Me Without You (14 page)

The only thing Jonah had been privy
about the drift both families had was that Rebecca Blood had been
accused of cursing the other family. Yet, she suspected the feud
was rooted way back a long, long time ago. And just as the pond
dried up, the two families desecrated their friendship and became
silent enemies.

Fond memories rushed through
her as she recalled the times she saw Xavier there too…in
their pond
. Although, he
never really talked much, she enjoyed his silent company then. And
when he did use his voice, he sang her songs.

"Mushy!" Jonah said out
loud.

"You still talk to yourself," a voice
said from behind her.

"Hugh! Is that you?" Jonah called out,
looking at her back.

"It's me!" Xavier revealed himself from
the bushes and came forward— into view.

Jonah faced forward, her cheeks had
felt hot all of a sudden and she wanted to turn back and run as
fast as she can to where she came from. It was so odd on her part
to pine for Xavier all these time and yet grow used to Hugh's
presence instead.

"Hugh will be here in a while. I have
asked him to meet me here," Xavier said, feeling ill at ease. For
Xavier, it wasn't after all an everyday thing for a woman to search
for another man just to find out she was in the presence of a man
she would rather avoid.

"I didn't—I wasn't expecting for Hugh,"
Jonah mumbled.

"The mumbling, the talking to
yourself…still have those odd behaviors," Xavier said and grinned.
"But you cut your hair!"

Jonah faced him then. There were only a
couple of feet away between her and Xavier. He still had his bonnet
on the way he had back in the Church. But he had put on some color
to his cheeks. He was too corporeal for her touch…he even smelled
real.

It came over Jonah's
mind.
With one step, he could be in my
arms…again.

Aside from oxygen, as if air had a
component of courage and a knack of wisdom, Jonah breathed long and
hard, until she felt she had to expel it out again. Anger has
surfaced and Jonah felt grateful. Anger kept her at bay and
hindered her from throwing herself and her sensibilities towards
Xavier.

"Ugh!" Jonah grunted in disgust."Did
you foresee it, that's why you left me without a word? Because you
won't like my hair?" she told Xavier sarcastically.

"It's beautiful—" Xavier said shyly.
"You're beautiful!"

"Oh, please!" Jonah
responded.

"Jonah, please!" Xavier started to say.
"This is not us!"

"Oh, this is us! With me—very
disappointed at you!" Jonah answered Xavier flippantly. "And it is
you, a very disappointing you."

"Let's talk," Xavier urged.

"If you'd begin your saga from the
moment you disappeared without a word, we won't have enough time."
Jonah told Xavier. "I don't have time."

"Fine! Let's not talk about us then.
Let's talk about what happened earlier—" Xavier demanded boldly.
"When you touched me, I felt something. I'm sure you did
too."

"Of course I felt something, didn't
you?" Jonah answered back. "We were dating!"

"You know I am not talking about that,"
Xavier said uncomfortably. His cheeks flashed pink.

"What were you talking about?" Jonah
asked, confused. She had to refresh her memories about the
encounter she had with Xavier earlier. At the moment, she couldn't
relive what exactly happened between her and Xavier and what he
really meant. "I can't remember!"

"Do you know about—" Xavier was about
to tell her about the quest for the new healer, but thought it may
freak Jonah out. Coming from Gilda, the story sounded all too
farfetched, even if he was already beginning to believe it could be
real…that Jonah could be the new greatest healer.

"Do I know about what?" Jonah replied
looking flabbergasted by the moment. "X, you have got to speak out
clearly. Talk!"

"No, let's not talk anymore—" Xavier
said. He stepped in closer to her and scooped her up.

Jonah stood frozen to her spot and in
Xavier's arms. She felt nervous all of a sudden. She could no
longer hear her logic. Even her senses were in disarray. She was
just anticipating and quivering deep inside for his next
movement.

Xavier bent over to kiss her. When his
lips touched hers, all of his nerves were vibrating and dancing to
the beat of the moment. And his hands seemed to want to keep from
being still as they glided through her arms to her back… to her
hair…to her face. Then, there was the strange sensation of being
lifted higher. He felt the urgency to jump up and down like a
child. And yes, he also felt like crying and laughing at the same
time. It was like he had just woken up from a terrifying nightmare
and there was so much relief rushing in.

Jonah couldn't help but smile. And for
a brief moment, she mused if she could manage to smile and kiss him
back at the same time. Somehow she seemed to be managing both as
she lost herself to the whirling and wonderful sensations in her
stomach and the desire to get even closer to Xavier.

But as their kiss started to go deeper,
both Jonah and Xavier withdrew from each other and let out a loud,
"Ouch!"

Clutching the side of his ribs, Xavier
turned around just in time to see Jervais coming out from the
bushes.

"What!" Jonah exclaimed, finding
herself dazed and in pain. She was experiencing the same gush of
pain in her stomach that was cutting through her breath. Holding on
to Xavier's arms, she turned around as she heard the rustling sound
behind her."Jervais, what are you doing here?"

"You stay away from her!" Jervais cried
out.

Looking a little bit flushed, Xavier
dropped his hands from Jonah's face. He got a disposable mask from
his pocket and put it on. With his head low, he scanned the ground
and dug dirt with his right foot. He placed both hands inside his
back pockets.

"Oh, please!" Jervais told
him.
"You're lucky you're sick! Or I would
have hit you in the head."

"I'm sorry, I'll go!" Xavier said in a
soft voice, momentarily looking at Jonah, who was trying her best
not to cringe.

"Don't you know what you've done to
her? She cut her hair almost to the root—now, she's having
bad-hair-day everyday! Her skin asthma has gone worse—it's gross!
She refused to eat—she's almost malnourished. She cried herself to
sleep for weeks! She almost didn't want to go to college! Our
family would have spent thousands for the shrink. In short, she's
hurt!" Jervais said angrily, "Damn you—you hurt her!"

"Jervais, stop it, please—" Jonah cried
out, clutching her tummy.

However, the older Blood continued, "If
you ever come near her, I'll use my tapping on you! You should know
by now who you are dealing with here."

"What tapping?" Jonah asked
curiously.

"Oh, you know—the one Aunt
Judith—
our sorcerer Aunt
Judith
, taught us how to!" Jervais answered
her eyes getting larger by the minute.

Looking confused, Jonah could not help
but asked, "She did?"

"Whatever— Just stay away from
her!"

Jonah quickly left her spot and stand
next to her sister. She lightly touched Jervais' arm and looked at
her with pleading eyes. "Please, Jervais, calm down."

"Now, what's with you?" Jervais asked,
noticing Jonah's face for the first time. "You don't look
well."

"Nobody told me there's a meeting by
the pond," Hugh's cheerful voice came through, breaking what seemed
like a tensed bubble surrounding Xavier, Jonah and Jervais. "Or I
would have gotten here sooner."

"Hugh!" Jonah said happily. Aside from
Hugh's good timing, as it had obviously given Jervais time to
collect herself and calmed down, Jonah was genuinely glad to see
Hugh again. And the pain in her mid-section was slowly
easing.

"What's up?" Hugh said looking from one
face to another. "What's going on? When X told me, he had to tell
me something back here I wasn't expecting to see you? You cut your
hair," Hugh said.

"You told me to do it," Jonah
replied.

"Let go off something heavy and the
others will follow," Both Hugh and Jonah said at the same time,
recalling his sage-like words about the hair.

"Well, it suits you. You're beautiful.
Your face just glows…without too much distraction," Hugh told Jonah
impulsively. Then, he felt himself blushing and warmly flushed from
neck up. "Don't you think so, X?"

"Yeah, I told her that. But nothing's
going on here. We just kind of run into each other. This meeting
was totally unexpected," Xavier told Hugh, throwing him an
unnoticeable look not to proceed further which Hugh caught on
immediately.

"And who's the back-up?" Jervais cut
in.

"Hugh," Hugh extended his hand towards
Jervais. "Xavier's brother. You must be a sister!"

Jervais did not take Hugh's hand. With
a sigh, she reached out for Jonah's arm and turned to leave with
her. "Let's go!" she said quietly.

Jonah did not want to look back
anymore. But when Jervais stopped to give Xavier another look,
Jonah also did.

Xavier had attempted to take a step in
their direction and follow them. Seeing this, Jervais stopped,
picked a fist-sized rock and acted like she was about to hurl it to
him.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Hugh was quick enough
to say and stepped in front of Xavier.

Jervais dropped the rock away and
continued to walk with Jonah right behind her. "A man in love will
act senselessly and would rather get a cracked head than to let you
go without saying anything," Jervais told Jonah. "It's only then
when you go back running to him."

"What if that would never happen?"
Jonah asked in a small, hesitant voice. "He could die before having
his head cracked." Jonah paused for awhile and felt like the rock
hit her instead.

"Then, run to the other brother, he
seemed ready to take anything thrown his way," Jervais
said.

When the two sisters disappeared into
the darker part of the woods leading back to the Blood property,
Xavier backed off and walked away in a different
direction.

"X! Hey, wait a minute!" Hugh called
out to Xavier. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing!" Xavier said and kept on
walking.

"Are you and Jonah okay?" Hugh
asked.

"I don't know!" Xavier replied,
speeding up a little with the darkness almost obscuring their
path."We didn't get the chance to really talk. What took you so
long anyway?"

"I got held up." Hugh
replied.

"Aunt Gilda?" Xavier
inquired.

"Who else?" Hugh answered.
"She asked about the
habak
. Told me to give it to Jonah as
soon as possible. Funny, but she also asked me to continue healing
you from this day on. As if I even started."

"I told her you did!" Xavier
uttered.

"You did what? You can't be serious!"
Hugh demanded. He caught Xavier's arm and made him stopped on his
tracks.

"I had to tell her," Xavier
explained.

"Why?" Hugh asked. He was sweating all
over and panting.

"Because you did!" Xavier chatted
merrily. "Look at me, I'm all fit."

Hugh watched Xavier in a jiffy before
giving in, "Yeah, you look well indeed. But I don't think it has
something to do with me! You said you had something to tell me.
What is it, then?"

The Breath of
Happiness

What a day it was!
Jonah took in some air and let it out. She had
thought the day wouldn't end anymore. Or if it would, she had
anticipated something worse to happen. The day had been packed with
a lot of things, but Jonah couldn't even remember the details
anymore.

The only event which registered was
seeing Xavier again. It was in itself an adventure. And kissing him
was another tale that could last a whole day to tell.

Jonah timidly poked her head on Jane's
bedroom door. Before, Jonah could even find where Jane was, she
heard her sister's amused voice.

"You've been sleeping here for a few
nights now," Jane said, watching Jonah.

Indeed, Jonah had already invaded
Jane's room for nights ever since Rebecca died.

"You're not a child anymore, Jonah!"
Jane said. Nevertheless, she signaled for Jonah to get in. She was
arranging the flowers on top of her two-seater table just by the
large window.

Jonah entered the room and jumped on
the king-sized bed. She hid behind the covers as it smelled of
fresh, flowery fabric softener. Everybody loved Jane's room. It was
probably the most warm and clean room in the whole mansion. The
minimalist arrangement gave the room a liberating feel with a lot
of space in it which ironically synchronized with the oversized
stuff like the bed, the television and the three-piece coffee table
set. The peaches-and-creams paint made anybody feel so comfortable
and homey. Unlike the whole heavy and dark hues which Rebecca had
her interior decorator set all over the mansion.