Nothing ever broke the silence which created that subtle, cool environment where she could read novels about love, life and reality.
Mary sat on a couch with her legs crossed. She intermittently sipped a cup of coffee laced with a lot of milk - she hated the bitter feel of raw coffee on the surface of her tongue. She read a romance novel written by the legendary Shakespeare - he was her favourite.
"Mum where the hell did you keep my shoe!!!" King, her son shouted as he approached her, breaking the beautiful silence.
She dropped her novel, slightly tilted her head downwards, and gave him a reprimanding stare through the little space between her eyes and glasses
"I've told you to stop using the word 'hell' in your sentences."
King stood there without uttering a word, he spoke through the frown which he wore on his cute little face.
"You look like an ugly teddy bear." She cut in, breaking the ephemeral silence.
King's face almost transitioned into a smile but he fought within his soul to keep it at bay.
"I know you want to laugh, just let it out."
He then broke out into laughter, he laughed hysterically for some seconds while his Mum watched, smiling at her cute boy.
"Yeah, I guess I'll need to head for the shopping mall" she said, lifting her handbag off the couch while shuffling her feet into her shoes in preparation to leave.
"Oh! The Nanny would be coming anytime soon." She said while holding the knob to the entrance door.
"You didn't say the word" king replied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." She cleared her throat then whispered... "I love you!!"
"Love you too Mum."
She hastily left for the mall. On arrival, she parked at the parking lot, stepped into the building, flinging lots of snacks, fruits and of course, novels into the cart.
She slowly wheeled the shopping cart down while looking sideways at the array of books lined within the shelf. She was hoping to see a romantic novel written by Shakespeare, when suddenly, her shopping cart jammed against that of another person coming from the opposite direction.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, she said while bending downwards to pick some of the items which spilled out of the stranger's cart.
"Here you go" she handed over the items in an outstretched hand. "I'm actually so.." she paused for a moment.
The eyes of the young man were blue, and attractive, one could mistake him for a fallen angel. He seemed half Asian, half American.
"Yeah, it's cool. I should be the one apologizing" he cut in.
His deep voice was even more intriguing than his eyes. She continued staring upwards at him in admiration — He was quite tall. In her head She could picture them on their wedding day.
"Hey, are you there" he waved his hands in front her face, drawing her away from her thoughts.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm Just... You know..." she seemed speechless while struggling not to display the evident blush on her face.
"Nice glasses though. I can see you love novels." He said, looking into her cart.
"Yeah, I do" she flung her hair backwards.
"You read shakespeare?"
"Yeah, How'd you figure out" she asked in surprise.
"You've got this poetic way of expressing yourself..."
She kept smiling, twisting and fiddling her hair throughout the conversation before they finally exchanged numbers.
She drove home thinking about the stranger at the mall, John. She was enticed by his charming antics and composure. But she reminisced on how she met King's father, it was somewhat similar to John — they had both met at the mall.
"Welcome Mum" king walked towards her and embraced her thighs. He was quite little, (5 years of age). His small hands couldn't go above her thighs.
"I got you some snacks" she reached inside the shopping bag which she held on one hand.
"Thanks mum" he said while receiving the snacks which was handed over to him. He always acted like a calm adult, he wasn't the regular kid you'll see playing and messing around — this worried his mum and that's why she took things easy on him.
A call came into her cellphone, she picked...
"Go on king, go watch TV" she subtly shooed him away.
"Hi John" she smiled, supporting the phone on her ears using her shoulder while trying to offload the goods she brought back.
"Yeah, uh huh" she kept replying, pacing around the living room while smiling, like one on a multi-million dollar business call.
"... So I think we should hang out tomorrow evening, what do you say?" John asked.
"Sure, why not... Till then perhaps" the call hung up.
"Who's that mum?"
"Jeez!!" She stuttered causing the phone to drop to the floor. She turned back "I thought I told you to watch TV?"
"TV's boring" he silently stood there, glaring.
"Alright, you know what? Let's get your homework done" she held him by the hand while leading him to the inner room.
The sun had hidden behind the dark clouds while the moon displayed its radiance to the Earth.
Meanwhile... Mary was writhing in her sleep dreaming about a perfect magical love scenario with John. She couldn't wait for the sun to dispel the moon, she couldn't wait to meet John, despite finding it hard to trust any man after king's Father left her while she was with his child in her womb.
The sun had quickly risen and the day went by in the twinkle of an eye. She sat at a restaurant by 5:30pm waiting for her dream Man. They were meant to meet by 7pm but she had nothing doing so she came earlier to ease her mind off the sad reality of life. King was at school, and she was the boss of her production company... Her physical presence wasn't needed to earn money.
But Someone caught her attention, it was John. She watched through the transparent window right beside her, he was in the embrace of another woman: his arms wrapped around her waist and his eyes staring deeply into her's. The smiles on their faces was the perfect description of lovers in a typical Shakespeare novel.
She put a call through to him...
"Hey, where are you?"
"I'm at home dear. I need to complete my project proposal. We'll see by..."
She hung up before he could complete his statement. His foul lies were just like that of king's father — She incessantly and foolishly accepted him back each time he was caught in similar acts, until he left her to her fate.
She wasn't going to let her broken heart suffer yet again so she silently drove away, unnoticed. she felt sad they didn't become a thing and at the same time, happy the reality she was oblivious of was revealed under the prying eyes of the setting sun.
"Atleast, I've got my baby boy." She whispered in her head as her face insidiously transitioned into a smile.
She increased the volume of the background music playing in the car and danced to a classic, "feeling good" by the legendary Micheal buble while torrents of raindrops smacked against the windscreen.
She kept driving downtown... towards home, towards her little King... Towards peace!
