Escape from Zion

Chapter 9

James cursed himself as he walked back to his car. 'What a fucking idiot'. He couldn't believe that he had actually gone and put his foot in it with a grieving woman. Ammy's sister no less. Ammy would always talk about her sister and then of course he was expecting her to look like Ammy but Sara was alien to him. He'd gotten flustered as he always did around women and not only disturbed her peace but given her a whole bunch of things that she wouldn't know how to cope with. Jesus Christ. He was supposed to have stayed and explained it all to her. Ammy had told him and he had laughed it off and told her she was doing too much. It was all fucked. James got into the car and wiped the fat heavy tears building in his eyes, driving away as fast as the car would let him.

* * * *

Using his elbows and balancing a plate of spaghetti in his left hand with a fork in his right, James shoved the majority of the papers and books to one side of the sofa, clearing some space for himself on one side. He sat down, crossing his legs and placed the plate on his lap. He took a sip of wine before pressing the TV on. As it blared in the background, he carried on eating. James was halfway through when he heard his doorbell, and as he got up to peer through the window, he saw a familiar shape outside. It had to have been because he had been thinking about her earlier. James turned, downed his wine, then headed for the door. He opened it to find not Amani, but Sara. Of course. Who else would it have been? At this time, today, after he had just dumped everything on her lap.

"Can I come in?" She spoke very softly, almost as if she didn't want to be heard. He moved out of the way and gestured for her to come in.

"It's the first door on the right" he stuttered before following her in. James quickly realised he hadn't any spare surface for a guest to sit on and as Sara stood looking at the hovel his living room had turned into over the past 3 months, he quickly ran into the kitchen to fetch a chair.

Once they were both seated Sara noticed his half uneaten lunch and gestured to it "You can finish eating. I just had some questions."

"No, no I already ate a bunch- I can answer any questions you might have for me no problem. It's all a long story anyways and I'm guessing you have things you need to get back to so really I don't mind."

Sara wondered if James ever forgot to breath on occassion. She wouldn't have been surprised if it was the case. He was so nervous and stressed. But then again she had always been like that. Maybe his was just a reaction to a colleague's death. And she had been fairly cold to him earlier. He probably thought she was back to beat him up or something.

"I like your house."

Sarah immediately regretted the words that had just come out of her mouth. What a fucking stupid thing to say when his house clearly looked like a tsunami had gone through it moments earlier. She quickly turned to look at him. James blinked.

"Thanks." He smiled. "It was my grandma's."

'Oh god. Another dead relative.' Sarah wasn't in the mood to navigate more family deaths no matter how rude she came off she was at max capacity. "So do you live by yourself then?" She turned the subject, there, not too far but different nontheless.

"Oh yeah. No siblings, my parents moved to Ghana after my nana passed, and it gets a bit lonely but I'm working on finding roommates or someone to let out the other room in the house at least."

"Oh that's nice." Sara smiled in what she hoped was a convincing way. It must have worked as James smiled back.

"So what did you want to know?" He began as he sat down placing the the spaghetti back on his knees. "It must be about something from her research, I can only imagine how shocked you were and I was supposed to explain it to you but obviously I panicked and left I'm so sorry I cannot apologise enough-"