BEYOND A SERVANT

Chapter 8

"That piece you mean?" asked Maxis when AJ stood in front of the art piece.

"Yes!! What is this actually?"

"An elephant!!" replied Maxis. AJ nodded her head and looked back at the art piece and tried to see what it was actually.

"What did you see?" question Maxis curious as what did she actually see that made her want to come back and asked him.

"A log!!" replied AJ. Maxis looked at AJ and looked back at the painting and tried to see which part of the elephant is a log. It is an elephant hidden in the jungle, if you see clearly you may see the elephant looking out at you.

"I saw it!!"shouted AJ as she walk and stand beside Maxis and point,

"You see that, I did not see those eyes! It was hidden in the tree bark that I thought was all a log just brown color tree bark a log!! Stupid me!!" said AJ to herself for her to admit own stupidity. Maxis suddenly burst into a laugh which made AJ look at her weirdness.

"Are you blind?" laughs Maxis. AJ sat down and looked at him trying not to get angry.

"Abit now you asked me!" said AJ as they both laughed at each other. AJ stop and looked at him who keep laughing, when Maxis feel that AJ was looking at him Maxis looked at her and asked,

"Why are you looking at me?" as he tries to stop laughing.

"I did not know the bearman laughed too!" said AJ. Maxis immediately stopped and looked away.

"It's not bad you know!" AJ reminded him. Maxis remembers his mother who he always has a lot of laughs with. She was the only one who can make him laugh for a very long time, his mother someone who knows him in and out. When she told him that it was time for him to get married, he told her to find his queen just like his father found her. But he failed to even remember to go and meet the woman his mother asked him too because he was too busy making sure he does not fail as a crown prince, he can't even do what his mother asked him too and now she's no longer there with him.

"My mother knows how to make me laugh. She knows what to pull so that my day would always end with a smile and a laugh!" said Maxis as he looked up at the wall and reminisced about his mother's time with him.

"That's nice to have...while I did not have anything like that with my mother. The only thing I remember about my mother is the night she left before she pushed me so that I could let her go!" said AJ coldly. Maxis turned to her and saw AJ looked up at the space and remembered the only thing she can remember about her mother.

"She wanted more, she did not want to live a poor life and decided to run off with some guy. Like a coward she left before my father reached home. I tried to stop her but she did not want me or us, she preferred to have money then her daughter or the love that came from a man who really loved her!" said AJ again, as Maxis looked at her he did not see any tears in her eyes. The way she spoke of her past was just like a cold wind that passed by, when she told him that he could actually feel the cold wind pass him. Her heart had already turned cold from someone everyone has, loved and cared for a mother. She turned to him and with her eyes that for the first time he saw her had turned into total darkness.

"I did not care if she was alive or not but what I care for is my father who worked his ass off to take care of me and loved me even when he was broken and needed the love." a sudden tears form in her eyes, that darkness disappears when AJ speaks of her father.

"Where is your father now?" asked Maxis worried that AJ was just like him in need of a light to walk out of a darkness that had pulled him in.

"He is in the hospital...waiting for death."

"Why are you here then? You should be with him? Is it because you need money for his operation or something??" Maxis started to throw worried questions to AJ which make AJ stand up and looked at him,

"Hold it bearman!! 1 someone said that the money here is good so I came and 2 if you think I need anything from you, I said thank you but no thanks. I can do it on my own."

"But you need..."

"Bearman, I don't live with people's sympathy or pity. And I know very well when someone looks at me that way. Anyway...I better bounce...I'll see you tomorrow..ish!!" said AJ as she walked to the side door and disappeared. Maxis wanted to stop her and wanted to help her further but it was too late as she went into the darkness.

In some way AJ and him are the same, both needed a light out but not with sympathy or pity from other people. They were too strong to admit that they need someone in their life to push them to a better place, but Maxis did not know if his life was worth it to be pushed to a better place where he used to stand when he no longer had his pillar of support, his mother. 

}

Please comment and vote, thank you and stay safe :)