Three

Alice pulled off the wet sandals from underneath her frozen feet, kicking them aside as she stepped in. It had been thirty minutes since the rain stopped so she let the stranger’s umbrella hang on the rod, not far from where her sandals laid. She was yet to get him out of her mind.

The stranger with the mask.

What she couldn’t wrap her fingers around was whom this stranger was and why he had decided to help her?..

She thought as she took another glance at the beautiful Red umbrella before heading towards the kitchen to fix herself a hot tea or maybe coffee.

She later settled for a hot steamy coffee, running her mind over her past hectic works while she did so.

She settled onto her cream sofa with the coffee mug in her hand, her right fingers wrapped tightly and firmly around its handle. She heaved a sigh of what was clearly relief and brought the tip of the mug closet to her lips, sipping it slowly. It turned out to be more hot than she had expected it to be so she took her time with it.

Her eyes trailed back to the Red umbrella she had carefully placed in her living room, just around the door side. There was something about Red that she maybe despised a little.

Was it because it made her yearn of blood? Something to remind her of who she was or where she belonged to.

Nevertheless, it looked expensive, more expensive than she had thought a random umbrella would look like. Only that this umbrella wasn’t ‘random’ because its owner didn’t look random to her.

Expensive car. Expensive suit. Strong scent that had made her dizzy from how good it was.

He was anything but ‘random’.

Maybe that was why she had been willing to get a little more drenched than let the umbrella get a more wet.

Maybe it was the reason she had left it dripping its wetness in her living room then leaving it outside, out there where its next fate would be blank and maybe dangerous.

She took another sip from it, letting its newly found coolness run round her tongue as her eyes drifted away from the not a ‘random’ to rest on the faded golden bangles laying in the center of her wooden table. It was the first gift her late Father had gotten her and it had been on her tenth birthday. It was the first and last she had gotten and she valued it so much. It was faded already, so faded that she was starting to think of letting it go but she couldn’t, could never bring herself to let go of the only thing that reminded her of the one man she had loved and cherished so much.

She took another sip of the now cold coffee, losing her interest in it, she stretched forward to drop it on the table. She then ran her right palm over the back of her neck because of the pain she felt in it.

It was so sunny as the Sun sat in the sky smiling so brightly.

“ You can’t catch me.” Her younger self yelled aloud happily as she ran as swift as her little legs could take her.

“ Wait till I get you.” An older male voice said and ran after her, trying to slow down so he wouldn’t catch up with her too early.

He finally caught up with her and picked her up from the floor, tinkling her with his right fingers.

She could hear her younger self giggling loudly as she threw her arms sideways with her head tilted backwards.

She smiled as she stood there watching it all happen.

This was one of the memories of her Father that she rarely visited. One of the happy moments she liked to relive only during moments she really needed it.

That was only amazing thing about her powers, the powers to visit dreams. Her dreams mostly since that was how far she had gone. She had never tried visiting that of others so she didn’t know if she could and she never saw herself doing so one day. To her, it felt like she would be trespassing too much since dreams were more than just dreams. They are memories, painful and happy ones that actually help people deal with their past, handle their present and mostly hope for the future.

She watched her younger self run the moment she was placed down, giggling and daring her Father to catch up with her.

Just like she had guessed, he was tall with a Black hair, a round face and questioning eyes. Eyes that shows warmth too.

Smiling, she turned sideways to relive another memory.

“ Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!. Hip! Hip! Hip! Hurray!.” Her Father sang warmly and wholeheartedly as he clapped his hands together.

She could see her younger self beaming with joy, a warm smile fixed on her lips. One she wasn’t sure she had had on hers in a long time.

It was her tenth birthday, the first birthday he had celebrated for her because he couldn’t afford to do so every year.

“ We will celebrate your birthday every ten years, okay.” He had said to her few days before her birthday.

Alice felt a tear run down her right cheek as she watched her Father stretch the Pink box towards her younger self.

“ Open it.” He said warmly the moment she took it and watched her fiddle with it for a while before it made the click sound and opened.

“ It’s so beautiful.” Her younger self exclaimed, her voice showing her emotional she was. Her eyes taking in the beauty of the bangles, the Golden one with Blue stripes.

“ I didn’t know if you would like you so I just…” He was saying before she cut in by stretching forward and pulling him in a hug, a warm embrace.

“ I love it Father. Thank you.” She said sounding all teary as she clutched tightly onto the box in her right hand so it wouldn’t fall and break.

Her Father sighed with relief and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her back gently.

Alice could no longer remember how long the hug had lasted but she knew she had gone to bed that night with a mixed feeling of both happiness and sadness. Sad that he had to overwork himself to get her a gift and happy that he loved her enough to get her one. A gift she knew she would cherish forever.

Deep down she knew if she wanted to, she could go on and on reliving all her good memories but she doubted that she would want to. It was one thing that drained her a lot because it was like time travel, going to the past and all.

She had a long day at work today and knew she would have a more hectic one tomorrow since they had being informed that the big company would come over to inspect them and something about some importation. She could barely remember since she hadn’t really paid attention to any of his words. After all those weren’t part of her work.

All she was, was a messenger and she knew better than to trespass.

She snapped out of her memories and opened her eyes to stare at the empty space in front of her.

Back at her lonely space.

Back in that one place that was void of love, family or affection.

She was back to her lonely life.

Maybe she was grateful she had the memories to look forward to.

She stretched her right hand forward to pick up her mug and brought it closer to her lips. It was now so cold, too cold that she knew she might throw up just from drinking it.

Getting up from the couch, whom she was sure was relieved to get rid of her heavyweight. She made way to the kitchen, dumping the content in it inside the sink, she placed the mug in it. She knew all it would take was just to rinse it and put it back but she was too tired to.

She let out a loud yawn and walked out of the kitchen, switching the light to the kitchen and living room off before heading into her room. She had more bills to pay and feared adding more unnecessary light bills to it.

She lit the candle up and blew gently on the matches before throwing it in the dark and finding her way to bed.