5 4- her wedding

It was the day before her wedding to Dylan when a knocking was heard so loudly on her parents' front door. When she had opened it, he grabbed her hand and walked straight up to her room. He looked so tired and haunted and she'd hardly seen much of him in years. He hadn't shaved for a while too.

As surprised as she was, she followed him wordlessly. Not even uttering a single question when he locked the door of her bedroom behind them. She watched him glare at the roads from her window, pulling the curtains down before closing and locking it. She got an uneasy feeling though.

He was paranoid then and now it seemed.

"Where are your parents? I'm cold! I need blankets and take the A.C off," he had muttered through clenched teeth.

Then he lay on her bed and pulled the sheets over himself. "And we need to talk."

"They would be back soon. A little later. And the air conditioning is off," she had replied.

And why did he need to talk to her parents?

She had noticed then too that he wore her ring. Her heart soaring at the sight of it on his left-hand middle finger. She remembered her joy when she saw it in his finger at one of her visits from college. She'd bought it for him as a 'don't forget me' ring when she left. At dinner that night he whispered to her that he would never take it off after she told him what the bird represented.

"Long ago, "she had told the story to him just as she had read it, "the Egyptians believed that the swallows were powerful stars that were the guardians of souls. But it was the British Navy's anchor, for sailors, that harbor was safe. Despite the rough seas and tumultuous waters, they made it to land safely. Some even took tattoos of the birds when they crossed the equator."

Kailey had felt the story belonged to her as a Trinidadian, for her ancestors were brought to the small island in 1845 by the British. In fact, maybe every islander probably felt the same belonging here rather than their own ancestry. As the islanders said, "Yuh hada be a true trini, to understand what the beach and sun mean to us. Is ah one love with nature man." (you have to be a true Trinidadian to understand what the hot sun and beach mean to us and nature.)

A swallow represented hope but she did not tell him that part.

She had asked for a photograph of him in return and he gave one to her in a frame before he left. She still had the frame on her dresser next to her bed. If he had seen it, he made no mention. She glanced at it and even without watching it, she memorized it. He wore a plain long-sleeved, off-white cotton t-shirt with the top button, unbuttoned, and a blue-colored long straight jean. Sandals on his feet and two leather bands, one brown and the other black on his right hand, and a matching chain with an anchor pendant. His hair was much longer and looked black. Sometimes his hair has a brown color. But it was the look that had her captivated. A very calm and peaceful expression was on his face. His eyes. Every time she glanced at it, she felt he was there watching her. She fancied that he took that picture especially for her, her heart always full of love for him, for she saw that he had taken it sitting on the floor of his bedroom on that very day!

"I want to talk with you," he had muttered in his sleep.

Her? About what? She had thought.

Even then when she was about to get married, she still loved him. Heck, when he told her he had a fiancé, it still didn't matter so what's the difference now? And she hadn't seen him in almost four years except for glimpses of him here and there about a handful of times but still, her love grew!

She couldn't help but think of how good he looked under her sheets, on her bed, in her room. Her parents would return with his family in a few hours to take her to the church for her wedding.

'My wedding!'

She just didn't think she wanted to get married again today!

She got the blankets and opened her bedroom door. She took a quick peep to make sure no one was home as she had to go to the kitchen for the glass of water for him then she woke him to give him the pills he requested. She felt like a teenager.

She knew exactly what he wanted from her.

Medical help.

He had claimed to be working for a company that studied viruses and he tested something on himself and he became sick. But it wasn't deadly or contagious. But very dangerous to him as people were looking for him now. She didn't believe him much back then. She believed he was on drugs and was having an episode. It almost broke her heart to think of him being dependent on drugs! To reach this state he was in. She wants to care for him.

'Is it too late to cancel my wedding?'

He had awakened that night grabbing at his throat. Then was having a hard time keeping food down and had about five seizures in that night alone! He went into his backpack and had given her a syringe.

"Use a quarter. Every four hours."

No other explanation, just that.

She left him once it to feed her puppy, Ryu. Yes, she had named him after the character in her favorite video game, as a child, Street Fighter! A pup she ended up giving to her neighbor, a week after she got married.

Max had gotten up clutching his chest at one point, screaming, "Leave me alone. Help me, Kailey!"

At first, she was startled at his outburst but didn't question him. And another time, "Don't you know I love you?" And both times she pulled him into her arms kissing his face telling him everything was going to be okay, although she didn't understand his inner battle.

Whom did he love? The fiance? That part bothered her.