𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 by A.P.Mary

5.

"You need to leave right now; don't make me do it myself." Nisha says, her voice laced with anger and frustration. I take a step back, not expecting such a strong reaction. The room falls silent once again, and I can feel everyone's eyes on me.

"And you don't make me remind you that I'm a grown, quite healthy 23 year old woman who committed arson, murdered, robbed, and dealt with trauma, mental issues, and anorexia in my young years. Hear me out, Nisha; my mom died, and I don't really need a new one right now, and I know you mean well. So either you let me be part of this with your own will or I'm doing it without it," I state to myself, hiding my surprised face from what I just let out.

She shuts up completely, her face emotionless, looking at the documents she had on the desk. "Well, then take a seat, miss." She points an empty seat across hers, and without making a sound, I take it, looking at Blaise looking at me.

I gaze at the papers she hands me over, checking the titles of every single one first "A short recap of what happened, if your smart ass didn't already hear from outside the door: Blaise and his group of hackers finally crossed the protection barrier of our enemy's databases and took important information such as IP address, localization, bank info, etc." She finally makes eye contact.

"Got that, but what's the connection with this hacking part and a ball? Everything went blank from here."

"Basically, I, and others from this room, think that because of the current panic created by their actions, we can organize a ball as a bite for them. We've got a list of every citizen of this little city, so distinguishing them from the others would be quite simple, but my fantastic brother thinks I'm here to please myself with a high school musical themed prom party that would turn into a big blood bath".

"Bingo" I hear him sneer under his breath.

"The sound of the name 'ball' might wrinkle a bunch of noses since in Italy people don't really organize them as often as in the states, but an event, maybe a festival of some sort, will do. What's the nearest holiday for them?" I ask, shuffling the papers in my hands and sorting them by date.

"I heard that a solstice r&b festival that takes place every year could be a good setup." A man suggests looking at his laptop, scrolling through the city's website, and checking out every nearby event. The two siblings look at each other, communicating through their eyes as they gesture in my direction. A nod dismisses them, returning their eyes to me.

"It's a good idea, but how do we put our hands on it if it's already planned by them?"

"Here people don't usually get visitors who stay longer than a month, so if they knew that foreigners, especially Americans, wanted to help them, publicity would go up, and we wouldn't even worry about getting a 'no' as a response." I take a breath at the end of my sentence, taking another good look at a specific file in front of me. "I know you've got your ways to get the profile of every citizen, and as I can see here, our friends are not that far away; they're like two or three kilometers from the San Francesco square, where our festival will take place—oh, don't give me that stare. I know there can be exceptions; maybe the parent of some innocent man comes to the festival who lives in another place, but stay sure that we're not dealing with old people, and this city is basically in the middle of nowhere; it's perfect."

"We're discussing this later, but it's much better than my sister's bloody prom party." He looks at me with humor. I bet he didn't think I could put two points together without his sister's help, but who blames him? Nisha almost never wants me to put my feet up in their meetings.

~

"What has gotten into your brain since you started to embarrass me with those people you don't even know about? Do you crave that sense of euphoria so much that you would just throw yourself under a train just to feel something? You're nuts!" Nisha slams both hands on the kitchen table, looking me dead in the eyes while throwing words at me in distress.

"I didn't want to be foolish or childish like you said, but if you're thinking that I should imagine everything is fucking okay while an explosion erupts in the middle of nowhere, criminals putting a huge red dot on my back, being the prey of a group of killers, and all the shit I don't know about, do I really need to play pretending my life is normal and peaceful, because guess what? My life stopped being normal as soon as my head popped out of my mom's vagina!"

"She has a point," Blaise adds, biting a chunk of hamburger.

"You too? Did you two plan to turn my hair gray today or what?" She squeezes her nose while sighing dramatically.

"We didn't, but I think putting her in the dark would make things way worse than telling her the truth, and don't make that face to me; we both love you, but you should stop treating her as if she's the same little girl you found behind a door years ago." He spoke out calmly, making his sister's face features relax a bit, now covering them with a somber expression.

"I really didn't want to come out rude, but Nisha, please start watching me as an adult, not as the little Maverine you found in that storage room"

She just nodded, and by muttering a small 'sorry," she gave me a smile before going to her room. When she did that, it usually meant that she needed some time alone, meditating and putting dots together.

~

"Nini, are you okay?" I enter her room, seeing her little self crying out little tears. When she spots me, she runs towards me, hugging me tightly.

"I'm really sorry, Mave. I'm so sorry. I was wrong to throw that puzzle in your face." She started crying more, relaxing her head on my shoulder.

"We all make mistakes; that's alright, Nini. I still love you a lot, so don't be sad, please, because when I see you cry, I cry too." I start tearing up too, but she stops.

"How do you forgive people so fast? Aren't you mad that I destroyed your puzzle? I was terrible!" She looks at me strangely, trying to sort things out on my face.

"Because we all make mistakes, Nini, but that doesn't make you evil, dummy! Sometimes good people make bad choices, but that doesn't make them bad; it makes them more human." I tell her, and she starts to form a small smile on her face.

"You're so wise for being six," she mutters. "Could you please leave me alone for a few minutes? I want to sort some things out." I nod, and by exiting her room, I go to Auntie Georgia, Nisha's mother.

"Well sweetie? Did she apologize? Or should I go and take her apology out by myself?" She started hissing jokingly, and I started laughing at her expression, which changed into a big, soft smile while she picked me up in her arms.

"She apologized; please don't hurt her!" I start mumbling, and she just cracks out laughing, brushing a black strand of hair off my face.

"I won't, baby; don't worry; she's really kind, but sometimes, as she constantly holds herself from bursting out her anger, she explodes. But the interesting part of her is that she constantly meditates on her actions, and whenever she realizes she did something wrong, she apologizes right away.

"But why the name Nisha? It's very... odd," I ask, trying not to sound impolite.

"Ahh, her name is very special to me, you know? Nisha means night; when the stars are visible and the moon is shining every night, completing and undoing herself, it is an event that you and your loved ones can cherish by even just looking at them. I believe that Nisha suits her name a lot. You now? 

At first, you're afraid of her, of her dark sides, but when you take the risk of knowing her more, you're drawn by her lights, by her way of having fun, taking every moment with open arms as if it's going to last just a few moments." I stare at her, playing with her big braids as she speaks.

"You have a lot of memories of the night, miss?" I ask her, and she kisses my cheek with a smile plastered on her beautiful face.

"Aw, sweetie, don't call me miss! And yes, the best memories I have are all during the night. Want to watch the stars in the backyard while our grumpy girl comes out of her room?" and, of course, I nodded.

J'aurais aimé pouvoir regarder les étoiles avec toi maman