The Prospect's Deal

11

All of the partners except for Ezra left the area with haste, they did not want to provoke Ezra's wrath again. Ezra was still facing me while he spoke. "Now that all of my partners are back inside the base. They won't get involved in this situation and I won't have to worry about them accusing you again. I just want to clarify something with you, it's not that I don't trust my partners. But I felt like they were acting a bit overly rash in their approach."

I just looked down.

Ezra sighed as he saw that I was now looking down and not looking towards him. Ezra spoke calmly in a softer tone, he didn't want to try and make me feel like I was in trouble or anything. "Hey look at me."

I looked back at him.

Ezra had a calm look on his face as he stared back at me. Ezra spoke once more, his tone of voice was a bit kinder now. "Now, I just want to ask you one simple question."

Ezra waited for a few moments as he looked at me. Ezra kept his eyes locked on me, he didn't think that I was telling the full story just yet, but he was still waiting for my answer before he said anything else.

I nodded slowly.

Ezra spoke softly once more, he sounded friendly and calm as he began to ask the question. "Are you truly innocent of the whole stealing thing that the others claimed you were doing?"

"I wasn't stealing..." I looked into his eyes.

Ezra stared back into my eyes for a while. Ezra looked like he was trying to figure out if I truly were innocent or not. Ezra finally spoke once more, his tone of voice was still calm and friendly. "You seem to be telling the truth when you say that you weren't stealing. But I want to hear your side of the story, can you give me a brief explanation as to how the whole situation started?"

I hated talking a lot so I gave a short answer. "I wanted to hunt alone."

Ezra nodded his head slowly as he kept listening to me. Ezra didn't seem to be angry anymore, he sounded like he was actually starting to understand. Ezra spoke again, his tone had become even gentler now. "So, just to clarify: you went hunting alien stones on your own, and then when you came back to return the stones that you collected, the partners started accusing you of stealing?"

I nodded.

Ezra's facial expression looked like he was finally starting to understand how everything actually happened. Ezra spoke again, he sounded like he was about to ask another question "So did you find any stones at all when you went hunting alone?"

I shook my head.

Ezra's facial expression looked a bit surprised as he heard that I hadn't found any stones at all. "So you didn't find a single stone at all when you went hunting alone?"

"No, and I give it because whatever I do in all your eyes is wrong..." I got up and walked back to the base.

Ezra watched as I walked away from him, Ezra was a little bit perplexed at my comment. Ezra spoke up gently as I was leaving. "Wait."

I stopped and turned around.

Ezra spoke up once more, he sounded concerned. "You just said that we think you're always doing the wrong thing. Is that true? Do you really feel like you can't do anything right in our eyes?"

"Yes." I looked into his eyes.

Ezra kept a soft, calm look on his face as he listened to my answer. Ezra spoke once more in a kind tone of voice. "You know, I never really saw you as someone who could do anything wrong. I'll be honest with you, I've never really noticed much wrong with what you've done throughout this whole trip."

Ezra gave me a small smile as he spoke. "So even though you feel that way, just know that we don't think that you're always doing the wrong thing."

I nodded then looked away again.

Ezra continued to have a soft look on his face, he gave me a slight smile as he spoke calmly. "Do you believe me when I say that?"

I shrugged.

Ezra sighed as he noticed that I shrugged my feelings about this particular situation. Ezra spoke up once now, his voice was still calm and kind. "Look... I'm trying to prove to you that I trust you right now. I've never seen you do anything wrong and I know that the others don't think as negatively as you think towards you. If they did, I wouldn't have kept you alive this entire trip and we would already be back on Earth right now."

I just watched him but I decided to stay mute.

Ezra continued to speak gently. "You know what? If you want, I can have a direct word with all the partners and figure out which one of them actually accused you of stealing. Once I know who it is, I'm going to tell them to stay off your back from now on."

"It's fine..." I said gently.

Ezra didn't really expect me to deny the offer to deal with the problem, he was actually rather shocked by it. Ezra spoke up again, his tone of voice now had a hint of confusion in it along with the rest of his emotions. "You sure? I don't mind confronting the partner and telling them to leave you alone from now on."

I nodded.

Ezra spoke in a kind voice once more as his emotions of confusion started to subside. "Well... if you say so. I still will keep my offer standing, if the situation ever gets worse and the partners continue to falsely accuse you of something, you can come to me and we'll deal with it together. Are you okay with that?"

I nodded again.

Ezra's facial expression returned to full calmness after I nodded to him once more. Ezra spoke up now. "Alright, I'll keep an eye on this whole situation. Are you still going to go back into the forest and look for any stones by yourself though?"