Struggle Within
Tengzu Municipality, Cheena, Earth
***
The sun rose and the neighbor started to rustle out of their houses. They were talking about the happenings the night before. Dreygo and his comrades felt unease at the thought of the upcoming imminent dangers as the moon rises.
Sitting on the couch, Dreygo gawked at Elaine in the kitchen preparing their breakfast. While Officer Sho was fixated on the news broadcast. Pictures of mauled adults were flashed in the news but were blurred due to their obscenity. Alysa's dead mother was also taken earlier that morning by the authorities and Alysa accompanied them. She did not stop crying.
Dreyo smelled the aroma of fried eggs and bacon. His stomach rumbled with hunger in the process. Elaine hummed songs as she harvested the slices of bacon from the frying pan and placed them on plates. It was the same lullaby that she sang for Alysa to sleep.
"I have to go," Officer Sho said.
"Why?" Dreygo asked.
"I have to check with my family. I have to check things with the Triad. I will contact you soon," Officer Sho answered. His expression was plastered with worry.
"You want breakfast!?" Elaine said from the kitchen.
"Nah, just want to grab one back home," Sho responded.
"Are you going to be ok?" Elaine asked.
"Don't you worry, Elaine. I know the ins and outs of the city. I can go there without the Triad's knowledge. I will be back soon." Sho answered.
Officer Sho left his contact number on a piece of paper. He went out of the house leaving Dreygo and Elaine.
Elaine served the food at the dining table.
Dreygo sat across from Elaine in the dining room and had their breakfast.
"You have a beautiful voice, Elaine," Dreygo said.
"Yeah, I used to sing with my mother when I was a kid," Elaine said while swallowing small cuts of bacon, "It was a lullaby when my mother used to sing to me when I had a hard time sleeping."
"What happened to your Mother?" Dreygo asked.
"She died of cancer." There was an abrupt halt by her shaking voice. Dreygo sensed sadness in her eyes. She bent her head down and focused on her plate, her neck muscles tensed, seemed to have difficulty swallowing her food.
Dreygo did not know how to react, the normal way. He was not used to having a close connection with another human being. A civil conversation gave him difficulty sometimes on how to react especially constituted with a sudden burst of emotions.
"How old was she, when she…died?" Dreygo stammered. He was supposed to say sorry, he felt sorry but it seemed difficult to find the right words, to sympathize with other feelings.
Answering the question, Elaine had struggled and forced an instantaneous smile forcibly fighting hard to conceal her tears. Dreygo noticed her teary eyes.
"Ahm..hehe…She was 50 years old," Elaine answered and gobbled a long strip of bacon.
It was unlikely for Dreygo to witness Elaine pushing food into her mouth with that size. He chuckled a bit upon the sight and Elaine knew that her modesty in eating that she preserved was absent momentarily.
"Whaaatt?" Elaine asked with a chuckle while removing the moisture that welled in her eyes.
"No. Just pleasurable to watch," Dreygo responded, "Our women in our land, when my time on Earth, had no modesty with their meals. They eat just as fast as men and you, Elaine, were eating like an ant."
"I am just trying to be cute. I am not used to being with men, you know. I haven't had serious relationships before." Elaine's cheeks flushed.
Dreygo laughed hard and said, "Did you mean you are still a virgin?"
"Yeah. I am and I haven't seen a man deserving of my gift."
"Medieval women had intercourse with men at an early age. They blossomed afterward." Dreygo shared and his voice hammering against the walls.
Elaine did not answer and drank a whole glass of water. She had audible gulps.
"Your face is rosy red. Why is it?" Dreygo puckered in between his eyebrows. He was insensitive for him to oversharing. He thought that he might have caused Elaine to be uncomfortable.
The redness of her face was always visible when they had conversations like these. Dreygo noticed the changes and she had not answered every time he asks for it. Elaine just shook her head instead.
"It must have been the makeup?" Elaine tried to escape an awkward question.
"I haven't seen you wearing makeup and you do not need to. You are already beautiful," Dreygo knew what's make-up. Dreygo asked about it when they were at Xiangxi hotel in Tsi Luen city.
All the front desk officers had pinkish cheeks, red lips, and blackened eyebrows. It was not present during his stint on earth, their women did not care how they look as they only care about chores and taking care of their husbands.
"C'mon, your playing with me Dreygo," She smacked Dreygo's arm.
He only smiled at that.
"Do you think so?"
"Yes, I know so."
"Tell me about the women in your village. Are you married before?"
"Yes, I am. I had kids," As Dreygo started to think about them, memories flashed in his memories. They were horrible memories.
Screams appeared in his thoughts, cries of his children, and the abrupt scenery of blood spilled flooded his thoughts. It was a memory that never had for a long time being revisited. It made him awkwardly blank for a few seconds. He returned to his current consciousness as he heard Elaine's voice.
"Dreygo," Elaine shook his arm.
"Ah. I am already full. I need to rest now," Dreygo said sheepishly. Dreygo went back to the couch and lowered himself.
Dreygo suddenly remembered the smiles of his kids and the loving arms of his wife. She was beautiful, her hair was blonde and curly and her complexion was bright like a sunny day. Her eyes were greenish and happy. Her smile was innocent, her face seemed to have no capability to hurt even a fly.
She only knew how to love him and took care of their children. He had two kids, the eldest was a girl and the second was a boy. They were 12 and 9 years old respectively. He remembered them playing in their front yard, happily chasing each other as they filled their faces with mud.
His wife was busy hanging their newly washed clothes with the ropes he had fixed. The sunny day brightens his memories and their lovely house was built with wood among the vastness of the forest. They were within a functional community, and they helped each other with the food, especially in winter. They exchanged crops and fish with nearby neighborhoods.
It was peaceful. He could faintly remember what happened, how this beautiful scenery became utter sadness and depression. He forced his thoughts to play back to what happened. He knew his family was in heaven because they were not in hell.
His beautiful life did not last long, it was just short and dreadful. The reason for its dread was blurry, he could not trace what had happened. He just knew their deaths, but it was unexplainable. His head was cracking, forcing it to remember minute details, details of who had killed his family. He could not remember.
His head was hurting. He clasped it with his hands. He bent down and saw teardrops fall on the floor.
"Dreygo?" Elaine asked, her voice muffled to his hearing.
He continued to cry and spoke faintly, "My wife, Maria."
He felt Elaine sit beside him and wrapped her hands around his shoulders. Her fragrance that was carried by his hair and the lotion of her skin.
He clasped both hands and his face was in between his knees, leaning, facing the floor as he sat on the couch.
His shoulder gradually soaked with wet tears, he knew Elaine cried as she leaned her face on his shoulder. He felt her sadness too, their disposition, their mission, might have overwhelmed Elaine. She neglected her happiness and joined his cause.
The way Elaine hugged him was like how his wife comforted him when he was depressed. The way Elaine cooked food and took care of him, he remembered his wife, Maria. They both had different features but there was something about Elaine, her physical attributes that made Dreygo remember his wife. They were beautiful in different ways but Elaine was his perfect reminder of his wife.
It suddenly hit him, the lullaby. The lullaby was the trigger. It triggered him to remember his wife and his family. His wife used to sing lullabies to their kids before sleep and the soft hymn, the lullabies create, made him also sleep.
Dreygo gradually lifted his face and glanced at Elaine. Elaine did too. Their eyes leveled and stared long. He noticed her eyes widen and stare back at him. The pinkish gloss in her lips was visible in his eyes. He felt her breath caress his lips. Their faces were nearing. There were no words to tell. There was no need for explanations, only instincts.