Haste Marriage With The Enemy

Chapter 4

"I am here alone because I ran away from home," I say in a very low voice.

Albert's curiosity is piqued even more. He asks,

"Why did you run away from home?." He looks in my eyes shrewdly, wanting to read my thoughts. I get the impression Albert is not the kind of person you can easily lie to. I decide not to lie to him, but I won't tell him everything he would like to know, either.

"Let's just say I got tired of depending on my parents and I want to feel independent. That's why I left."

"Does being independent involve sleeping in graveyards?." There's a small smile on his lips.

I gape at him. God, is he so cheeky.

"Hey, it was just the first step. And I didn't know this was a graveyard until you came. Stop making fun of me."

Albert's face turns somber. He hastens to say,

"Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to make fun of you."

He thinks I am too sensitive. Hell, it would take a lot more than what he has said to upset me. But it is so cute to see a man caring about how I feel for the first time in years.

"By the way, who is Lucky?" he inquires all of a sudden.

"He is a god I pray to. I believe the god of luck is Lucky."

He chuckles. "What a funny thing to believe." Then he sobers up again. "So, where are you planning to go from here?."

Heavens, he asks questions that I have no answers for. I also have no idea where to go from here. I must look and sound so stupid to him. Now that I think of it, this is the stupidest thing I have ever done. How could I leave home without knowing where I am going? I feel so dumb right now.

"I...I....... From here....," I don't know what to say.

"You obviously don't know. What would you say if I offered to take you back home with me?" he asks.

I am taken off guard by his offer.

"You mean....you want to take me with you to your country?" my heart pounds in my chest excitedly and hopefully. I would be very happy to leave this country to go far away.

"Yes," he says. "I mean that."

"But aren't you going to get in trouble for bringing a foreigner to the country?."

"I am the one who is going to worry about that. What do you say?."

I smile." I will be very glad to go with you."

"Good," he smiles too. "Shall we leave?."

"Right now? Can't we wait until morning?" I am surprised he wants to travel at night.

"I have been paying for a hotel room since I got here. That's where we are going."

"Please, let's spend the night here and go in the morning," I plead.

"What, no longer scared of the graves now?'' he teases.

" I am not scared with you around."

"Okay. Why do you want to spend the night here?."

I hesitate. "Because I don't want to wake Lucky up. He is too tired and right now he is having a wonderful sleep. I don't want to wake him up."

Albert stares in disbelief. He must be starting to doubt my mental capacity.

"Who, the god of luck? He is asleep?."

I sigh. "He is not a god, but my pet. A squirrel."

He gets even more puzzled. " A pet squirrel?. "

"Yes, I have a pet squirrel." I turn in the direction Lucky is lying on one of the graves. "Him."

He merely glances in Lucky's direction and nods his head, then moves backward away from me. Okay, he must be convinced I am mad now. No one has ever understood my obsession with wild animals except my dead family.

Albert goes out of the forest. I start to fear he is leaving when he comes back with food and drinks, probably from the car he mentioned earlier. I almost forgot how hungry I am until my stomach grumbles at the sight of food. Albert looks at me sympathetically.

"You must be really hungry. Help yourself to the food. They are leftovers from today's lunch, I apologize for that. I will get you something better to eat in the morning."

"It is fine. I am hungry enough to eat a horse, anyway."

I get the food he is handing to me and open the wrapper. Inside is a steak, eggs, and crackers. I wonder who packed the food. But I am too hungry; everything looks appetizing. I dig in and fill my face, though I feel a little guilty that I am busy eating when Lucky is hungry. Well, Lucky buried the bread. Perhaps it was out of anger or he didn't want me to feed it to him because he's grown tired of it, but he still buried the last food we had.

"Do you think my pet will die from hunger?." I ask Albert as I finish the last bit of food.

"When last did he eat?."

"In the morning, but even then he didn't eat much because he doesn't like the food. I should have thought of him, too, when getting the food but I was in a hurry."

"He is not likely to die. I asked the man who drives me to come back early in the morning with your food and Lucky's."

My heart warms when I hear him say Lucky's name. "Thank you so much, sir. You are too kind." I am really getting to like him very much.

We spend the night chatting by the fire, as there is no comfortable space to sleep. We even joke about the ghosts warming themselves by the fire as well. Not once has Lucky woken up to come to us. He must be really tired.

The night passes by really quickly as I listen to stories about the country I am soon going to call home. From what he tells me, it seems like a very interesting place, far more developed than my country. I can't wait to leave for Cleverland. And once I am out of here, I am never coming back. Home holds painful memories for me and I am better off away from it.