TWELVE
I and Pamela walk into the cool garden
The garden is filled with colourful flowers that Sean wouldn‘t let rest. If Sean isn‘t with his studies then he‘s in the garden picking these lovely flowers. Once I asked „why are you picking these flowers?‟ and he said he loves to decorate with it. He would pick the flowers and decorate the dining and his room with it. Those times he wasn‘t around, we missed having fresh flowers in the house. We were so used to it that sometimes mom would come out and pick it herself for the house. And now that the house is full of maids, mom has assigned the job to one of them, Stephen, but Sean wouldn‘t let him do his job.
And sometimes when he feels he loves the breeze in the garden, he would pick the flowers and make a circle with it, big enough for his height on the ground and sleep at its centre. Only Sean knows what Sean feels.
The floor of the garden is filled with water grass.
There‘s no bare or pale ground in the garden.
We found our spot and I drop on the ground, lying on my back with a heavy satisfying sigh. At that moment, there‘s no nicer place to be. Pamela smiles watching my every action. I take in the cool breeze and exhales. Pamela sits.
'Kyle finally having his bath tub sleeping bed?‘ she says grinning.
I place my arms beneath my occiput for convenience. 'What?‘ I furrow at her in confusion.
'Kyle, his tub?‘ she raises her brow at me, like I should know and I shake my head with my squeezed face in confusion. 'Couldn‘t sleep for days until he finally g— you know what, forget it,‘ she waves away 'I can‘t believe with all your Steven Hawkings, you haven‘t seen Kyle XY.‘
'Who‘s that?‘
'Who, Steven Hawkings?‘
'No Ky—who wouldn‘t know Steven Hawkings? Kyle.‘
'Kyle XY. It‘s a movie, serial, it‘s a pity they didn‘t complete it,‘ she says disappointedly. 'Oh, well I don‘t think Steven Hawking shows for a type to be a movie watcher. Wait, you know Steven Hawkings?‘ I ask, surprised. 'Yes; who wouldn‘t?‘
'Oh many wouldn‘t.‘
I thought you said no one wouldn‘t.‘
'No, I said who wouldn‘t and I was referring to me, you know.‘
'Oh, youu,‘ she stressed smiling.
'How did you, are you a literate?‘
'I tried, though dropped out but the world has developed so much that even if you never stepped foot in a school, you can know everything through internet sites like Google.‘
'You are right but you still need to be least educated to operate that. So why are you a—‘
'A maid?‘ she completes it for me.
'Yeah.‘
'What? I can‘t be a maid because I went to school? Well I love it.‘
'You love it?‘ I look at her in an insane manner. 'Hmm hm.‘
'Who loves being a maid? That‘s…‘ I search for words.
'Weird? I know,‘ she says without waiting for me to finish my sentence.
'Ridiculously insane.‘
She looks at me, guess she wasn‘t expecting that.
I rest back and sigh, 'tell me about Kyle XY.‘
'You really haven‘t seen the film, even when you are just like him,‘ she wonders.
'Just like him?‘ I furrow, 'how?‘
'You should see it.‘
I ponder on her statement just like him but how, I guess I have to see this Kyle XY I‘m just like. I wonder in what way we‘re alike.
Pamela‘s voice distracted my thoughts.
'What‘s he using that for, thought I saw fresh flowers in the house this morning?‘
I see she‘s looking at Sean picking flowers.
'He‘s going to sleep in it.‘
Pamela looks at me then back at him. Sean starts arranging the flowers on the grass in a big circle, Pamela frowns watching him in dismay. Then he sleeps in it facing the evening sun. He looks accomplished doing that. That‘s one thing we have in common, taking in the fresh evening breeze, one of the things I missed when he was in the school hostel. Though we do it privately, he picks his spot while I pick mine but the feeling that I‘m not the only one in the garden makes me more relaxed and I didn‘t get that when he was away. I tried once or twice I think but I couldn‘t get the relaxation feeling then I stopped. Once I even dragged my dad to the garden to try it with him but he was just chatting away non-stop and he refused lying in Sean‘s spot saying he would lie next to me because Sean‘s spot is too far away. I found myself in my bed hours later to realize I had slept off while he was chatting away and he had brought me inside.
Damn, I was not supposed to sleep, the idea was just for me to relax my mind and nerves, not sleep. Since then I stopped the idea, never tried to make the same mistake of taking dad with me but he seemed to enjoy it.
'Come darling let‘s go to the garden,‘ he said the second day.
'For what?‘ I questioned while I was observing his phone with one thing in mind; dismantling it. It‘s new brand, just 2weeks old in the market, and he got his yesterday; so I needed to know what was put together to make this brand.
'To do your thing, didn‘t you enjoy it last evening?‘
'No.‘
'Why?‘ he furrowed.
'I wasn‘t supposed to sleep.‘
I don‘t get it, you‘re not supposed to sleep? I thought that was the idea, it‘s good for your health.‘
'Dad, there‘s time for sleep and time for relaxation, for me those are not the same thing,‘ I said looking at his phone in my hand, trying to figure out how to open it.
'Sheila yo—‘
'The idea is to relax the nerves and mind. That‘s what we do, Sean and I.‘
'Isn‘t sleeping the end result of good relaxation? As it is, you don‘t get to sleep in your time for sleep, so when you do in your time for relaxation, that‘s good.‘
'Dad, I‘m not coming, you‘ll just make me sleep with your chat and trust me that is not relaxing.‘
'Fine! Give me that,‘ he snatched his phone from my hand, 'there‘s no time for dismantling my phone,‘ he started walking in.
'Dad.‘
'What,‘ he stopped and pivoted angrily.
'I wasn‘t dismantling it; I was just admiring its beauty.‘ 'Thanks and it‘s time for enough admiring,‘ he walked in.
I smiled at that, seemed he was hurt I didn‘t go to the garden with him. One way or the other I felt he wanted me to sleep. I wasn‘t getting enough sleep anyways and then he found a way of getting me to sleep and he‘s not going to not take that chance.
'He does that every day? How come I didn‘t know?‘ Pamela distracted.
'Because you practically live your life away in the kitchen and no he doesn‘t do that every day.‘
'You won‘t let a chance of reminding me that slip right?‘ she smiles at me.
'No I won‘t,‘ I shake my head.
Pamela wants to stand, 'come let‘s go join him.‘
I stop her instantly, 'no, that moment is not to be disturbed; that‘s called ―a lone moment‖.
'Oh okay,‘ she relaxes back. 'Who can better understand you guys but you guys.‘ 'Wow,‘ I chuckle at that and she laughs. I pick my phone and start pressing. 'What are you doing?‘ Pamela asked.
'Trying to download the Kyle XY.‘
'You want to download it? Why don‘t you just buy the disc? How many episodes are you going to download, I think its three seasons and one season is like twenty two episodes if I‘m not wrong. So tell me, you‘re going to download all that?
'Why not? I‘m using wifi and I can watch it on Netflix.
She gazed at me, it‘s a very old film, I don‘t think Netflix will have it.
'Let me search on the internet first, o2tvseries should have. Let me at least watch the first episode so I‘ll know if I want to see it or not.‘
'Okay. I have no doubt about that, you‘ll love it I‘m sure.‘
I sit in my bed in my room set to see this Kyle XY starting on my screen, taking my juice and dipping my chips in my mouth one at a time.
This strange naked man whom I presume to be Kyle is coming out of a zipped bag in the bush. Wow, he looks like a new born baby with all the fluids on his body but a big new born baby. He should be at least 16yrs and with no belly button. „what the hell, no belly button? How the hell are we alike? Pam must be joking, I have a belly button. Oh a snake is gonna bite him.‟
Kyle sits there not moving an inch, watching the snake as it crawls closing in on him. I smile oh damn, I‟m so nothing close to this Kyle, he‟s damn stupid. I bet he doesn‟t even know what a snake is, judging by the fact that he just crawled out of a bag looking new born.‟ I glare at the screen as the snake raises his head in a bid to bite him and hisses and then raises my brow as Kyle hisses back at its face and start moving his head as the snake in the same direction copying the snake‘s action, staring deep in his eyes then as the snake charges forward to bite him, he snatches the snake‘s head into his hand, stares at it like he‘s communicating with it and then releases it slowly on the ground. The snake crawls away. „Wow, that was something. Seems I have to see the whole series like Pam had said, this is going to be interesting‟ I thought.
Minutes later, I‘m through with this episode and now thinking of how to get the other episodes. The space on my phone is full and I can‘t afford to delete anything because everything on it is important, even my external drives and laptop ram are full but luckily we have a man close to our estate who sells old films. Since my parents won‘t let me out of their sight for a moment because of my frequent attacks now, I need to figure out how to go about it. I have only one other option. I walked out of my room and see Sean in the hallway; the movie is not something to watch and not tell.
'Sean.‘
'Yes?‘
'Have you seen Kyle XY?‘
'Who‘s that?‘
'It‘s what, a movie.‘
'Oh okay, what about it?‘
'I just think you should see it, you‘ll love it.‘
'What is it about?‘
'A guy with no belly button who is just like me.‘
'Belly button?‘ he smiles, 'hmm weird. Wait, just like you? How? You don‘t have belly button?‘
'Yes, I mean no, not that, just come, you need to see, come,‘ I start to drag him into my room.
He resists, 'I don‘t think I have time for a movie now.‘
What? What do you have time for? Picking flowers?‘ I tease him, and he responds by giving me that look, 'what are you doing now?‘
'Nothing.‘
'Then you can just see it now,‘ I drag him towards my room, 'let‘s go see it.‘
We enter the room and I position him to sit on the bed in front of the Television.
'I thought you‘ve seen it,‘ he starts to say.
'Yes?‘
'So keep shut while I watch.‘ 'I promise not to say a word.‘
I play the movie and we start seeing it together.
Several minutes after and finally we are done. He looks at me and I stare back.
'What?‘ I nod up at him.
'What what? What‘s this, where‘s the rest, that‘s the end?‘
'No.‘
'What do you mean no, they are writing names, is it a season film?‘
'Yes.‘
'Yes? Then play the next.‘
'I don‘t have it.‘
'What? You don‘t have it and you sit here? This is too interesting to wait before seeing the next.‘ 'I don‘t have enough space on my phone to download the rest and Richard sells old films in the estate, I don‘t know if he has it.‘
'Mom will be filled with questions.‘ He thinks. 'I don‘t have enough memory space too but I have space on my Ipad, we don‘t have to buy offline, wait here, I will go get it,‘ he stands and walks out.
―Yes!‖ I jump happily. Now that‘s done. There‘s one more thing I‘m yet to be done with, and that‘s Alan Turing. The book is on my bedside table. I rush up to pick. I sit and continue reading while I wait for Sean to download Kyle XY and if I know him well, he won‘t download it episode by episode, so I have enough time.