บท 2: Alot Been Going Around Lately
"In the end, you have to protect yourself at all times."
- Quote by Floyd Mayweather
In a night so pessimistic and downbeat, a constellation of stars scattered throughout the sky with its celestial bodies illuminating the dark. Owls howled, crickets chirped, and leaves from the birch trees below swayed in the seasonal wind.
'Why do stars shine in a time like this?' Looking up to the sky while every disaster molded out of my vision, seems like everything that capsulize infront of me was somewhat scarcely beautiful although I failed to alleviate myself from the darkest of days.
Streets were never as placid and quiet as before. Not a thing about it could be downright compared with the habitual polluted life back then. Usually at a time like this, individuals would go for a walk or a run; however today, the only living souls I could catch sight of was them lining up in a distance outside an accessible grocery store which was further from the light through the turning point.
I preferred to listen more to the resonation of nature make than the propagations of sounds over a given amount of time; after all, noise pollution was kind of a headache for me. But still, this tranquility feels so empty like a coin bank filled with nothingness. Pondering this made me remorseful about the things I used to denounced with.
After removing my protective clothing and repeating back on my slick-fashion earlier in a nearby dressing room, I was going back to Kelsy's clinic which was next door but I was tempted by the beautiful view from the balcony connecting the two rooms together.
I stood watch from the glass railing to view the parking lot below and the other side of the road. Pedestrians with mask went by as vehicles in different kinds drove down the highway.
Apart from its clear perspective, all I could hear is the crying of victims inside my head, tentative but probable theories regarding the cause of the impregnable virus and on how will the pandemic ever end. 'If there's a resolution, how will it change the world?' I chuckled.
'Will it be better to take back time and turn things around the way life is supposed to be? I may had think so.'
I inhaled and exhaled, excluding myself from the worries I'd gone through the day; but regardless, it keeps on consuming my sentience. 'What can I do now? Being here is the last thing I wanted to do on my bucket list. If only I was sufficiently meticulous or careful with my decisions, it would have been much more better; but nevertheless, I'm the last person in the world who could actually came up with a respectible choice. All I can do is to regret as the usual. There's no turning back now. Just do my job... at least I finally got a participant for my assignment.
At this particular moment I was forcing myself to maintain stability when suddenly a terrified scream of a female child bellowed downstairs, yelling words like help and please. By that time for some reason, pedestrians vanished from the sidewalks.
I stared blankly at the youngster whose lemon-yellow frocks was torned from the bottom of her skirt with her face full of bruises and discoloration. Blood trickled from her scalp as her sloppy black hair went into places. Her frightened blue eyes excreted tears, begging for succor.
While adjusting my eyesight on the right which I could see a perceivable ghostly street, I noticed that she was being dragged into a shadowy alley by a Stygian overall suit wearing criminal. She helplessly clinged on the wall, bringing in her desperation even though her fingers were sore and chafed.
It is no shock for me whenever an offender will take advantage of the outbreak since most law enforcers nowadays were engaging in numerous checkpoints to control the disease instead of patrolling for security. I did nothing. I just watched them like some sort of a scene in a cinematic movie.
'What's the use of helping her when I don't even know how to protect myself.', I vacantly concluded. 'What a cruel world for a young girl like her to be send off to death, not because she's infected by the virus but because she is victimized by intended crimes at this hour. What kind of an outrageous play is this?'
The female child locked her eyes on mine, waving her other hand at me for attention. Seeing that look on her face, she had a twinge of hope inside her. Disregarding that, I moved my head on the other side away from her sight, ignoring the fact that she's in danger. She cried and cried in exasperation with her eyeballs tempting in for sympathy.
I'm not someone who could be fooled with puppy eyes. But because of this irrelevant distraction, sadly the offendor was able to gain strength, carrying her deeply to the dark. I did not say sorry or anything. Me as a person always keep on my own pace. 'Standing here is more than enough.'
In that instance, Kelsy came out from her clinic's bay window which was the only entrance to the balcony. She wend her way to my side with an affliative smile dangling on her face, "I happened to wonder what took you so long 'till I spotted you here." I responded impassively without facing at her," Yeah...yeah." She frowned, studying my blank expression, "What's the matter?" I rested my arms in the railing while ignoring her.
After what seem like hours already, Kelsy stared astoundly at me as she butted in, "Wow... you sure look fine." My cheeks began to reddened, feeling abashed by her compliment. I chimed self-effacingly, looking towards her while playing unconsciously with my black hair, "Nah... it's nothing." Kelsy chuckled sheepishly, " Previously, I thought you would look like a high schooler kid. Frankly, I didn't expect you to be a hunk."
My head began to boil again with irritation, bitting my bottom lip with a glowering impression, " I am already a twenty-six year old man to be looking like a student in secondary school. My personality must have lowered you and Christina's expectations about me." She mocked at me again, "Twenty-six years old? So we are in the same age! Uh... Honestly, I conjectured that you are younger than Christina." I sounded a tch, "How old is she?" She moved closer at me by an inch (distance please) and answered, "Twenty-four years old."
I grinned mischievously, "She should be respecting me since I'm way more older than her. Now that I know about it... if I play things right, that immature face of hers should work its guts out." She smiled beyond belief while facepalming, "You sounded like a sadist—" She shook her head with a long face."—Still the same... Perhaps, I had to cope in with your personality."
Since I was driven with sullenity and anger by her insulting remarks, I pulled her face to face at me and caged my arms around her as she leaned back on the railing. Her eyes enlarged in bewilderment without foreseeing my swifty movements. I went closer and whispered on her ear with a rant, "Then you should be. I'll wait for the time when you are gonna carry on. Otherwise, you're going to be wrecked more than you could ever think off!"
It went silent for a minute when Kelsy gaped at me from the side while gently propelling me backward, "Umm... I was joking, you know. I was used with ill-natured people like you." Her expression looked as if I was the most irritable of them all. I reflected mindlessly, I have tons of wrath to share with every people I met. All those indignation that had been engulfed within me for years.
As soon as I knew this instance I'm in, I released her from my grip and relocated towards the dressing room. This is really humiliating. 'I should learn more how to subdue myself', I reminded myself.
While I crawled towards the hatch, Kelsy hollered with her steps vibrating the cement, "Wait, Aiden!!" Catching on with that, I hurried like I was chased by a mountain lion.
The entrance to the room was half the size of a standard door so we need to crawl in to enter. Seeing that this was the only entrance since the door going to the corridor was blocked by the wooden cabinet inside, the doctor asked concernly if it is okay for me to be accommodated in here. I replied reassuringly to her that it's alright.
Kelsy and I were preparing subsequently for my stay tonight. We arranged all the things displayed, mopped the porcelain tiles, and vacuumed every dust and filth what seems to be hiding within the confines. Till now I feel so self-conscious around this woman. I even had a hard time joining in with her conversations so all I said was 'oh or yeah' in response.
One time, I accidentally touched her hand when we were piling her goods and then what I did to keep me in place was too harshly reposition my hands to myself. As what I expected, she just laughed it off. No problem though. It would be more bothersome if she was Christina.
The room appeared as if it is a cooking studio. Kitchen utensils setted ahead of the grey walls with bunch of raw materials disposed in spaces. They were so many ingredients that I'm not even familiar with. Not to mention her oven though. She must be a great cook. Next time, I wanted her to bake me a cake and fry me some chickens... Wouldn't be bad if it were any meal though, aside menus involving pineapples and broccolis. Thinking about it really made me hungry. My stomach feels so empty... never mind, forget about it. I can't ask her to cook for me if I'm this mortified with her after what happened earlier.
What makes me so touched was the fact that sharp objects were not in my range of vision. Kelsy must have had kept it away after that black pen scenario. But the thing is when? She might had sneaked at the back when I was relaxing on the balcony. Thinking about it, made her even more praiseworthy than what I could percept.
As of now, we were organizing the sleeping bag. There was still akwardness in the air when Kelsy suddenly asked, "Do you have your bag with you?" I shooked, looking in the other way and responded, "I left it in the front porch since I was taking my time on venturing around first." In response, she nodded while blinking her drowsiness.
After folding my bedsheets for like ten seconds, I picked myself up and sanitize my hands with alcohol, "I'll go now to pick it up." I grumbled. Kelsy immediately stopped me in my tracks when she insisted me to stay, "I'm just gonna call Christina to get it for you." I mumbled while pulling in a doubtful gesture, "I bet she's not even gonna do it." But of course she's not going to take no for an answer.
Kelsy sat by the nearest chair and directed the cellphone at her auricle with her pupils dilated and her head tilting at the side. While waiting for Christina to reply, she suggested, "If you wouldn't mind, take a bath before sleeping—" I cutted her off with a growl and threw the ethanol at her lap, "Kay... I'm going." Too rude of me, you say. Anyway, she better wash herself too.
Even with my back facing at her, I could hear her hearty terrestrial laugh. 'Geez, that ha-ha of hers is dangerously infectious.'
As the warm water streamed down my brawn, the evocative smell of lavender oil progressed through my nostrils. I soothingly abolished the parcheness off my skin and rinsed my hair with moisturizing shampoo. 'Feels so refreshing... Seems like I did not take a bath for years.'
In what seems like hours before then, I stepped out off the shower dripping wet. My hindquarters was cloaked in a towel, leaving my abdominals exposed. Thus, I'm bare-chested.
Since the bathroom was in the clinic, it is no surprise that I spotted Kelsy in here. But when my eyes locked on like magnets at her hairdown resting face, I wavered. Ever since I saw her, something had been lurking inside me. A feeling of respect, like a missing piece that's been piercing my heart. 'Why am I so insecure?'
I was tenderly dotting at her when a loud bang boomed in a flash, sending a shock through my reflexes. Instinctively, I backed down almost tripping myself.
The door opened wide and revealed a lady in a jade green ppe suit. She ranted and raved with her eyes pulling in a glower, "Why wouldn't you just open the goddamn door. Don't you think I'd got the mood—" 'Aahh... Christina...' Against all odds, I did not fail to recognize her voice.
I shutted her off and gestured her to be silent. She seems to got the message after seeing Kelsy infront of her, sleeping like a log.
Christina groaned and dropped my bag with a thud on the floor. I complained, Won't you get anything I say?" She looked at me with a doubtful look, "Who are you?" I answered as though she's empty-headed, "Well, duh. I'm Aiden Ferrel." Not believing on what I said, she glared daggers with me in disgust, "You are—You gotta be kidding me."
Annoyingly pissed enough, I raised my hand calling it a day, "Okay fine—" I added right away with a shu-shu gesticulation, "-Go now... Your job here is done." She rolled her eyeballs and sneered devilishly as she walked passed away, ignorant of my feelings, "I'm so sorry but my rounds had been taking care of."
Christina was about to go through the bay window when I blocked her halfway, "Woah... woah, where the heck are you going?" She answered dazingly with her cheeks flushed in red while her pupils peered straight to my muscle-bound physique, "To my bed..." And yeah... there I misunderstood what she'd said.
I lifted my eyebrow with a disgruntled frown, "What do you mean?! Are you making excuses to sleep with me?" That must have shakened her since she had been snapped away from her flight of fantasies. She repudiated desperately, "Of course not! It is my current residence. Goodness, what's with you?—" She throwed a tantrum with her fist ready. "-Is that how you flirt with the opposite sex? Twisting your notions over a woman's convo!"
I retaliate in return with my head boiling in exasperation, "Why would I want to be all over you to begin with?! You must have been overgrowned with confidence, after all you'd been dallied over by perverted men." About that... I only assumed the perverted man part. I didn't know that would hit right through her.
She trembled in frustration her vein popping out, "Why you?!—" I cutted her off with an insolent jeer, "I don't want to wake up in the morning seeing your face sprawled up over my sheets. That being so, you better get out and find a place to sleep yourself." Surprisingly, she sighed shakenly with her eyes deeply downcasted like the force of anguish was surging inside her. I must have hit something from her. Now I felt bad of myself. Yet my crotchy self made me unwitting of her sensitivities.
She begged dismayingly while stammering in accord, "I can atleast— I can't provoked you any further." I curled my lip with a delighted glare, "Easier said than done." I pushed her away vigorously from me and tugged at my camera which was in the desk.
Seeing that the device was recording directly towards Kelsy, Christina must have had held me under suspicion of taking illicit footage. Yet she doesn't seem to bother much more since she was still preoccupied with our coloquy before. I justified candidly myself to hinder her ravings, "Don't get the wrong idea. I was absent-minded by then as to turn the camera off after the filming."
I added straight-away with a hint of solicitude, "Take a bath. We don't want COVID-19 patients to proliferate." Instructing that must have had strike me as someone unusual. Astonishingly, she broke out from her miserable self and chuckled sedately, "Yes, sir! I—" The last Aiden she saw for the day was the running away me.
The next day, I woke up in my powdery blue night dress and charcoal grey track jacket blinded by the sunrays with the smell of buttermilk and maple syrup diffused. During that time my hunger had ignited. 'Ohhh... pancakes.' I aroused myself from the bed, robbing my drowsy eyes; and sauntered to the kitchen counter.
Fluffy pancakes are the finest especially with maple syrup as the condiment. A simple meal that melts in your mouth. As I ingested the flavor within, flowers began to bloom and bullets turned into confettis.
Even though it was my accustomed dish, I couldn't relinquish the idea of coming apart from it. On the spur of the moment, a memory cradled at the rear side of my cerebral matter. Recollections that made me reminisce about my mother's attachment towards a misleading son like me.
Simultaneously, I was enjoying my brunch when at once thinking about the two lads. 'Have Kelsy and Christina finished eating? They must have been.' I munched once more, savoring its sweetness and comfort; later, standing up with notable inclination. 'Whatever, I should just check up on them.'
As I strolled across the balcony, a woman moaned interminably from the clinic like she was still groggy from her slumber. Judging from her tone, it must have been Christina.
I was approaching closer into the suite when I heard another female who sounded as if she had a hard time carrying a pack load of sacks. She swayed with her voice reinforced, "Christina, wake up now! The hour hand is pointing at five o'clock." Kelsy... Why of all people but Kelsy had to carry up the monkey's ass?
Christina talked under her breath, "Nah. As what I could see right now, it is five PM. Usually around this time, I had to take a nap and count some sheeps." Kelsy weakly shouted, "Christina! It is the AM already—" She inhaled tiresomely, "You should at least get off from the floor and sleep at my bed so that—Oh come on." I went as fast as I can inside, as soon as I saw Christina snoozing in the corner.
Christina wore a lapel woolen fashion coat dress outside her wine red crop top and slim chiffon thin pants. Her wavy blonde hair, luscious slender figure, and arresting countenance casted a glamory vibe. No kidding she is a knockout but whatever, her personality is rather ill-favored.
Since it was not bargained for me to arrive at the scene, Kelsy was thunderstrucked. Her eyes stretched out with her head held back as she was trying to haul Christina out of her position. She asked while turning directly again on that bossy woman, "Umm... I might need some help." I sighed with my face generally immobile. Feeling so merciful for Kelsy out of the sudden, I squatted down beside Christina in absolute revulsion. 'I don't want to do this for real.'
I informed Christina before taking in action, "You brat. You're ready?" She mumbled in response, belittling my scheme, "Forget about it. Doc is far stronger than you, if you're planning to drag me up." Thereupon, I placed my arm around her back and the other arm around the bend in her knees as I lifted her bridal style. The two of them widened in surprise, their mouth dropped open.
Knowing her situation, Christina punched my chest and striked her foot against the air moving around to break loose from my handle grip. "I order you to bring me down back again or else you'll regret that you met me!" She protested endlessly squirming without full loathing. I chuckled ironically, "I already regret that I'd met you from the moment we shared a glance. My guts had foreseen it before arriving at this filthy palace of yours."
Hearing that, her motions began to be potent and robust. My biceps had gotten fagged up from keeping up with her weight. I warned her earnestly, "If you keep on moving, you might fall. You're already too heavy for me to carry you." She did not fail to stifle a scream, "Let me! I would rather do that than being carried by a jerk." Joining our argument, Kelsy cackled idly, "You two... never fail to impress me."
Christina keep on revolting to make a getaway. Her hoarse voice were loaded with excessive breathing. While Kelsy and I were messing around like there's no obstacle to jump into. But then out of nowhere, someone launched the door open.
The three of us were taken aback as a man wearing a mint-colored protective suit appointed to us, "Doc. Kelsy! We need you to report at the operation room right now. The outpatient shall be attended!" Instead of retaining his alerted look, a gawk went on his optic nerve as his sapphire blue eyes darted from Kelsy to me.
Thankfully Christina steadily hold still, her hand tightening my shoulder sleeve for balance; but on a different note, her brow furrowed and her lower eyelids started to tense in anxiety while slouching to take refuge. Her shivers vibrated on my epidermis and her heart pounded out of her chest as she stared terribly at the unknown guy.
At first I thought she was dismayed with the patient's condition; however, her petrified expression conveyed another story. Out of curiosity, I vigilantly assessed the fellow man. As what I could infer, his approach to Christina was kind of intimidating. The way his impenetrable manner curled around the edges and on how he glared daggers at me as if I was an imposter, was relatively shady and mysterious. 'What sort of a trick is up his sleeve? Why is Christina so terrified over a man like this?' I cogitated.
As I throwbacked from before, it all made sense for me. Remember that perverted man insult I made... well, that's what I think it is.
Along the lines, Kelsy broke the silence in the room as she scurried on her cabinet for another protective clothing. She commanded hurriedly, "Christina, kindly check her vital organs at this moment and inform other nurses to prepare. I will report to the operating room immediately."
Christina changed automatically and obliged in a heart rate as I let her go from me. She rushed quickly outside not aware of her improper uniform; when in a flash, she groaned in disbelief. Supposing her spontaneous demeanor, she was running away approximatically when a precaution came up to her, "Oh... of course. F***ing ppe." She trudged straight to Kelsy as she handed her an extra.
In great demand, Kelsy ordered the suspicious man, "Doctor Scott, I need you to assist me for the operation." He nodded in respect while staring at me non-stop in deep repugnance. This man appeared as if he was born out of Medusa's nauseating womb.
After minutes of mutual sharing, the two were gravely ready for their chores wearing uniformly in aqua blue. They marched side by side through the door when Kelsy stopped distractedly a meter apart from us. She faced Mr. Scott in confusion and gestured him to come with them, "Albert, there is no time to waste." He smirked with dreadful certainty, "I will escort you as much as possible later-" He locked his eyes directly anew to mine, "I have an issue to discuss with this newbie."
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