Chapter 18: Henry’s Past
I became aware that all the time we had spent in the basement, Henry had said almost nothing about himself, besides boasting about his own ability and intelligence. He hardly answered a direct question about himself, which often irritated me, considering that I could count on my fingers how often he awakened me, and that these occasions did not last long.
During the meal, he still remained silent and sulky. I was distressed for any information possible, I ended up asking:
"Who's that Lobrë?"
Henry swallowed the food he chewed on, and to my surprise he answered directly, without much detail and without even lifting his eyes from his plate:
"Just a nobody. He usually went to the same college with Cásira. As far as I know, he even fancy her."
"Hum…" I waited a bit, waiting to see if he would say anything else, so I asked another question, "And who is Cásira?"
"It was my girlfriend in college time…" he answered promptly still staring at the plate.
In fact he was answering the questions, but I could not count this as a real conversation. I hesitated a little, and finally asked the question I really wanted to know at that moment.
"And who is Nádia?"
I certainly did not expect his following reaction. Henry choked violently on his food and stood up, his face red and teary when he finally managed to stop coughing.
"Sorry for this…" he said hoarsely, but did not sit down again. He took a sip of water and took a napkin to wipe his face, very gently looking at me sidelong "I think…" he continued smoothing his mouth with his napkin "That I'm going to retire for today…"
"Wait!" I hastened to say surprised, getting up too. "What is the problem? Why can't you tell me?"
But Henry did not stop to listen. He turned and went upstairs to his own room, where he slammed the door. I stood there nailed to the floor for several minutes with his intense reaction when I finally recovered.
Frustrated, I climbed the stairs, stamping my feet. I knew I was probably getting into very personal matters that did not concern me. But this name bothered me enough to dance in my memory, as if it pierced every thought of mine and stirred up even more curiosity after such a reaction.
On the second floor there were now two doors beyond the balcony exit. I was amazed at how quickly they did it, but I knew there were some very interesting technologies that did renovations and remodeled structures and even walls of a house in a matter of minutes. I opened the first door and into a simple, cozy room with a powerful heater beside the bed. They should have made this room for me, the pungent heat would not be tolerated by too many people for long.
But I did not linger to look at my own room. I headed straight for the next door. The room had declined considerably in size, but it was still huge. I was ready to rage at Henry, but I could not. He was sitting on the bed with his elbows on his legs and an apathetic expression on his face. His mouth slightly open and his gaze lost nowhere. He did not blink. He did not even seem to notice my arrival.
"Hey... are you alright?" I asked, approaching slowly, a trembling smile on my lips as if to relax the tension. "Why are you making such a dumbass face?" I leaned closer and noticed that he had no reaction.
I shook my hand in front of his eyes, but Henry did not respond, moved or gave any indication whatsoever of noticing me. Not knowing what else to do, I sat next to him and waited. Minutes passed and turned into hours when he finally moved. I woke up quickly and rubbed my eyes. I had fallen asleep without realizing it as I waited.
"You can sleep here for now…" he said, stretching and heading toward the door "I think I'll take some time in the lab."
"Wait!" I called him, "What was that?"
"What?" he asked confused.
"You... you... like…" I stopped without knowing how to define it. Then I whistled, mimicking a falling projectile, and then made a "blast" gesture to explain my point "… you know?"
Henry smiled.
"No? What would that be?" But he frowned when he noticed, by my worried expression, that I meant it. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you... Maybe I'm a difficult person to live with."
"I noticed…" I replied sulking, "Whoever said we should be friends was you! You probably already know about my whole life and probably better than I do, even though you must be about ten times older than a simple Brard like me. I didn't live much, by comparison, I didn't even begin to live" I started dumping the words too fast "but I see things too, you know? I can learn, and I can understand if you tell me something. Even though I don't have anyone else to talk to or even if a had, there is no one else I can open up with. But I also wanted to know what is happening to you, since we have to build... I don't know, trust in each other?
"Calm down, Alesia!" he said, laughing again in exasperation. "Breath before speak!"
Then he took a deep breath and sat down next to me again. I noticed the smile on his round face was still there, but it did not reach his eyes.
"Until you came down in parachute in my life, I spent a long time without talking to anyone... I think I lost the practice…"
"You mean because of this time you spent exiled from the rest of the world?" Henry nodded. "But why did you do that?"
"Because... I didn't want to... I couldn't stand seeing anyone!" he simply said "it was... It's exhausting. You're the first person I've interacted with by my own volition in years!"
I did not know how to respond. I just remembered the first conversation we had and noticed that on several occasions he had let such information slip away.
"You must have had a very strong and painful reason to start behaving like this." I lifted my arm awkwardly and began patting him on the back.
Something like that... many years ago, the woman I loved... died" As he said this, the lost expression he had before returned to his face.
"I'm sorry" I said sincerely "It was Cásira? Or…" I asked trying to get him back.
Henry shook his head vehemently, but before he corrected, I had already understood who she was.
"Nádia... Nádia Maran was her name…" he looked into his own hands and then gave a sad laugh. "The funny thing is that we got together for such a short time…"
I did not know what to say. He evidently still suffered greatly from mourning. I had never seriously dated someone to be dumped, and I had never felt the death of someone I loved, so I could not even say "I understand" or "I know how you feel." But what else could I do? Maybe if I persuade him to open his heart to me he'd feel better.…
"How did it happen?"
Henry opened his mouth to speak at least five times before he could make a sound. And when he did, his voice was broken.
"Ah... she got sick, I guess. She didn't tell me when she was still alive and I didn't try to know the details later. She didn't let me get close to her again... It was her choice... because maybe I could have helped, so if I had insisted more... it seemed she simply gave up."
"I'm so sorry" said sincerely. A strong surge of guilt that came from nowhere filled me.
"Don't." It was almost an order "I could not do anything. Even if she loved me, she chose her way, and I was not in it." Henry spent a long time quiet before speaking again. "Once I called you pathetic... but in fact, the pathetic one is me. After she died I... I stopped... I did nothing, I thought nothing, and I wanted nothing else and just let myself be taken by Marco's to the palace where he could keep me under his sight, claiming he would protect me."
"So he kept you locked?" I asked in shock.
"Not really. I somehow had the right to come and go, but... I went into that room, and put a barrier in the door. No one would ever be able to get in there and upset me. And I stayed in there alone, feeling sorry for myself since her death. Being completely pathetic", then he looked at me and opened another sad smile "and I was still like that when I met you. You made me very curious."
"Why?" I asked surprised.
"Did you hear what I said before? There was a barrier! A spell on that door. It could even be opened, but no one could cross it. And you being unaware of what you were doing, simply went in there, as if it wasn't a big deal... just because you were running away from the guards".
"Ah! I remembered that I was asked in the palace how I got into your room... now I understand... But I do not know how to explain either…" I said.
"I have my theories. Most involve the fact that you are her new incarnation."
"Who? The old guardian?"
"Yes. The old guardian was Nadia."
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