| Fan Fiction |
by Hibiscus
"Home." She whispered.
The Fiji Islands, a group of 330 islands or so of which the two largest were the most populated; Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. The single international airport in the entire country was located in Nadi, a city on the western side of Viti Levu.
"It's sweltering!" Figaro grumbled as he shrugged off his light jacket. Chun put on his glasses as they stood outside the airport waiting for their ride. He handed Figaro a credit card. "Go buy yourself a drink."
"Why?" Figaro looked suspiciously from to the card to Chun.
"Cuz I need to speak to Ariel," Chun explained patiently. Ariel, who had been staring off into the distance, turned at her name and raised an eyebrow.
"Why can't you talk to her with me here? Eww! Are you planning to talk dirty? I wonder how much the pictures of you two together would go for on ebay." Figaro stopped speaking when he realized that he was the subject of two very annoyed gazes. "Not that I would do anything like that. I am just wondering. Okay! I will go get a drink, yeah, bye!"
He left and Chun turned to Ariel with a question in his eyes.
"He won't do anything. Don't be fooled by his brash exterior, Chun. If he didn't have the flippancy to fall back on, he'd be eaten away by his sorrows. All of us have nightmares but for some of us, they are reality which we relive every night."
Chun nodded. "Do you have a plan? Where are we going?"
"Home." Ariel replied.
"Where is home?"
Ariel's eyes turned towards the sun drenched horizon and her lips curved in a rare smile.
Home is where fields of emerald sugarcane plants, drenched with sunlight, bow, paying pagan homage to the mountains standing guard in the horizon. Home is in the roar of the waves as they wage some war with the beach. It is the unpaved road, full of loose pebbles and dust, the road which leads to a white brick house, with a maroon roof and arched porch walls. Where mango trees lush with faintly blushing fruit reside in a grove, while the coconut trees, reminiscent of supermodels stand in pairs or threes whispering in haughty elegance. Banana trees on the other hand, stand in one large group, young matrons, bearing their burden with a resigned pride. Home is in gardens where purple bougainvillea competes for attention with fickle hibiscus flowers.
Home is where high pitched giggles walk with deep, serious rumbles. Where the wind changes taste in the harvest season and the sticky sweetness of the sugarcane permeates through your pores until you feel as if you'd keel over with the saturation. Where the cane truck, stands replete with its tray filled with the harvest, waiting to be taken to the mill in the morning.
There is a well, downhill from the white brick house, through the flower garden, across the tiny ditch, over the newly ploughed vegetable garden and beside the first field of sugarcane. Home is the water pumped up every afternoon to the large cylindrical tank which sits misplaced on a higher level from the white house, pregnant with well water. A few feet from it, there is the tired tamarind tree, who every year rains the earth with her sour fruit. A few meters from the tamarind tree and the white house is a chicken coop, empty save for one rooster who effused with his own majesty, stands at every dawn and announces his importance.
"My father owned a house on a sugarcane farm in Vitogo, Lautoka. It's about 30 km from here. Edward doesn't know about this place but I spoke to the farmer who holds the lease papers for the land on which the house stands. The Fijians don't sell land, they lease it. Anyway, the house is in livable form, relatively good condition and the people while friendly, mind their own business."
"How long are we staying here?"
"I don't know, okay. I don't have the answers, Chun. You can leave if you want." Ariel looked irritated.
Chun grinned. "This is the first time I've seen you lower your guard enough to get mad."
All ire faded from Ariel's eyes. "Look Chun, don't go constructing white picket fences any time soon-."
"Shut up, Ariel." Chun glared at her.
"Oh what? Did you just tell me to shut up?" Ariel bristled.
"Yeah, do you want me to say it again?" Chun snapped back.
"Has Figaro affected your mind too?" Ariel was getting mad all over again.
"No, you are the immature brat here!" Chun stuck out his jaw aggressively.
"What did you call me?" Ariel stalked nearer him, hands on her hips and a cowl on her face.
So Chun kissed her. Grasping her face with a hand on either side of it, he kissed her. Ariel didn't close her eyes and neither did he.
"Wow! It got hot fast! But um…kids are staring." Figaro grinned as he made his presence known.
Ariel and Chun immediately parted and Ariel muttered, "I see our ride."
Thirty minutes later brought them to Vitogo; small village located about seven kilometers from Lautoka City. The actually village was beyond a koro (a native Fijian village) and not many people realized it was there so it suited Ariel's needs fine. The farmer had picked them up in his rectangular van and as he drove, they all stared outside, gawking. Sugarcane fields soon claimed the land a kilometer out of the city and quaint houses appeared every now and then. As they turned off from the main road to the unpaved one, Figaro stuck his head out and asked, "What's that?"
"That's what we call a bure. A house with a thatched roof. A traditional Fijian house." The farmer replied cheerfully and pretty soon he and Figaro (who was sitting shotgun) had struck up a lively conversation.
Ariel sat very, very still. She was trying really hard not the let the memories she had stifled resurface. The happy times.
"Are you okay?" Chun asked in concern. He grabbed Ariel's clammy hand, refusing to let go even when she tried to pull it away. "Talk to me."
"No." Ariel turned her head away to the side, refusing to look at him. But she stopped trying to pull her hand from him.
Ariel had been born in a hurricane. Her parents had related that story countless times, to her and to visitors. How they'd been caught in the hurricane when Estrella went into labour. At the moment the hurricane had reached its peak, Ariel had entered the world, her furious cries competing with the keening wind.
Ariel gasped sharply as the house came in sight. The white house with the arched porch walls. Cassava plants grew wild in the garden her father had used to care for so tenderly. Ariel stiffened further if that was even possible. Her mother had planted flowers; zebras, dahlias, frangipani, raat ki raani, musianda, bougainvillea and so many more. Spider orchids. And now…all that remained was weeds.
"We're here." The farmer, Ahmed, a big burly man with twinkling eyes parked the van and they got off, unloading the van of their luggage. "I had someone come and clean up the place and stock up some food."
"Thank you so much." Ariel stepped forward.
"Don't be silly. You are one of our own. We take care of those who belong to us." Ahmed smiled. "I'll be going then." He turned to get in the car and then paused and turned back. "Your parents were good people, Ariel. I was honored to know them."
There was nothing Ariel could do but nod her thanks once again at Ahmed's kind words. He left and they stood in front of the house staring at the verandah through which the kitchen door was located.
"What are we waiting for?" Figaro asked no one in particular and made to walk in but Chun pulled him back.
"Why don't you go first, Ariel?" He said softly.
Ariel cast him an almost frightened look. He wondered what she was seeing in front of her, who she was hearing. She cleared her expression and then nodded. "Yeah, I'll go first. Make sure it's safe."
She walked to the edge of the verandah and stopped as though not quite ready to step in. Then she took a deep breath and walked into the verandah. Immediately memories assailed her from all directions and in all senses. She could hear her mother singing as she washed the clothes in the little wash tub on the other side of the wooden screen that separated one side of the verandah from the other. She could smell the pineapple juice her father made using the skin of the pineapple instead of the flesh. She walked to the kitchen door and saw the tiny little heart she had carved on it when she was 7. "Arue" that's what she'd thought she was called until she was 9. She opened the door and smelled the scent of home. The creamy walls, the green kitchen cabinets, the cold tiles under her feet. Almost unconsciously she followed the floor out of the kitchen, into the hall and through it to the room where she had spent the first 12 years of her life. Ariel tasted the tears on her tongue and swallowed hard. She clenched her hands into fists, her fingernails digging into her palm. She couldn't cry. She wouldn't cry. She would be strong. She had to be strong.
"You okay?" Chun came up behind her, close but not touching. She appreciated that. She wouldn't have been able to bear been touched just then. "Yeah. I'm okay. Where's Fig?"
"He's scouting out the other rooms." Chun replied, looking around. The room, Ariel's room hadn't been touched since she left it. There was her collection of pretty rocks still on the sideboard and her books, dusty and yellowed but still in the alphabetic order she had put them in. There were no posters on the walls. And then there was the bed. It had been made, clean sheets covered the mattress.
"Dude, there are only two beds in the house." Figaro said, sticking his head in through the door.
"So?" Chun smiled sweetly.
Figaro narrowed his eyes. "I don't think so, mister."
Chun beamed. He grabbed Ariel and put his arms around her and she frowned looking from him to Figaro. "What?" She said to Chun.
"He thinks he is going to sleep with you." Figaro crossed his arms and looked disapproving.
"So?" Ariel repeated in a matter of fact tone and Figaro's mouth dropped open.
"So!? What do you mean so? He's a man!" He sputtered.
"Have you been noticing me, Fig?" Chun grinned. He was enjoying turning the tables on Figaro for once.
"Ew! No way, you sicko! How can you be so indifferent about sharing the same bed with him, Ariel?"
"I'm married to him. Deal with it." Ariel said coolly and Chun stuck out his tongue at Figaro when Ariel wasn't looking. Figaro looked positively apoplectic. He wasn't used to sharing Ariel and now that he had to, he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.
"Well, I don't like it!" Figaro announced grandly, crossing his arms and looking disapproving once again.
"If you are done quibbling over unimportant stuff, we need to talk about more important things." Ariel told both men.
"We aren't. But we'll postpone our quibbling once you are done talking about important things." Chun replied.
"So, we need to divide chores between us." Ariel started.
"Oh I remembered that there is something I need to do." Figaro turned to make his escape but Ariel was too quick for him.
"You ain't goin' nowhere, son!" She grabbed hold of his collar and pushed him onto the bed. He sighed but stayed put.
"I'm not eating if you are the one doing the cooking." He warned.
"What's wrong with my cooking?" Ariel demanded scowling and Chun simply watched.
"What's wrong? What's right about it?!" Figaro growled.
"It's not like I even like cooking!" Ariel snapped.
"Okay, okay, calm down. I'll cook." Chun interrupted and looked in amusement as they both turned towards him with identical expressions of joy. They had forgotten he was there. It looked as though they had been through this routine many times. "How does eggplant curry sound?"
"Okay Ariel, you cook. At least you make meat, burnt meat but that's okay, it's meat. I am not eating eggplant curry." Figaro immediately changed his tunes.
"I like eggplant." Ariel replied and blew Chun a kiss which he made a big show of catching and pocketing. Figaro looked like he would explode any moment from ire and jealousy.
"You will clean the house every day." Ariel gave Figaro his duties.
"Clean?" Figaro looked horrified. "Me?"
"No, the caterpillar on your shoulder." Ariel retorted.
"Are you being sarcastic?" Figaro looked suspicious.
"Yes. You will clean." Ariel repeated succinctly.
"I think I heard you wrong. Because I thought I just heard you that I am in charge of cleaning." Figaro was desperate.
"No you didn't. You heard right." Ariel beamed.
"Why do I have to clean? Why can't you clean? If I clean what will you do? Am I a slave? That's what I am, aren't I? Everyone is SO MEAN to me."
"Are you done, you drama queen?" Ariel poked Figaro with her toe.
"No, not yet." Figaro sniffed and sighed loudly. "Okay now I am done."
"Okay. I will make sure the chickens are fed and the cow milked." She outlined her own duties.
"We have chickens and a cow?" Figaro went to the window and peered out. "Whoa, banana trees!"
"Yeah, Ahmed loaned them to us for milk and egg purposes." Chun replied.
"How do you know that?" Figaro asked.
"I'm the daddy, Ariel's the mommy and you are the baby." Chun glanced at Figaro barely stifling a smile.
Figaro looked at Ariel who was leaning against Chun and then at Chun. "I think I'm going to cry."
They busied themselves with settling in and the next couple of hours passed in quick succession of each other. Soon, it was 11 p.m. and they were all ready to turn in for the night.
"Ariel, I'm scared." Figaro crossed his arms and looked petulant. Chun stared at him incredulously. Did he really think Ariel would fall for such an obvious ploy?
Ariel sighed. "Yeah I know, Fig. I'll keep watch the first night. I always do. Go to bed. I won't let the Edward monster attack you."
Figaro threw his arms around Ariel and gave her a bear hug. Behind her back, he smirked at Chun. Making an L with his thumb and forefinger, he strutted off to his room.
"I'll keep watch with you, Ariel." Chun grabbed a blanket and followed Ariel to the porch where a rusty swing made the perfect spot for observation. Figaro stuck his head out of his room and scowled as ferociously as he could. That damned man.
"I'll come too!" He bounded out of his room all of a sudden wide awake.
"No you will not. You have a lot of cleaning to do tomorrow. Go to bed."
"Ariel-." Figaro started protesting.
"Now." There was no arguing with the finality in her tone.
"Damn woman, you are a dictator. FINE. I'm going to bed!" Figaro stomped off to bed feeling cheated of his victory.
"Is this really necessary?" Chun asked after a brief time which he spent slapping around the air hoping to kill some mosquitoes.
"No. Not really. No one knows of this place. But the kid won't sleep if I don't keep watch the first night. It's tradition." Ariel explained. Chun leaned against the seat of the swing and pulled Ariel onto his lap. She resisted for a moment but finally conceded.
"You've become really touchy feely with me lately." She said to him, keeping her gaze on the dark road. "What gives?"
"You let me so I do it." Chun smirked.
"I'm tired." Ariel sighed and leaned back against him and Chun felt that curious sensation in his heart again. She trusted him. She had stopped pushing him away.
"Two and a half months, Chun." And she shattered his hopes all over again.
"Until you leave?" He asked softly.
"No. Until you do."
"I don't want to."
"You have a life. Unlike Figaro and me. I can't risk him and I can't leave him. If I took him in to the law, he'd be killed within hours. I can't trust anyone else beside Hu Ge and now you."
"Why does Edward want to kill him so bad?"
"Edward is a sick man. He's killed a lot of people – oh not directly, no, he only kills those he really hates directly – through us. His assassin network. It would put the CIA to shame. And he wants Figaro dead for something his dad did."
"That's it?"
"Yeah. When I told him I wouldn't kill Figaro, he flew into a rage. He went berserk. Told me he'd send other men, better assassins after him. But I'd already moved Figaro. And then I disappeared. We've been skipping around a lot of places for the past two years."
"Why'd you go to Taiwan?"
"I thought it would be easier to hide an apple among other apples." Ariel replied with a quirk of her lips. She sighed again.
"Sleep." Chun urged her.
"Nah, I'm fine." She shrugged off his concern.
"I'll keep watch." Chun offered.
"Eh?"
"You heard me."
Ariel pondered for a second. Then she nodded. "Okay. I'll sleep. Right here. Wake me in an hour, k?"
Chun nodded. Or made a noise which might have sounded like an agreement. Ariel didn't know. She was fast asleep.
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Time passed with considerable grace those first few weeks. Soon it had been almost three weeks since they had arrived in Fiji.
One afternoon, Ahmed came over with some "bhajia" (a savory pastry) that his wife had made. Chun made some tea and they sat outside under a mango tree on a "chatai" (a woven mat).
"I love the food here." Figaro munched happily.
"Yeah. I can see that. You are getting fat." Ariel told him solemnly.
"I am NOT!" Figaro was quick to defend himself.
"Stop baiting him, Ariel." Chun had grown used to playing the peacemaker between the two.
"How's the planting going?" Ariel asked Ahmed instead.
"We start tomorrow. The fields have been prepared, tilled and the fertilizer has been sprinkled…" Ahmed replied. He was a hardworking man and it showed on his rough skin and his calloused hands.
"Figaro will help you." Ariel volunteered Figaro's services generously.
"We would appreciate the help greatly." Ahmed accepted with a smile. "Ah, thanks for the tea but it's time for me to pick my little ones from school." He got up and Ariel thanked him for the food. He brushed off her thanks with a wave of his hand.
Ahmed left and Ariel looked at Figaro curiously. "I'm surprised he didn't react to my volunteering him," she said to Chun.
"I think he thinks that if he doesn't react it means it isn't true." Chun replied looking amused. They both turned and looked at Figaro who was lying indolent on the chatai.
He turned when he felt their attention. "What?" He demanded.
"You have to get up at 4 tomorrow." Ariel smiled kindly at him.
"In the morning." Chun added.
"You are kidding?"
"Nope. You are going sugarcane planting with Ahmed tomorrow." Chun explained further.
Figaro looked horrified. "Say what?"
"It'll build your character." Ariel soothed but this only served to inflame him further.
"Build my character? What for? You can't eat character! Besides why do I need more character? I have so much character I don't know where to put it!!"
"I've given Ahmed my word. So whether you like it or not, you are going sugarcane planting." Ariel said serenely. Figaro drooped knowing it would be hopeless to protest any further.
"I hate you both!" He got up and started walking away.
"Does this mean you won't eat dinner tonight?" Chun called after him and was rewarded with a muffled curse. Ariel and Chun grinned at each other.
"Why do you need to get him out of the way?" He asked after Figaro was a considerable distance away.
Ariel glanced at him sharply. The man was becoming eerily good at interpreting her actions. "I have to go to the city tomorrow. He loves protesting but he's going to be up and gone without any whining come morning."
"City? I thought we got enough food the last time we went." Chun raised an eyebrow.
"I have to call Ge and you have to get tickets to go back." Ariel leaned back, prepared for the protestations that were coming.
"I'm not leaving you." Chun sounded very firm.
"Chun. This isn't your fight." Ariel sighed. They'd been over this plenty of times and Chun simply refused to budge from his stance.
"You aren't going to win, Ariel. Face it. Plus, there are two months left to our deal." Chun crossed his arms and looked mutinous.
"Is San alive?" Ariel asked out of the blue. Chun looked disconcerted for a moment by her abrupt change of the topic.
"I don't know." He busied himself with gathering the dishes. "Grab the chatai."
---------------------------------------
Figaro rubbed his eyes and shivered in the nippy morning air. It was around 5 a.m. and he was standing by a sugarcane field with the rest of the crew. There were old women, young children, and everyone in between. Truth be told, he sort of felt humbled at being included in what was so obviously a community event.
"Did the entire village come out for this?" He shifted closer to Ahmed and asked.
"The entire village?" Ahmed looked confused and then his face cleared when he looked around. "This is just my family, son." He said smiling.
Figaro's eyes boggled. There were about fifteen people there.
"Let me introduce you." Ahmed said, still grinning. "Those two old women bickering are my mother and my mother in law. The tall man who looks a lot like me except without the beard? My younger brother and the woman glaring at him is his wife. They've had a fight again this morning, I see. The old man with the wheelbarrow is my father and the other old man, my wife's dad. The beautiful woman with the kettle is my wife, Shabnam and the girl who is talking to her is Anora. We don't know where she is from but she just turned up one day and we don't have the heart to turn her away. Be careful of her, eh? She's a man eater."
"Abba, who's this?" A little voice interrupted Ahmed's lengthy explanation and Figaro looked down at a little girl with two pigtails and a smudged face regarding him with a great deal of curiousity.
"Who are you?" She asked in a sharp, sweet voice when she noticed his attention on her. "My name's Faiza. Faa-eee-zaaa. I'm," she stopped to count on her fingers, "six."
She fell silent and looked up at Figaro expectantly. After a minute, he realized that he was supposed to make some sort of appropriate response. "Oh wow, you are a big girl!" He said in properly awed tones.
"I know." Faiza chirped. "So who are you?"
Figaro felt a reluctant smile tug at his lips. "I'm your dad's friend."
"Why?" She asked next.
"Because he likes me." Figaro squatted down to her level.
"More than he likes me?" The corners of her mouth turned down.
"Nope. He likes you best." He hastened to reassure her.
"Well, that's good then. How old are you?" She scarcely paused for breath before asking the next question.
"I'm nineteen." Figaro felt his heart squeeze in pain. He remembered his little sister.
"Wow, you are old." Faiza grinned at him. "It's okay." She patted his hand. "I'll still be your friend."
From across the yard, Anora observed the scene unfolding in front of her eyes. The foreigner was getting along well with the entire family. He fit in as though he had known them for years instead of mere hours. She sensed in him an escape from her daily drudgery. She had fled her home – who was she kidding – she had been kicked out of her house by her sister. Just because she had been caught en flagrante with her sister's husband. He had wanted it. She knew he had.
But this foreigner, hmm, he could mean a possible escape from this life, from this country. Yes. She pasted a smile on her lips and swayed in what she assumed was an inviting manner towards Figaro.
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"Ge?" Ariel yelled into the phone.
"I can hear you fine, Ariel." Ge said dryly.
"Sorry. One sec." She put the phone away from her mouth but Ge could hear her tell Chun to quit attracting 'so much damned attention.'
"Be nice to Chun." He admonished when she came back on.
"I am." Ariel retorted. "So what do you have for me?"
"Stay put for now. There is no sign of Edward figuring out where you are. He's been searching like crazy though."
"Oh. Is that all?" Ariel sounded relieved.
"For now. Be alert though." Ge warned.
"You don't have to tell me. Damnit." Ariel swore as she saw another woman approach Chun. Ge grinned.
"I'll talk to you next week then." He hung up and Ariel put the receiver back and stalked back to where Chun was sitting at the computer. Three of the four attendants were hovering over him like he was a honey pot and they bees.
"I'm married." He was saying when Ariel got near. She didn't know why she felt so irked but she did.
"Don't lie to us!" One of the more buxom girls playfully whined. Ariel was sure she could kill her in a second.
"I'm not. See, there's my wife." Chun got up to his feet, looking relieved. The girls turned in unison to look at Ariel and whatever they saw on her face must have scared them since they were gone the next second.
"Let's go." She said brusquely.
"Were you jealous?" Chun grinned as he grabbed her hand and they walked out of the cyber café.
"Do you have a death wish?" Ariel growled.
"Don't wanna die yet." Chun replied easily. "Let's go grab some takeout. I don't wanna cook tonight."
"Don't worry. Ahmed's invited us over for dinner tonight." Ariel said over her shoulder as she waved down a taxi.
---------------
The women were seated inside the house, gossiping about the latest fashion and the scandals in the village. The men sat outside around a kava bowl (traditional Fijian drink) and gossiped too. Dinner had been plentiful. Actually more than plentiful. Roti, rice, curry, samosas, someone had done a lovo (food cooked in the traditional Fijian way), while someone else had made mithai (sweets). The people gathered were both Indo-Fijians and native Fijians. The atmosphere was relaxed and while people weren't all related by blood, they were bonded by the fact that they called these islands home.
Chun had taken one sip of the kava and refused to drink anymore.
"Wuss." Figaro had taunted and taken a huge gulp. Which he had immediately spit out much to the amusement of the other men sitting around them.
While the other men drank, Figaro and Chun sat beside them and shared in the talk sometimes or just merely observed.
"How do you think Ariel's doing in there?" Chun whispered to Figaro.
"I don't hear anyone crying so I reckon she's kept from killing anybody." Figaro whispered back with a grin. They shared a smile at that moment and then Figaro straightened up.
"Listen Chun. You'd better not mess around with Ariel if you aren't serious about her." He said seriously.
Chun looked startled but he understood that this was just Figaro's way of being protective.
"I know she seems all tough and unbreakable but she's been through a lot and she seems to accept you plenty. I don't want you to mess up and let her fall back to that unemotional person she was." Figaro continued, sounding more grown up than he had ever sounded. "Because if you do, I'll have to beat you up and while I might get hurt doing that, I'll make sure I hurt you too."
Chun nodded, accepting and acknowledging the warning. It was the way of men. Besides, he knew better than to hurt Fig's pride.
Figaro felt something tickling him. He turned and there was Faiza grinning cherubically at him.
"I found you!" She chortled happily, clambering on to his lap.
"You've made a new friend." Chun smiled at Faiza.
"Yes, I'm going to marry him when I grow up." Faiza told Chun solemnly and Chun burst into laughter. Ariel, who was just stepping out from the house looked curiously to see what his source of amusement was. She took one look at Figaro's face and hustled them up, using tiredness as an excuse to leave the gathering. Their house was a scant fifteen minutes walk away from the main farmhouse so Ariel refused Ahmed's offer of a lift.
There was a grove of mango trees a little bit before the house. Underneath the trees, there were huge rocks that Ariel remembered playing on.
"I'm going to spend a little time here before I go sleep," Figaro said to Ariel and Chun. "You guys go on ahead."
Ariel looked at Chun and he nodded. "I'll go on ahead then."
----------------------------
The night was always absolute in the tropics. It wasn't the half hearted half lighted night of the North Americas, no. The tropical nights stayed true to darkness, stayed true to the true meaning of Night. A million stars glittered in the sky and Ariel stood face turned up.
"You know, I haven't seen these many stars ever since that night my parents were killed." She spoke in an almost whisper.
Figaro got up and stood on the large rock on which he had been sitting and spread his arms around. "I feel like the king of the world."
Ariel gave a half smile.
"When can I begin to live again, Ariel?" He said turning serious all of a sudden.
Ariel didn't look at him but at the canopy of the mango trees through which the stars peeked.
"Ariel?" He prompted.
"I don't know, Figaro. I don't know." She finally turned towards him, climbing up on the rock beside him.
"Are you telling me I have to live my entire life hiding? Wait, what am I saying? That isn't living. Ariel, I have a dream. I want to do things. I want to BE SOMEONE. When can I start to live again, Ariel?" Figaro sounded dangerously close to tears.
"Calm down, Fig."
"Calm down? Calm down, Ariel? The man killed my parents, my grandma, my grandma. The man KILLED MY LITTLE SISTER! How am I supposed to calm down? How am I supposed to believe that I will be fine? Ever since you came for me, I have been running, looking over shoulder, breathing each breath wondering if it is going to be my last. I want to walk down a street without worrying that someone is going to shoot me. I want to fall in love. I want to live out in the open instead of skulking in shadows identifying by names that aren't my own!"
His outburst was punctuated by deep breaths and silence. Somewhere an owl hooted.
"When I saw Faiza today, I realized all that…everything that I was robbed off. It hurts, Ariel. It fuckin' HURTS! You know what? I hate your grandfather! I hate you! I hate YOU!" Figaro was crying. His entire frame shook with the intensity of tears. "I'm sorry. I don't hate you. I'm sorry."
Ariel put her arms around him and let him cry. Her eyes were silent and her body was firm. Across the grove of mangoes, Chun stood observing. His eyes met Ariel's and he nodded reassuringly. She nodded back. They sat there a long time, in the dark night being observed by the stars.
---------------
"That woman's here again." Ariel scowled darkly.
"She's here for Fig not for me." Chun was sitting in the sun while Ariel hung up the laundry on the lines.
"Fig's not interested in her." Ariel was certain of that. There was something about Anora that set her teeth to the edge. Something sly and stealthy in the way she talked and moved. Her way of seeing a person for what that person can do for her instead of what the person is.
"Fig seems to be handling her fine. Stop being a worrywart. Have a mango. Come, I'll even feed you." Chun grinned at Ariel's expression.
"Don't be so gross!" She stalked over, stood two meters away and held out her hand. "Gimme."
"Come closer." Chun waggled his eyebrows.
"No way. You'll try to kiss me." Ariel hmpfed.
"Oh you are so in denial. You like my kisses." Chun laughed.
"No, they taste like-." She stopped and for the first time since she could remember, Ariel blushed. And then was immediately horrified that she did so. She turned on her heel and stalked off with Chun's laughter following her.
Figaro, on the other hand, was trying to pry Anora's seeking fingers of his arm. "I'm sorry, Anora. I really don't have time for a relationship right now."
"But I really do love you!" Anora breathed.
Figaro took a step back and then another. And heck, he took three more. "Listen, I really have to go do some stuff right now. I'll talk to you later then!"
He turned and fled, unwittingly going in the same direction Ariel had gone.
Anora looked after him and sighed. It had been a week since she had seen him and decided that he was the one. But he had yet to cast her a favourable glance. But she would not desist. She HAD to make him fall in love with her. She had to get out of this country.
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"I'm counting on you." Edward Lin said to Rafael. "Find them both. Kill him. If she gets in the way, kill her. Don't kill Chun. We need him."
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Two months had passed. Chun and Ariel, even Figaro had completely adapted to the slow pace of island life. It was calming, a slow healing of bruised senses.
It was a Wednesday and the farm was especially quite because everyone was working in the fields a few kilometers away from the main farmhouse.
Ariel sat on the porch shelling peas while Chun was in the kitchen making lunch. Figaro sat besides her stealing the peas when he thought she wasn't looking. A sharp rap on his knuckles reprimanded him.
"But we have never gone picnicking." He whined.
"It's not a picnic if you just want to eat outside." Ariel told him dryly.
"I don't want to eat outside. I want to eat in the mango grove."
"Which is outside."
"Come on, Ariel!"
"How old are you, Figaro?"
"Shut up. I want to. I'm going to tell Chun and you'd better get ready too!" He stomped off.
Ariel looked after him with a smile. He had started behaving more like himself in the past couple of weeks. Oh the wariness was still there, it would always be there. But he had calmed down somewhat. She looked around at the serene landscape. Sugarcane fields with knee high plants sprouting, the sun, and the scent of the sea. Home. But for some reason, today she felt antsy. As though her entire skin crawled with the expectation of something tremendous to happen. Hmm.
She picked up the bowel of peas and made her way to the kitchen. Leaving the bowel on the counter, she made her way to the room where she snuck her 5mm browning in a little waist pouch and she strapped a lethal dagger to her ankle. Perhaps it was too much hardware for a little picnic but it never hurt to be prepared.
"Are you ready?" She asked Figaro. He was standing there, hopping impatiently from one foot to the other. "Forget I asked. Where's Chun?"
"You guys go ahead. I just need to finish this dish and I'll bring it over." Chun replied from the kitchen.
"Are you sure? We can wait." Ariel said.
"No. It's cool. Go ahead. Make it comfortable for me."
"You heard the man. Let's go!" Figaro marched on ahead of Ariel, spread the chatai, and put the basket of food down.
"Ah, it's nice here." Ariel sat down. It was the hottest period of the day and the shade was like manna from a paradise no one knew existed.
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Fifteen minutes earlier…
"Have you ever seen this man?" A dark stranger asked Anora. She looked at the picture and frowned. It was her Figaro. What did this man want with her Figaro?
"Why?" She asked brusquely.
"His grandmother just died and she left him a large amount of wealth. We need to get a hold of him so we can pass on the papers." Rafael lied easily. One glance had told him the nature of the woman and the easiest way to manipulate her. Finding Ariel had been much more a challenge. But she had been his partner. You share things in those moments before or after the kill. And you forget that you shared. She had shared one memory of Fiji and it had stuck with him.
"Oh…" If she led this man to Figaro, he'd be rich and he would be so grateful to her for that…he would fall in love with her and she'd be able to escape. Yes. Anora cast the man another furtive look. Yes, he looked decent.
"I'll show you where he is." She smiled.
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Chun took out the diary he had filched from his grandfather's safe and looked at it for a second. Then shrugging, he placed it in Ariel's bag, the one she carried everywhere. Well, except the mango grove picnic. He had given her what she wanted; now it was her choice whether she stayed with him or left.
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"Figaro, did you get the glasses for the pineapple juice?" Ariel opened one eye and asked Figaro.
"I thought you did." Figaro frowned at Ariel.
"No, I got the foodstuff."
"Oh man. Chun'll get it."
"He doesn't know we don't have it. Go get it."
"Fine, I won't ask you to since you are so old it would be tomorrow before you came back." Figaro got up grinning and moved to return to the house. He stopped abruptly and Ariel looked up.
Rafael.
Things happened really, really fast after that. Ariel would pore over the scenario a million times in her head. A million times.
What went through Figaro's head at that moment? What did he think?
Rafael brought up his gun and shot him. One shot. Two to the heart. Immediate. Forever. Permanent.
And it was as though a switch had been turned on in Ariel. She got up. "Oh no you didn't, Rafael."
"It's just a job, Ariel. Nothing personal." He used her words against her. Then he turned his gun in her direction. Ariel was strong but that bullet would be stronger.
He pulled the trigger and she closed her eyes. Three seconds passed and she was still alive. Chun. He had seen Rafael kill Figaro, then turn to Ariel, point the gun at Ariel. He had reacted. He couldn't reach Rafael so he had thrown himself in front of Ariel. Taken the bullet meant for her.
Rafael's eyes widened as he realized whom he had shot. Shit. He wasn't supposed to be hurt. Die. Shit.
Ariel sprang into action. The dagger strapped to her ankle. It was out in a second. She narrowed her eyes and threw it. Deadly aim. Deadly. It lodged itself in Rafael's throat. He was dead before he realized it.
Ariel ran to Figaro. He was still. Too still. "Breathe, Fig. Breathe!" But she knew he wouldn't. Not anymore. Never anymore. She had failed. He had been the only thing that had kept her from total darkness. And he was gone. She had failed. His dreams.
Suddenly the leaves rustled and it was instinct for Ariel, this incident she would always blame herself for, instinct it was, the gun was in her hands and she had shot at the bush that was rustling. Anora fell out of it, clutching her chest. Ariel looked down at Figaro's still form, his still warm body and then at Anora. She breathed. He didn't. Ariel shot her again.
"There. I evened things out now." She whispered to the sunshine.
A rasping breath made her realize that Chun was there, bleeding. Ariel felt the madness trail its dark fingers. She left Figaro, her fingers were bloody. She walked on shaky legs to Chun. Dropped to her knees beside him.
"Chun." She whispered his name. "Chun."
He breathed. Raspy breaths. As though it were a chore for him. To breathe. His lips moved but Ariel couldn't hear a sound.
"Wake up, Chun." She was going to lose him. Ariel breathed. Panic. She couldn't be weak. She had to be strong. Her mother told her. She had to be strong.
Chun opened his eyes and smiled. He could smile. Ariel felt the first tear. She didn't cry. It wasn't crying. No mom. I'm strong. I'm not crying. It's the wind. In my eyes.
"Sorry Ariel. I didn't mean to die on you." Chun breathed.