Erase and Rewind (Full Book)

Chapter Thirty Five: Family - Part 2

The lush iridescent pasture was what Jude thought heaven might look like if he believed in heaven. A crowd of scarlet poppies flourished alongside ivory tulips and lavender thistles. Jude and François were sheltered under the shade of an oak tree.

Andromeda, in her white Shepard glory, was chasing after a bumblebee. Without being told, Jude knew the bee would never harm his beloved dog. There in the meadows, the rules were different.

François ruffled her son's locks. "Penny for your thoughts?"

They were almost the same age yet if Jude stood, he would easily tower over her, not an easy feat considering Jude had semi inherited her petite frame, eyes, and her overactive imagination.

Jude shook his head to clear it. "You won't get mad if I tell you?"

His mother planted a peck on his cheek. "I can't if I could."

He took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of blooming flowers. "I...For so long I was angry at you for leaving me behind. I read our books, the ones about India, Africa, and Australia."

''But not Europe?'' she teased.

Jude smiled. "These too. We were supposed to go pray at the Taj Mahal and fly to the ocean at dinner time, remember?"

His mother fell quiet.

Noah gasped as his chest collided with the table's rough surface. The shed had remained untouched in his absence, the peeling paint, the shards of broken glass brushed aside in the corners. He could hear his father move behind him and wasn't allowed to look. Noah's job was to endure.

"Jude?"

He blinked. "Pardon."

François' dimples deepened. "You seem so distracted today, mon cher."

It was strange, there had been sounds infiltrating the pastures as if someone was broadcasting a movie.

"I wrote to you," Jude said. "I played the Beatles over and over again inside my head when the music was taken away from me too. I convinced myself I didn't leave because I was waiting for you to come back. Truth is...I was scared. I was terrified of being caught. Did you know he removed the door to my room? I could've walked out...I didn't.''

His mother reached for his hand, hers surprisingly calloused while earlier her hand had been soft like his.

Noah cried out, struggling against the restraints binding his wrists and ankles. Carlisle gave him a few seconds to breathe around the pain.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question, please?"

François shook poppies out of her blonde hair. "I was wondering if you were going to introduce us?"

Jude glanced at the young man his mother was admiring. He was in signature latest style sweats and Nikes.

He was finally there.

"Mom, this is Malik. My boyfriend."

François embraced Malik. "Welcome, I heard a lot about you. Strawberries?"

Her palms were full of freshly plucked strawberries but as soon as Malik touched them they melted, staining the grass red as they fell.

"What is going on?" Malik asked.

"Nothing," Jude said quickly. "Everything is fine. I'm happy you came. We can finally be together."

Malik narrowed his amber eyes. He took Jude's chin and turned his face to the right then to the left as if searching for clues. Next, he poked Jude's chest and squeezed his biceps.

Malik shook his head. "You look like yourself but you're somebody else."

Jude laughed. "I'm me."

"And this...it doesn't belong to you."

They stood in the darkness and the first letter of the Arabic alphabet hovered between them.

Aleph.

Once Jude grasped the aleph, the letters of the Arabic language began to spill. Each exquisite shape tore a strand of darkness. Two canoe-shaped letters, one with two dots suspended above it the other with two dots suspended beneath it flanked Jude's sides. Soon the letters linked together in perfect harmony, a tapestry of words which in turn evolved into sentences Jude couldn't read.

He didn't need to; someone was reading it for him. His voice was a marriage of velvet and honey. It glided to his heart, where a chill began to melt.

Jude heard it while Noah slept in his lover's arms, protected in the studio apartment.

"In my language, there is no literal substitute for I love you," Malik whispered. "Instead it's just one word. One word for one person."

The sentences were vibrating, they then blurred and some of them began to disappear one after the other. Jude could only watch until three letters remained. The second letter of the alphabet was duplicated and sashayed to center itself as a first and third letter. A single four-letter word shone.

It was not English.

بحبك   

"Bahebak," Malik said beside Jude. "It might've been you I met but it's Noah I love. And he is still out there."

Jude cocked his head to the side. Beyond the darkness Noah's labored breath was becoming increasingly more shallow, he no longer had the strength to scream.

"I'm tired," Jude was resigned.

"I know, habiby."

Habiby: my love.

"I thought only Noah got to keep the pet names?"

Malik winked. "You're part of him. Means I get to flirt...and then some."

Jude would've blushed if it was possible in this realm, he spared a beseeching look François' way.

"Save Noah, mon cher." she said. "You run away now and all is lost."

"I don't want to leave you," Jude missed her too much.

"I never left you and yet I will always find you." She promised.

The darkness was lifting, the walls of the shed would soon loom. "When will you find me?"

François smiled. "When you find you."