Seeing Diana step into the room with the cup of medicine, which I had been taking for one week-since the night Laura had broken down in tears before me-I sighed, not concerned that Diana would hear me, or moved by the fact that she was laughing now. The brute.
“Why the long face, Maya?” She teased, stretching the cup of greenish bitter liquid to me, her eyes twitching and swishing.
I ignored her.
“You don’t want it? I will have to call my mother then…” She said, dropping the cup of medicine on the bedside table. She was about to turn away, but I held her by the arm, and dropped a soft knock on her head. She was really getting bouts of fun out of delivering a medicine much bitter than anything I had tasted.
It was something that Laura had concocted for the memory loss that she thought was plaguing me. Serves me right.
The first time she had given it to me had been the following morning when Peter and I had prepared to go around the community as he had mentioned on that night filled with discussions.
Turns out that she had spent the entire night working on the potion, working to make me better, working out her frustrations and anger. And that had been why I had accepted the medicine that smelt of greenness, even though I hated medicines.
The first sip of the medicine had ended up on her face. It had been a knee jerk reaction, automatic when my taste buds had grasped the flavor of the medicine.
Laura had glared at me, the glare unmoving, until I had downed the remaining drink. I had vomited it though the next minute. My stomach hadn’t been able to hold it down. She had shrugged, before citing that there had been more from where the drink had come from; something my mother would do.
But when she had mentioned that I would be taking the medicine till there was an improvement in my memory shape, I had almost told her that I didn’t lose my memory to start with. But thinking that the truth might trigger her eye water bags again, I had shut my mouth.
Seeing Diana snickering now, I was beginning to wonder if lying had been worth it.
“You know you can tell them that you have gotten some of your memories, instead of taking this daily.” Diana started, puckering her lips as she stared at the cup detestfully.
The first time I had convinced her to taste the drink which she had seemed so curious about, the sip had ended on my face too. I had spent more than two days washing off the stench from my face. And, yes, Diana knew about my memory not being totally lost. I attributed it to her gift. The secret had been exposed on the fourth day; three days ago.
That day, she had brought the drink as usual; the messenger sent to deliver poison to the fine princes. I had hesitated in taking the cup from her hand for ten minutes; ten minutes of her trying to cajole me as before to take it. When she had gotten tired of saying the same thing over and over again, she had decided to come out with the truth, just like she did now.
‘You can just tell mother that you didn’t lose your memories, or all of them. I am not sure. But I know that you remember more than you are telling us. I don’t know why though. Why are you hiding? Are you dangerous? I don’t think so. You don’t seem that way to me.’ She had said, shocking the life out of me.
I had opened my mouth, then shut it, not knowing what to say. It was then that I had believed that Diana might have similar powers to the queen, and that must be why the queen was taking her on special classes. Yes, since that fateful day she had told me about her classes, and I hadn’t related it to her mom, Diana had told me more.
Diana had been testing the waters with the first tale she had told me about the palace, testing my faithfulness to keeping her secrets. You guessed it right. She had lied to me-she had told me this later.
Apparently, the queen wasn’t just taking classes in the palace; she was only taking Diana in magic classes at the palace, to the envy of the other kids who had been tasked too to keep their mouths shut about the happenings in the palace. That was a part of their class-keeping secrets from even their parents.
I had smelled danger when she had confided me, chippy and happy that she had been worthy of the queen’s attention. I still didn’t know why the queen gave me the jeeps but I guessed time would tell.
But I had kept Diana’s secret even though it might be detrimental to her and her parents, because that way she would trust me enough to tell me more of her secrets about the queen. I was intent on hearing more, and when she had told me mine, I had been caught in a tighter spot.
I couldn’t talk about her secrets now even if I wanted to, unless I wanted the whole community to know that I had my memories back.
She never made the threat or the proposition, but I could tell from looking at her deep blue eyes that Diana wasn’t all warmth and sunshine. She could be tacky when annoyed. Her tantrums sometimes wore us out in the house. Peter usually escaped to his farm during those times.
Right now, I didn’t give a response to Diana’s statement, rather I just took the cup of medicine from the table, stilled myself for a second, and downed the bitter liquid in one gulp, shouting ‘ahhhh’ the next second as if to let the air in the room take out the bitterness out of mouth. If only that was possible.
“You really don’t want to talk about your memory, even to me?” Diana asked, and I shook my head just like I have always done when she asked the question.
As much as I feared that the queen might have put her up to this-Diana had so much faith in the queen that I had no qualms believing that the little girl would do anything to please the woman-I also didn’t think she would understand my story too. She has never been bullied.
Diana pouted her lips at my reply, and stamped her feet out of frustration. The sad expression disappeared from her face the next minute, however, when she suddenly remembered something.
“What is that?” I asked, getting out of the bed. It was Friday, and I had promised Peter that I would help him on the farm this morning. Diana would be off to school soon.
“Well, I heard mom talking to dad this morning. Seems we will be going to the lycan’s king community for the annual peace pact celebration tomorrow or next. Isn’t that cool? I’m old enough to go, right?” She queried, but my mind was already miles away from her.