Opening Story - 010

Me and Tayla meet at the bus exchange in town, where we'd agreed on last time we saw each other, for our date.

I make my way towards Tayla. She still doesn't see me until I'm less than ten metres away from her. When she does finally see me, she smiles. She has quite a nice smile. For a moment, it makes my heart skip a beat, but then I remember. Why she, perhaps not even consciously, really asked me out on a date.

I smile back, and walk up to greet her.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"So, is there anything around here that you want to do?"

"Well, I'm not from here so…"

"Oh, that's right. You told me that last time."

"Did I?"

I don't really remember, but if she says I did, then I must've.

I continue on, "do you want to watch-"

"I don't like movies. There's never any interesting characters in them. They don't have enough time to really explore more than one character, and they often don't even do that well."

"That's true. Television shows are much better."

In truth, I didn't really want to watch a movie either. It was just a way to pass the time. Before I can enact my plan.

"Is there anything else that you want to do then?"

"Hmmm… nothing in particular…"

"Huh… I guess we could just walk around, window shopping, and then get something to eat later?"

"Yeah, let's do that then."

The other benefit of watching a movie, is that it would make it easier to pass the time. Conversations are difficult to maintain for a long time. Especially when you don't know the person well.

"Do you have anything on after this, or are you just heading straight home?"

"No…" Tayla responded, "I wasn't sure how long we would be out for, so I don't have anything else planned. You?"

"I just need to get back home by five. My shift at work starts at six."

Back to silence. At least when you know someone well, you can have silence that isn't awkward. You don't have to talk constantly about everything and nothing.

"Speaking of television shows, what kind of stuff do you watch?"

"I guess like… teen dramas. Stuff like that."

"Huh…"

I'm not sure what else to say.

I haven't watched many shows like that. I didn't really like any that I did see either. They're a bit too predictable.

"What about you?"

"I like mysteries. Though I haven't really had the opportunity to watch any recently."

"Yeah, I didn't see a television in your lounge. Mysteries are quite interesting though. I can see why you like them."

"Yeah," I nod, "I like trying to work out who the criminal is before the detective. Or how a new character fits into the puzzle."

"I can see you doing that, it's just like you. Or I guess I don't know you well enough to say that. I suppose I should say 'it's just like I imagined you'd be.'"

"Why do you say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"What about me makes you think that?"

"It just makes sense to me that you would try and work out the mystery yourself," Tayla replies, "I think you would have to think that way to have gotten involved. To have saved me."

"Like I said, I didn't-"

"You did," she cut me off, "it doesn't matter how many times you say you didn't. To me, you're the one who saved me."

Woah.

My heart definitely skipped a beat that time.

I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to respond to that.

"That's… thank you."

She giggled, "your welcome."

"Anyway…" I continued, "there was something I wanted to ask you. I guess a bit of a mystery. The last part of that night still confuses me, a little."

"What is it?"

"My injuries… I know it doesn't make sense, but I was completely fine the next morning. I guess it's possible, unlikely but possible, that I wasn't injured at all, and yet I can't bring myself to believe that. It's not just that there was no way I was injured. But I remember. I remember the pain that I felt at that time. There's no way that I wasn't injured. Perhaps not as badly as first thought, but I must've been. I couldn't even walk. How could I possibly be fine the next morning?"

"If your asking me, you already know the answer, don't you?"

"I don't think I can believe it."

"I told you what the Order did for my sister, didn't you? Compared to that, what I did was nothing."

That's what I thought. Or at least what I thought she was going to say.

I still can't really believe it.

The power of Mother Earth, is it?

I don't know if I can really believe that.

It isn't possible.

It can't be possible.

"What exactly did you do?"

"I walked you back to your place. When we got there, I washed your wounds, and then I prayed."

"To the Mother?"

"Yes, to the Mother."

We continued talking, not about anything too important, but I wasn't concentrating just on our conversation. I couldn't. Not with what she just told me.

It still didn't make sense.

If she had to wash out my wounds, that must mean that they were bad.

That they were bloody. That it was an open wound, gushing.

But there's no way something like that would heal just like that, is there?

It can't be possible.

Perhaps my injuries weren't that bad, and Tayla was overreacting when she washed them. But that seems unlikely.

She's a sensible girl. She's intelligent.

I can't imagine her doing something impulsively like that.

The day after, when she was still clearly upset about what had happened, Tayla still kept very calm. She still had it all under control.

Cool and collected.

I don't think she would act so impulsively like that. I can't imagine it, anyway.

Which makes me wonder…

It couldn't really be possible, could it?

That this 'Mother', really has the ability to grant its' followers power?

No, it can't be.

That just isn't possible.

"Hey, Alexander!"

I blink, "what?"

"You keep spacing out. I was calling you for ages."

"Sorry. I was thinking about something."

"Anyway, I was asking where you wanted to go next."

"Hmm, let's see…"

Since we left the bus exchange, we'd more or less just wandered. Window shopping and such. We'd gone inside a couple of stores, and tried on some clothes, but both of us were too broke to actually buy anything. I should probably buy some more clothes at some point in the future, once I've saved a little. Excluding my work uniform, I only have a few changes of clothes.

"…why don't we get something to eat? There's got to be a nice place around here."

"Yeah, but most of the places around here have high prices," Tayla responded.

"Is that so?"

I swear some of the cafés down by the river I'd seen when I came the other day didn't look that expensive.

"Yeah. I don't imagine you have too much money to spend, do you?"

"No…"

"In that case, follow me."

"Where are we going?"

Tayla didn't answer. She just said, "it's a little further away, but it's worth the walk."