Yours, Raven

Six

"We're all good. How are you? Are you eating well? Do you ever get sick?"

"I'm good. I eat well and I don't get sick. I'm perfect. What about you? Do you get sick?"

"I'm good too. I don't get sick but once in a while I'd lose my strength but, I guess that's because I don't work as I used to anymore. No more exercise. Raven would come up and look after me, clean the house, do the laundry, cook food . . ."

"She can cook?!" Nicholas' voice suddenly got astonishingly loud and then he laughed.

He couldn't believe that the girl who grew up like a princess was finally cooking.

"Of course, she can. She's like a lady now, you know. After Elliot left and all, she seems to grow up suddenly. She's doing all the chores at home. Her mother doesn't even do much now. But she's still a bit clumsy. Very funny. Sometimes, we'd just watch her and laugh. She has broken about five of our bowls." Grace laughed into the phone.

"Mhmm. I'm sure." Nicholas laughed too. "Growing up so fast, huh. Is she even starting to have boyfriends or what?"

"I don't know." His mother laughed again. "She's becoming prettier too, day by day. I think there are some boys in school who likes her. She used to come home grumbling to her mother that they're annoying her."

Nicholas softly chuckled to himself. He could picture the little shotgun grumbling to her mother.

"She's a great help to me. Tungdarshang is also here, but she's still too young. She can't do things like Raven does."

"Yeah? She's that good now?"

Tungdarshang was the fifth-grader daughter of Pushang Koshel. Grace had called her to live with her since she was alone in the house, now that Nicholas had left.

"How's Claudia, by the way?" he asked.

Grace stopped speaking and went silent for a few seconds. Every time he called home, which wasn't often, he asked about her. He didn't use to in the first year, but lately he seemed to be left with no other option than to ask.

She'd sent him only two letters since he joined the probation. Nicholas continued to write to her for sometime only to be kept waiting with no reply. Just as he suspected, their relationship had faded and now, it was just completely gone.

"She's fine, I guess. Still working in the ships. How long is your training, by the way?" Grace steered the topic from Claudia as soon as she could because she knew that there was still a part of Nicholas who still wanted to get in touch with her. They way their relationship ended had been unfair and a part of him still longed to talk to her.

"Three months. That is mostly why I called. I won't be able to reach you at all during these three months. So if you want to say anything to me, you'll have to write. And if I get selected, I'm planning to undergo another form of training for six months. For Special Forces. Nine months all together."

"What is going on, Nicholas? Do you really have to do all that? I mean, your post is already good enough."

"I've made my decision, Nu."

"But what's the use?!"

Nicholas sighed and answered, "I just want to do it." He said in simple sentences.

Mostly, it was about honor and service for the country but he knew there was no need explaining that to his mother. All she'd understand was the grocery business.

"Even in this post, I don't get to talk to you often. Now I'm sure, I'm never getting in touch with you," Grace grumbled disappointedly, starting to sniffle a little.