“Let's do dinner." he said decisively.
“I can do tonight at 8pm, at The Bellevue. Is your mum coming?”
The Bellevue was a high end restaurant and I had to steer him away from that place, it was too formal.
“She wasn't sure it was a good idea. I think she needs a bit of time, but she was okay with me meeting you. She told me to pick a place I was going to be comfortable, so can we meet at The King's Arms?”
It was a much better place to be kept an eye on by the Sensorians as you did not have to book a table and people were constantly dropping in and out. I held my breath a bit as he seemed to hesitate at my suggestion.
“Okay." he finally agreed.
“Your mum always was a wise lady. Is there no way you can persuade her to come along?”
I breathed out slowly, relieved. I was lucky he could attribute all these signals to nerves about seeing him.
“She wants to take it slowly, see how it goes between us first." I made up.
“Okay, fair enough.”
He sounded disappointed.
I decided to ignore it and focus on our meet.
“Good. We'll see each other there then, 8pm?" I asked him to confirm.
I called off and checked with Zack, who seemed more than satisfied.
“Good work, Eli."
He looked at me appreciatively.
My heart flurried hearing him call me Eli and it felt great to have pleased him. Though, I'm sure his appreciation only lasted minutes as not long after, I pissed him off by sighing at him when he ordered me to do some revision after saying my goodbyes to mum.
“Don't annoy me, Mankuzay. You don't want me in a bad mood for boxercise later." he warned.
I certainly didn't. I was still nursing some of the bruises I sustained the last time he was in a foul mood.
It felt horrible waving off my mum. She was so sad to go and worried about me. I had to be strong and show her I believed it was for the best and that I was fine. It was difficult to pull off and by the looks of the Sensorians around me I wasn't convincing them. But then, my mum was no Sensorian and she seemed to relax a little, so I must have seemed confident enough to convince her at least. Zaphire did her best too, making sure mum was feeling positive about the whole thing.
“Alice, she's being looked after by the best people to keep her safe. Time will fly.”
She gave her a big reassuring hug and then stepped back to let us do the same. My body was consumed with all the feelings flying around. It felt like little waves of electricity coursing through my body. It was almost too much, but I stayed strong. Then I felt the soft touch of Zaphire on my back, encouraging me to let go. Mum quickly wiped away a tear, which nearly broke my heart. I could feel myself welling up too, but I resisted, using all the techniques I had learned. Mum may not be a Sensorian, but she was my mum and noticed I was struggling. Now it was her turn to put a positive spin on the situation.
“Look at us silly people. We will both be fine and see each other in no time! Promise me one thing though my baby. Please be careful. Listen to Zack and don't try and be a hero.”
I nodded and she smiled gingerly, and with that she picked up her bag and was escorted out of the building by Laura. A heavy feeling enveloped me and my heart felt like it was going to implode. I could hardly breathe and I had to swallow back my tears again, not helped by the fact I could feel every single crushing emotion my mum felt as she walked out, leaving me almost falling apart.
Walking back to our room, me still in a complete daze, Zack suddenly called over one of the little boys, he must have been about eight or nine years old. Zack looked at him seriously and asked him if he could do an important job for him, to which the boy eagerly nodded his head. He gave him a little note and told him to find Ned as soon as possible and deliver it to him. The boy ran off immediately to do his task.
“Remember you asked before why we send the kids on these little errands? Have you worked out why yet?”
“I guess it is to get them used to following orders?”
I assumed something like that last time I witnessed the, in my opinion, rather pointless exercise. I'm sure Zack was just trying to distract me from my misery, but he answered quite seriously.
“There is that to it, but more importantly we do it to get them involved in our community from a very young age. It gives us the opportunity to praise them lots for helping and make them feel important and valued.”
Zack paused a moment.
“It makes them want to follow orders."
He threw me a questioning glance.
“Something you seem to find quite hard to grasp, especially when you first got here."
I agreed. It did not come naturally to me but I did understand the importance and had worked hard to get over my instinct to question everything and thought I had been doing rather well lately.
“That makes sense. It's a way of life for you all. I just dropped in and have to adjust to this rapidly.”
I looked him straight in the eyes.
“Something that some of you forget sometimes.”
“No one has forgotten that. We just don't want to constantly make allowances for you. It wouldn't help you. You're strong, you can cope. It's a compliment. I was too fucking soft on you at the start." he said resolutely.
I wasn't so sure, but I wasn't going to say anything. It would be pointless, the way he and I were raised was so different, we might as well have lived on different planets.
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