Yours, Raven

Nine

Raven winced at the noise and replied slowly, "I mean, he could've found a girl there. We never know, right?"

"Noooo. He's still a bachelor," Tracy sighed at Raven's nature of asking silly, impetuous questions time and again, "We'll have to set him up with a beautiful girl here. I'm sure every girl in the village, including their mothers, will be head over heels for him now." Tracy laughed.

"Oh, great. Great. Great." Raven nodded, trying to absorb the idea that Nicholas was finally coming back home after six years, without a wife.

Then she sent a knuckle to her head at her silliness.

Of course, he's still a bachelor. Nick isn't the type who'd get married just like that.

Raven had a huge grin plastered on her face after she ended the call with her mom. She couldn't imagine what he would look like now. She couldn't even think of a word to say to him when she meet him. Her stomach flipped inside to give her butterflies as she imagined herself standing in front of him, speechless.

---------

On the fifth of May, Raven left Shillong. When she reached home, she met Darcha Grace and helped her clean the house for Nicholas' return. Any soul on earth would notice Grace's joy threatening to explode from a hundred mile that her only son was finally coming back home after six years.

In high spirit, she'd keep singing all the gospel songs and native love songs she knew as she cleaned every inch of the house including every single glass and spoon and fork, dusted the pictures of Nicholas in neat olive green uniform which were resting on a decorative shelf in the living room. . . Grace had turned the house upside down and inside out.

She'd stare at his pictures for long moments with a warm smile on her face, thrilled that tomorrow Nicholas would truly be home and he would no longer be just pictures on the shelf. Raven had even tried persuading her to take some rest while she did the chores, but there was no stopping for Grace.

The fact that she would be reunited with her son again had supplemented about nine additional lives in her soul. Let alone Grace, but the house, as a whole, had seemed hollow and lifeless without him for years. Now that he was coming back, she bet even his table, dresser, bed were all eager for him.

Grace had been keeping a paid helper at home ever since her niece Tungdarshang too left the village to attend a new school, but even the helper didn't stay all the time. Even now, she'd gone home for a few days.

"I wish I had a daughter like you, Raven," Grace sighed from her chair as she watched Raven do the dishes after dinner. "It's true that a house isn't complete without a girl child."

Raven smiled and answered in jest, "True that. And especially someone like me."

Grace chuckled in response. "That's exactly what I mean. Someone like you. But it's a good thing that you're like a daughter to me. You always help me whenever you can and always look after me when I'm unwell. You are a blessing to me."

"It's my pleasure, Darcha. You're like a mother to me too." Raven looked back and gave her a kind smile.

Raven sat with Grace in the living room late after dinner, leafing through the only photo album they had, laughing over Nicholas' funny childhood pictures.

"We only have this baby picture of him," Grace said, stroking the infant's photo carefully. "I wish we took more pictures. But back in those days, all we ever thought about is putting food on our plates. Taking pictures never even crossed our mind. But he did save up money and took some pictures with his friends when he's older. They would contribute money and buy a negative roll. They used to have that back in the days."