Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

51. THREE WEEKS

I was unable to tear my eyes away from Ms. Cyan. For a moment it felt like someone had stopped the time. I imagined a sand clock with little grains of sand frozen mid-air on their journey downwards.

As if she wasn't aware that she had spectators, she kept leaning over the flower bed. Her hands moved gently over the flowers, barely touching their colorful petals. Golden marigolds, white daisies, blue delphiniums, pink peonies, orange lilies and multicolored ranunculi basked in the warmth of the sun and, for the first time since heaven knows when, so did the pale skin on Ms. Cyan's hands.

She traced the edges of delicate flower petals, enjoying their touch on her bare skin. As much as I wanted to let her relish the sensation of touching something without the barrier of gloves, I craved to find out why all of a sudden, she was courageous enough to take them off.

"Professor Cyan," I said as I took a step towards her. "What happened?"

"Azora," she mentioned my name and looked at me with a wide smile on her face. "Come closer."

Her hands outstretched in my direction, so I did what she asked. When I came close enough, she placed her palms on my cheeks and gently stroke me.

"Professor Cyan, your hands!" I reached up to touch them.

"I don't need gloves anymore," she said. Her eyes sparkled when those words crossed her lips.

She brought her hands into my visual field. I still remembered what they used to look like. I remembered those unappealing bulged lines of red, rugose skin on the inner side of each finger.

The hands in front of me were entirely different. The redness was gone, the skin was smooth. The only reminder of the scars that used to be there were lighter lines on the inner side of the fingers.

I didn't even realize I was moved to tears until a handkerchief appeared in front of me, held by Ardea. I used it to wipe the corners of my eyes and noticed that they all came closer.

"So, what are we looking at?" Opal asked as her eyes examined our teacher's uncovered hands.

It wasn't until then that I realized none of them had seen her hands without the gloves. None of them knew what the gloves were hiding.

"Has it already started?" I asked, focusing on Ms. Cyan's face.

"Has what already started?" Opal interfered. "I still didn't get the answer to my first question, don't add another one!"

"It started, hasn't it?" I deliberately overheard Opal's last remark. My eyes never left Ms. Cyan's face. She looked back at me with her head held high and nodded.

Once again, Opal interfered. "What are you talking about? We came here to see Professor Cyan do what, caress the flowers? The gloves are gone, I noticed that. But I want to know why is that so important! And now you're asking whether it started. What? What is the 'it' you're referring to? Unless..." She paused and turned towards Ardea, her index finger accusing her. "Your father! He did something to her! That's it! Your father changed something about her hands!"

She rushed to Ms. Cyan and grabbed one of her hands. She brought it close to her eyes so she would be able to look at it closely. Her lips tightened into a thin line and a crease formed between her eyebrows as she tried to figure out what was it that Doctor Kasian did.

I stepped in, forcing her to let go of our Professor's hand. "Opal, you're being disrespectful. You can't just grab her hand, she's your teacher, not your classmate!"

She looked at Ms. Cyan and said, "I'm sorry. Azora's right. I shouldn't have been so pushy. I just want to know what's happening because I'm rooting for the plan to work."