Real drama queen.
vii
“I think I’ll have that tea now,” Nia says as she tippy-toes further down the hallway.
Lancelot right in front of her.
He opens the door.
Nia skips out onto the grass.
She heads towards the hill.
Near the pomegranate trees.
Before I get to the door, he closes it.
“I don’t think you need to be following the Lady everywhere she goes.”
He blocked the doorway.
Stood with his hand rested on his sword handle.
It looked to be pure silver and gold.
“There’s castle business that needs attending to.”
I couldn’t believe this dude.
Here in his dress telling me what I should do.
Umf.
It was a kilt.
Orange-brown.
Nia always debated that it was the Irish that invented the kilt and not the Scottish.
Uhm.
Only reason it mattered was that her ancestors were Irish.
So she was entirely being biased.
Why debate about a dress for men I found ridiculous.
No dresses for men period.
But here Lancelot was.
Proudly wearing his worsted wool dress.
Must be itchy.
Guess that’s why he is so uptight.
“I’ll join Nia whenever I want to.”
I said Nia deliberately.
He looked at me as if to say how dare you call the queen by her name.
Before he could speak.
“If Nia wishes to be alone, then she will tell me.”
I knock hard against his metal top and he moves out of the way.
Thing hurt my elbow, but I didn’t show any pain.
Dude must be real strong.
Wearing all that metal.
Did he really not know the enemy like I did?
All this armour would only hold him back.
I walk over to Nia.
She was taking in The Bright.
Those doe eyes.
Simply beautiful.
viii
He follows me.
I couldn’t believe him.
Nia only smiles away.
I will never understand women.
She takes another blackberry and puts it in her mouth.
She seems different.
She never did that with me.
Flirt.
I got immediately angry.
Why was he here?
Can’t he attend to the castle business?
Guess that all only involved Nia.
I sit down next to her.
She stops her nonsense as soon as I look at her.
He walks more towards the water below.
Better get a move on.
Umf.
Real nerve he has.
Nia looks at me.
Jealous written all over her face.
“Don’t mind him, Sher. He is just a jock.”
She smiles at him seductively.
I couldn’t believe it.
“Is that why you are with Giel?”
I simply ask.
“Because he plays rugby and has lots of muscles?”
Nia looks at me shocked.
She didn’t expect that.
She averts my gaze and seems to just stare off into the sky.
Sure was bright here.
“It has got nothing to do with you why I am with Giel.”
She said that like it was the end of the conversation.
She puts another blackberry in her mouth.
“Why did you make me wait then?”
I ask.
I was now really upset.
That fool should never have come around.
He was staring at us.
Wish some lightning would strike him right where he stood.
Or perhaps not.
Just now it really does.
Nia wouldn’t like that one bit.
Lucky.
“You knew you were going to say no that day already.”
I look over to Lancelot then back at Nia.
“I saw it in your eyes.”
She knew what I was talking about.
“No was clearly there. You could simply have said it out loud too.”
She looks away.
“But no. You make me wait for days. And only for that. Crap. That scratchy recording.”
I was letting it all out.
“A tweet, Nia. For the entire world to see and hear. How could you?”
That NOT tweet.
I took a deep breath in and tried to calm down.
Nia looks at her glass of apple juice and takes a sip.
The guineafowl right behind us too.
I didn’t feel comfortable with all of them around us suddenly.
Something wasn’t right.
I could feel it.
I could feel the fire in my chest slowly start again.
A soft pain in the back of my head.
Soon it would all be the same again.
Uhm.
It didn’t matter why Nia made me wait.
I guess it was simply difficult for her.
And she didn’t have to answer me.
I was only upset.
Upset that I was not the one she chose.
That is what hurt.
But that was in the past too.
“I don’t hate you, Nia.”
I look over at her apologetically.
“I am sorry I got angry with you.”
“I was jealous. I’m sorry.”
Nia looks up at me.
She still doesn’t smile.
“Can’t you see, Nia?”
I gesture with my hands about us.
Gesturing to The Bright.
“It all shines only for you.”
Nia understood.
She smiles.
Beautiful white teeth.
Those doe eyes.
Sad.
Happy.
Like all of this was bittersweet.
She sighs and then looks at me.
Exploring my face.
She seems to have completely forgotten about Lancelot.
She bites her lower lip and then looks down.
She sighs.
I wondered what was wrong.
Perhaps Nia needs her pills.
ix
Nia went to get dressed for supper.
Lancelot right beside her bedroom door.
I didn’t bother to say anything.
I went down to wait for Nia in the banquet hall.
A small orchestra was in the corner.
The guineafowl was chi-chi-ing orders at them.
The violinists seem the most annoyed with him.
The cellists only seem to ignore him and continues tuning.
Guess we were in for a treat.
Perhaps Nia would do us the honours herself.
She was a parlour queen.
After all.
The College of the Arts was a place for everybody.
I am still not sure what Nia got up to there.
Guess it involved drama.
Uhm.
I fall against the wall.
It happened suddenly.
The sharp pain in my head.
It was unlike the doof doof.
I took a deep breath.
I was not sure what was going on.
I was suddenly outside on the ledge.
It was dark.
Only the blue haze of the marble in the distance.
I saw them.
Nia and.
The roach.
Mr Giel Basson.
He was taking her towards the forest.
What was he thinking?
Why doesn’t Nia ever listen?
I shake my head.
I focus on the guineafowl.
He was staring at me strangely.
&nbs
p; He shakes his body and lots of feathers fly through the air.
He then marches in the direction of the kitchen.
What just happened?
My chest started burning more.
The sharp pain was thankfully subsiding.
But I felt that something was wrong.
Nia.
I wanted to run up the stairs.
But as I was about to.
I saw her at the top.
Ready to come down.
She looked breath-taking.
Her dress tight against her body.
Black.
With a long slit.
Revealing those legs.
Those beauties.
She had a rose in her mouth.
The violinist starts playing.
Nia sways her hips seductively as she starts her way down the stairs.
Guess we were indeed in for some parlour queen tricks.
My Nia.
Fair Lady.
My Fair Lady.
x
Can’t believe it.
She starts dancing with Lancelot.
He is very touchy indeed.
Nia just lets him.
Umf.
She seems to be in heaven.
I take a seat at the small table.
Only place for two.
He will have to watch us eat if he insists on sticking around.
Ha ah.
Umf.
I could never get that move right.
Lancelot was an expert.
He lifted her effortlessly.
I decided to focus on something else.
Let Nia enjoy herself.
We were still not safe.
I was not sure how I was going to get Nia to co-operate.
It has never worked in the past.
But something felt different this time.
I can’t explain it.
It is like.
I don’t know.
I must be imagining it.
That scene on the ledge was still in the back of my mind.
Nia had the yellow daisy and pink vygie tucked behind her ear.
She was still with them before she entered her bedroom.
A few minutes ago.
Before I was stopped by the fool.
Look at him.
Twirling her like that.
They must finish this song and get it over with.
Look at that.
Umf.
Uhm.
“Uhm.”
Nia.
Fair Lady.
Indeed.
She looked ravishing.
I focus.
I remember now.
I was starting to fall.
Again.
This has happened before.
I had a bad feeling.
Almost like this was final.
The last chance.
I could feel it in my chest and head.
If we don’t succeed, we might both end up here.
Forever.
Burning forever.
xi
Nia threw herself on the chair.
Not to lady like.
She gulps some red wine down and asks for more.
The wine bottle seems to lift by itself and starts emptying the wine into Nia’s glass.
“More! More! Fill the cup. Fill it up! More!”
I have never seen Nia like this.
She wasn’t even one to drink wine.
She preferred whisky.
And above all else.
Her homebrew iced tea.
She gulps the newly filled glass down and asks for more.
“Fill it up! Fill it up!”
I could see the thing holding the bottle now.
Just barely though.
It was strange.
“Can you see him, Nia?”
I ask.
“What? The one eyed lion head man? That looks like an African sculpture?”
One eyed lion head man? Africa-n sculpture?
I was sort of thinking more in the lines of an Indian.
American-Indian.
Perhaps an Inca.
Or a Mayan maybe.
It looked strange.
The thing holding the bottle.
I saw it now.
It looked like that guy from Apocalypto.
The one with the thing around his neck.
Right on top of the pyramid.
It sort of gave me goose bumps.
Nia just gulps down more wine and just asks for more.
This was not normal behaviour for Nia.
She was not a heavy drinker.
And she preferred not to have wine with her food.
No something was wrong.
I wanted to say something when.
“Drama queen. It’s just some wine. Chill-lax.”
Nia slowly drinks the last that was in her glass.
She then burps.
“Mmmmmmmmm. I’m famished!”
Her eyes mmmmmmm in agreement.
Perhaps Nia was tipsy.
I couldn’t say.
The guineafowl comes closer.
“May we serve dinner chi-chi Fair Lady chi-chi?”
It seems almost scared to stand too close to Nia.
Neck very rigid.
*Chi-chi*
“Yes!” Nia shouts.
The bird stammers all the way back to the wall.
It seems to have just gotten the fright of its life.
Why was Nia behaving this way?
The bird runs to the kitchen.
Feathers everywhere.
*Chi chi chi chi chi-chi-chi chi-chi chi-chi*
xii
"Please.
I’m pleading with you."
Oh, Lord.
It hurts.
Hurts.
"Hooooooooo... awe... it hurts.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwe.
Awe-wa.
Hooooooooooooooooo…"
I could no longer see through the tears.
"Please. Nia.
Sweetpea
I be..”
Uhhhhhhhhhh.
*Uhhhhhhhhhhhh*
I didn’t even feel a thing.
Only the sudden sting.
Then the jerk.
I taste the blood in my mouth.
Soon it starts dripping down my chin.
I look up.
It was still beating.
As she held it in her hands.
Those eyes.
Doe eyes no more.
No.
These were not my sweetpea’s beautiful eyes.
These eyes were dark.
Cold.
She seems to want to lick it.
It grossed me out.
She gives me a sinister smile.
This cannot be Nia.
Nia would never.
No.
This is not Marnia.
I told you.
You are mine.
xiii
“Chi-chi chi.”
The guineafowl comes cautiously closer.
*Chi-chi chi*
I was worried too.
The way Nia was eating.
It must be the Grave’s disease.
But still.
Iyo.
The way she took the eisbein in her two hands and just.
Uhm.
Nia was acting very strangely.
“Is everything to your chi-chi liking, My Lady?”
The bird asks scared.
Moves backwards while still in a bowing posture.
“Can’t… you…see… I’m… eating!”
*eeeeeeeatingggggg!*
“Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi!”
The bird runs frantically out of the banquet hall.
Feathers everywhere.
He slips a few times, but is soon chi-chi-ing away.
*Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi*
Lancelot gave him a look and then stares at us again.
Thankfully he wa
sn’t standing right here next to us.
He was more towards the stairs.
Nia literally licked her plate clean.
She must really have enjoyed that.
Or she was really hungry.
Perhaps it was time for Nia to take her pills.
“Nia…”
“Now. Sher.”
She seems to attempt again.
“What is it that you wanted to show me?”
She sounds less invasive.
“Have to show me?”
*Havvvvvvvvvvvvve*
I let it be.
It must be the wine.
“Come. I’ll show you.”
xiv
We went to the tower.
It had stairs that led to the top.
Thirteen to be exact.
What I had to show Nia, was at the bottom though.
Right in the centre of the tower floor.
The marble; black and white.
There, right between the two pillars, it stood.
Hanging above it.
The emblem crest of Nia’s family.
I wouldn’t say Nia’s family emblem crest exactly.
More the.
I couldn’t really say.
Nia tried to explain it to me.
While we were under the pomegranate trees.
After I apologized for getting angry.
I was about to give her her pills.
When she said.
“Don’t you understand, Sherwin.”
She looked at me strangely.
“That’s the hold they have on me.”
I wasn’t sure who Nia was referring to.
It wasn’t that she was talking about her family as such.
More like it was something else.
I didn’t ask further.
It seemed that it was supposed to be a secret.
Uhm.
The blue light shone all against the wall.
It was something to behold.
The blue marble was right above us.
It looked like the things in the bubbles were looking down at us.
Almost like they were smiling.
Nia didn’t notice a thing.
No.
Nia walked straight to it.
“How do I open it?”
*Open*
What was wrong with Nia?
Why was she so.
Stressed.
Yes.
Like she was annoyed.
Umf.
The mood swings.
“Tell… me… how… to… open… it.”
Nia’s voice was strange.
Deep almost.
She sways her hips seductively.
Slowly.
Enchantingly.
Almost like she was a snake.
I couldn’t help staring though.
Nia was beautiful.
She came closer to me.
Stood right in front of me.
Those doe eyes.
Captivating.
Inviting,
She leans into me and whispers into my ear.
I got goose bumps immediately.
Nia’s breath sent shivers down my spine.
I love her whisper.
She can whisper anything into my ear.
“Where… is… it!”
Nia almost screams me deaf.
xv
“Quit your whining.”
Nia was standing next to it.
“Worse… than… a girl.”
Eyes dark.
Almost black.
Like there was no white.
“Awe.”
She mocks me.
“Awe! Awe! Awe!”
She comes to stand right in front of me.
She sure moved fast.
Gracefully.
Forcefully.
“What was that…thirteen… times now?”
She takes me by the chin.
“Grow some balls!”
*Balls*
She stares me dead in my eyes.