Chapter 20 Paracosm

A simple sentence can not define love, there are far to many ways to describe it. However I will give you an example. Imagine you are sitting on the ledge of an astronomy tower, as the sky is dark with shedded strips of blue and green painting themselves across the night sky. Thousands of stars that have been placed all over this sky, each one holds its own story. Each star has its own beginnings, its own downfalls and uprisings. Each star has its own continuous or ending. Indistinguishable how every person- every couple, has their own story.

                                     _______

"Here's your change, have a pleasant stay." Said the housing lady; her hair in a tight uneven pony tail, her eyes red and sluggish, and a cigarette in between her fingers that pressed against her lips.

Once the two teens reached their room, Gilbert  kneaded at the door lock with the key, pushing it open with his shoulder roughly until it finally opened. As Merliah walked in with Hiraeth she took a look around the room. The room was a pale gray, there was a single picture placed above the queen bed that had purple floral bedding. Two nightstands on each side, each having their own candle stand. To the right wall of the bed there were to windows on each side and a vanity in the middle with a vase of water in it that sat on top of a plate. The curtains were white as they were tied in the middle to not cover the entire window.

Merliah set Hiraeth in her bassinet on the bed to walk to the window, undoing the tie the curtain was in, moving it out of her way to look outside. There was not much of a view, the only thing in eye sight were tall buildings that spewed smoke and dust. From the third story they were in, you could see the poor people of England walking around with their heads down.

She felt Gilbert next to her as he looked out the window too. "This will have to do for now, if we want to stay here and keep Hiraeth I will have to start finding somewhere to work." Gilbert says as he goes to pick up Hiraeth who is now wide awake, out of her bassinet. He lifts her up as she giggles and he waved her around the room gently as if he were her spaceship and she were in space, before resting her in his arms. Merliah let release of the curtain as she turned to Gilbert.

"Keep her?" "Well I assumed-" She cut him off. "No it's fine, I just- oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt." Gilbert chuckled as he sat down on the bed against the head board with Hiraeth in his lap as she threw her arms around trying to grab onto the bedding.

Gilbert patted on the other side of the bed, as there was only one they would have to share. The brunette sighed from exhaustion as he laid herself down in the bed, the ship ride to England was very stressful and overwhelming for the two, especially when you're trying to calm down an infant who gets sea sick.

Hiraeth wiggles out of Gilbert's grasp and crawls to the middle of the bed as she tries to stand up by pushing her butt into the air while her arms and head are against the bed, causing Gilbert to laugh, and for Merliah to lift her head up to see what the baby was doing. "Well aren't you just the little dancer aren't you?" Merliah rhetorically asked as she sat up, scooting her closer to Gilbert as he wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her back as she lays down on his lower half, both watching the infant fry her hardest to work against gravity.

                                      _______

After the three went to sleep in their temporary home, Gilbert went off to find some work so they could start working for money for a home of their owns for the time being. Merliah took the curly headed girl who spoke gibberish with her into the main town court, in search of work herself. I am not about to let Gilbert stress himself out from working when he came here for a break for responsibility.

As Merliah and Hiraeth, who was attached to her hip, walked down the grounds of local food stands on the sunny day it was, the breeze playing tag with her dress. Passing by stands full of fish on top of ice, strawberries and other fruits that Merliah was excited to try one day. As she was looking at the oranges that just came in from the new stock, she saw a young girl about her age, handing out flyers to woman. She walked over to the young advertiser, asking her what she was advertising.

Her name was Francesca, her family ran a washing business and they needed more workers. The girl explained everything to Merliah as she walked her to the home where she saw woman washing clothes in hot baths of water, laying hem against yarn that was tied across the room to allow the clothing to dry.

After talking with Francesca's mother about possibly being hired, she left the town court back to their apartment feeling satisfied.

She walked in the door of their room and placed the cloth of food that she had purchased for dinner for the three of them. She gently laid Hiraeth down on the floor so she could roam around safely on her own. The baby just started lightly smacking the faded blue carpet as she started speaking her foreign language to herself.

Merliah grabbed the vase full of water off of the vanity and walked through the door connected to the room that was a small kitchen that had a wooden round table with a small flower in a tiny vase on top of it. It had an oven almost as old as Eliza's back at De L'heure. And on the opposite side of the the room there was a door that had a tub and two buckets, one for the rest room and one for washing hands.

Merliah took a pot from one of the shelves and poured the water in it as she opened the oven and placed the pot in it. She found it quicker than leaving it over a fire. She closed the oven and went to grab the food she bought and to grab Hiraeth so she could watch her as she cooked.

Gilbert said he would try to be home at around three in the afternoon. Merliah looked at the clock above the fire pit and saw it was ten pass two o'clock. She set the child in her bassinet on the table as she took out the food from the cloth and started chopping up the vegetables and one whole salmon that she would throw in the oven. As the brunette was in the middle of making supper, she opened up one of the windows in the kitchen to let out some of the heat from the oven, and bring in a nice breeze. Merliah was tossing in the carrots and onions next to the salmon in the pan that was placed on two bars to hold any pots and pans over the fire.

Grabbing her phone, she started playing music on shuffle and started humming to the tune of the song.

Half way through cooking the sound of keys turning in the lock was apparent and Gilbert came inside and took off his hat, placing it on one of the hooks of the sweater rack. He brought himself into the bathroom and kneeled down to the bucket with water in it and dipped his hands in it; splashing his face with water and rubbing the stress out of his face. The search for a job was a failed attempt but he would keep looking. He grabbed a small towel that was placed over the bucket to dry his face off before placing it back.

The brown eyed boy walked over into the kitchen as the smell of food entered his senses as he saw Merliah facing toward the fire, flipping over whatever smelt so divine. He walked to Hiraeth and bent over to kiss her on the head, she reached out to his face and made grabby hands. Gilbert covered his face with his hands before removing them saying peekaboo, making Hiraeth giggle than go silent from not knowing where he went, than giggling once more when he came back.

Merliah took the salmon with a fork and placed it on one of the biggest plates in the kitchen, than taking out the pot in the oven with the vegetables in her other hand. Setting down both on the table as Gilbert picked up Hiraeth and set her bassinet on the floor to make not room. "It smells delicious.." Gilbert said, wanting to dig right in. Merliah hummed a thank you in response as she got out two plates and two forks and set them down neatly, Gilbert grabbing two cups with his free hand and placing them on the table as he poured cold water from the vase in each cup before sitting down with the babbling child in his arms.

He patiently waited for Merliah to sit down before both of them started to eat the wondrous meal prepared for the both of them. In between bites they talked about their day and how Merliah got a job as a washer, they talked about possible areas of the town that may need workers for Gilbert. They enjoyed themselves and laughed as Gilbert was feeding Hiraeth and she got some mushed carrots on her chin.