Undefiled Queen

“Chatterbox, I swear to lord, if you don’t answer me now…” He threatened with his  eyes slowly getting dilated and then he could hear a soft squelching sound from behind.

He turned around and there she was, who fell into the pit covered with ice. Her hair was covered with snow and face mixed with ice and water. She was asking his attention, hitting the ice covered soil with her elbow because her hands were tied up.

He released the air that he didn’t know he was holding and scurried to her rescue before removing the cello tape covering her mouth and hands.

“How would I answer your call when you treat me like a prisoner and seal my lips and hands, you poker-face.” She spat her words in fury at him.

“Do not call me that. You invited this to yourself. You keep on talking without a comma or full stop. I’m not ordained here to answer your questions.

Huch! There goes out a sneeze and another. The sneezing goes on for Merlyn.  “I fucking told you to sit in the car. At least you would have stayed protected in the cold. But you will not listen.”

He held her hand in his which somehow still continued to stay warm for her even in the uncooperative weather. Finally, out of all the hapless events that happened to him since he got up today morning, there appeared a ray of hope.

He could see a dim light glowing a little away from them.  He whizzed to the place with her and saw it was an eatery outlet with just a few washrooms. Nothing fancy but it was enough to take care of their primary needs like water and hunger.

They could finally have something for their belching tummies. Merlyn went inside one of the washrooms to change her clothes while Stephen ordered food for them.

She had removed the clothes on her body and reached out for the fresh ones only to discover they were already lost.

“Hey” She called Stephen from the washroom poking her head out of the door and then there were at least ten heads that turned to her direction but for him who was busy typing on his mobile.

“Hey poker face” and this time his head popped up walking to her in stiffness and wreaking temper. Merlyn wondered if his ears could also bring out some smoke.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

She giggled imagining him like a robot and with no feelings except anger. “Don’t you dare call me that, you chatterbox.” He walked to her and hissed in an irate.

“Then what should I call you? You don’t even tell me your name. Somebody stole my clothes.” She told him with a pout.

“What?” He asked her unbelievably.

“Yes. Somebody stole my clothes.” She confirmed and shook her head with dismay.

He could already find her twiddling with her thumbs behind the door. “These things can happen only with you.” He walked back to the table he was sitting, took out a pair of trousers and shirt of his and gave it to her.

Putting on his clothes which were at least three sizes more than hers she walked back to their table in reticence. “There … . the girl who put on my clothes. She is sitting behind her boyfriend and racing away on the bike.” Merlyn pointed to someone ahead of her

Stephen shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t understand why such things only happen with you?”

“Yes. Why so?” She asked him in innocence. Her Stephen glowered, as she looked down at her digits.

There was a faintest smile on his brims as he pulled a sandwich from the wrap and brought it to her lips. His eyes sparkled at her in affection as she dwelled in her thoughts. “Finally there is something in this world that could lock your lips.”

“Hey” Merlyn called and he acted serious but burst to chuckles and she kept staring at him for several minutes completely awestruck.

“Like what you see?” He asked in deride after his laughter slightly reduced.

“You look beautiful when you smile.” She told him still blessed in the trance of his paralyzing charisma.

“Hey, I did not ask you for a compliment, young lady. By the way, ten minutes walk from here, it seems there is a hotel with rooms. Let us check it out. I know I will not be able to make it for today’s meeting. If the snow storm cools off tomorrow, I will be able to make it to the charity function and give a speech. Let’s hope for the best.” He sighed.

****

The reception clerk was a middle aged man yet he had no shame to look at the girl lasciviously who is half his age.

Stephen extended his arm sideways and pulled Merlyn behind him when the man wet his lips and brought down his gaze to her bristols.

He flipped his fingers before him. “I’m the one speaking here. Look at me. We need two rooms.”

The receptionist shifted his weight between his legs still not getting the hint but to look at Merlyn. “We have only one. And we can rent a room on an hourly basis too.” He winked at Stephen with a naughty smile.

Stephen clenched his jaw and bit his tongue. He was a damn unshameful womanizer. If he simply ignored him he would have another way to reach her. But before he could speak she butted in for the usual chatter-box nature that she possessed. “That’s great. We would love to rent a room on hourly…”

“Ssh! Did I tell you to speak? Didn’t you see I was talking to him?” It was always her nature to talk foolishly with no end. At least three year olds were better than her. You give them a toy, they will stay with it, without talking for a few minutes.

“You are a grinch.” She pouted and he couldn’t stop at her comment but to laugh. She was not the first one to call him that but she was the first to mimic a child’s voice.

The shock on her face to look at him grinning was priceless. A thing that made him a successful businessman was the ability to read people. She was easy, she wore her emotions on the sleeve of her coat. But he was used to reading sharks in the tank that swirled around for human blood. If he wasn’t good at reading people, he would have gone swept under the current for years by now.

“Book the room for the next 24 hours.” The man gave out a lazy grin and bent forward over the counter displaying his half rotten teeth.  Stephen already predicted what he wanted to say and told Merlyn to sit in one of the chairs that were placed a few steps behind him.

“So you want to keep the girl for a day. Is she that hot? You see, you and I can have an agreement to share the money 50:50 and we can sell…” Before he could complete the sentence the man received a sharp sting on his cheek. For a moment he couldn’t decipher what just happened and looked around.

Merlyn looked up hearing the sound, clueless on the possible altercation that the poker-face had with the receptionist but she did not expect him to go physical on the clerk.

Without saying anything further, the man placed the room keys in his hands. “Come, let’s go.” And Stephen pulled Merlyn with him.

“Hey, why did you slap him?” Merlyn asked Stephen as he pulled her with him through the balcony.

Stephen groaned inwardly and ignored her question. “Why do you always have to talk non-stop? Didn’t you see I was talking to him? The world is full of crocodiles thirsty for blood, not as plain hearted like you. By the way the man was thinking you to be a slut and he was fixing the rate with me.”

For a moment she was silent and he did a victory dance in his mind. But his happiness was only short lived. “My mom always hosts Christmas.” She said all of a sudden with no reference to the context. She can shift between topics like a chameleon but it was impossible for her even for a moment to stay quiet.

“That’s great.” He nodded guiding her through the hallway.

“My dad makes hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls while mom bakes cookies, plum cakes, Christmas pudding and ginger bread.”

“That sounds nice.” He rested his hand on the small of her back and punched the room card inside the groove with the other.

She was a horrendous singer and a non-stop talker but she was unique in her own way. Her words rang true and cut deeper than she had probably intended them to, and it gave him a lot to think about her.

Stephen was equally strange to Merlyn. She always wondered what he would do on Thanksgiving. Probably he would order a pizza and plan for his next business meeting. That groan he gave her every time she asked him a question made her think if he ever talked to people casually. He was rigid and way too serious than anyone needed to be and she wondered if he hated everything that gave tiniest joy to the people in the world.

“Have you got anyone in your home to celebrate your holidays with?” The question started out casually but it ended in extreme anxiousness. What if he is married? What if he already has a wife? Does he have children too? Anyways, why does it bother her? She had no answer for any of her questions either from her or from him.

Like always he did not speak. He acted like the idea of a holiday doesn’t excite him at all. There was no joy in his eyes nor any enthusiasm to see his family. He was like a robot in every aspect except for at times that he groaned when she spoke endlessly.

Stephen was busy in his thoughts. He only hoped he had another piece of furniture apart from the bed to share the room with her. But he highly doubted it. The front desk had hardly any chairs for the visitors to sit in, which was foreshadowing the room they were going to occupy.

Even during the small amount of time that he talked to the front desk, the roads began to freeze. Fortunately the internet worked and he could call the car mechanic.

He used the key card to get into the room and had to use his hip between the door and the wall. When he stumbled into the room, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

The room was small to say the least. There was a box television on a table which was moving because of loose legs and the carpet had several holes in between. The furniture screamed old and requested repairs.

The king size bed was dripping in the middle. Extra furniture to sleep was a far away option, the room did not have even a bedside table to set their stuff on. The washroom, though clean, was less than ideal.

The sink just hovered over the bathtub in the side with its nuts and bolts already rusted and on the verge of falling.

Not minding his roommate, Stephen just walked into the washroom to check the door only to find there was more to get him on the nerves. The shower leaked and one of the taps was not working.

Stephen heard the television come to life as Merlyn started shifting channels. She carried this childish attitude with her 24/7. She was all smiles hanging her head out like a dog and catching the snow flakes playing her hands up and down. Her singing was horrendous, she was insane and now he also had to share the bed with her.

Stephen often wondered how she could think positively even in the most rueful circumstances. He pondered, he was struck with a girl who behaved like a toddler of three. She was beautiful which was obvious to anyone who had an eye to spare towards her and thus the front desk man who was a womanizer had many things rolled up his sleeve when he saw her. But there was also something unfathomable to his own self that shocked him and hit a nerve when he eyed her the wrong way.

He took out his phone from his pants pockets to call his right hand man. When he punched to code to his shock the net was pretty much fast.

He immediately screened for the weather report which said it is going to snow for the next twenty four hours. So it was definite he would not be available for the meeting but probably he would make it to the charity ball.

Just then there was a call at the door. Thankfully the mechanic was quick to deliver the car completely repaired and re-fueled.

She went to pee and he left a breather for the first time during the trip. He shrugged his coat off and sat on the edge of the bed only to find it creak and the mattress dipped underneath him like a cotton filled gunny bag.

His phone has already started to beep with various people from different parts of the world trying to contact him and he typed a huge text message sending it to all of them about his current location.

In the television some stupid dance show was going on in a volume high enough to irritate his ears. He got up to switch it off when he found the calling bell ring once again.

He was the same mechanic who repaired his car. “Sir I am sorry I forgot to give you this earlier.”

He brought out something like a card from his pant pockets. “Sir, I found this in between the mats of the car.” He handed him an identity card.

And the letters of the name felt like they were dancing bulging out of their placesas he looked at them.

Merlyn James.

Father’s name: Late Samuel James

Mother’s name: Late Rachel James

Date/PlStephen of Birth: 29/7/01 Burnsville, Minneapolis.

It felt like the world stopped around him. His heart skipped a beat and he continuously blinked to clear the musk in his eyes. She was… ‘her’. Why was destiny playing such a cruel game with him?

The world suddenly felt too small. He wanted to forget that she ever existed though she was there smiling in each and every one of his dreams like an Angel. And now she was right in front of him daring him if he could ever make his heart to forget her.