Missing Martha

129

As they continued to lie on the beach, none with a dry eye, Martin wrapped his arms around Zoë to keep her warm in the evening breeze. They listened into the conversations that the teenagers were having and brought their flushed cheeks together. Zoe's back was to Martin's chest who placed his warm hand on her belly which curved a little with maternity.
"So what are you two gonna say when you go back to school?" Asked Cloda, looking over at her teachers.
"we're just friends." Laughed Martin, making Zoe giggle as she turned her head to see him.
"I think I'll stick with my maiden name, at least till the end of the year. Then we'll gradually marry each other." Suggested Zoë, stroking his hair and smiling jokingly at him.
"What about the fact that you're pregnant? It'll become difficult to hide soon." Added Ollie,
"Oh crap.. forgot about that- it was a one night stand, don't remember who the dad was." Rehearsed Zoe, grinning.
"You hooker." Chuckled Martin,
"Excuse me?!" She gasped, jokingly slapping his forearm and sitting up.
Ryan laughed at them both, still leaning his heavy head on Ollie's chest.
"So who's gonna name their children after me?" Asked Ryan, grinning.
"The emotional blackmail." Scoffed Martin as Zoe smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder as he placed his arm around her waist with his hand on her thigh.
"I reckon if we have a boy we could stretch for a Ryan." Suggested Zoe, looking up at Martin with big bulging eyes as he grinned down at her,
"Big name to live up to." Martin scoffed,
"It's only four letters." Teased Ryan, "Zoe, you better not let him name another child after himself."
"Another one?!" Questioned Zoe, sitting up and laughing at Martin's confused face.
"Oh come on, I don't mean to be rude but Martha is literally the female version of Martin." Said Ryan, making everyone chuckle.
"Emily named her I had nothing to do with it!" Laughed Martin,
"Are you sure? There's- what? Two different letters?" Scoffed Ollie, his chest rising and falling as he chuckled.
"How long have you been holding this against me?" Martin cackled,
"Oh at least two weeks now." Cloda replied.
"Go on, tell us about her, I need some nice stories now." Said Ryan, still lying on Ollie's chest and unable to look anywhere else but the stars.
"There's nothing much to say." Martin responded, manoeuvring himself onto his stomach, leaning in his crossed arms, facing the group.
"That's a lie, what was she like?" Asked Ryan, "what did she look like. Go on, describe every inch of her."
Martin tried to picture the girl the four year old girl he hadn't seen in four months.
"She.. She was pretty averaged sized for a toddler, she had short brown hair, usually wore a little red coat, her eyes were a sort of weird blue-grey colour.. she had autism.. don't think I told you that."
Zoe peered over at Martin and raised an eyebrow slightly as she listened lovingly to him with interest.
"The autism was a bit of a problem at school, but at home she was perfect, in fact I'm pretty sure that's what made her more clever. She didn't speak to many other people except me and Emma. She was weirdly good at painting for a four year old, her imagination was pretty insane too."
Martin looked down and dug his nails lightly into the sand.
"She take after her dad?" Zoë murmured to him, smiling sweetly with pity. Martin blankly smiled in return.
"I wish she could've still been here." Sighed Lucy, inspecting the starry night.
"Unfortunately we don't have the technology to turn back time yet.. but a lot of good came out of her death, she'd have wanted that." Said Martin, looking up at the stars and thinking about her.
Zoe leaned down beside him and kissed him once on his neck with her eyes closed, making him smile sadly and look over to her.
Martin suddenly shivered, giving a wholly exhale.
"It's getting pretty cold out here; maybe we should go back inside." He suggested, feeling quite impressed with himself for speaking so vividly of Martha without breaking.
"Let me help you up, big man." Offered Ollie, sitting up and attempting to lift Ryan up.
Martin helped Ollie in lifting him up, holding Ryan over his right shoulder.
"Jesus he's strong." Chuckled Ryan, "I feel like I'm being taken hostage."
Martin laughed in response, ducking as he entered the van and placed Ryan modestly onto the bed before catching his breath and sitting at the end of the bed, seeing Ryan look so pale and paralytic. He placed his hand to his mouth and looked down again.
"Oh don't you dare cry." Said Ryan, "don't you dare, after what you've been through you have no right to cry about me."
"I'm not crying." Martin Replied softly, his eyes watering as he bit his inner lip, taking a deep breath in through his nose before standing up, "where's Zoë?"
"I think she's still outside." Lucy replied, sitting down beside Ryan. Martin walked outside, "I'll be two minutes." He said, closing the door behind him as he located Zoe lying on the beach on her back.
Martin sat down beside her and slipped his hand into hers.
"What you thinking about?" He asked her, lying down and looking up at the stars.
"You." She replied, making Martin tilt his head to face hers.
"How so?" He questioned softly, meeting her gaze.
"I just.. you're just..  a very interesting man." She told him, smiling slightly at him as he leaned closer to her, their noses almost touching before Martin turned away and looked up, "Go on, what constellations do you know?" He asked her,
"You believe in all that stuff?" Asked Zoë,
"What? Stars? I believe in stars, they're right there!" Laughed Martin, pointing at the sky,
"I meant star signs! Like horoscopes and all." Giggled Zoë,
"Meh, they all say the same thing, don't they, really? We're all intelligent and emotional and motivated." Said Martin, shifting his arm under her neck as he pointed up to the sky. "You see that line across the sky that's sort of a lighter blue?"
She nodded, "uh huh?"
"That's the centre of the universe."  He told her, "and those tiny clusters of stars are galaxies." He pointed to a small cluster.
"Really? What's the name of that one?" She asked him,
"No idea, that's the limit to my astronomical knowledge." He replied making her laugh and turn to face him, before she gasped and pointed to the sky,
"Shooting star." She laughed, and Martin turned to look, smiling at how intrigued she was. She turned back to face him and placed her hands onto his cheeks, "I can't wait to live with you forever." She whispered, one of her legs coming between Martin's. "You're my whole world."
Martin placed one hand on her lower back and another on her cheek with his fingers running through her hair as their lips collided together. Martin slid one hand to her upper thigh as she began to climb on top of him. He felt another jolt of pain where his stitches were and sat up. They split up their kiss and leant their foreheads against each other as Martin caught his breath after the sudden pulse of pain.
"Let's go to bed." Said Zoe, kissing him once again on the cheek before standing up and reaching for his hands as he did the same.