ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT

ANISHA'S POV

Sitting in the warm and cozy restaurant, I raised my eyes to meet a middle aged woman walking through the door. She had pitch black hair, beautiful eyes and she looked nervous. My heart told me that she was the person that I had been waiting for. Hesitantly, I stood up. The lady's eyes swept across the room before settling on me. She walked slowly to me and smiled fearfully.

"You are the child who called, are you not? About the hair oil…" she said. Although I did not like her addressing me as a child, I chose not to take offense and I smiled and offered her a chair.

"The Hallowcave language has never been my stronghold. I speak the Lakeworld language." I decided it was best to tell her that, lest I ended up missing out on half of our conversation.

"Oh you do!! So do I! Let's talk freely then," she smiled brightly.

"Let's order something." I spoke while waving the menu.

"No, no. Nothing for me. Maybe just some water." The lady said.

She fidgeted a lot in her chair and she kept looking around as if she feared that someone was watching us. The waiter brought her water and she pushed it away, as if she had no intention of taking it. She bent towards the table and asked in a whisper, "why are you looking for Amelia Reshell?"

"I have a message for her. Do you know her?" I asked.

"A message? From where?" the woman's forehead creased into inquisitive lines.

She placed her hands on top of the table and leaned in even closer to me, such that her chest was leaning on the table. Her hands looked worn out. From just looking at them, one could tell that they had worked a lot; they appeared older than her face. I believed that she must have been through a lot, to end up with such overworked hands.

"It's a long story. At some point, I happened to meet pastor Everdeen. Him and I were kidnapped…long story. But then what happened is, on his deathbed, pastor Noel Everdeen asked that a message be relayed to Amelia Reshell."

The woman slowly raised her torso and glared at me. Her eyes became watery and I could see anger written on her face.

"What message?" she demanded.

"I'm afraid I can only tell it to Amelia."

"If you can't tell me, then you won't be able to see her. I need to hear the message first before I can decide whether or not I should take you to Amelia."

I thought over the woman's words a little. I felt uneasy narrating the story to anyone else besides Amelia.

"It's a personal issue. I cannot possibly tell it to you; in case Amelia doesn't want the story to be known."

"Then you can't meet Amelia. You will never find her", the woman stood up as if she was readying to leave

"Wait, please wait! May I know your name?" I also stood up but did not leave the table.

"What does it matter? You and I have no more business." She gave me an angry stare.

"OK, I can tell you a bit. The pastor and Amelia were once in a relationship…or I can call it an affair? Apparently the pastor was married…."

"Was he already a pastor when it happened?" the woman asked bitterly. She seemed to be very livid as her eyes reddened. She roughly pulled her chair and threw herself recklessly on it.

"According to what he told us, he was not yet a pastor." I told her.

"He worked at Greenrod Electrical, didn't he?" the woman said.

I widened my eyes in shock, for I had not expected her to know that. She gave me a forced smile and said, "Amelia told me. There is nothing about Amelia that I do not know."

"Oh…are you friends? Or workmates?" I inquired.

"Does it matter? Just tell me the rest of the message."

"With all due respect, ma'am, I have to tell it to Amelia", I told her.

"Why can't you tell me? Is it a secret? What's so secretive about an old man seducing a young girl and getting her pregnant? Where is the secret? Where is the decency in it all? Huh? Tell me! He sent you. You are his messenger; speak up for him! I asked; when an old married man seduces a young girl; lures her to his bed and gets her pregnant, why does it become a secret? Is the old man too ashamed to tell the world what he did? Huh? He is too worried that people will see beyond the facade that he puts up?"

The way the lady was suddenly getting all heated up scared and surprised me at the same time. She continued:

"Pastor? Pastor my foot! What pastor? Whose pastor? So after he had used a young girl to satisfy his wild desires; he thought it was best to become a pastor? To cover up for all his deeds? Huh? Tell me! That pastor you're talking about, used a young girl to experiment. Yes. He needed to test; to see if he was able to produce a child. Because his marriage was childless; he wanted to check if he was the problem, and he used a poor young girl. And when the young inexperienced girl got pregnant, did he rejoice at that? Did he? No. He did not. He threw her off! He dragged her to some dark scary place to do the most despicable things! And you tell me that on his deathbed; he left a message? What message?..."

The woman's angry face turned sorrowful. More pitiful rather than enraged. She looked aside and a tear fell down. She pulled the corner of her blouse and wiped off the tears.

My mind was racing, and I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. I more than convinced that what I was thinking was correct. But there was only one way to find out…I had no other option except to find out. I opened my mouth and asked in the most calm voice I could attain,

"ma'am, you are Amelia Reshell, are you not?"

She raised her head and stared at me. large tears drops which had been hanging inside her eyelids suddenly rolled down. she slowly pulled the corner of her blouse and wiped them off. She sniffed and stared at me for a long time.

"Are you Amelia Reshell?" I repeated my question.

"Why would you say that?" she asked.

"Because you speak with emotion; and I can sense deep hurt in your speech. It's impossible to say that you are doing all this because of a friend or a sister. I am sure the pain is personal. You're speaking about your own personal experience, not the experience gone through by another. Sitting here and seeing you, I can tell that you have been through a lot of pain. Pastor Everdeen must have caused you a lot of pain, because your heart is broken. And I think you never got a chance to get closure. You never healed from losing your child. Aborting the child was not your option; it was forced on you. And since you broke ties with pastor Everdeen, you never got a chance to let your anger out. You bottled it in for years; and I think it would have been best if you had spoken to him, to shout at him and tell him how you felt. That way you wouldn't have carried such a heavy burden for many years."

I kept quiet and kept looking at her. There were no more tears, but I could see the sore bitterness which still lingered on her face. She avoided my stare for a while, but finally she lifted her eyes and looked me right in the eyes. I felt warmth when I looked at her. She looked like a caring and loving person; not that I knew anything about her. But that short moment I had spent with her made me feel that she was a lovely woman. There was too much pain hidden behind those beautiful eyes; and it seemed like she had carried her burden for too long. One could tell that she was tired of it all. She had carried it with her for too long already. The woman smiled sadly and said to me,

"You are right. I am Amelia Reshell"