Shimmers & Shrouds (Abstruse) (10 page)

"Calm down
Orpheus. We are not having sex. We are just lying down, together."
I sighed. "You're so stubborn."
"So I am." She giggled. I looked at her from the corner of my eye. Her curls were beautiful. It was the first time I'd witnessed them from so close. "What is the mattress made of?? Feathers?"
Well.... Inquisitive Oceana was never far away.
"I don't know." I was being very honest about that.
"Umm... It is so soft. I can sleep here for eternity."
"Don't. Please."
She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Why?"
"You know, I don't want to get arrested for your murder."
We stared at each other for a moment and both of us laughed at the thought of me getting arrested by the police. It was a sure fun for her.
"You're cracking useless jokes." She batted her eyelashes at me.
"I am not funny at all."
"Stop with the jokes then. They are lame."
"But you still laughed at them." I pointed.
The atmosphere settled to an intense one as we both kept looking at each other. From the small and funny gestures to make her laugh, we were suddenly showing our feelings for each other. Of course, mine were too obvious.
"You were born and brought over here?" It was clear that she asked to distract me or herself...
"Yes. It’s been three hundred years or more since we own this." I looked up at the ceiling and spotted the radium stars that were put up by Mr. Sunross and the other servants in an attempt to distract my mind from the loneliness I'd faced since childhood. It was a birthday present from them on my eleventh birthday.
"How old is this mansion?" She asked, curious again.
"May be five hundred years or something."
"Oh." She looked away from me. Both of us were now looking at the ceiling but she didn't ask me anything about the million stars that were stuck there. I looked at her while she studied the things around her. The blood from her face, for some reason, had drained.
"What happened?" I asked, suddenly worried for her pale face.
"It must be haunted then." She looked back at me. Fear was evident in her eyes.
I grinned in response. That grin was more of assuring rather teasing. "No. Fortunately it isn't."
"Thank god, I was so scared." Her heavenly face lit up again like it had some inbuilt switch inside to light a six hundred watt electricity bulb.
"Yea, your face went pale." I smirked.
I couldn't digest beauty at such strong levels. She was over the bit.... a bit too much. And all I could do was to admire her. There was no way that this girl with her looks compared to some Greek goddess was meant for a careless and overconfident me. The chances were not even in a million. "You're beautiful Miss Viera." I blurted that out unthinkingly. Immediately realizing what I just said. Thankfully, to my rescue, Mr. Sunross arrived just in time.
"May I come in sir?"
I jumped up from my bed and steadied myself... Oh heavens! This was going to be embarrassing.
"Oh please.. Come in" I cleared my voice and glanced at Oceana. She seemed puzzled and she stood by my side as well, wondering what it might be to prompt such an act of... foolishness.
"I brought some snacks for you and Miss Viera.”
"Thank you Mr. Sunross." She smiled and bowed. Oh… she knew what she had to do.
"Welcome madam." He bowed back.
"Pleased to meet you sir." She bowed again… what? Now she was insane? What in the world was she actually trying to do?

I held her elbow and shook her once. She was surely up to some nonsense.
"Same here miss Viera." he bowed in response. She wasn’t able to do that again because I was holding her by the hand. I didn’t know why she was acting this weird all of a sudden.
She glared at me for being very rude to her arm, but the blame was totally on her. After I left her, she turned to Mr. Sunross and smiled. "You can call me Oceana sir. I do not belong to the family."

A sharp twinge of the realization dawned upon my heart. She was right. She didn’t belong to the family, but that was really indigestible.
"But Miss Viera…” Mr. Sunross glanced at my direction. He knew I wasn’t happy with the confession. “You are our guest."
"Please Mr. Sunross"
"She's right Mr. Sunross.” I cut in; glaring at her like she did to me a minute ago. No matter how hard she tried to make me feel like home and no matter how successful she got at it, she had ruined all of that with the sentence that she said to Mr. Sunross. “You can call her by her name."
"Okay sir, if you insist.” He smiled at her. “Oceana I must say is a very good name. "
"And rare too. Like Orpheus'”
"Unfortunately Miss Viera.” I walked out of the room. What was wrong with her tonight? Why was she making me feel like an alien in my own house?
I stood beside a giant pillar near the big balcony which was usually covered with a blue cloth all over. I fumed at my own habit of walking out on the people who were talking absolute logic. I was grumbling at myself and her sudden change when I heard the clattering of the heels behind me. I peeked to see her walking right towards me, enraged. I looked away. The feeling of annoyance returned back in a jiffy.
I felt a strong grip around my arm and in the same second, I was pulled back to face her. I hadn’t realized how strong she was. "What is wrong with you?"
"Don't you think I should be the one asking you this?" I grumbled.
She left my arm and crossed it against her chest. "No."
"You're impossible. Oceana"
"Okay I am impossible, but why did you just walk away?"

"You just said you don't belong in my family
."
"So, that is true right?"

Yes. There was no denying to that. She was not a family, in fact, by the way she acted right now, she wasn’t even suitable for that kind of treatment and she was even an odd one out to be considered as a girl with a desir
e to stick around someone like me. All this were muddling up my mind and screwing me up.
"Yes, now if you please leave me alone?"
"No."
"What?" I screamed.
"I am not going anywhere without you."

Frustrated and irritated
, I whined about her stubborn behavior. I complained about how frank she was with Mr. Sunross and how lightly she said that she was not a part of my family. “That did hurt me, Oceana Viera.”
"Orpheus, whatever I have said back in there is true. And I don't see a reason why you should be angry at me."
"I am sorry."
"Are you alright?" she looked concerned.
I took a deep breath and nodded in a yes. Her eyes brightened like never before. "So let’s continue with the trip then."
I smiled and let her into my room. She admired the simplicity once again and while I was engaged in a call, she even tried to open the wardrobe that was locked. When I looked at her, she was still clinging to the door of the wardrobe hoping it would open as she already was using a lot of force to rip it open. I smiled as I used my thumb recognition pad and opened it for her. It was kind of ‘bragging my wealth’, but she never noticed it earlier so I hoped she remained very passive about it this time too. All that was in there were a whole load of three piece suits hanging, and on the other side of the wall the casuals were beautifully stacked. I didn’t remember the last time I cleaned it myself. She looked at the clothes and then back at me, as if seeing me in the formals today didn’t really work out to prove that she wasn’t a least bit fantasizing about me, not in the casuals. I was son of a billionaire.
"You look so old in formals. And look at me I look like a kid."

"You look beautiful
."
"I know, but, I wanna be like you"
I scoffed. "In three piece?"
"No. In formals."
I shook my head at her utter childishness. "You are one stubborn, impossible to deal with, Oceana."

She raised her eyebrows in amusement and nodded.
"Yes. I am. and you're one most attractive man I've ever met, Orpheus"

That
compliment sincerely made my heart skip a beat. I puckered my lips and gazed at her intently. “Really?”
“Really.”
Before the call for dinner, I took her to gran's room. She was as usual speaking on the top of her voice and maybe, just maybe, that made Mrs. Norrington open the door before we even reached the doorstep.
She invited us over and went inside the dressing room to come out with the second most beautiful lady of the world
―
Grandma.
I smiled and took her by her hand. She smiled at what she saw. A completely refined gentleman; the sight of whom was definitely very comforting.
Finally the most beautiful lady and the second most beautiful lady were standing face to face, smiling and adoring each other. When it was time for the introduction, I stepped forward with an initiative of introducing them in a very formal way.
"Grandma, I want you to meet Miss Oceana Viera."
She bowed and smiled. "Good evening Mrs. Albert."
"Good evening young lady." Grandma greeted her back. I knew she liked her. By the way she was smiling; I could simply make that out from her behaviour. None of the female family members used 'Albert' as their surnames; instead, they go for their husband's name. So, formally, she was Mrs. Llewellyn, like Oceana would be Mrs. Orpheus in near future. I could really sense that happening.

The best thing about grandma though, was that, neither she complained about the change of her surname nor she seemed offended.
Grandma looked at me for her further knowledge on Oceana.
"Grandma, she is from Texas and she is here to pursue her higher studies." Oh... the foreigner word. Grandma disliked that word like anything.
"Oh." She glared at me. "We have a foreigner here."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes gran. If you must specify the word."
She took Oceana by her hand and led her to the dining room. "Come lady, the dinner must be ready by now."
The hand holding thing was surely a new thing that I'd witnessed. She had never done that with anyone. I was seriously glad about it.
Oceana threw a bewildered look at me and I shrugged my shoulders. This was something even I couldn't comprehend.
At the dinner table, my supposedly mom and dad were not present. Very usual. I didn't care about that.
After the first course serving, gran resumed her list of questions and all I could do was to squeeze Oceana's hands under the table to tell her how sorry I was about not telling her that she needed to prepare herself for this.
This surprise meeting was somehow ruined.
For a few minutes, grandma ate in utter silence. There was no other sound except for the cluttering of the fork against the crockery. It was Oceana, making weird noises and exhibiting her extremely poor table manners. Finally through with the clitter clatter, I called in for the desserts.
"So, Miss Viera, how is the city treating you?" At last, gran spoke, breaking the unbearable silence.
"In the best way it can, ma'am."
"That is a good news." She seemed impressed with the answer. Everybody would be. This indicated the patience of the British people. Grandma was glad to know that Oceana was treated in a good way even after the worst eating habits that she had ever come across.
"What subjects have you taken?"
Thank god this was moving on to something constructive.
"English literature as a major, with history." She answered, wiping her hands.
Grandma had taken the same subject ages ago when she was in the college, however she changed her major to Business studies later. "Interesting." She announced. "I usually hear a science subject from anyone I ask nowadays."
THAT WAS A COMMENT ON ME. I hadn't taken the subject she had asked me to and chose science rather economics and stuffs. That was the first time I'd ever disobeyed her
― b
ut it was my life; I wanted to go to the army.
Perhaps, my crush understood that, no wonder she was called a genius. She said in her voice, loud and clear. "Depends on the interest, ma'am."
Knowing that it would lead to further argument, I distracted the two by asking Mr. Sunross if the dessert wasn't ready yet and why was it taking so long to arrive. But before he could answer, grandma started off again.
"What is your father?"
Oh heavens! This was the only question I wished she wouldn't have asked.
"He is a local entrepreneur, and my mom is a house wife." She answered. Still drooling over god knows what.
"You are very beautiful Miss Viera; I don't think my son has lied to me about your beauty."
She flustered and looked at me from under her eyelashes. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Oceana right?"
FANTASTIC. We were almost on the verge of ending our official dinner meeting and she was confirming her name now. Was it possible that my family was a reincarnation of some mad donkeys?
"Yes ma'am."
"Who named you this?"
"My mom did, ma'am, I was born in California. Her water broke when she was strolling near the beach."
I choked on my food and took a sip of water. When I recovered from the shock of her sudden revelation, I concentrated back on chewing. The reaction, however, was devastatingly embarrassing. So much, that I actually died of it.
After a few seconds of my coughing incident, she continued with whatever she wanted to say about the water breaking thing.
"That is quiet frank dear."
"I am sorry, ma'am."
Before the conversation got more awkward, I pleaded grandma for the dessert and finally, she agreed to call for it. She shifted her gaze from me to Oceana and asked if she would like to have anything
"What would you like in the dessert?"
"I don’t know what is in the menu."
"Any dish you can think of."
"An ice cream would be fine."
"That is wonderful! Orpheus prefers ice creams too."