Fire - Betrayal

by Amelia Grace

  Ben smiled coyly at me, while I sipped my cup of tea and looked into the fire.

  “And what about you Ben? What did you do all of that time in Une Autre Terre?” I asked.

  He did not answer me straight away. I could see that he was choosing his words carefully.

  “I did a lot. I learnt a lot. I spent a lot of time with my mum and dad, brothers and sisters. I also spent a lot of time waiting for the portal to open again so that I could return to you. That is all that I can tell you Cate – you know, sworn to secrecy and all that…” he replied honestly.

  I watched his face carefully as he spoke. I knew that he was holding back a lot of information. But it was not my place to ask him about it - yet.

  I touched his arm lightly. “Ben, stay with me tonight. I am feeling anxious about being here alone again. I need you beside me.”

  He looked into my eyes and reached over to my hand and replied, “Of course I will.”

  After the sitting room fire died down, we made our way up to my bedroom, turning on the lamps and lighting the fireplace there. It was a very romantic bedroom. It was well planned out and exquisitely decorated. Physically it was a dream bedroom. But emotionally, the associations with it were very bad, and as I lay in bed in Ben’s arms, I worked on details to change the appearance of the bedroom. I must paint new colours and rearrange the bedroom furniture to create new and happy memory associations there.

  Ben lay on his back next to me, with his left arm around me. His eyes were closed, and he breathed evenly, but I knew him well enough to know that he would not be asleep yet. He never went to sleep before me.

  I gently ran my fingertips over his stomach and chest, down his right arm, around his hand and fingers, his wrist and back to his chest again. He kept his eyes closed, but his breathing pattern changed.

  I gently traced my fingertips up his neck and onto his face, tracing his jaw line, his chin, around his eyes, over his forehead and lightly over his lips.

  Still, he kept his eyes closed.

  I gently moved my lips closer to his, and brushed them lightly over his, teasing, then along his jaw line before returning back to his lips where I kissed him slowly and softly.

  Still with his eyes closed, he brought his hand up to the side of my face, and kissed me delicately, at first. But then he became hungrier for me, rolling me onto my back and kissing me passionately. His hands wandered over my body, caressing me, driving me crazy. I pulled away from our kissing, breathing heavily, and whispered his name. He was losing control. It would be incredibly difficult for him to pull away from me now. He looked deeply into my eyes with burning desire, and then urgently started kissing me again.

  He put his hand down on to the bed to lift himself up higher onto me, only, there was no more bed there. We were right on the edge of the mattress. Ben went tumbling down onto the floor.

  He lay there without moving, his pride was bruised.

  I giggled from above. I had found the acrobatics highly amusing. I peeked over the side of the bed.

  “How’s the floor? More comfortable than the bed?” I said humorously. I offered my hand to him to help him up. He took it, and then kissed it gently, and then let go.

  First he sat up, then he stood up and walked around the bed back to the right side again. I could hear him chuckling to himself as he walked. I could see the dimple on his cheek as he smiled to himself.

  As he lay down beside me again, I looked at him, and whispered seriously, “Our promise.”

  He just breathed in deeply and whispered, “Good night. I love you….don’t touch me in any way, okay?”

  I snuggled into Ben’s arms again and whispered back, “I love you too.”

  ***

  The new winter’s day was glorious. The sunshine broke through the wooden sash windows with vigor. The blue sky was clear, and the snow rested cleanly on the limbs of the garden trees. Little blue birds danced around excitedly, jumping from branch to branch.

  Amused, I left the bed to stand by the large windows to watch the happy little birds. I leaned against the window sides and smiled at their antics.

  Then Ben woke. He got up and stood closely behind me looking out of the window.

  “Mmmm Beautiful!” Ben said.

  “They are, aren’t they?” I replied.

  “Not the birds, you Cate.”

  I smiled to myself. Ben put his arms around my waist and kissed my neck lightly.

  “Where’s your promise ring Cate?” Ben asked.

  I thought back in time. I knew exactly where it was – in the drawing room of my nightmares. But I had locked and dead bolted the door for good.

  “In the drawing room,“ I replied, trying to sound calm.

  “Good, let’s get it after breakfast,“ he said. Then he kissed me lightly on the neck again, and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

  But I remained looking out at the little bluebirds, unsure about returning to Grandy’s drawing room to retrieve the promise ring that Ben had given me.

  My eyes led my thoughts to the fruit baskets that hung off the front fence. They were empty, and had been for about four weeks.

  Some homeless people walked past the house, looking into each of the baskets for the fruits that I would leave out every day for anyone who was interested in taking them. But they were empty. I saw the look of disappointment on their faces. I had let them down.

  I ran and got changed out of my pyjamas, and into some warm winter clothes. Then I ran into the kitchen where Ben was, grabbed a large basket and bounded out the back french doors into the backyard to The Magnificent Tree. It was loaded with fruit, and some had fallen off to the ground, covered in snow, frozen to the middle.

  Quickly, I twisted off a good variety of the fruits, filling the large basket and ran to the front of the house and sorted them into their various colours in the baskets. Then I ran up the street after the two old men that had visited earlier, inviting them back to fill their bag with the fruits. Then I disappeared back into the house, filled with immense satisfaction that I was helping some people.

  Walking into the kitchen to the smell of eggs and french toast, I found Ben leaning against the kitchen bench smiling at me, with his arms folded, and a very smug look on his face.

  “What?” I said.

  “Nothing,” he replied, and then he turned to pick up the breakfast plates to take them to the table. I grabbed the tall glasses of juice, and followed him.

  We sat down at the wooden table facing each other, Ben looking into my eyes constantly, making me feel very self-conscious.

  “You know, you are remarkable Cate,” Ben finally said.

  “How’s that?” I asked puzzled. I would never call myself remarkable. I always did the best I could with whatever I had, except that is, for when I was in the depths of depression.

  “No, please don’t explain it. I thank-you for the compliment,” I blurted out, not wanting Ben to waffle on about what he found remarkable about me. I was certain it would make me feel nauseous.

  “Mmmm, you make the best french toast Ben!” I remarked, changing the subject.

  He reached over and squeezed my hand lightly, looking deeply into my eyes. His touch made me tingle all over, while his cerulean eyes weakened my knees. I wondered if he would always make me feel this way, and I hoped that he would.

  I took a short sharp breath, and then got up to clean up after breakfast.

  Ben stood and kissed my head.

  And then he decided that it was time to enter Grandy’s drawing room, my emotional minefield. He was eager to put my promise ring back onto my finger, as an extra reminder to keep our emotions in check, to remind us of our promise.

  Holding me by the hand, he walked with me to the door of Grandy’s drawing room. I had certainly done a thorough job of dead locking the door. It was not an easy feat to enter the drawing room, but finally, he managed to get through all of the locks.

  He pushed the old oak door open slowly, but confidently. I stood back, showi
ng unease with the whole situation. Ben went straight to the windows and pulled the curtains to let the sunlight in again. He opened the wooden sash windows slightly to let in some cold but fresh air, and then lit the fireplace. Yet, I remained no closer than the door. I did not look around the room, but kept my eyes strictly on Ben.

  As Ben kerfuffled around the room, he kept glancing over at me. Then I realized that he couldn’t find the ring.

  “Where did you leave the ring Cate?” he asked.

  “On the coffee table near the memory storage rock. Grandy’s seven jeweled ring should be there too. I guess I should never have left Grandy’s ring in such an obvious place. Could you put it on the mantel piece for now? Thanks Ben.”

  Then Ben walked over to me with the promise ring. I had forgotten how beautiful it was, with its gold and its diamonds. He slipped it onto my ring finger on my right hand, and then kissed me lightly on the lips.

  “It’ll help us to remember,” his voice was low as he whispered into my ear.

  “I don’t want to remember our promise Ben,“ I whispered back.

  “I’ve noticed that!“ he said roughly, hugging me, then walking into the sitting room, and sitting by the fireplace. I was puzzled at his quick exit from the drawing room.

  I followed, unsure about leaving the door open to Grandy’s room.

  I sat next to him and entwined my fingers through his.

  “I need to go back to work Cate, to let them know that I’m back from my humanitarian mission. We both need to get back to some sort of normality. I’ll spend one more night here with you, and then I’ll go back to my Earth parent’s home – where I should be as a single man. Then I won’t be so tempted to do things with you that we promised not to do. And… I’m only a phone call away if you need me Cate.”

  I breathed out audibly. I didn’t want him to go.

  “You’re right of course Ben. We do need to get back to normality, whatever that is!” I questioned. “Will I see you later today?”

  “Of course. How could I stay away from you? I wouldn’t cope. I need to be with you,” Ben reassured me.

  And so it began…the return to normality. Ben returned to his career, and I returned to mine.

  Chapter 10

  The Visitors

  My life became very busy. Very repetitive in some parts of it, but in others, interesting and rewarding.

  I found myself up at the crack of dawn every morning, harvesting the seven fruits of The Magnificent Tree to put out early for the needy, and occasionally not so needy.

  Sometimes, as I filled the baskets with the fruits, the people would thank me. I didn’t want to be thanked, but I did enjoy meeting the people who were struggling to make a life, sometimes struggling to live. I often handed out words of advice or encouragement, and always wished them the very best.

  One morning, from my bedroom window, I noticed a new group of people that had arrived together. They were different from the others. They wore dark glasses covering their eyes. Rarely did the homeless people wear sunglasses. It was a luxury they couldn’t afford. The new people also dressed differently. Their clothes were not old, worn, patchy with holes from wear and tear, but made from natural fibres, natural colours, and a simple design. And although their dress displayed a lack of money, they did not look poor in spirit as the homeless people often did.

  The new visitors studied the fruits very carefully, smelling them, feeling them and squeezing them gently, before placing just one of each fruit into one hessian bag. The others usually stuffed as many fruits as they could into their many bags.

  Then the new visitors stood and looked at the house for an immeasurable time, scrutinizing the gardens with their eyes, as if they were searching for something. They would look at each other, sometimes touching each other, nodding. And then they eventually left. I wondered at their oddity, compared to the usual crowd that the fruits pulled in.

  The visitors didn’t come every day, but about every three days. And it happened that one day, they arrived earlier, when I was putting the seven fruits into the baskets for the people.

  They looked at me but did not speak at first. But then one saw the seven jeweled ring upon my finger. “That is a beautiful ring. Where did you get it from?” one asked.

  “My Grandy made it for me,” I replied.

  “Where did she get the jewels from? They are exquisite,” commented another.

  “I couldn’t tell you that information exactly,” I said, remembering never to speak of the parallel world to another soul.

  “And where do you get the fruits from may I ask?” questioned the tallest male.

  “From my tree. My Grandy called it The Magnificent Tree,“ I informed them, wishing that I hadn’t given out that detail.

  As I mentioned The Magnificent Tree, the sunglasses of the younger one fell to the ground. She looked up at me, and then hurriedly and ashamedly bent down to pick up the sunglasses to put them back on again.

  I was stunned to see that the girl had cerulean coloured eyes, eyes of the Une Autre Terreans.

  Keeping my composure, I asked, “Are you lost? Perhaps I can help you. Please come in for a drink and talk. I can see that you are in need of guidance. My name is Cate.” And I gestured towards the house.

  The six visitors did not accept my invitation immediately. I saw them silently communicating mind to mind. I knew exactly what they were doing, and waited patiently for them to answer. And finally, the one who appeared the eldest spoke of their acceptance of my invitation.

  As I opened the gate to lead the visitors to the house, I noticed a black car with extremely dark window tinting slowly roll past.

  A car like that in this neighbourhood? It didn’t belong here, and it raised my suspicions.

  Nevertheless, I proceeded inviting my guests into my house, eager to have a conversation with them in case they needed help.

  I sat them down at the table, and made a pot of tea to share. I also offered them some chocolate cake, because, if I was correct, and they were from the parallel world, chocolate cake would be a first experience for them. I wanted to see their reactions expressed on their faces as they first tasted it. I wanted to see the response of extreme pleasure and delight on their faces as the chocolate overtook their sense of taste.

  The visitors sat still and in silence. They kept their sunglasses on, an odd thing for anyone to do inside a house, but obviously not if you were trying to hide something, which of course they were.

  “It’s okay, you can take your sunglasses off. Your eye colour will not shock me. I have seen many things in my life,” I reassured them.

  The visitors all looked at each other, but did not remove their sunglasses.

  Finally, the eldest of the visitors removed his sunglasses, revealing his true cerulean eyes. Then one by one, the others did the same.

  “Please drink and eat. You know, my grandmother owned this house. Her name was Katie. Her husband was named James,” I explained, trying to give them a little information without revealing anything too obvious. If they were from Une Autre Terre, they would be familiar with the story of my Grandy and James.

  “Please eat and drink. You know I could probably help you if you would talk to me. I believe I already know more about you than you realize.” Still, they did not speak. Not to me at least. I could easily see that they were mind communicating. And they were unaware that I was conscious of it.

  Then, I watched with great joy as the visitors slowly placed spoonfuls of chocolate cake into their mouths. I could tell that their sense of taste was in overdrive. The look of sheer pleasure on their faces from the taste of the food was worth a million dollars.

  “Cate,“ spoke the eldest man. “We are lost, you are correct. It is not that we want to go back to where we came from, but it is that we want to know how to get a house, and how to get money. We are….unknowledgeable in the Earth way of living.”

  “Oh,“ I said shocked. “You do know that it is not such a great place to live here on th
e Earth, compared to other places. Life here is very hard for some. And some do not survive. Our seasons range from very hot to extremely cold, we have storms, hail, strong winds and fire. The seas are not calm but rough, deadly to some. Earthquakes shake the ground causing manmade structures to collapse, killing people and animals. We have landforms with no vegetation or water, people die there. Some of our animals attack humans and can kill them. Many of the animals eat meat. People are slowly destroying the Earth by using its precious resources but never replacing what they use, or they take more than they need. Are you sure you want to work and live here?“

  “Yes!” they all replied at once.

  I looked down at my plate of cake crumbs puzzled. It was unlike Terreans to want to come into this world. There must be something else.

  “Can you tell me if you have been sent here on a mission to accomplish something?” I questioned.

  “No, “the eldest answered quickly. “We were sent here to…. experience something.”

  “What exactly?”I asked intrigued.

  “The pain and suffering of your people,” he replied, looking at the pot of tea, ashamed to tell of the truth.

  “And, why do you need to experience pain and suffering?” I inquired, still confused.

  “To teach us a lesson.”

  I took a deep breath, shocked that they were sent to learn a lesson here on the Earth.

  “Well, you will find many lessons here on this planet. But you may be well and truly surprised to find that in amongst the pain and suffering is love and joy, and caring and kindness. These things can ease pain and suffering, or even take it away. Your lessons may not be as easy as you think.”

  “Are you able to help us with the house and the money?” asked an older woman, impatiently.

  “I can take you to a shelter, where you will find many homeless people. There are government workers there who will be able to help you get started. To get a house, you need money to buy it with. To get money, you have to get a job and get paid money. It will take you quite a while to save up enough money for a house. But if you need to talk to anyone about anything, you are welcome at my house anytime, anytime at all, ” I explained, making sure that they understood.