Chapter 25: Partitions
"Kallos! Omorfi!" Ma Nana called at the top of her lungs as she chased after me. She was running, and I was walking, but the distance between us was enormous. Her old legs could not keep up.
I didn't slow down, instead I increased my pace.
"Oh, kallos! Please child, slow down! I will faint if you continue like this!" Ma Nana called again, as she tried to keep up. But I kept walking, not looking back.
I walked past the gate, slamming it behind me as I began to head straight for the beach.
"Kallos! Do not go near that water child, it is not safe!" Ma Nana cried, but once again I ignored her. I broke into a race at this point, running towards the sea.
As I neared the water, I saw the figure of what seemed to be a little child, running towards me. The figure was coming at me from the side, but I caught the sight briefly, out of the corner of my eyes. And it was enough to make me pause immediately. There was a child on this island? I wondered.
I turned around in that direction fully, to make sure of what I had seen.
It was a child for real. A little girl! A little girl. She looked to be about five or six years old.
The child was running towards me, towards the water, her arms spread out like an airplane as she zoomed forward. Her little legs were so fast and her full black hair danced and bounced about in the wind as she ran. She looked so bubbly. Her small blue eyes burned bright with excitement as she giggled all the way, galloping towards me like a baby horse on it's first race.
She ran right into me, putting her arms around my legs, and hugging my knees close. Her arms were so unexpectedly strong, that my knees nearly buckled. If I hadn't immediately strengthened my feet against the ground, we would have both fallen over, she and I.
I stooped low, so that I could look into her face. She looked up at me with happy eyes. We clearly hadn't met before, so I was a complete stranger to her. But she didn't seem phased by that. Just then, ma Nana finally reached me, panting and breathing heavily. The old lady bent over, wheezing as she tried to catch her breath. I ignored her.
"Who do we have here?" I said to the little girl. "Who are you, little angel." I asked her, holding her at arm's length and pushing aside her hair which had fallen allover her face in a mess, so that I could see her face clearly. She flashed me a toothy smile, well, a ratio of her teeth, that is. She was missing most of it. All of her front teeth, both at the top and at the bottom were completely gone. I couldn't help but giggle at the cute sight, and she giggled too. She looked so precious giggling like that.
"She cannot answer, kallos." Ma Nana said through strained breath.
"Why?" I asked, then I gasped in horror, putting a hand to my mouth. "Is she mute?" I said.
Ma Nana's brows creased.
"Mute? What is that?" She asked.
"Uhm... Like dumb. You know, when a person can't speak?" I said.
Ma Nana looked horrified by my suggestion.
"What? No, kallos! She is not mute. She just do not know any English. At all. No teacher to teach her, and she will not listen to me, so I don't teach her." The old lady explained.
"Oh, I see. Sorry I made a mistake." I said, then I turned back to the bright little girl. "You are such a cutie, aren't you. I will teach you English if you want to learn. Will you like to learn English with me?" I asked, pinching her cheeks gently. She did not reply. She just went on smiling even broader, until she started giggling again, her entire frame bouncing joyfully. Her joy was so contagious, I found myself giggling too.
"Ah, yes! How perfect! The two of you, together. Ah, the perfect combination to get me a heart attack for sure!" Ma Nana groaned. "Spoiled little brats, both of you! Spoiled brats." She lamented. I ignored her. "I told that little bird to never come by the sea! Just tell me why she is here! Why are you here now, poulaki?" Ma Nana went on nagging.
The little girl seemed to be ignoring her too. She stepped closer to me, put her arms around me and hugged me close. I felt warm allover as I hugged her back. Her arms were so freezing cold and she smelt like the sea. She must have been out there for quite a long time as ma Nana had complained.
Just then, a cat meowed behind us, and the little girl immediately let go of me.
"Massa Nikolas!" She cried, as she ran over to carry the cat into her arms. The cat purred as it rubbed itself against the little girl, and relaxed into her arms completely.
"Oh! I forget. Your cat. The cat too. If you two don't get me dead, that cat will make the boss do it himself." Ma Nana drawled.
"Oh, the cat belongs to her?" I exclaimed.
"Yes, it takes after it's mistress." Ma Nana replied. I laughed as I got up to my feet, dusting palms and knees of the beach sand.
"Who is she?" I asked, nodding towards the little girl as I went to stand beside ma Nana.
"That is our little Kaiti." Ma Nana said.
"Kaiti." I repeated the name slowly. "Who are her parents? Does her mother work on the island?" I asked.
"No. Kaiti belong to the boss." Ma Nana replied.
"What?" I cried, turning to her with wide eyes. "The boss has a child?" I asked.
"No! No, no kallos. Not like that." Ma Nana laughed, waving her hands wildly in the air. "Anax save the little child and her mother from a business partner who do very bad business. Business go bad for him and the partner after that, but he save Kaiti at least. The mother die after some time, she was very sick when boss save them two." Ma Nana explained. "Kaiti is not the boss daughter, he would not let us say so. But we still say so. He saved her, he is her father as long as we know it." She added.
"Oh." I exclaimed in understanding.
But I couldn't help but wonder.
Jordan, a savior? A father figure?
I just could not see it.
And what kind of business did he have with someone who kept a mother and her little child in such a bad condition?
What kind of business partners did Jordan do business with? What business did he run?
I was becoming even more curious, I had a lot of questions and it was killing me. I had a lot to learn about the man I had married. A lot, and I knew nothing at all!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone