Hades

Chapter Fourteen - The Date

Chapter Fourteen: The Date

Many nights the little red-headed girl named Treielle had prayed, not knowing what she was praying for, or even whether anybody out there was listening. She would hold her most treasured possession, a silver cross pendant, close to her heart and pray with all the might of her tiny little soul. She believed, though she did not fully understand what she believed in.

That day, when the rain had fallen hard and long, and the boy called Honda hadn’t come back for her, she still continued to believe. She returned to the park and sat on the swing day after day, praying for a miracle. Praying that she would see him again, with his flaxen hair and that blushing smile that made her insides quiver. So when she saw him strolling through the playground towards her a week later, Treielle’s belief was rewarded. Her heavy heart suddenly felt full to bursting, though she barely understood why.

‘Honda!’ she called.

The ferryman’s face brightened as he saw her, like the sunshine emerging from behind a rain cloud.

‘Treielle!’ He rushed forward to meet her.

The two stopped just short of each other, both looking very pleased, and rather awkward.

‘I’m very sorry our date got a rain-check the other day,’ Honda said. ‘Would you like to go somewhere now? I can take you for a milkshake…or something?’

At Treielle's smile, he suddenly felt as though there were twice as many stars in the sky. ‘I like milkshake!’ she said.

‘Oh good! Shall we go?’ He offered her his arm in a very gentlemanly gesture (that Uxi had taught him) and Treielle took it, her fiery ringlets falling against the shoulder of his uniform. As they walked together down the high street they got many strange looks from passers-by.

‘Check it out,’ hissed a schoolgirl to her friend. ‘A Goth and a bell-boy!’ And they giggled.

Treielle’s face fell but Honda just smiled, squeezing her arm. ‘I think you look very lovely, Treielle,’ he said.

She looked up at him in surprise and felt a rush of hopefulness inside her. For anyone looking past the oddness of their clothes, they made an altogether normal teenage couple.

Over a shared strawberry milkshake, Honda gazed at his companion, utterly smitten. Treielle was a dainty creature, pretty and refined, and she reminded Honda of the porcelain dolls you might find in an antique shop; a beauty so exquisite one is rather hesitant to touch it in case it might break under your fingertips. A pink blush spread over Treielle’s face, and realising he was staring, Honda gave her a nervous grin.

‘I’m sorry, but I have to ask; why did you say the other day that I was a cat?’

Treielle swung her legs back and forth under the table like a child, swirling the straw around the last of the milkshake glass. ‘Are you not?’

Honda smiled weakly. ‘No, I’m a human.’

‘I’m quite sure that you are not human.’

‘Maybe I’m not…not entirely. What would you say if I told you that you were right, in a manner of speaking?’

‘I know I’m right,’ she said. ‘You are half cat then?’

He laughed, genuinely this time. ‘No, but I guess you could say I can turn into a cat when it suits me. Don’t you find this weird at all?’

Treielle shook her head. ‘I’m weird too,’ she said, ‘so I don’t mind.’

Honda didn’t know how to reply, but for some reason this sad little statement made him want to take the girl in his arms and hold her.