9: wewe and Me

“So Tristan, how do wewe fit into all this?” Alice asked him. He was sitting on a chair closest to the front of the carriage. He looked up from his book and sighed.
“Well, I was created in 1408, kwa two warlocks known as Magna and Dejan. They took me and molded me into the perfect creature-a creature with the ability to change into anything at will-human, animal, whatever-telepathy, soothsayer, I was the perfect creature. But there are some limits even the could not look past though they are few: I can’t grant wishes, not the way a genie can, I can’t kill anyone at all, I can use my magic to do so but not kwa my own hands, I can not use my powers for unreasonable things like destroying a town, causing the oceans to part, those sort of things.”
kwa then the sun was just starting to set and almost everyone had remained where they had started out, the exceptions being Tristan and Jack who moved closer to Rosalie. “But how did wewe come to be with these guys?”
“Ah. I first met Jonathan-the vampire that changed two out of the three-it was 1888 and we were both tired of living such lies. So, we came up with an idea: I would masquerade as whoever and should I find some worthy to be Jonathan’s mate and eventually his offspring I would bring them to him. In exchange, he would keep his silence of my abilities and I would do the same for him. It worked well-within the first mwaka I had found his mate Lisa and several years later Luke.”
“But?”
“No but. Everything has been fine since.”
“When did wewe find Jack?”
“I found Jack in late April of 1933; he was down kwa the edge of the forest. I found him and like I always do, I asked him if I was to save you, what would wewe do with the rest of your life? wewe remember your answer, Jack?”
He looked right at Rosalie and alisema “I would win back the upendo of my life, get rid of that jerk she’s engaged to, marry her, give her as many children as her moyo desired and raise them together.” She looked right back, again thankful that the ability to blush was gone.
“No tall order” Michael said, laughing slightly. Jack rolled his eyes but smiled faintly, looking at Rosalie once then back down again.
“Right. Then I asked would wewe like me to save wewe so wewe may do as wewe wish? kwa then, he was so weak he couldn’t talk, just a faint nod of the head. I told him what would happen what he would become but he did not care. So, Jonathan changed him.”
“What led to that? What happened, Jack?” He looked at her for a sekunde then back down.
“Sure wewe want to know?”
The way he asked made her balk for a sekunde but she nodded. “Yes.”
“Don’t hate me afterwards.” He waited and when she shook her head he alisema “I was coming nyumbani from town-home then was a small fort in the woods-and I’d say four, five men attacked me. One of them was your father I could tell kwa his voice. He kept saying ‘you ruined her! wewe ruined my Rose’ and all I could think was she was never yours. Eventually one stabbed me just above my ribs. I made it quite a ways before I fell down the kilima and Tristan found me. To this day, I’ve never understood what he meant.” He looked at her and somewhere he saw that she knew but could tell she wasn’t going to say-possibly never though he suspected under different circumstances.
“And wewe two?” she asked her brothers-her true honest to god blood brothers. They exchanged a look. “What?”
“Well, like Tristan said, I was a Lieutenant in the army. I had been serving under the command of Douglas MacArthur-it was a real honor that he took me after I received my Lieutenant ranking and forth purple moyo on Normanday. We were in the Philippines when I was wounded severely enough that I was discharged and sent home. Only, I didn’t want to-I felt like a failure so I told them to tell my family I had died. I did come back and developed an illness from my wound exposure. Eventually I was on death’s door when Tristan found me.”
“You mentioned your family?”
“Yeah-David and I still talked and I was married at the time.”
“You were?” she said, looking at him.
“Yeah. Five kids, one zaidi on the way. I…Never forgave myself for not seeking them out though Tristan showed me that they moved on and had great lives.” He smiled at the thought and sighed.
“Five…Wow…”she said, looking at him then away again.
“Why? That how many wewe want with Jack?” he asked her, though nothing on his face alisema he was joking.
“Mike!”
“What?”
“Shut up. wewe must not value your life very much today.”
He chuckled and alisema “if that were the case, I would have died years ago.
“Ok. David, your turn” alisema Alice, shooting him a look that begged to get the ball rolling before Jack and Michael tried to kill each other.
“Similar to his only I was a major in the air force. I flew a Grumman F6F Hellcat and it was a beauty. Well, I was shot down behind enemy lines and that should have killed me but it didn’t-I was saved kwa some troops and air lifted back to the base. All was well for a while then in July of 45, our base was attacked and I barley made it out alive. Like Jack and Michael, I was found kwa Tristan and changed.”
“And your family?”
“Married, three kids. That was the whole reason I wanted to be changed-to see them grow, to be with my wife but Tristan, Jonathan, Lisa, and Luke showed me that would never work. So, like Michael, I watched from a far.”
“Must have been hard.”
“Better than not knowing.”
“Ok, I’ll bring us out of this bout of sadness with a joke-Jack feel free to kill me-but I have to get this off my chest.”
Jack rolled his eyes and Michael took this as a good sign. “Ok: it’s been 97 years since the sinking of Titanic. And now here we sit with the star-crossed lovers themselves-Jack and Rose Dawson.” He shook his head and laughed, “Jack and Rose, reunited. Someone please play that song!” From an unknown chanzo and all around them, the opening to “My moyo Will Go On” echoed around them.
“I’d say nice work but I enjoy Jack on my good side” alisema David, picking up Great Expectations and thumbing through it until he found his page again.
“If wewe want to kill him, for once I won’t stop you” Tristan said, frowning at Michael.
“Nah. I’ll leave that up to Rose” he answered simply. “So, should he live au die?”
“I guess he can live. For now.”
“You have to admit, the irony is sort of creepy.”
“Yes. Thank wewe Leo and thank wewe James Cameron” Jack alisema dryly. He then looked at her and again he saw that look. So, he decided to let his mind do the talking.
<So, what could be so horrible wewe won’t say it?>
<Jack, don’t.>
<What? Don’t wewe think I’m owed an explanation for the way I am? What did he mean?>
<I swear I will tell wewe someday-but not today.>
<Someday though?>
<Yes, someday since it’s for your ears only.>
<Alright. I can live with that.>
She looked up at him and faintly smiled. He smiled back, much broader, and she too increased it. She got up from the kitanda and sat inayofuata to him, taking his hand. He gently traced it though every softness had been replaced kwa the hard exterior. He didn’t care-just this moment had made waiting nearly ¾ of a century well worth it.
Despite every part of her screaming that this was beyond wrong, that no good would come of it, that this was leaving safety and entering the danger zone, she ignored them all for that stirring was far too strong for her to ignore.
“Well well. Rekindling the flame already?” Neither one alisema anything, just stared into the other’s eyes knowing that what they were feeling was at once completely right…And at the same time completely wrong.
“Lay off Mike” David said, still reading. Rolling his eyes, he walked to the outside and leaped ever so gently off the carriage.
While Alice talked to Tristan, mostly about the differences between her premonitions and his, David read Great Expectations, totally absorbed, Jack and Rosalie just sat and stared, scared to speak for fear it would break the spell. How could any of this be right? How was it possible for Rosalie to bounce back from the loss not even twenty four hours ago? And yet she did-sitting there, Jack’s hand cradling hers, she could not recall a single face, a single name from the family she had been with all those years.
Why? She thought. Why wonder? Another part of her said. Who cares? wewe know what wewe feel-and wewe deserve to be happy. She couldn’t agree there though some part of her knew that maybe someday she would.
And then he smiled, that true beautiful smile that could knock a njiwa from a mti and she knew happiness. She knew wholeness-for once, being what she was, she did not feel alone at all.
Throwing all caution in the wind, telling every part of her that screamed this was wrong to shut up, she threw herself into him, her lips on his, feverently, hungrily, wanting and needing blending and fading until it was impossible to distinguish one from the other. She heard them all at the same time: “Rose!” “All right! Bout damn time!” “Shut up Mike!” And yet all she could focus on was his lips. At long last and too soon, she felt him break away gently. She searched his eyes and saw his lips in a smirk.
“Stop the carriage please” Alice snarled, rushing off the sekunde it stood still.
“Wait!” Rose called, chasing after her.
“What was that? Huh? We lose everyone and wewe throw yourself into the first vamp that isn’t your brother?!”
“What?! Did wewe not hear me tell wewe about our history?! Look, despite having Emmett and even Royce, I never loved anyone the way I did Jack-no one. He was my first and my only love.”
“Then what was Emmett to you-someone to just use and discard at your will?! Were wewe just going to hurt him someday?”
“No! If I had known that Jack was the way he is, I would have gone away with him the sekunde I found him again, nothing against the man that made us what we are and his family but I never truly loved and lived the way I did when I was with Jack.”
Alice just shook her head, turning away from her. “I…Can’t even look at wewe right now, so sick.”
“What? That I want to songesha on? That I want happiness again? If that’s wrong then sue me cuse I don’t care. I haven’t been happy in 77 years and now I am.”
“Of course not. And why should you. Since wewe never even cared about any of them.”
She growled softly but stayed silent. “If that was the case, I would have left years ago.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Seems like that’s all wewe do know.”
While they bickered, IT was drawing closer and closer, getting ready to attack again.