PREVIOUSLY :
He grabs the fork, twirling it on the table; when abruptly the fork refuses to spin. “What the hell.. ?” Akira’s confounded.
“You really shouldn’t bully my chefs, you know... “
_________________________________
Akira turns his head, and there he is, leaning against the doorway, wearing a smirk on his face.
“Oh ! It’s only you,” says Akira in relief. “What took you so long ? You were usually would be here the second I puffed into your home.” He keeps his watch on Kouyou while his best friend saunters right past him to the tall window.
“That question should be mine. It’s already been two weeks since I last saw you; and suddenly you appear right in front of me just to have your tea here ? Are you that simple or just another cuckoo ?”
Akira grins widely. “Aww... Don’t tell me you’ve missed me. I’m sorry my love, but I do have a life. Why must I be seeing you during my summer holidays ?”
Kouyou’s eyes are as wide as it can be when Akira’s statement hits his ears. Kouyou turns to face him, and he snorts. “.. and that comes from the very person who spends most of his day in other people’s home, doing nothing but disturbing the peace. That’s just.. INSPIRATIONAL !” He chuckles sarcastically and stares out the window. “Do you know that we will be having new neighbor this late summer ?”
“Yeah. That’s the only thing my parents rant these days. Why ?”
“Why ?” Kouyou laughs whole-heartedly, creating loud echoes in the dining hall. “Oh my God ! This is precious ! You. The one who always knows everything – hasn’t got a clue about his own new next door neighbor.” He continues laughing; not because he finds it amusing, but to make Akira looking annoyed.
“Why you ask ? So, I take that as you hadn’t know who are the family members,” he continues.
Akira frowns. “What am I missing right now ?”
As he hears that, Kouyou’s grin widens by an inch. “It so happened that our new neighbor has a.. daughter. And she’s definitely around our age.”
In a flash, Akira’s face turns brighter and more cheerful, and it seems his eyes sparkle even greater than the enormous chandelier hanging right above him. “Daughter you say ? Am intrigued.” He grabs his napkin and courteously wipe his mouth. “How about we be good neighbors now ?”
Once his napkin falls back onto the table, both Akira and his best bud are nowhere to be found inside the hall.
This time around, the Elite Butlers stay firmly in their seats, all eyes looking out the window. “Should we follow him, Amoux ?”
Amoux tilts his head up, and beams. “Not this time.”
___________________________
“Careful ! Those are my grandfather’s !” A young comtesse comes running towards one of the movers carrying Chippendale antique secretary cabinet. “You can’t find them anywhere else nowadays. So, you might wanna be very delicate with them.”
“Oui Madame Levitt,” they reply simultaneously and carry on with their works. The comtesse watches them like a prey, inspecting each of the movers, trying her best to avoid any unnecessary incidents with her antiques collection. “Put that in the living hall,” she orders at the top of her voice.
The Levitts are finally here, in Narbonne – and that has been the talk of the day since they’ve arrived at the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport two days ago. All the hypes are not because they are superstars; the Levitt family isn’t Hollywood’s precious family. The Levitts are just another normal family that we find as our friendly next door neighbor. However, the Levitt family owns self-named biggest pharmaceutical company in Europe, with the revenue of billions annually, to add up to the family background. Hence, they would fit in perfectly in the southern French commune.
An oaken double doors swing open, and enters a young girl, carefully managing her way into the room full of boxes containing her belongings. “You can put those there,” she says while pointing to an empty corner of the room. With a nod, the movers enter the luxurious bedroom and cautiously placing those heavy boxes onto the wooden flooring. Later, after those men had done their jobs, Haley saunters around the room, visiting her new bedroom for the very first time.
“Blackwood flooring..? That’s interesting,” she remarks as she walks. She examines the whole room – the walls, the ceilings, the carpets, the bed, etc. – looking almost identical to her last one in Trieste, and yet she finds it rather lonely. She moves towards the tall glass window, leaning against it while her eyes watching the moving trucks driving away out from the front courtyard.
“I wonder how long will this lasts...” Then...
Knock ! Knock !
“Who’s there ?” asks Haley instantaneously.
“It is us, miss. We’re here to tidy up your room,” a girl reply behind the closed doors. And by the sound of it, she doesn’t come alone.
“Come on in then,” she invites while opening those heavy doors herself. Once all of the maids realized the situation, they shriek in terror.
“Miss ! You shouldn’t have opened the doors for us.”
“We are the one who should be doing that, for you !”
“Girls ! Relax...” Haley chuckles, “I’ve told you that I’m capable of doing those things by myself. And this is my room. I do have to be polite to my guests, don’t I ?”
The young maids can only show their faint smiles. The Levitts are indeed very proud of their kindness and humbleness. If asked, none of the butlers nor maids have ever seen their Count and Countess to even frown within their mansion, but that is the very reason they are afraid of doing anything displeasing their well-beloved masters. Perhaps they’ve heard the quote : “Nice people are the scariest people”.
“Yes, miss. But.. we hope you won’t do it again, miss. We might get in trouble if you do so ?” the maids politely warn Haley. Haley wants to argue, but was cut short by one of them, “We will start our job now. Sorry to bother, miss.” Her words died in her mouth, and she just smiles away to the maids and get herself out of their ways.
“Owh ! Not at all. Sorry if I’m in the way.” She strikes into her previous pose against the window, viewing the sunny sky of summer season when suddenly –
Right before her eyes, a young man is hanging in mid air, looking straight into her eyes. Haley’s stunned; not able to move or spurt a single word. Her eyes widen in an absurd way, as if her eyes would popped out any seconds ! Both eyes are locked, without a blink, creating a rather tense atmosphere for Haley. Despites that, she seemingly can’t take her eyes off the suave young lad; and a cold chill runs down her spine, weakens her in the legs.
She can feel her legs giving in – she quickly grabs onto an armchair right behind her before she falls, whilst her eyes haven’t revert from that man. Haley pants heavily when she finds it hard to breathe. Her face loses its color. Her hands are as cold as the dead.
On that fine evening, Haley is seeing a ghost.
 |
| Right before her eyes, a young man is hanging in mid air, looking straight into her eyes |
No comments:
Post a Comment