3. Do you take a bath with boiling water?!
1880 Words
Bess.
I am in a dream.
Or at least that's how I feel.
I gaze in awe at the neat, shiny, large bathroom I find myself in. There's even a bathtub in there and oh boy, I swear I'd stay here forever.
I might even forget about food, I just can't live without it.
Are you asking me about the bagels?
Hey, you're right.
So forget it.
I've thought better of it and decided I'll stick to food.
However, this is the closest to heaven I've ever been.
I carefully run my hand over the bathroom cabinet made of some kind of soft material, feeling really delighted to be in such a place.
Oh, this is so pretty.
I turn on the faucet for the water in the sink and immediately the clear, shiny, cold liquid falls out in a small stream. I introduce my hands and grab a good amount of water in them. I bring it to my face and smile even more when it gets wet. I repeat the action several times until I am sure that the dirt is gone from my face.
I turn off the faucet and go to the shower.
The shower is big and so clean that I am afraid to touch it for fear of dirtying it.
I look curiously at the two faucets there, wondering which of the two I should turn on. As I'm about to find out, my eyes fall on the toiletries on the shelf along the wall.
I take all the jars in my hands and sit in a lotus position in the middle of the shower. I spread all the products on the floor and read the name of each one. There's shampoo, conditioner, styling cream, body lotion, and something called body wash.
I uncap each product and bring it up to my nose, sniffing it.
Oh, they smell very good.
Always, in the foster homes I have been in, they only gave me a towel and a bar of soap for my showers.
Having all this feels like being in a dream that I never thought would come true.
Lately, the only thing accompanying my showers in public restrooms was the small bar of soap I stole from a supermarket months ago. The truth is that it was almost over, but I guess I won't need it anymore.
I smile at the idea.
I carefully rearrange everything back to where it was, and when I'm about to walk away, I see a stack of razor blades at the end of the shelf.
Well, that wouldn't hurt either.
With more excitement than I've felt in days, I strip completely naked and drop my clothes into the basket by the sink.
I look again curiously at the two faucets there, wondering which one I should turn on. I decide on the one on the left and, immediately, the crystal clear water begins to fall.
"s**t! You f*****g unicorn from Mars!”
My goodness, this burns!
I quickly turn off the faucet, stopping the damn hot water from pouring out.
"Bess?!" I hear Aaron yell on the other side of the door. "Bess, are you okay?!"
"Yes!"
No, f**k no.
I have been burned.
"I'm going in!"
"Nope!" I look around the place in alarm, looking for a towel. When I finally find her, I wrap her around my body just before Aaron walks in.
"What happened?!" He looks around the bathroom in alarm, like he's waiting for a killer to come out of nowhere. "Are you okay?!"
“Why are you yelling?!” I ask, yelling too. "Do not scream!"
“You are the one screaming!”
"Well, because your shower nearly killed me!" I yell at him hysterically. “Hot water coming out, hot water! Do you want to singe me or what, strange guy?!”
"What the..." he looks at me in confusion, then finally his eyes fall to my bare shoulders and he yells louder, "Christ, Bess, you burned!"
"Yes, I told you, do you forget?"
Oh, sorry for the sarcasm.
But this guy didn't seem to listen to me!
Before he can blink, he grabs my hand and pulls me into the shower still with the towel on. Then he turns on the faucet on the right and immediately, cold water like an ice floe begins to fall on my body.
"Frost!"
“I know, I know.” He holds my shoulders, holding me up in the freezing rain. "It's cold, but this will help with the burning of the hot water."
My teeth are starting to chatter and I can swear my lips have turned purple.
I can't even feel my poor little toes!
Finally, when I think my body has lost mobility, he turns off the shower and leads me to the toilet seat. I look at him while my body trembles. He kneels in front of me and takes a long look at my shoulders, which are surely frozen by now.
I get excited when he puts a finger to my skin and draws one of my collarbones.
"It hurts?" I repeatedly shake my head, because I kind of can't speak. I feel that if I speak, my teeth will shake so much that he won't understand me. "Why did you open that faucet?"
He shrugged at me, still unable to speak.
He stands there for a moment, carefully drawing my skin.
This is strange, I think in my mind.
But somehow, his touch doesn't bother me.
When I start to doze off, he clears his throat and stands up, his back to me.
"Why did you open that faucet?" he asks again.
Why did I open it?
Oh no.
"The question here is, why are there two taps?" I manage to speak when the cold has passed a bit.
He finally turns to look at me and it's curious how his eyes look at me.
"Have you never had a hot bath, Bess?"
What?
"Re crazy?!" I ask, thinking what kind of alien is he. “You bathe in that boiling water?! How did you not die, you, crazy suicide?!
I look at the skin on his neck which is the only thing his white silk shirt lets me see.
His neck looks very normal.
There is no singed skin, not even red...
"No, Bess," he interrupts my thoughts. "The two taps, the cold and hot water, are to measure the temperature of the water with which you want to bathe."
"What?"
My goodness, I am so lost.
"Come" he asks me.
I walk over to him and stand next to him. He turns on the two water taps and inserts his hand every so often, as if he were measuring its temperature.
oh! Measuring temperature!
I think I understand.
I smile with all my teeth and he looks back at me, smiling too.
"Do you want to try?" Ask.
Oh yeah.
I nod excitedly and position myself in front of him. Little by little, Aaron teaches me how to measure temperature.
"This is great!" I tell him, now feeling the perfect temperature of the water falling from the shower.
"What kind of water did you shower with, Bess?" He asks behind me, my back pressed against his chest which is now surely wet from my towel.
His presence behind me is somewhat intimidating, but I decide not to say anything.
"Generally, with cold water" I answer, continuing to play with the water that falls from the shower. "Sure, not as cold as the one that comes out if you turn on the right side of your shower," I whisper with amusement.
In any case, he doesn't laugh at my joke.
Uhhh, bitter at the sight.
“And why the hell didn't you take a hot shower? Didn't the foster homes you've been in have a heater?” He leaves his hands on my shoulders, so I turn my face slightly to look at him.
So it's warmer, huh.
"Hey, cowboy," I twist my lips, confused by his sudden anger. “Foster homes don't exactly belong to the upper class of the city. So of course there was no heater in their bathrooms."
He sighs heavily, and finally, his brow relaxes a bit.
Yes, what a strange man.
"s**t, pretty." His hands gently squeeze my shoulders. "You will not take a bath with cold water again, understood?"
I nod because what else can I do?
"So…" I turn to face him, his hands immediately slipping away from my skin. "Can I take a bath?"
And not that I want to kick him out of his own place, but seriously, I'm dying to take a shower.
“Er, yeah” he seems to understand, so he takes a few steps back and walks out the door only to re-enter a few seconds later. "Look" he hands me some clothes. “I was bringing your clothes when I heard your screams. I dropped it in the hallway, sorry."
He shrugged at me, dismissing that fact. Rather I concentrate on studying what he has given me. There is a t-shirt, shorts and what appears to be men's boxers.
I take the shirt and bring it to my nose, sniffing it.
I smile again.
It smells clean and some strange delicious lotion.
"Thanks, Aaron," I say with complete sincerity.
He is the only person who has cared for me for as long as I can remember. So I owe him a lot more than he probably realizes.
When I look up to his face, I find that the pretty blue color of his eyes has darkened a few shades.
“Say it again” he says and all I can wonder is, why does his voice sound hoarser?
"Thank you?" I ask, totally confused.
"No, Bess," he denies as he takes a step toward me. "My name, say it."
What?
I look at him in silence, words not coming out of my mouth because really, what did he just ask me for?
His hands suddenly rest on my cheeks and hold my face firmly.
My breathing begins to fail me.
“Come on, pretty, say it,” he asks again, his thumb now trailing over my bottom lip.
Is he again wiping some muffin crumbs out of my mouth, like he did before?
“Bess” now his voice is like a command. "Say it".
"Aaron!" I shout it out when he has finally tired me of his strange attitude. “Aaron! Aaron! Isn't that what your name is, dammit?!"
And he bursts out laughing in front of me, doubling over his knees as he holds his stomach in his hands.
But what...?
Okay, everything is fine.
Nothing weird is happening.
“Take a bath, Bess,” he says when he's finally calmed down. "I'll wait for you in the living room when you finish."
I just nod, because I swear if he laughs again at anything that comes out of my lips, I'm going to beat him to death.
I stare at the door as he closes it, wondering what he's so amused about.
I'm tempted to go ask him, but then the shower calls out to me.
Oh yes, I will entertain myself for quite a while in this bathroom.
- Writer
