24. WRH XIII: What actually happened.

After the cake cutting, Miriam wanted to leave the front and go back to where she was with her mother, but Maxwell suggested she stayed with him. Miriam declined the offer, but after much coaxing and insistence, she agreed to stay for some few minutes.

"Thanks for coming. I haven't really thanked you." Maxwell said in his signature calm voice.

"Really? I think I'm the one who's supposed to thank you." Miriam said.

"What for?" Maxwell said with a smile.

"For inviting me." Miriam stated. "You know, I've never been to an event like this before. So I'm happy you invited me, and for that, thanks a lot." Her eyes shone as she spoke. She was indeed happy.

"Wait, so you've never celebrated your birthday? Like ever before?" Maxwell asked, a little bit surprised.

Miriam chuckled. "You're talking as if we are coequals. My parents won't get the funds to throw a huge party like this for me. But they do make the dinner special on that day."

"Mmm...I see." Maxwell nodded in understanding. "But I still have to thank you for coming."

"No, you invited me. I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case."

"But you could have decided not to come."

"There was no way I would have turned such an invitation down. No one has ever invited me to such before."

"See, the issue here is..."

"Max!" Miriam burst into laughter. "So are we going to go on like this? Come on, just accept defeat already." She said while still laughing.

"Fine, fine, you win." He finally gave in and the both laughed.

After some time, Miriam asked,

"I remember you mentioned you had a sister...where is she?"

Maxwell stilled for a moment. His sister. He didn't know where exactly she was. All he knew was...

"She's at the boarding school." That was all he knew. In fact, whenever he asked about her in the mansion, they deliberately ignored and tried to change the topic. Miriam sensed some tension and uneasiness and decided not to pry any further.

They enjoyed their food, and Miriam laughed most of the time with Maxwell's jokes. He was one hell of a funny guy. Never a dull moment with him.

Miriam could sense many eyes on her. Most of them were displeasing gazes, and she began feeling uncomfortable. She felt like she had overstayed her welcome and she took that as a cue to leave.

"Um... Max, can I leave now? I think I should go now." The smile on Maxwell's lips slowly disappeared.

"Why? It's not been that long?" He asked, his voice laced with hurt.

"I'm sure my mom will be looking for me now." Miriam said.

Maxwell looked around for some time and smiled.

"Look, she's happily serving the guests. She doesn't look like she's looking for you. And I'm sure she's aware you're here with me. She can clearly see us from there." Maxwell tried to convince her to stay. But Miriam was bent on leaving. She wasn't feeling comfortable with those stares at all.

"Okay, do you want to walk around a bit? Maybe you need fresh air. You mentioned you've never been to events like this. I'm sure the air around here is suffocating for you." Maxwell said and chuckled.

"That's a good idea." She quickly said and got up, not even waiting for him to do it first, and she turned around to leave, but she remembered something and turned back. "I think you should tell your parents first."

Maxwell rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Come on, this is my home. I don't really need permission before moving around." He took her hand in his and said, "Let's go."

Miriam looked at their intertwined hands, and she felt nervous. She felt so many eyes on her now. And she instantly regretted her decision. She wanted to take her hands off his, but the small time she had spent with him, she knew he wouldn't let go of her hand. So she stealthily, with a little force, pulled her hand and pretended scratching her leg. Maxwell turned sharply to her when he felt coldness replace the warmth of her hand. When he saw she had bent down, he asked in worry.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Maxwell had already bent down and was examining Miriam's leg now. In the middle of the crowd!! Gosh!! Miriam face-palmed herself inwardly.

'Okay I think that was a wrong move', she thought.

"I'm okay, Max. Let's go." She said in one breath. She was finding it hard to even breathe after what just happened. She felt like vanishing right there. Her face was all red, like all the blood in her body had rushed to her face.

"Are you sure you're okay? What happened to your leg?"

"I just felt some itch, Max. Let's just leave, please." She pleaded. She felt like crying at this point, looking at the worried expression on Maxwell's face. She felt guilty and embarrassed about what she did. She was lucky Edith was too engrossed with her friend now. Miriam could only imagine what would have happened if she saw what happened.

Maxwell saw the uneasiness in her eyes and decided to leave the place quickly. As soon as they were outside, he held her face in his palms and looked straight in her eyes.

"Now tell me, are you really okay?"

"I'm fine, Max. Don't worry." But Maxwell kept staring at her with concern. "Trust me, I'm fine." Miriam convinced him. Maxwell now felt a bit relaxed.

"Okay. I'll just show you around." He said and took her hand again. Maxwell led her to the front of the mansion, but Miriam told him she would want to look at the backyard. So they went together, hand-in-hand.

Maxwell was enjoying the look on Miriam's face as she showed her around. She would gasp and squeal with excitement every now and then. They spent some time at the bamboo groove and then came back to the swing and stayed for some few minutes.

"I think we should go back inside. Maybe your parents are looking for you." Miriam stated as she got off the swing. Maxwell turned to look at her.

"Why? Are you not enjoying it here?"

"No! Come on, I mean I'm enjoying myself here, a lot. Thank you. But it's your birthday. Did you forget? You need to be with your friends and family."

"But I'm with a friend now."

"Maxwell," Miriam glared at the stubborn boy. "Let's go back inside, okay? I think I've seen it all. You have a really nice mansion." She added with a warm smile.

Maxwell contemplated for a while and said, "Okay. But one last place I'd like to show you. Then we'll leave. Is that okay with you?"

Miriam felt a slight pang in her heart. One last place... Those words kept resounding in her ears. Indeed, this may be their last time being together. She will not get any chance to visit the mansion again. And from the look of things, she wasn't sure Edith would allow him to visit her.

Maxwell saw the hesitation in her eyes and asked. "Are you alright? Did I say something wrong?"

"Uh... No, no. Let's go." She replied and they both went to the pool side.

As they got closer to the pool, Miriam felt her uneasiness increasing. Why? She couldn't really tell why. She just had this kind of weird feeling that they shouldn't go there. But she knew Maxwell would take it the wrong way, like she didn't want to be there or something. So she just silently followed his lead. When they got there, Miriam started feeling nervous. Beads of sweat started forming on her forehead. Her breathing became haggard all of a sudden. For no reason in particular she felt very nervous that she stood rooted some few feet from the pool. Maxwell who was in front of her felt she wasn't following. He turned and walked back to her and asked if she was okay. Miriam nodded stiffly. But Maxwell saw the beads of sweat on her forehead and her stiff posture, and he frowned.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and it suddenly donned on him. "Wait, are you... afraid of water?"

Miriam didn't know if that was the case. Or maybe that was the case. She had never been this close to a pool before. Right. Maybe she was afraid of water. But she had seen pools before. She remembered her dad took them to a small picnic one day and they sat at the bank of a river. The river was way bigger than this pool. It couldn't be that she was afraid of water. They even played in the river back then. So what was this weird feeling?

She was pulled back from her thoughts when she felt Maxwell tag her hand and pull her back.

"I'm so sorry I didn't know you were afraid of water. Come on, let's go back. I'm really sorry." Miriam wanted to refute, and tell him that was not the case, but she felt like that was the right thing to do now. Yes! They should just leave.

Just as they turned to leave, a ball, out of nowhere, flew past them and fell into the pool, causing a slashing sound. Miriam yelped in fright. Already, she was on the verge of breaking down in nervousness. So that ball nearly gave her a heart attack.

Maxwell reflexively held her tight. The ball nearly hit her. So he pulled her to himself and protected her from the hit. Maxwell looked over his shoulder and saw some small kids looking in their direction. They must have been playing and accidentally hit the ball to that direction. He sighed and checked on Miriam. When she confirmed she was okay, Maxwell let go of her and began walking towards the pool.

"Wait!!" Miriam shouted a little louder and Maxwell paused on his tracks and turned to her. She didn't know why but she felt Maxwell shouldn't go to the pool. So she said in a slightly shaky voice. "What are you going to do? Get the ball? You can't ruin your costume! You will get it wet."

Maxwell chuckled and said, "Who said I'll jump into the pool? I just want to check where the ball is. If it's close, I can just stretch and get it for them." He said.

"Is.. is that really fine? We can just go in and tell the adults. They can get it for them." Her voice was fast and breaking, like she was afraid of what will happen to him.

"Don't worry. I'll just look at it." Maxwell gave her an assuring smile.

Maxwell resumed his steps towards the pool. When he was just some few steps to the pool, just about two steps closer to the edge, he slipped from the water that splashed on the edge by the pool. His head hit the edge of the pool and he fell with a loud thud into the pool.