What Becomes Of Us (An Anthology)

Yellow - 2

The next day was their flight back home.

Kaden woke up early. He smiled as he found Miara sleeping soundly, curled up beside him. Waking up in the morning next to her was easily his favorite moment of each day. It was when he clearly sees her for the first time after hours of almost complete darkness and silhouettes.

He stared at her and memorized every detail. Her brown hair laid in a wild disarray over the white pillows. Her bare skin where the rays of sunlight play when they touch its fair complexion. Thick fans of lashes that seemed to touch her cheek lined below her closed eyes. Her button nose poised gracefully between her high cheekbones. Her naturally pouty lips rest slightly parted as if waiting to be kissed.

And he did just that, he softly brushed the back of his hand on her cheek and landed a feathery kiss on her lips, being careful not to wake her just yet.

After taking one more look at her peaceful slumber, he got out of bed. Not bothering to put on a shirt, he picked up his sketch book and pen then quietly went outside in his boxers. He sat on the porch of the water villa they lived in for the two weeks that they stayed in Maldives.

The trip was his surprise for Miara for their eighth year anniversary. She screamed for a good five seconds when he showed her the tickets, jumped into his arms and kissed him senseless. Miara had been going on and on for months about going to Maldives, she loves to travel and the beach and the island paradise was her ultimate dream destination.

Between the two of them, Miara was always the one planning their trips, "kidnapping" him and taking him to spontaneous road trips, so Maldives was definitely quite the surprise for her.

He watched the wonderful view of the ocean and the island then started sketching Miara's image from when he saw her earlier on the bed. His hand glided with easy strokes as he drew his life's muse on the paper.

"Good morning, Love. You're up early." He heard her melodious voice say around twenty minutes later.

He looked up and beamed at her. She was wearing a light robe and he could tell that she wore nothing else beneath it. "Good morning, sunshine. This is our last day here so I figured we should get an early start to enjoy the most of this paradise before we leave."

"But you left me in bed." She pouted.

He chuckled. "You looked like you were having a great dream, I didn't want to wake you from that. Besides, I was going to go back for you after I sketched." He said showing his finished drawing of her.

"Wow. Was this from today?"

"Yes."

"You're really an awesome artist, babe. It's a shame you only like to draw and paint me." She laughed.

He frowned at her and said, "That's not true, Love. You are the most beautiful subject I can ever present. My drawings and paintings seem to come alive when you're in them because I am able to share my heart and my life in my art through you."

"Awww... Look at you getting so serious." She walked to him, set his sketch pad aside, and straddled him. "Please don't get mad, Love. I'm sorry. It was just a joke. You know how I make fun of myself."

"And you know how much I hate it when you do that." He said sternly. "Promise me that you will stop belittling yourself, okay? You don't know just how beautiful you are and how much you make my life amazingly wonderful, love."

Miara smiled and gently cupped Kaden's face in her hands. "I promise." She gently rubbed her nose on his then kissed his lips tenderly at first. She touched her lips on his and slightly parted them as she tilted her head to the left, slipped one hand behind his head and ruffled his hair. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him as he glided his tongue on her lower lip to seek entry. She opened up a little wider and let him in. Their tongues slid and danced against each other, exploring the warm sweetness of the other's mouth.

She slipped her hand from his cheek down to his neck and shoulders and settled on his chiseled chest. Kaden  placed his hand on Miara's nape and deepened the kiss as he untied the ribbon of her robe, exposing her naked breasts to him. He glided his hand up her sides and cupped one of her soft mounds, teasing its tip with his thumb until they pebbled under his touch. His lips left hers and started trailing wet lingering kisses down her neck. She leaned her head to the side to expose the skin to him. He ran his tongue along her collar bone and he heard her breath hitch. He continued down to her chest as she moaned and was about to cover one tip with his mouth, when she suddenly pulled away from him.

"Love! What are you..." He started to protest but was stopped at mid-sentence as she shed her robe off.

"Come on, Love." She beamed. Her bare skin glowing under the sunlight.

"Miara! We're outside! People might see you."

Miara looked around. "I don't see anyone and besides no one knows us here. Let's go, Love." She called and jumped into the water.

"What exactly are we doing?"

"Crossing out an item in your bucket list."

"Which one is... Oooh..." Kaden pulled down his boxers once he realized what Miara meant and jumped in with her. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately as their slick bodies slid against each other.

She grinned and whispered on his lips. "So, Mr. Kaden Roberts, ready for some in-the-water lovin'?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Miss Daniels, that's not a fishing rod poking your belly." He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

***

One week later and they were back to their normal routine. Kaden would retreat to his home studio on the back porch of their 2-storey house and paint all day. Miara would cook his meals for the whole day and pack them in lunch boxes for him to grab whenever he got hungry.

"Love, I have to go. I'll be late for my meeting. Bye. I love you." Miara gave him a quick peck on the lips before she turned for the door.

"I love you too." Kaden grabbed her hand and pulled her back in his arms. "Hey, you. That's not even a proper kiss." He smiled.

"Sorry, Love. I really need to rush off."

"You can rush off after you give me a..." He paused as bright light suddenly flashed in his vision.

"What's wrong, Love?" She asked, touching his face.

"I... Nothing's wrong, Love? Just a few flashes."

"You've been getting a lot of those lately. Maybe you should see the doctor."

"I don't. I'm fine, Love." He let her go and took a step back, hitting the easel on his right. He did not see it in his peripheral vision which seemed to be blurry. It fell on the floor with his unfinished painting of Miara's moment in the sunset in Maldives and he almost lost his balance.   

"Kaden!" She exclaimed as she rushed to help him. "You're not fine at all, Love. You need to see the doctor today."

Kaden gave a half-hearted laugh and picked up the painting. "Seriously, Love. I'm fine. That's just me being clumsy." He lied. "How about that kiss, Love? And then some..." He said seductively, slipping his hand on her waist and smiling to show his dimple in his attempt to turn the conversation around.

She giggled. "Oh, you, flashing that God damn dimple. No. Not this time, Mr. Roberts. You are going to see the doctor today or you won't be getting anything tonight."

He pouted in protest.

"Uggghhh... Stop being too darn cute, mister. You should really go to the doctor today, okay? Make that appointment now." She ordered, planting another kiss on his lips and twisting out of his grip. She started walking to the door.

"But, Love..."

"No buts. If you like, you can think of this doctor's appointment as your ticket to bed tonight." She grinned and proceeded to walk out of the door, leaving Kaden chuckling and scratching the back of his head.

***

Late afternoon.

Kaden sat on the porch, staring at the painting he just finished, his hands and clothes still streaked with paint. The conversation in the doctor's office echoed in his head as he looked at Miara's face on the canvas.

 ***

"Kaden, there's no easy way to say this."

"Just say it, Uncle." He told Dr. Fausto, his Dad's best friend who had been his eye doctor since he was first diagnosed with Nyctalopia.

"It's what I have feared all along when I first found out that you have night blindness. It's one of the many possible causes of that symptom. One that I shoved at the back of the pile, hoping not to realize it later. But after reviewing your family's medical history..."

"What is it, Uncle? Please just tell me."

***

Kaden held his hand out to the canvas, drawing close to it but not touching the wet paint, tracing the features on Miara's face like he would do when he touched her face, remembering how it felt and painting it in his mind.

***

"It's Choroideremia, a rare inherited disorder that causes degeneration of the choriocapillaris of the choroid and of the retinal pigment epithelium of the retina. It..."

"Uncle, these are all medical terms, I don't understand. What does it mean to me?"

"Kaden, your night blindness is one of the first common symptoms of this disease which results in progressive loss of vision."

"Progressive loss of vision... You mean I will be completely blind? Uncle, what can we do?"

"I'm sorry, Kaden. There is nothing we can do. Once the symptoms progress, they will be irreversible."

***

Irreversible... Progressive loss of vision... Completely blind…

These words reverberated in his mind.

"Mara..." He whispered as he stared into her bright brown eyes on the canvas, that no matter how many times he has painted them he can never truly capture their brilliance and now he realized he may never get to do that. He felt a lump in his throat at this thought and he felt helpless.

***

"The visual loss will start with random flashes of light that obscure your vision, then you will start losing your peripheral vision. From our tests earlier, it seems you have that now. The blindness will start with irregular rings that will expand into your central vision then outward until you totally lose your vision."

Kaden rubbed his temples trying to understand everything that the doctor said. "How long before that happens, Doc... until I go blind?"

"We can't say for sure. It varies with every patient, even those in the same family."

"Where did I get it, Uncle?"

"Your father's side of the family has it, son. It skipped two generations before it manifested on you. The disease almost exclusively affects males. There is no certainty that your children won't have it too."

"You mean..."

"If you have a son, there is a possibility that he would have it too."

***

Kaden clenched his fist and let the tears fall from his eyes. The sunset on the background of his painting mocked him of the day he proposed to Miara and promised her a happy life together, a life full of sunshine and rainbows, a life lived like a real fairy tale princess.

"What kind of fairy tale ends in having the princess live in the misery of taking care of a blind husband and possibly a blind son for the rest of her life?" He let out a desperate scream at the empty backyard as he felt his body rock violently in sobs, his eyes let out his tears incessantly and he caved into the avalanche of sorrow, fear, and anger that he had been trying to avoid since he got home.

***

When he got home, he rushed to finish the painting, hoping that once he does, the nightmare of the news that he got from his doctor will all go away but it didn't. As he stared at Miara's face on the canvas, he was only reminded of everything he was afraid to happen.

***

"Someday, I will never see those bright eyes sparkle when you laugh. I will never see your tiny nose wrinkle when you get mad. I will never see that glorious hair frame your face beautifully. I will never see those cheeks turn bright red whenever I tease you and bite your ear. I will never see that cleft chin point up whenever you try to challenge me. I will never get to stare at those perfect lips and allow them to lure me in for a kiss. I will never see the light in my life again. I will never see you, my Mara."

After a few hours of crying his heart out, he reached a decision.

He looked up at the sky. It was almost dusk, Miara would be home soon. She always made sure to come home before it got dark because she didn't want him to be alone in the darkness. She was thoughtful like that. She cared for him like that. She loved him like that. She sacrificed for him like that.

Kaden took a deep breath and stared long and hard at Miara's smiling image on the canvas.

"It's time I do the same for you, Love. It's time I think of your sake now. I should stop being selfish and give you a chance at a real life, a real future, a real happy ever after. I love you too much to let you live in my misery. It's time for me to set you free, my Mara."

His head spun in the whirl of emotions that came after his decision. His chest tightened as he felt like his heart was literally breaking into a million pieces. Before he could regret, back down and lose his determination, he picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Dad, can you please pick me up? I need you here in 10 minutes."