Chapter 39 THE PROUD STAR SUN
“You are right! the sun is a very proud star. I don’t like it much, although we both have to admit that the heat it emits helps the plants to grow and the rain to fall. Compared to Elara it’s nothing to me.”
“Who or what is Elara? This is the second time you are calling that name” she asked curiously?
“The moon! She is a far humbler star than the sun.” he answered her excitedly.
“In summary…Anyway… if you asked me what inspired me to write the novel, I would say; I got my inspiration from the sun! you see it’s very proud and…” Mahina chuckled at him. He smiled back at her and said:
“You can ask me other questions, say why don’t we go for a walk and pick some tangerines, apples and blue berries while you ask me more questions. Staying in one place and answering questions gives me nostalgic feelings about writing exams back in the days when I was still in school. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha I am already feeling tensed up.”
They got up and went into the fields. He carried two baskets from a shed close to the trees and handed one to her while he held one for himself:
“Do you love plants?” Mahina asked curiously seeing how excited he was looking. Arlo nodded and raised a brow with a smirk as he retorts:
“I am passionate about them, must especially the ones that bear fruits like these ones. Can you believe it? I was the one that planted all the trees here.” Veer boasted about his love for plants which he was very proud of.
“You must have loved planting since you were a child right?” Mahina asked further anxiously.
“Yeah!” he answered simply.
Mahina couldn’t help but to stare at Veer for a while in wonder before walking further into the farm. Each of the people she met because of Alba were different in a special way including Veer. Looking at him she couldn’t help but to think of her friend Dora. She smiled at him more warmly and said:
“You realized I was staring at you, didn’t you?” he chuckled and answered her.
“How did you know?” She smirked at his question and answered.
“Well… you were smiling handsomely… so I guessed. Do you know you remind me of my friend? She has the same rare, beautiful violet eyes as yours. It’s charming.”
“Shhhh” he placed a finger on his lips and shushed her.
“I guess you have no idea how jealous Alba can be, or do you?” Mahina scoffs and walked faster ahead of him:
“When they arrived at the farm, Mahina was impressed by how massive and refreshing it was. She took a deep breath of the sweet fruity scented environ and exhaled. It was a large farm with many ripened blue berries and other fruits and berries. When Mahina sighted the blue berry plant and ran to it. She plugged plenty in her hands and stuffed some of it in her mouth. After all blue berries were her favorite kind of berries.
Veer tilted his head to the side and said:
“You certainly do look familiar Mahina. It’s like I have seen you somewhere before but I just can’t quite remember. At first I thought I was just imagining things… but I am certain that I have seen you before. Perhaps… not in person but on television.” Mahina smirked and scoffs at him:
“I am sure, you are just imagining things.”
Mahina thought in her mind that certainly there wouldn’t be anyone who will be able to recognize her after her transformation all those years. After all she was no longer the Lourdes fashion world princess anymore. Darla’s mother Mrs. Rose Adams made sure she was forgotten. All her pictures from the past were replaced by Darla’s, in the company and on all social media platforms.
After the huge change and her displacement from her uncle’s inheritance. Mahina went into hiding. She changed everything about herself with the help of Dora and remained hidden from public until her story died down in the news. So yes she was certain he will eventually shove his curiosity away because she looks nothing like she did in the past at least so she thought.
“Mister Veer I look like a lot of people. Some even call me plain Jane you know”
Veer smirked and thought to himself: ‘She has changed a bit alright. She is looking a lot curvier than she was in the past and her glow has died down a bit but even with all that, her beauty is still unrivaled. Hmm even with the change in fashion and etiquettes… she can hide from the world because of the adversity she has faced but she can’t hide from me….’
Mahina was practically treated like a princess by her uncle after her mother’s demise. If anyone thought she was glowing now, they should have seen her in the past because her uncle didn’t spare a penny in investing in her looks. As he would say in the past, when he was still alive: ’invest in the quality of your work and success will chase your back. Mahina was the success of Lourdes world because of her grace, poise and beauty.
“Hina Mary Malik!” He grinned at her cynically as he called out a long forgotten name.
Mahina jolted and looked around her quickly to make sure no one was listening to them. She looked at him quizzically but the man sighed and said to her.
“No need to be Alarm no one is here except you and I… well the workers are far from here and they can’t hear a thing with the distance between us. So your secret is safe with me.”
While she was still looking shocked and drained from what Veer just said, she was brought back to reality by Alba’s sudden voice:
“Are you still not done with the interview, I got tired of waiting in the car.” Mahina struggled to respond to Alba. After stuttering for some time, she finally answered Alba:
“We-we-we are-are- done already… I am just packing some blueberries to make a nice desert for you later at home.” Alba went to where she was standing and gave her a warm hug from the back saying:
“Oh dear you are the sweetest!” she struggled to smile properly. Alba could see how tensed up she was looking. He knew the reason why she wasn’t comfortable. He overheard their conversation. He didn’t mean to actually. It just happens, he can’t control his super hearing abilities. Although he wasn’t surprise because he knew who she was from the very beginning. He didn’t bring up the topic because it was her privacy and if she wanted to let him in on her life she would do so on her own without any pressure.
“Your muscles are all tensed up Mahina!” Alba said to her while he was still hugging her from behind her back. Mahina exhaled and handed him the basket:
“Let’s hurry and leave here then. Since you are tired from waiting for me.”
Veer smiled at Mahina warmly and quietly excused the duo. He went away to a different section of the farm. When he arrived there, he smirked and said:
“A weasel will always be a weasel no matter how it tries to change his nature.” He made sure he said it out loud so that Alba could hear him.
He continued picking the tangerines with a smirk and feeling fulfilled after provoking Alba. Suddenly he heard a cackle in his head:
‘Veer I am not a patient man…so stop trying to provoke me!’ Veer dropped his basket and held his head between his hands. Alba had that effect of making one feel crazy when he uses telepathy on anyone.
“Get out of my head you psychopath!”
‘I Haven’t even done anything to you already and you are looking like you are going insane’ Veer exhaled and quickly sat in a meditative pose. He placed his middle finger on his fore head while chanting an ancient prayer really fast. He swiftly looks up into the sky with his glowing violet eyes and tears started rushing out of his eyes. Then he brought both his middle finger and ring finger to his lips. He was trembling and rambling some words the whole time while he was at it.
“Indra! meih ha ni tu si shu ah aini”
Veer yelled out the ancient words and Alba cackled before he left his mind back to his own senses. When he got to his body the rain was falling. He cussed Veer inwardly because it was no ordinary rain. He could feel it in his body. The millions of little c4 pin like electrons. Draining his energy and weakening him. Alba stood still analyzing what was happening to his body with the rain falling on him and Mahina. It was obvious it had no effect on Mahina but only him.
Mahina thought it was weird because it was not raining period yet. She held Alba’s hand and they went into the blueberry farm and she began picking the blueberries in silence. Alba knew what was disturbing her but he just watched her in silence while enduring his own pain.
Soon her basket was filled up with blueberries. She smiled at the sight of the blueberries in her basket and turned to look at Alba. What she saw made her drop her basket in fear.