Looking For A Legend (Book 1)

Looking For A Legend Chapter 36 - Elijah

            Elijah arrived home from school and let himself into his apartment.  It was clean, as he expected and smelled wonderfully of a homemade tomato sauce and spicy sausage cooking in the kitchen.  Valentina met him at once to take his jacket and give him a kiss.  It was no tame peck either.  Eli slipped his arm around her back, throwing down his bag as his other hand slid over her hip, kissing her passionately.  Valentina moaned into his mouth, and pulled her lips into a smile when they parted.

            “Welcome home, Mister Coates.” She smiled.  They’d only been back from their honeymoon for a few days, but were still living blissfully in a honeymoon period.

            “Why, thank you, Mrs. Coates.  What are you cooking for dinner?  It smells amazing.” He asked, reluctantly letting her go.   Whenever his lips formed the words “Mrs. Coates,” Valentina’s eyes lit up.  She loved hearing him say it.  She gave Eli a little wink as she went to hang his coat up.  Eli watched the sway in her hips with a smile.

            “It’s homemade pasta.  I spent the morning on the phone with my mother getting the recipe from her.  But of course, first I had to suffer through the whole family talk.” Valentina told him as she returned to the kitchen.  He followed her, and sat at the table, unfolding the newspaper.    She gave him a smirk, “When should we tell them?”

            “When we can be reasonably sure your father won’t kill me.” Eli joked.  They both laughed.

            “Oh, Papochka wouldn’t kill you!  We’re married, and it’s not like I’m that far along.  And they both want grandkids so badly, it really wouldn’t matter.  Besides Eli, they love you.  You are their son.”  Valentina gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran a hand through his hair.

            “So, I can tell Levi now?  It’s killing me to keep a secret from him.” Eli pulled her into his lap, letting her arms fall around his neck.  He put his hand over her stomach, feeling her still taught tummy through her sleeveless chiffon blouse.  It was still too early into her pregnancy for Valentina to be showing, but just knowing a new life was growing inside her struck him with wonder.

            “God, you are so adorable when you get all wide eyed liked that.  You are going to make a wonderful father, Eli.  I know it.” Valentina cooed at him.

            “You are already a wonderful wife and I know you’ll be an amazing mother.  You’ve been taking such great care of me for…” She cut him off with a kiss.  Eli always started to ramble when he got sentimental.  Kissing her was better use of his lips anyway.  Really, it was no wonder they were already expecting.  When she told him, Valentina had made a joke that it “finally happened”.  She only pulled away when the pasta started to boil over.  Eli couldn’t help but to laugh again.

            Eli read more of the paper, occasionally looked at his watch.  Levi should be home by now.  He took his cellphone from his pocket and dialed.  Levi picked up on the second ring. “Levi! Guess what!  Valentina and I are having a baby!  I know! We’re both so happy!  No, it’s only been a few weeks.  Yeah, we wanted to make sure the wedding was about us, and not about the baby.” He smiled at Valentina as he and Levi got into a spirited conversation.  They could be on the phone for hours, and probably would be.

            Something was wrong.  Valentina froze in place as Eli considered the error.  Everything had frozen in the room.  The steam rising from the pot of water had frozen.  The room went dark, with the exception of a mysterious spotlight overhead, flooding Eli in light.

            He set down the phone.  Eli doesn’t call Levi.  He never uses his phone for anything but sending messages.  He doesn’t call Levi because Elijah doesn’t speak.  Not vocally.  He’d never vocalized in his life.  His mother said he barely even cried as a baby.

            Valentina’s parents weren’t alive.  At least her mother wasn’t anymore.  And her father is probably not.  At the very least, she has no memory of him.  And she certainly didn’t all him Papochka.

            He and Valentina aren’t married.  That was only a lie to get that innkeeper off their back.  While his feelings for Valentina were very strong, but he was older than she was, at a different point in his life.  He didn’t know how she felt about him.  Further to that point, they certainly aren’t expecting a baby.  Eli made sure of that.  The drug store closest to Denvellia knew Eli’s weekly shopping list: Vitamins, condoms, allergy medication, and an all in one soap-shampoo-conditioner.  They’d never had sex unprotected, and he certainly had no plans to start.  Valentina was far too young to be a mother, and he wasn’t ready to bring a child into this world.

            None of this made sense.  None of this was real.  With a shock of pain, the illusion shattered around Eli.  The world he’d built to comfort himself was gone.  Eli was left in the dark with nothing.  Valentina was gone from him.  His apartment was gone.  He was left with himself and pain, and the desperation to get everything back.