Cyré: A World Beyond Maya

Chapters Six to Ten

Chapter Six

Nothing. Quiet like the ride back to her house. The loose strands of her hair whipped to and fro below her helmet and the secured comfort of having her arms around Tuluc's chest comforted her. And for a fleeted and discarded moment as they rode closer to her neighborhood, her mind was free of worry. That was until Tuluc parked his motorcycle on her street and then moments after, the key slid into the front door lock.
With sounds of Tuluc's heavily calculated footsteps, the hushing closing of the front door, and the clunking of the door's lock following behind her, Filinia was annoyingly greeted by unlit white candles, floating white balloons, and white calla lilies stretching from the foyer to the hallway: the beginning extravagance of her mother's doings for her birthday, executed by Guneeta. But Filinia was too exhausted and overwhelmed to be distracted by the decorations. At this point, she was tempted to just call her mother and say she wanted to forgo the celebrating of her birthday, regardless of it being one of the 'big ones'.
However, Filinia knew that was an impossibility. While Mother's heart was in the right place, she had always gravitated towards the dramatics. She remembered when she had turned five, her mother had planted mums and daisies in their small backyard to form the number five, five times. Five pointed paper stars were hung from a recently planted five-year-old red maple tree on five branches. And if that wasn't annoyingly over the top enough, Filinia was allowed to invite five friends.
Looking back, she realized that five was the most friends she ever had and oddly enough, one of them was Julia. She had worked hard to forget about that fact. It wasn't hard to do, especially with how abrupt the friendship ended. Why Filinia's decision to join the art club instead of joining the Girl Scouts with Julia in second grade was the catalyst, she still didn't know. But that was then and this abundance of white decorations in the foyer and hallway was now. Decorations that were more suited for a romantic evening and not a birthday.
Although, in her mother's defense, the decorations seemed rather calmer than usual. Thus far, anyways. And Filinia had Guneeta to thank for that. In fact, since her mom had started dating Guneeta, Filinia's last three birthdays had been relatively normal.
The delicious smells of curry, stewing tomatoes, and onions drew the two friends to the kitchen. Guneeta, regardless of whether she was in the middle of setting up for a show in one of the galleries in the far east part of the city or out running errands, had always preferred to have lunch at home. Filinia's mother had given Guneeta the basement to use as her studio, which she warmly decided to share with Filinia.
Upon entering the kitchen, both Filinia and Tuluc could tell by the paint-splattered clothing Guneeta was wearing that this had been the first time since they had left for school that she had left the basement. Though the middle-aged Indian woman had her back to them and had yet to acknowledge their arrival, Filinia felt nervous and guilty at being home so early. She had never been that great of a liar. When Guneeta finally turned around to face them, it was as though she already knew the two teens had skipped school. But that could have been Filinia's nerves talking. Maybe because it was her birthday, Guneeta would cut her some slack.
"Janmadin vaalee ladakee! What are you two doing home so early?" Guneeta asked.
The tone of her voice isn't angry or one that would indicate that I'm in trouble, Filinia thought. But should I tell her? Could I tell her? God no. She'll think I'm insane.
Her palms were clammy from the small amount of sweat rising from her pores. Filinia's cheeks became red and her heart was pounding so hard she could hardly hear the doors of the cupboards shaking seemingly by themselves or the barstools slowly shifting away from them. When she felt Tuluc's warm and strong hands rest on her shoulders, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After a few more seconds, the cupboards and stools stopped moving. Filinia opened her eyes and noticed Guneeta noticing the movement ...yet she seemed unphased by it.
Why is she so calm? Filinia thought.
"Filinia wasn't feeling well during homeroom so we left early. And unfortunately, we had a Crystal bomb incident at Crimson Moon," Tuluc said, calmly.
"You're kidding! He has some nerve," Guneeta said, putting her hand to her forehead.
"We knew this day would come," Tuluc said with a shrug.
What the hell is going on? She knows!? Why does everyone seem to know about what is going on but me?
"I know. I better call Katryn and ask her to come home as soon as she can."
Tuluc nodded.
What alternate universe have I entered? And there's it is again—Crystal Bomb. The alienation Filinia was feeling was too much to bear any longer. Had she turned sixteen today or four?
"Enough! I've been pretty frickin' calm about all this!" Filinia shouted. "And I deserve to know what the hell is going on!"
In nervous surprise, Guneeta and Tuluc looked at each other, wondering who should speak first.
"We should wait until your mother gets home, Bachchee," Guneeta said.
There were no words to express how frustratingly predictable Filinia found Guneeta's answer to be. She couldn't help letting out a small laugh before shaking her head and running upstairs to her room. Locking the door behind her, Filinia flung herself on her bed face first. She screamed into her pillows until her face was nearly purple and her hands began to shake uncontrollably. Tears weighed her lower lids, climbing slowly to the surface of her pained eyes. Lost. Alone. Confused. Stupid and vulnerable.
Filinia pushed herself up into a sitting position. Pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms tightly around them, she placed her head in between the empty space. Too tired to wipe the tears trickling her cheek with the back of her hand. She welcomed the numbness and the lack of desire to process anything at this moment. Any and all attempts to find a common thread or a logical connection of the strange events had proven to be utterly futile. A normal day turned topsy-turvy without explanation.
For a hot moment, Filinia considered tying her sheets together and climbing out of her window. However, with how unskillful she was at tying knots and the idea stemming from the many movies she had watched, she decided against it. The difficult lesson in tying knots in her Girl Scouts' troop when she was seven years old was just one of the many reasons she didn't want to be a Brownie anymore. Instead, she settled on examining every thread that made up her sheets.
She wasn't sure of how much time had passed. Five minutes? An hour? It wasn't until she heard a knock on her bedroom door that she snapped herself back to reality.
"Filinia?" she heard Tuluc say.
The air stood still.
"Filinia, let me in ...please... Come on, Filinia. We don't have to talk or anything. I just want to make sure you're okay."
She stared at the door as if she was in a dream.
"Your mom is home and Guneeta sent me up with a plate of food."
Filinia just wanted to be left alone. And while Tuluc had always been the one person, outside of Guneeta, who knew exactly how to calm her, she couldn't bring herself to leave her bed to let him in. Not right now anyways.
The floorboards creaked a couple of times and she heard the ceramic plate being placed down on the floor. As soon as she heard Tuluc start going downstairs, she laid her head on her pillow and fell asleep.
In the morning, house finches argued over insects and worms for their young. The warmth of the sun shining through her open window upon her bare skin was a gentle reminder the day was anew. And resting on the now-sixteen year old red maple tree, there were pigeons cooing. As she rubbed her eyes and looked toward the window, she wasn't sure if she should be thankful for the birds and sun for waking her up or annoyed that she had forgotten to set her alarm.
When she heard Tuluc's ringtone coming from her phone, Filinia had every intention to decline the call but knocked it off her nightstand, the accept button being pressed upon its descent. But that was not the surprising part. Filinia had unconsciously caught her phone what felt like a millisecond after she knocked it off.
"Filinia? Hello?"
She could hear Tuluc as clearly as if he was physically in her bedroom, but she wasn't registering his words.
How did I—? Filinia thought as she continued to stare at her phone bewildered.
"Filinia? Are you there? Are you okay?"
Filinia blinked and lifted her phone to her ear to answer her friend.
"I'm fine, Tuluc," Filinia said exasperated.
"I'll be at your house in ten," Tuluc answered calmly.
"No, I can walk."
"Filinia, I'm giving you a ride."
"Today's the art museum field trip," Filinia said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I'm aware," Tuluc said.
"I'm walking and that's it!"
Filinia ended the call and threw her phone at the foot of the bed. She stared at her phone, anger and betrayal rising from her stomach to her teeth biting down on her bottom lip, so hard that soon she would be tasting blood. Her breathing was a terrible storm brewing, increasingly loud and forceful. If Tuluc's demeanor was any indication of how her mother and Guneeta would be when she had to face them, then she wanted nothing to do with them.
So many questions were running and tangling around each other in her mind that she wasn't able to fully examine any of them in her current emotional state. The only thing she could do was get ready for the field trip. It was fortunate the plate of food Tuluc had left by her door the previous night was still there. Cold ravioli wasn't exactly the most enticing but it would do.
When Filinia descended the stairs, she was expecting and dreading the sounds of her mother's and Guneeta's voices in the kitchen. But as she sharply turned to put on her shoes and slung her purse over her shoulder, there was nothing to be heard or smelled. No music that Guneeta sometimes put on in the morning. No metallic clanking against ceramic dishes. No heavy and wonderfully-intoxicating smell of a freshly brewed pot of coffee...
Carefully peering into the kitchen, Filinia confirmed for herself that she was the only one home this morning. No one, aside from herself on the weekends, slept in past 6:30. Walking into the room a bit further and turning her head towards the basement, she saw that Guneeta had her sign flipped to Do Not Disturb. She may not have been alone in the house after all but she had a small feeling of relief.
Upon opening the front door, Filinia was annoyingly surprised at the sight of her friend waiting outside by his motorcycle. She acknowledged his presence for a moment as she walked right by him and turned on 21st Street. The gentle putting of Tuluc's bike a few yards alongside her and a couple of car horns soon made it clear to Filinia he was going to follow her on his bike until she stopped and got on or when they arrived at the museum. And for half a block, she held strong.