A Rainbow in Your Eyes

Chapter 4

The weather had started fading, the warm summer days and late autumn rains had stopped, instead being replaced by cold and mostly dry weather. The trees were empty and bereft of leaves. Even the leaves that had coated the streets have long since been stamped into dust. The end of June was a cold time in Johannesburg, and today was no exception to the normal rule.

Gus and Brian had a fire going in their hiding spot to keep them warm, but in their thin clothes, they were still shaking with cold. They have had to move their spot frequently in the weeks. If Justin and his gang didn’t find it, the police always tried to capture the homeless boys to take them to “safety”, but neither boy wanted to be split from the other. So, for now, they were hiding underneath a bridge where, in the summer time, they wouldn’t have been able to hide due to rain and storm water flooding the area.

Brian was on edge. The last few days that he had been to meet with Irielle, she hadn’t been there. He really hoped that he could see her today, but the cold looked like it would keep him away. So instead, he was stalking up and down in the small space that was theirs, working on Gus’s nerves.

Gus had wanted to know where he had been slipping off too within a few days off Brian meeting Irielle for the first time. He had told Gus reluctantly, thinking the other would either laugh at him or would want to come along for the food. Gus, however, had done neither. Instead, he had shrugged and told Brian he was crazy for mooning after a rich girl, then told him to do his mooning on his own while he, that was Gus, would rather look for ways to keep them both alive.

Finally unable to stand it any longer, Gus threw a rock at Brian. “Damn dude, just GO already!” He hollered at Brian. “You’re freaking irritating the crap out of me!”

“But it’s cold, and the last few days she hasn’t even been there!” This time Brian stopped to look at his feet, toes borrowing into the clay-like ground beneath his feet.

“As if standing there away from the fire is going to make you any warmer. Just go already and come back.”

“Justin’s gang and the police have been so close lately; I don’t want to leave you ...” Brian didn’t complete his thoughts. Instead, Gus just shrugged before answering.

“Again, you standing there isn’t gonna change nothin’ dude. If they come while you’re gone, you’ll come find me anyways, just like I would you.”

Finally, allowing himself to be talked into it, Brian took off to the know well-known house at the top of the hill. But just like the last few days, it appeared empty. Standing outside the gate, he looked in, to see what he could spot. The garden was as kept as ever, but the gardener wasn’t out and about the way he would normally be. Except for one light downstairs and another at the top, visible through drawn curtains, the house would appear deserted.

With a sigh, he was about to turn around when a hand pulled him back with force enough to send him sprawling. Even as he struggled to right himself and get up, the same hand roughly pulled him to his feet before shaking him.

“What do you think you’re doing, boy?! Spying, are you? Planning stuff? Want to break in, do you?! Wait till the Master hears of this!”

“I don’t... I’m not... I wasn’t planning anything! Honest, I was just looking and thinking, Sir!”

A radio on the gate guard’s side beeped. “Everything all right out there, Jeremy?”

Still holding Brian tightly by the arm to prevent his escape, Jeremy pulled the radio out, throwing a black look at Brian before responding. “All good out here Master Bradford, Sir. Just a nuisance boy looking for trouble. But don’t worry, Sir, I’ll scare him good, I will.”

“Very well. Update me when he’s gone.” With the last word, the radio cut out without waiting for a further reply. It was clear the voice on the other side was used to being obeyed. But somehow, Brian didn’t like the way the man called Jeremy was addressed more like a servant than like a worker, reminding him of the way the drunk had spoken to his mum that last day, as if she was filth instead of a mum.

“As if the master needs any of this on a day like this, with the little miss not being well” Jeremy muttered distractedly as he put his radio back. The words made Brian suddenly feel scared, another voice running through his mind saying ‘I’m sick, dummy’ over and over. The distraction and sudden fear in his heart was all Brian needed to pull free and start running. The gate guard swore and made a halfway attempt to catch him, but as Brian expected, he wasn’t in pursuit. Jeremy had more important things to do than run after a boy in the cold, and his guard house might not be warm, but it sure was a hell of a lot warmer than the biting wind outside.

Running as fast as he could, Brian rushed to get to their usual meeting place, diving in when he reached it, to make sure he was out of sight. But as he had kind off expected, his little friend wasn’t there. Pulling his thin legs up to wrap just as thin arms around them, he tried to control the fear and anguish in his heart, hoping that his friend would show.

He didn’t know how long it was when a small, soft little hand touched his shoulder.

Slowly looking up, he was surprised to see the beautiful eyes of his small friend looking back at him. “Hey.”

As always, her voice was a whisper, but today it sounded more as if she truly didn’t have the energy to speak, rather than speaking softly to prevent other ears from hearing. Her face was drawn, tight and her skin very pale white as she looked at him, before slowly sinking to the ground.

“No don’t!” Brian wasn’t sure why he stopped her, except the ground was cold, and she was clearly not well. Cold couldn’t be good for her, could it? Instead, he pulled her onto his lap, wrapping instead his long lanky arms around her this time, as he held her trying to bring some warmth in the small frail body.

Sometime while walking, her head scarf had loosened and the movement onto his lap pulled it off. Softly his thin, dark fingers combed the few strings of hair while a cough wracked her body. He was thin, but Irielle, she was frail, and he was suddenly scared that the cough would break her in half.

“You okay?” He whispered back.

“I’ve missed you.”

“The police wanted to put my friend and I into a house. We had to run, so I couldn’t come for a few days and then when I came you weren’t here.”

“I’m sick.” She stated it so matter-of-factly that it scared him even more than seeing her had. “I’m to go to the hospital tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“My doctor needs to check and see if they can make me better again.”

“How?” Brian couldn’t seem to make himself say more than one-word responses.

“They need someone’s blood, someone very special, they need to put it in me and see if it helps. My doctor said that if they can find that someone special, I’ll get better. So, they gonna start with some tests to see if they can get it right that they can find that someone, maybe ask all around the world. I would like to go around the world...”

Her voice and worlds trailed of, and for some reason, for a moment, Brian was scared that she had died. But then the rise and fall of her body told him she had drifted off to sleep. He wished he could sit with her like that forever, but a scream and other sounds from the house told him, that the little fugitive on his lap was being sought. Softly, his fingers barely a whisper on her skin, he stroked her cheek to wake her.

As her eyelids fluttered open, he spoke “Your family is looking for you. And it’s cold. You better go.”

Hearing the sounds drifting towards them, she got up, nodded, then with a soft kiss on his chin, she was gone, and Brian felt like his entire heart was gone with her too.