We Bent Fate

Chapter 29.

The limousine kept driving endlessly under the amber sky in the evening of my birthday. My eyes meet Martha's when my littlest finger tangles itself with hers and she grins. I shifted in my seat and leaned over to her till my cheeks were brushing with her curly hair.

"You look so so so beautiful." I whispered against her ear and she visibly squirmed.

A sound of an electronic peep from the driver's seat jerks me away from Martha and slowly a wall emerges between us and the driver, Roger. I craned my neck up and nodded at him in appreciation.

I scooted a little closer to Martha, leaving no gap between us and she looked away, hiding her blush. "I love you." I whispered to her and lifted her chin to make her face me. "This is the best birthday I have ever had."

"There is more. Just wait and watch." She bit a corner of her lower lip and in no time my hand rose up to her face. My thumb slowly helped her lower lip escape from her teeth's grip and I heard her gulp.

A similar clench twisted my insides in a crazy situation and my hormones howled as her beautiful green eyes flicked to my lips. Very carefully, I leaned forward and kissed the corner of her mouth.

She wriggled under me as I pushed my tongue inside her mouth. She bit back a moan as I kissed her mouth desperately.

"Calm down." She shoved me away and I shook my head, grinning at her.

"I can't calm down when I am around you."

She rolled her eyes and looked away.

"We are here, ma'am and sir!" Roger announced and slowly the wall between us came down.

"Thank you so much, Roger." Martha and I said in unison, and we both stepped outside.

The orange and gold stretched far and wide as the land retires to rest in front of a movie theater, watching us grinning widely at the view.

The river, Eagley Brook is a slice of mellow harmony amid the fragrant leaves which are now covered with snow. Our eyes travels down stream, caressing the dapples that bring the shine of the water to a hue so homely.

"Wow." I observe out loud.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Martha beams at me and I nod. "Come. There's more!" She takes my hand and leads me forward in the woods.

"How did you do it?" I finally ask.

"Do what?"

"Organize the limousine."

"Oh that." She giggled. "I am sure you remember how I can compel." She admitted and I gaped at her.

"Seriously?"

"Of course." She said and nodded her head at a wooden house, across a wooden footbridge which was beautifully lit by fairy lights. I looked at her in amazement. "Come on!"

I took Martha's hand in mine and trudged across the bridge to the wooden house. "You did this? When did you plan all this?"

"After meeting you that day when you told me....I wish I had never met you." She mimicked and a wave of guilt sloshed over me. I put both of my hands on her shoulder and turned her to face me.

"You know I didn't mean that, don't you?" I asked her solemnly and she nodded then tip toed a little to kiss me on my cheek.

"Come on. Let's go inside." Martha claps her hands excitedly and I chuckle, following after her.

"Do you want to know your fate?" She asked suddenly catching me off guard,  as she opened the door to the wooden house.

"Yes..how did you-"

"Lila told me."

"So she can read minds?" I asked, baffled.

The wooden house was brightly lit inside. It was so old that it was surprising how it was still standing. And yet it seemed alive and welcoming, a warm ribbon of smoke rising from the old chimney.

"No." Martha chuckled. "But that was obvious. Every mortal wants to know whatever will happen in their life. In fact, even Gods. She was wondering why you never asked her."

"Oh." I laughed.

Martha smiled coyly at me and then gestured me to sit next to her on a wooden chair.

"I have something for you." Her green eyes grew bigger as she whispered like it was some secret, and then she gave me a box.

"What is this?" I curiously twisted and turned the box in my hands, examining it. There was a note stuck on it's lid which said What If Our Life Threads Bind?

The moment I opened the box, chits of paper fell on the wooden floor. I picked each one of them and gave the paper folded chits a bewildered look.

Slowly, I opened the first one and it was a poem that Martha had read out to me in my apartment. I opened two other chits and they were the other two poems that she had already read out to me. 

I curiously opened another chit and thankfully, this one wasn't one that I had already read. I quickly began to read. 

"You are like a book and I am a fascinated reader

The cover looked interesting and the synopsis had me as as it's lover

So attracted to your charm, even Cupid rose in alarm

He aimed at my wretched heart and you entered my life,

tip-toeing in the start and then fell in love with me completely, at last."

I looked at Martha who was blushing heavily. I gave her a funny look and read another one. 

"I thought it would just be a daydream that I had weaved of my own, 

of the kisses you gave to me

It had taken sleepless nights to become true,

 and my wild imaginations  for it to be.."

"What is this?" I asked her again.

"Long before when life was new on earth. Pandora, the first woman was created out of clay to torture the humans because they accepted the forbidden fire which was stolen from the Olympus. She was given a box that contained all the evils of the world- lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, disobedience and death. 

"Zeus was ready for all the chaos but I worried too much. I always worried too much about mortals. When Pandora opened the box of the evils even after being told not to open it, all of the evils unfurled all around the world.

"That is when my sisters and I came, and took the responsibility to protect the world and work serve everyone their karma. But that wasn't enough. I knew people would freak out and eventually kill themselves. So I requested Zeus to let me create a power."

I held my breath for what was going to come. 

"That was when I created hope and made Pandora open it the same way- by telling her not to open it." She said and I gulped loudly.

  "But that night when I created Hope, I lost my power. I lost my ability of foresight. I couldn't see into the future anymore because I gifted that power to you mortals. To see the future positivism each of your lives beheld. But recently, I realized that I never lost it maybe. The poems I write, still comes true."

She smiled warmly at me. 

"These are the poems that I wrote when we had only started to know each other, telling me that we would unite and here we are." she said but I wasn't listening anymore.  Martha frowned at me. "Did you not like my gift?"

"Martha..." I breathed. 

"What?"

"You created..." I trailed off and her eyes widened in realization. 

"Hope." she blurts out. 

"You remember!" I announce. 

"Come on." She gives me an urgent look. "We need to tell my family about this!"