Three Shells Paradise

Past, present, future

"Can you tell me what my father was like Grammy?" Chirped in Sia as they walked to the weekly market.

Asif was bringing in a load of vegetables and mushrooms they grew in their farm. He would sell them and then they hoped to get groceries with the money. The kids had been left at home with Orla.

Well,  when I first moved in to the Northern sector, I didn't know anyone there. None of the neighbors wanted to have anything to do with a child who looked like Gibbs. I can't blame them after all he did end up becoming the monster he looked. Anyways, he was a lonely child until one day a ball came into our garden. Gibbs picked it up and was spinning it on his fingertips. A boy of just the same age peeped in through the fence and kept staring at him. I remember Gibbs was red in the face and then the boy suddenly said, "wow man can you show me how you did that?"
Well Gibbs and I weren't sure, then he walked in to the garden and sat on a bench right across Gibbs. He looked at the pile of cookies on a tray nearby and said "May I? " I nodded and he picked a couple. He put one in his mouth while he offered the other to Gibbs. He liked it so much that he took a couple more. "Auntie, next time you make these, please call me I live right across the street and my name is Roff."
Gibbs was a bit shy but showed him how to spin the ball on his tips. It took Roff the rest of the evening to master it and when he did., He gave him a hug and said, thanks Gibby, you are the best.
That's how easily your father made friends. He always saw the good in others. While the rest of the kids and even adults were afraid to even look at Gibbs, Roff made friends with him. When he got into a fight with one of our neighbors, he came home bleeding and then Roff went out and beat those guys black and blue. Nobody could mess with his best buddy. Because he was friends with Gibbs many of his old friends drifted away. He didn't care.
Both of them spent ages, No one knows doing what. But they would come home in various hues at times and we, their mothers always ended up mending their clothes and shoes; trying to clean them up would take ages. Roff was very fond of my cookies and would joke that he was friends with Gibbs only so he could eat as many of them as he wished. How time flies! Speaking of which...

Gia looked at the giant clock in the marketplace and said, "We are getting late now, Asif, are you done?"

Asif: Yes just a few more remain. Why don't you go to the grocer and keep getting stuff I'll join you there. Here's the money.

They got their stuff and Asif joined them. Orla had a tough time with the kids yet she had managed somehow. The village elder had sent Gia a note to meet him at the earliest.

When Gia saw the note, she immediately left. Asif cried out behind her, "Shall I come along?" She told him to look after the house and he came back.

It was past dinner time when Gia returned. She told them that Rial had enquired about Orla and the kids, since they knew not much they told her just that. But they wanted to warn her that she had somehow attracted the attention of the Uplanders and this was not good. They asked her to be careful around the house and not take her safety for granted. They assured her that they would support her if it came to fighting the Uplanders. They had done it before and they would do it again.