NERTHUS
“Amber!”
I turn around as I’m sitting in a field surrounded by daisies.
I could swear that I just heard someone call my name.
“Amber!”
The whispered call resounds again, making me stand up.
Black clouds fly towards me from the horizon, my vision blurring as it keeps distorting my perfectly built imaginary safe place.
Just as the clouds transform into fog, enveloping me in dark smoke, I open my eyes with a low gasp.
“Good morning!”
Blinking repeatedly, I get my sight to focus on a grinning Danny, who is leaning over me.
“Concetta said I should wake you up, so we could eat breakfast,” he whispers. “She has been cooking all night as it seems. There is food everywhere!”
I sit up, my eyes filling with tears as he starts flexing while he growls, “I’m built like a Hulk but I can’t make it alone!”
My tears are already streaming down my face as I laugh, making him look at me wide-eyed.
“No! What happened?” he wails, looking at me with a sad expression. “I thought you would be happy to see me!”
I stretch out my arms, opening and closing my hands repeatedly. His expression morphs, and he beams at me as he walks into my hug.
“Oh, I missed you,” I sob, as I caress the back of his head, breathing him in.
He sighs, hugging me tighter. “I missed you too.”
With a last squeeze, he lets go of me, sitting down on my bed. “How was your trip with your friends? Did you have fun?”
“Yes, it was awesome!” I say, making him smile.
“Where did you go? Did you take pictures?” he asks with sparkling eyes, and I lift my head to caress a few curls out of his face.
“Argh, you won’t believe it. I was in Paris, and as I was taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower, my phone fell into the Seine,” I scrunch up my nose, and he gasps, looking at me dumbfounded.
“No way! That’s why Arawn bought you a new one!”
I giggle, nodding. “Exactly. But don’t worry. Maybe we can go to Paris all together and take new pictures.”
Gasping, his eyes sparkle as he thinks of my idea, “That would be great!”
“Come on, let’s get breakfast,” I say with a laugh.
He lifts his fists into the air as I get up and help him get his crutches.
“Slowly, slowly,” I say as he is being all happily hyper again. “We will get to the food soon enough.”
Pinching his cheek as he grins at me, makes my heart bloom.
I can’t even express how happy I feel about being able to see his smile and hear him talk.
We reach the dining room slowly while he keeps flooding me with everything he hadn’t had the chance to tell me in these weeks in which we were apart.
“Ah, I missed your crazy stories,” I sigh as we sit down, and Concetta is already filling up his plate.
He keeps telling him how he has to eat a lot to get big and strong while he looks at me lost.
“Is she trying to kill me?” he asks in a whisper, making me laugh.
As he finally gets her to stop scooping food onto his plate, we start digging in. “Are we going to the beach today?”
“Sure, baby. If you don’t feel too tired for it. But think of it, we can sleep a bit in the sun,” I answer, making him look at me, munching with a happy expression.
He speaks with his mouth full, making me slap him with my napkin. “That would be awesome!”
I pinch my food with my fork, as he continues to eat, humming. “Did you see Arawn before he left?”
“Oh, no.” he chews, gulping down his bite hastily before taking a sip of his juice. “He said he had business to do in the States so he would be gone for a few days.”
My jaw hits the table as I look at him dumbfounded.
You have to be fucking kidding me.
“What? Without me?” I ask outraged, and he furrows his brows.
“Hey! I flew here specifically for you. And now you wanted to leave me here to go back with him?”
Looking at him for a second, I press my lips together before we both snort with laughter. “Ah, you are such a cutie, Danny-boy.”
***
As soon as we have finished breakfast, I grab my biggest hat and we stroll to the beach while ignoring Concetta’s reprimands about going for a swim after having eaten too much.
Danny hobbles slowly down the white, wooden stairs and keeps shooing me away every time I want to help him.
We stare at the setup on the private beach with sparkling eyes and I guess that Arawn had made sure that it would be cleaned out for us as it looks like it had come out of a travel catalog.
“Wow! This looks dope,” Danny says as we get into the gazebo constructed in dark wooden elements and white curtains.
I take a deep breath and lay down on the cozy beach bed. “Oh, I love it here. Let’s never leave.”
“Yeah, let’s do Arawn do his business while we stay in the sun,” he says as he steps onto the platform.
I laugh, taking an iced tea from a nice young man who is handing me the drink with a big smile. “Thank you, Sal.”
I’m about to take a sip as Danny takes off his t-shirt, making my laughter die in my throat.
The wounds of the shots are still clearly visible on his chest and abs, and as I’m inspecting them, my chest squeezes at the realization of how close he was to death.
As if he senses what I am thinking, he starts flexing again. “I’m Superman!”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Yeah, you are. But let that be the last time you demonstrate your powers to us.”
He continues flexing, grinning as Sal chuckles, “Would you enjoy a bit of music?”
“Yes! That would be great!” Danny dances awkwardly to a nonexistent tune as he answers for me.
Laughing, I nod towards Sal, “Thank you, Sal.”
As I expected, Danny’s arrival was everything I needed to feel complete again.
He has barely been here a few minutes, and my cheeks are already hurting, my heart feeling a little lighter.
And I can’t wait for Arawn to come back to enjoy the time we have together to the fullest.
Like a small family.