She woke up suddenly taken aback by a noise and a car's lights. She didn't know where she was until seeing Danny's face slightly lit by the night-lights. She got up slowly not to wake him up. The floor was cold and she mastered the impulse to not hurry on it. She found her clothes and shoes, luckily she didn't put too many clothes. She had no idea what time it was but she knew for sure that his parents had returned.
Her parents. She remembered her own punishment. Maybe Joely was inspired to tell them that they were together and she couldn't answer the phone at that time. She had to get home before dawn, before they would wake up. She waited for a few moments. No one was heard in the house so she began to descend the stairs looking at the same time for her keys in the pocket. They were there.
Danny certainly will not wake up and it was fine. There was no need for him to worry. She clicked the doorknob and then realized she could not leave it unlocked. She found a row of keys that she'll have to give to Danny the next day. He wasn't going anyway anywhere now.
She exited and the cold hugged her immediately. The wind wasn't blowing that hard anymore, the snow was bringing light and that made Dalma happy, it hadn't been any car. She closed the door and saw her car covered by a layer of snow. She wanted to get faster in the heat of her bed. A creak drew her attention to the left side. She instinctively turned her head thinking she'll see a stray dog or worse, Danny's parents but it was Iz.
The white blanket came over his legs. He was smoking a cigar, a normal one. He was keeping himself warm.
"Didn't mean to scare you." He said looking at the horizon in a misterious way. "I saw your car. I have keys but didn't want to bother. Danny's parents told me to check up on him. They thought he said to me to come but he didn't."
"He called me." She said with a slight lip shiver although she wasn't cold amymore.
"Now I'm here. If you want, you can go."
Dalma felt in her legs the desire to move at least to the heat of her car, instead her body went to the other rocking chair. She folded herself in fur and she was warmer.
They sat quietly for a while and flakes were again falling as in fairy tales. She"ll have to work hard to get rid of the snow from her car.
"How serious is it?" She asked.
"I'd like to not talk about it." He requested from her.
Dalma sought other words.
"I understand you, you know. I understand what you feel and the need to take care of him but I also feel you're wrong putting yourself aside. He's well but you're... not. And I'm afraid it'll get worse."
"Why do you care about me?" Iz said coldly. "I'm nothing."
Dalma took her eyes off the car to him.
"You're not nothing." She said firmly in voice. "Nobody is." She added for generalization. "You took on a role, that's all. You can get out and get back to your life. Things will function without your permission amyway."
"I don't want things to change. I don't want them to go in the wrong place."
"You think if you'll be happy, something bad would happen to... Danny?"
"I don't know."
"Joely has something against changes and I always tell her she's crazy, that unaware changes occur even in her. You're young, Iz. If you're not having fun now, then when? What will you do? You'll postpone the years in which you have to build a family and wander in clubs? This will turn you upside down, you'll be that kind of a misfit they're doing comedies about because their lives are all for laughter. You better laugh now and then grow up nicely."
"Maybe I don't want to have fun." Iz mumbled. "Maybe I like to fight for something, fight with every bone until I no longer feel my body."
She saw his jaws clenching.
"Dad says, somewhere in me there's a hero but I did nothing more than to get stressed like a hen and flap my wings at a shadow. I can't save him. Even though his salvation is in me."
Dalma wanted to touch him but was too far from him and there were those little handmade statues that could fall if she would stretch towards him.
Iz pulled out a throaty laughter.
"My dad named me Israel. I hated it... I wanted to change it as soon as I grew up but he didn't leave me. Israel was the name given by God to Jacob after he fought with Him. He thought I'd be a hero. I cannot even find God to measure my powers with Him to let Danny live. I think He's afraid of me." He laughed again of himself. "Don't mind me." He added looking at her.
"How did you get to Iz?" Dalma asked.
"Initially, I called myself YZ."
"Wise?" Dalma laughed. "The Professors' wouldn't have called you that."
Iz frowned.
"I have the school of life." He defended himself. "Besides, I don't have that bad grades."
"I didn't mean..." Dalma wanted to correct the misunderstanding.
"I fought hard to make dad call me Iz." He continued and Dalma remembered how the man paused before saying his nickname. "With the Professors was easier. I threatened not to go to school if they don't call me Iz. All the Principals agreed since they didn't want to reduce any percentage of illiterates in our city."
"Why don't you like that name?"
Iz shrugged and placed deeper into the rocking chair.
"I'm named as a country... I don' know. Wouldn't have preferred to be called America either."
"That's a girl's name."
"Americo then..."
"I think it's an already known name. I like your name." She expressed.
Iz chuckled briefly.
"I'll think about it." He said and took off his grey hat that he stretched towards her.
"Take it." He said. "It's clean. You'll freeze."
Dalma took it just to show him she didn't care if it weren't clean.
"Thanks." She said feeling her ears getting warm.
"With pleasure. You love him?" He asked her after other moments of silence.
Dalma looked towards the snow.
"It's harder now." She confessed.
"Why?"
"Because I feel sorry for him. I don't know. I cannot figure it out." She concluded.
Iz didn't find anything to say about that. He could not convince her to love him, it was her business. Danny was a big boy and now he knew it.
"Above all, I consider him a good friend." Dalma said.
"Can he be more?"
Dalma reflected. She didn't want Iz to believe that she was going to harm his best friend.
"Yes." She said.
"I'm glad."
While Dalma pulled her blanket off and rose from the chair, Danny departed from the window. He had heard the last part of their conversation, it was enough.
"Good night, Iz." She said. "I left the key on chair. Take it inside. Don't let his parents think he was alone and don't stay here all day and night. Don't be such a hero." Dalma smiled and left without giving his hat back.
"Good night." She heard Iz from behind.
She started the car and looked at him once more while standing in that snow light like an old man in a rocking chair. She thought he was tough but it wasn't entirely like that. The feeling of relief that she got from her restrains towards him, warm her up. It was as if the world had become far more accessible, easier to be lived at every corner.
