BEAUTY & THE DARK PRINCE

Episode 5

It’s a sunny day in the big city of Hilthray and I have my sun glasses on. It’s going to take me four hours on the road to reach Mahitma village but with my favourite songs playing four hours is going to feel like an hour to me.

After hours on the road, I finally get to my destination.

Grandma Sophia is seated outside basking in the sun in her wheelchair, she is a stout old lady with dull blue eyes. Her hair has turned greyish white and her face is time worn and wrinkled. At the old age of eighty five Grandma Sophia is still a beautiful looking woman.

Her eyebrows lift with wonder and her mouth slightly opens as she watches a red car pull over in front of her. The old lady can't stop wondering who that is as she has never seen the car before.

“Betty! Betty!” she calls out with her feeble trembling voice. Betty attends to her right away, “What is it nana?” asks the middle aged woman.

Betty is a petite Asian woman with dark eyes and long dark hair. “Can you find out whose car that is?” She requests as she points towards the car. Betty turns around to look at the car and after a few seconds of scanning it she notices me and smiles. “It’s Tyra,” she reports.

“Oooh,” the old lady’s face brightens up, “I failed to recognise my own grandchild…my eye sight is surely deteriorating,” she laments.

"Not at all nana, I could barely recognise her myself.. the sun is quite blinding outside," Betty says.

I swiftly get out of the car and beamingly rush towards grandma and I give her a warm tight long hug and kisses all over her cheeks. “Oh you have no idea how much I missed you nana,” I cry.

The old lady is overwhelmed with joy for nothing in the world can mean more to her than the love she receives from her grandchild and not even her own daughter has ever shown her that kind of love.

Tears of joy fall from her eyes as she wraps her arms around me. After breaking off the embrace we exchange warm verbal greetings. As soon as Betty moves the last carriage bag from the car we all slip inside the house.

It’s a small two bedroomed cottage, furnished with outdated stuff which nana refused to have replaced with modern pieces because she likes to hold on to the memories that each old piece of furniture holds.

“Whose car are you driving Tyra?” questions grandma Sophia and I had been counting minutes wondering when she would ask. “It’s mine...Chad bought it for me,” I promptly respond with a wide grin plastered on my face. My nana slowly shakes her head in disapproval, “Is that why you are still with him? To get fancy things and all these groceries you buy for me using his money?”

“Of course not grandma I love him and he also loves me,” I justify myself. “Tyra you will never know how capable you are until you stand on your own feet without his support. You are strong and intelligent you can make it on your own… I know you can,” she utters with unwavering confidence.

“Okay nana.. I will put that in mind,” I respond quickly hoping that would be the end of the subject and thankfully it becomes the end of it. I prepare my grandma’s favourite dessert which is creamy rice pudding. The old lady enjoys every bit of it and smiles heartily as her eyelids flutter with delight.

"How is Maria?" My grandma asks with a bright smile because she likes Maria a lot and they get along well. "She is alright," I smirk not expecting nana to notice. "Is she still too talkative?" "I doubt somethings will ever change nana," I giggle.

"Well then I assume she is giving you a hard time regarding your boyfriend Chad. Maria has never hidden the fact that she doesn't like him," she guesses correctly.

"Yeah as a matter of fact she is starting to annoy the hell out of me," I pout.

"Don't say that…You can't let a man get in between you and your best friend. Maria cares about you more than Chad ever will,"

"Nana! You can't say that…how can you possibly know what's in their hearts?" "Actions speak louder than words," Betty cuts in. She had been washing dishes and tiding the kitchen while listening to our conversation. I stare at her with my eyebrows furrowed as I silently complain against the two women ganging up on me.

"I'm sorry to intrude," she mumbles. "It's okay Betty I consider you family because I know you care about me," I lazily smile at her.

"I'm glad you do," she simpers. "And when I said actions speak louder than words...I didn't mean actions like buying you a car. For all we know he did that for the wrong reasons," She adds. "Like what?" I blankly ask. "Maybe he was tired of having to pick you up or driving you to places and he figured if he got you a car then you wouldn't have to bother him."

"Well I'm glad I don't have a mind that thinks the worst of people. I'm grateful to him and I appreciate him buying me a car. It means a lot to me. I really believe he does care about me, he is just..."

"Just what?" Nana impatiently questions.

I tilt down my head and thoughtfully run my hand on the back of my neck while staring down at the floor. "I think we need to stop talking about Chad we have done enough of that today," I blink.

Nana and Betty share a worried and quizzical look. Betty decides to give me a break and so she quickly finds an interesting topic to shift to and we chatter over it. I stick around for a few more minutes. Once I peer outside the window and take note of the changing weather I bid goodbye because it's important for me to leave before it gets too dark outside since I'm not used to driving at night or the bright lights from oncoming traffic that always blind me.

By the time I get home I'm completely exhausted though I'm proud of myself for having managed driving all the way to Mahitma and back all on the same day by myself. The car was also very comfortable making my journey smooth, convenient and stress free.

I find Maria already asleep so there is no one to keep me up thence I head straight to the shower to wash away all the sweat and stickiness. Afterwards I jump into bed and instantly fall into a deep sleep.