The boy inside the matrix box

19

Are you still my answer ?

To the question I've asked since I was born

Windswept – Crywwolf

To their dismay, school starts soon, which means less time together. On Wednesday afternoon, Seven takes advantage of the fact that his parents are both working to invite Nataniel to his house - for a change.

"My mum's been on edge those last days," he sighs, lighting a cigarette. "I don't know what's going on in her head, but it's going to blow up in my face soon..."

"We should take a holiday..." Nataniel mutters. "A real one, where we go far away."

"I'd like that. But my parents will die before they let me go alone."

"They can't decide for you all the time. You shouldn't even have to ask their permission, really."

"I don't. But I don't have any money."

"It's time to start working, then," Nataniel says with a wink. "I'm tired of Goldale. I'd like to distance myself, at least for a while. I'm thinking more and more about studying abroad. At least for a year."

Seven sits up on the sofa where they are lying. "Abroad? Where?"

"I don't know... England, why not, I hear they're good at anthropology. Or Scotland. You'll tell me, the United Kingdom, it's the same boat."

"But... it's far away."

"Yeah. I suppose I'd miss Goldale eventually. I'd have to come home every holiday, or Ness would never forgive me!"

"What about me?"

"Would you find it insurmountable if we were apart for a year or two? I could write you love letters, like in the good old days! And we would see each other often."

When Seven doesn't reply, Nataniel turns his face in his direction. The young man stares at him with the expression of someone who has just been told he has a fatal disease.

"Hey, hey, don't get upset! It's all just idle talk. I'm not at all sure I'm going to sail away. And if I did, why don't we go together? I like that idea much more than going alone!"

Seven nods gently. "Yes, yes. Why not?"

But for the rest of the afternoon, he doesn't regain the cheerfulness he had had until then. And in the evening, as he seeks sleep, Nataniel cannot get Seven's mournful face out of his mind.

Late Sunday morning, while Nataniel is hanging out in the living room watching cartoons, the doorbell rings. With Bart out of town and Coline locked in her room to study, Nataniel reluctantly gets up to open the door.

A dark-haired woman stands on the porch. Tall, thin, beautiful, Nataniel immediately recognises her from family pictures. She is Seven's mother.

"Nataniel, is it?" she asks in a stern voice.

He nods shyly.

"I need to talk to you about Seven."

"About Seven?"

"Yeah, I know you two are... are in relationship."

"He told you about me?"

That would be really surprising. He understands from the look on Seven's mother's face, though, that it wasn't her son who tipped her off.

"No, he did not. Seven would never confide in me about that. Precisely because of what I have to tell you."

"How do you know, then?"