DreamInColour
© 2004
He could feel her hair between his fingers and the small kisses she left on his neck and shoulder. He remembered finding the tattoo, the one that only he knew about, right behind her ear and tracing the design with his tongue. The whole night replayed in his head like a brilliant movie, except it was without ending. He just couldn’t figure how they went from best friends to brilliant lovers to acquaintances that couldn’t speak. She was so eager at first, coming to visit him on weekends, calling him whenever he had an important project for school. She was even watching him behind the camera as he shot his audition tape for Peter Jackson. She walked with him, holding his hand, as he put it in the post. Then just days after he got the job, she changed. At first he thought it was because he would be leaving, that maybe they wouldn’t make it because of how long he’d be gone, but that wasn’t it. She was so happy for him, so proud of him and so determined to not go with him, even just to visit. He just didn’t get it.
“Focus Orlando this move has to look like
you’ve been executing it for thousands of years…” Bob took the long intricate
elven knives from his hands and stepped back, “I need you to carry it out
smooth and swift, you’re blocking a powerful uruki.”
“Right.”
“Do it again.”
He was exhausted when he arrived at his place
that night. He’d spent all day in various forms of training trying desperately
to make his performance of Legolas executed perfectly. The rhythmic beeping of
his phone indicated that he had a message; he almost didn’t check it because he
was so knackered, but curiosity got the best of him.
Orli,
it’s me. I…well remember when you said I could tell you anything? That I could
trust you? Well, I...I umm…kind of need to now. Please ring me when you have a
chance, something’s…well there’s…just give me a ring would you?
His exhaustion was completely forgotten as he dialled the
number that she’d left.
“Hello?”
“Mia, is everything all right? Are you okay?”
“Orli, yes I’m fine I’m…I’m all right.”
“Please tell me you aren’t sick or something, I don’t know
if I could…”
“Orlando I’m doing all right, I’m not sick I promise.”
“Well, then what is it, the message you left was cryptic and
got me slightly worried.” There was a noise in the background that caught his
attention, “Is someone there?”
“What? No, I mean well yeah but, just a moment Orli.” He could hear her put the phone down and
mumble some things, she shushed and hummed then a moment later she was back,
“Okay I’m sorry I just had to…” She trailed off.
“Please Mia I need to know what’s going on, who’s there,
what aren’t you telling me? What have you been keeping from me all these
months, I feel like I’m talking to a stranger whenever we speak, where did my
brilliant Mia go?” All the questions came pouring out of him; he couldn’t even
stop it.
She sniffed, she wasn’t going to cry, not yet anyway, “I saw
your mum they other day.” She said for some bizarre reason.
“What?” He was so beyond confused, “That’s what you called to
tell me? Mia this has got to stop…”
“We have a daughter.” She blurted out.
All of a sudden his world felt under water. His limbs moved
slowly as he made his way to a chair and sunk into it. Breathing was a bit of a
chore but he managed to maintain his ability to speak, “What did you say?”
“Her name is Cassia, she’s almost eight months old,” Mia
just kept talking, “She has your eyes, your curls, she even has your complexion
the lucky girl. She’s sleeping through the night now and always laughs when you
tickle the bottom of her feet…”
“But how? We never, I mean not after...”
She sighed, “That was enough.”
He put his forehead into his hand, “That means,” He did the
calculation, “You knew! At the airport when I asked you what was wrong, you
knew!”
“Yes, I knew.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Mia I can’t believe you’d keep this
from me.” He exclaimed.
“I…” She inhaled desperately trying not to cry, “I didn’t
want to give you a reason to stay. You know you would have, I couldn’t have
bared living with myself if Cassia and I held you back. You need to do this
Orlando, this is going to make you.”
“You could have let me make that decision.”
“You know you would have stayed, you’re too loyal for that.
You’d have missed this job and I couldn’t let you do that.”
“But you didn’t even give me the chance to choose Mia, and
now I’ve had a daughter that’s been living and breathing for almost eight
months and I don’t even know what she looks like!” He stood up; “I’m coming
home.
“No!” Mia exclaimed, “You’re still in training, you can’t…they’ll
replace you.”
“I don’t care, this is more important, I can’t abandon…Mia
I’m coming home.”
“Fly us there.” She said.
“What?”
“Cassia and I, fly us there.”
“I can’t do that, can I?”
“You can do whatever you like, you know that.”
“I mean, Cassia, can she fly?”
Mia chuckled, “She’s a baby but she’s not that breakable,
yes she can fly.”
“Are you, I mean are you sure?”
“Not really, but I am sure that you can’t bodge up this job.
You need it.”
“Right then you come here.”
“I’ll come there.”
“You won’t back out?”
“I won’t.”
“Brilliant.”
Her heart always did a flip-flop when he said that.
“I’ll make the arrangements.”
“Okay.”
He hung up the phone without a proper goodbye. He couldn’t
think of anything proper at that point, he was a father. A dad. Him. The lads weren’t going to
believe this, hell he didn’t even believe it. He still wasn’t sure about how
mad he was at Mia. He was furious that she hadn’t told him, but ironically her
reasons made sense and she had been the one to ring in the first place.
Mia stared at her
phone for what seemed like forever. That had gone better and worse than she had
expected. He hadn’t gone crazy on her, but she had gone crazy and offered to
fly, with her baby, to an unknown place, on a whim. What was she thinking? She
was going to prove to him that she and Cassia had no business in his life.
That’s what it was. She was going to show him that if he took on this
responsibility it would be too much and he’d be passing up his dream; besides
there was that small part of her that wanted to see him again.