Hidden Moon

C H A P T E R 9

DREAM LOVER

Cora

'Why are you looking at me like that?'

Baku deliberately looked away and tossed more twigs into the fire. Our trysts continued for days since. Ever careful, we only get to see each other deep in the night. In the same place, we spent hours talking – sometimes, we just sat there listening to nature's midnight sonata slightly muted by the sound of the fall. I never thought even our silence could feel reassuringly comfortable.

'Hm?'

'Committing your face to memory, I wish to remember you precisely as you are tonight.' He continued stoking the fire and refused to look at me again, embarrassed for having been caught staring.

'What's remarkable about the me tonight than the ones before?'

'The yesterdays I took for granted for I knew of tomorrow.' He picked up a stick and pushed the branches into the fire pit. 'Contented and extremely happy to live in the moment, I got lost.'

'You got quite a knack at getting lost,' I said. Getting lost was how he found me. I chuckled at him blushing then it was my turn to flush when he recovered.

'Your eyes squint to a near close as you smile and completely disappear when you laugh... those tiny indentations on both sides of your cheeks grow prominent and tempt me to touch them. Your smile, hesitant at first, blinds me as it broadens when you think I wasn't looking,' he paused again and tilted his head, 'you bite the corner of your bottom lip to keep a smile from forming. Just like that...'

'Shall I start singing ballads in praise of you, too?'

'Praises, I could live without as long as I am able to be with you, but the time I dreaded has come. Tonight promises no tomorrow."

'Whatever do you mean?'

'I must leave.'

We had always bid farewell before the first ray of the sun broke but it was never like this. This goodbye felt permanent. I would be alone again.

And why did that bother me?

I had always been by my lonesome and I learned to live with it so why should the mention of his impending absence send me into a state of panic and leave me feeling bereft?

Why come if he was not planning to stay?

'I hate you.'

No, that was not what I wanted to say. My tongue lied and lashed at him for his words had my heart chipping into pieces no artisan could mend the seams.

I urged her, 'Speak your truth, Liway.'

"Stay!"

"Oh trust me, that lucky woman isn't going anywhere. Uhuh, hopefully there's a functioning head between those shoulders," someone said.

I felt myself being pushed back on something soft.

"Nope, it's a bad head – horribly stupid," I heard a heavy sigh. "Forgive her. She didn't know what chance she was letting go."

Gradually opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was peach colored walls over dark blue sheets. The dream spell has ended but my heart felt ripped out of my chest. Tears meant for the man I never knew pooled and poured at the corner of my eyes but the cries to have him return remained trapped in my throat.

How was it possible for a heart to break by dreaming?

Fingers wiped a tear and cooled the trail of heat left by it. Caressing my face, "Please don't cry."