent me riding on the clouds anytime he had me close. I just couldn’t help myself when he was around; he was my first love, my life, my everything. And I could not wait to be married to him on Valentine’s Day. ‘I’m so sorry my jasmine; I never knew we were disturbing you down here.’ He strolled over to me and caressed my cheeks. Believe me, before he could even start talking, I had already forgiven him talk less of his gentle caressing, oh! How I melted! ‘Alright then, come in and I’ll get you a glass of milkshake then dress up so we could go visit the florist, for my wedding bouquet.’ I said, smiling sheepishly. ‘That is what I came to talk to you about. Well I think… first, planning a wedding without our parent’s consents is highly wrong, a…and secondly, shouldn’t we wait till Rachael is married off before we get married? According to the traditions of course.’ I stared in utter shock as those words came out of his lips. Were we not planning this together from the very start? Why was he suddenly thinking about my elder sister’s marriage and tradition? Was he not the same person who had brought up the idea of our hasty marriage and elopement? Everything was turning and changing fast. Why was this now, when I had already visualized how our wedding night would be in the next fifteen days. ‘But Aaron...i…i don’t understand! I thought you wanted this as much as I did’. I tried to sound firm though I was shaking and tears were about to spill from my eyes. ‘Don’t you love me anymore? Why think about Rachael? Must we wait for her? Must we follow tradition?’ ‘No! My precious flower. I was just thinking… our elopement may cause sadness on the family during this period of feasting and, who do you suppose would be her maid of honour if you were gone? Let’s wait after the wedding, we could elope all we want, to a place where no one will ever come after us nor find us.’ I just couldn’t understand all of this. My sister was getting married and I had absolutely no idea about it neither was I aware that the preparations had already begun. If I was to be her maid, would she not let me know about it by now, so we might do the preparations together? What if the date was already near? How come Aaron knew all of this and I, her sister did not? I just could not handle the news at that moment. I was both disappointed at my sister and family as a whole, and at Aaron for caring about them. I regained consciousness, picked up my cover cloth that fell and half dragged Branny into the house, leaving Aaron outside, alone.