Chapter 15 Aiden
Chapter 15 AIDEN
H e flew above a big city, a Beatles tune playing in the air. Origami diamonds and black-and-white persons scattered on the ground, in a live-motion picture on the pages of a cheap magazine.
“Aiden?”
Warmth, contentment, lightness. He floated in pleasant sensations, soft bedding, and sweet memories of delicate fingers caressing his scalp.
“Aiden?”
A gentle, yet insistent shake brought him to consciousness.
“Aiden. Wake up. The storm’s gotten worse. It escalated to a tornado warning now. Hurry.”
Nora’s tense voice jump-started his body. He sat up too fast, a brief dizzy spell clouding his eyes, but he forced himself to follow her, grabbing the magazine and zipping his hoodie up as he went.
“Tornado warning?” he asked, his foggy mind struggling to make sense of things.
“Basement situation.”
The storm—which he had thought was winding down—once again raged full-force, howling towards the city; it was both thrilling and scary. Mostly scary.
“It’s coming towards us now. And it’s not getting any weaker.” Gone was the light in her kaleidoscope eyes, now tinted with the shadow of worry.
He didn’t know what to expect. Would the tornado rip the roof off the house? He looked to Nora for assurance. Despite all her confidence, she was fidgety and skittish, and that made Aiden’s bones go icy and his breath go shallow.
When he was a kid, he and Gabe used the basement as their “man cave.” Long-gone were the band posters and their stacks of comics. Now there was just a laundry area, an old coffee table, and a small sofa. Nora retrieved a large box from a cabinet, and he locked the door at her request.
“Need a hand there?” He nodded his head towards the box.
She didn’t need any help, as he had learned, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be useful.
“Sure. Thanks. You can carry this box over there.” She pointed to the sofa. “And get the flashlights and candles out.”
The box bore neat “Emergency” labels on each side. Aiden was impressed. He had no emergency supplies at his flat—he’d be in trouble should anything dire happen while he was at home.
He gave the contents a quick inspection. She had food and water for a few days, plus a blanket, a first-aid kit, a small radio with spare batteries, and power banks. He could learn a thing or two from her.
Aiden waited on the sofa as she paced back and forth, typing on her phone. His injured hand was throbbing, but at least the wound wasn’t bleeding. Hooray for small blessings . She went to the emergency box and pulled out the blanket—which they would have to share. The air felt colder now that they were not in front of the fireplace anymore, and Aiden was grateful when, without a word, she sat by his side and spread it over their legs.
“Good thinking,” Aiden said. “The best way to stave off the cold is by sharing body heat.” He hoped a little flirtation would bring her from her daze.
Eyes glued to her phone, she mumbled a half-hearted assent, tapping her feet on the cold floor. Thunder clashed outside, and she jumped, startling him.
“Nora, are you quite all right?”
She didn’t answer. Her breath came in shallow puffs. If he’d been tense before, now he was terrified.
“Hey.” Aiden touched her shoulder, with all the gentleness his injured hand could muster. “What is it?” he asked.
Nora at last looked at him, her eyes haunted. Without a word, she showed him the weather app on her phone screen. “ Projected EF-3. Severe damage. ” He wasn’t familiar with tornado intensity scales, but the “severe damage” bit was worrying, nonetheless.
Sirens blared outside, and they shared a quick look. Aiden was glad it had been Nora’s sweet voice—not the sirens—that awakened him on the sofa upstairs.
“Is your mother safe? Your friends?”
At last, she answered. “My mother’s area is out of the path of danger. My friends are all as safe as we are.”
“There you have it, love,” Aiden said with a small smile. He considered putting his arm around her, but she seemed nervous enough, and he didn’t want to make her any more uncomfortable. “Do you know what the ancient Sumerians did whenever a tornado struck?”
Nora frowned and shook her head.
“They let the tornado blow.”
She barked a guffaw, laughing until her unshed tears of worry became tears of mirth. “Oh... my... God... you’re so goofy! You totally made that up.”
Aiden knew she hadn’t meant goofy as a compliment. What she didn’t know, however, is that in Aiden’s opinion Goofy was Walt Disney’s most compelling character—he had personality, humor, and charm. So Aiden decided to take it as a compliment. He was tall, yes, he was goofy, yes, and if he could make people laugh, he’d do it gladly.
So, for the moment, he’d be Nora’s Goofy.
“I guess you’re right,” she said as her laughter subsided. “No point in worrying over things we can’t control.” She put her phone aside and motioned for Aiden to grab a bag of chips from the emergency box.
“You know what else the Sumerians invented? Written language,” he said. “Which allowed people to transcribe some questions on paper so that bored individuals such as ourselves could pass the time.”
Nora flashed him a bemused look at the sight of the magazine he held. “Of all things, you remembered to bring that ?”
“It was out of impulse! I had no idea what my hands were doing. They might as well have grabbed a pillow or a dust bin.”
The ghoulish screech of wind and rain intensified. Worried that Nora would grow anxious again, Aiden gently dropped the magazine on her lap, a suggestive look on his face.
With a shaky sigh, Nora took the magazine and found the questionnaire page. “Can you believe it? We’re halfway done.”
“Time flies when you’re having fun.” He winked at her, in an attempt to rekindle the flirty-playful atmosphere they’d shared upstairs.
She gave him a hint of a smile. “You know what, you’re right. I need a distraction.”
“I can distract you in so many different ways,” he said, and a glint flickered behind her eyes, finally triggering the big smile he’d been expecting. If his innuendos could at least set Nora more at ease, he’d keep making a fool of himself with pleasure.
Nora cracked her knuckles. “Here goes question nineteen. ‘If you knew that, in one year, you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?’” Her smile waned.
“They could have put a lighter question after the last one, don’t you think?” Aiden frowned. “To tell you the truth, I’m still kinda knackered.” And the tempest mauling the world overhead didn’t help lighten the mood.
“We could stop, do something else. Play riddles, or tic-tac-toe, go for a stroll in this pleasant weather...”
There was another rumble outside. If it was thunder or a house being ripped off the ground, Aiden couldn’t tell. Nora widened her eyes.
“Scratch that last idea, right?” She let out a nervous laugh.
A big yawn overtook Aiden before he could fight it. He had no idea how he could be so sleepy with all the adrenaline rushing through his veins.
“You were sleeping!” she said. “I forgot you’re an old man who can’t miss his bedtime.” Of all things, Nora had to remember that tiny detail from one of his answers. “And you thought the coffee wouldn’t let you sleep tonight, huh?”
“Only one thing could keep me up at this late hour.”
Nora fidgeted with the blanket covering her thighs in a very distracting manner. “And what is that, Aiden?”
“You, clearly.” Me and my big mouth, again. The look Nora flashed at him sent blood rushing to his cheeks.
“Me? And how would I keep you up at this late hour?” After she spoke, her tongue rested on the tip of her front teeth. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“That, I leave for the universe to decide.”
She kept staring at him until Aiden had to avert his gaze. His self-control only went so far.
“Anyway,” Nora continued, “you can still sleep. There’s an inflatable—” She slapped her forehead. “There was an inflatable mattress around here somewhere, but I gave it away last week. I’m a genius.”
“Why would I want an inflatable mattress when I can sleep here?” His hand gave her lap two light taps. “As to your previous question... We should keep doing the questionnaire. It’s been... good... to get things out. Unless you want to stop, that is.”
She shook her head, one hand gesturing for him to keep talking, the other covering her mouth full of chips.
“All right. If I were to die one year from now... Now that I ponder it, I don’t think I’m afraid of dying . I’m afraid of missing out on life. So, it’s not very creative, I reckon, but I would quit my job and take that year for myself and travel the whole world at my own pace. I travel a lot for work, but there are still so many places to see... I don’t know. Maybe Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, Madagascar.”
“Oh, Africa! It’s the only continent—besides Antarctica, of course—that I’ve never been to,” Nora said. “My mom is crazy about going on one of those wildlife drives one day. She’s an avid National Geographic fan and thinks of herself as a specialist in wildlife.” Nora’s hands and arms were again waving about, and Aiden took this as a sign she wasn’t so tense anymore.
“Those drives are a must,” he said, chewing some chips of his own. “I’ve been to South Africa once, and it was brilliant. I was shooting a... shooting so many pictures, because everywhere you look there’s a fantastic view. The people there are so warm and friendly. It was a privilege to have had such an experience.” He had been in fact shooting a film, Falling Leaves . Should he just bite the bullet and tell her?
“Noted! I’m sorry, I interrupted you. Please, continue.”
But the moment had passed. He took a second to remember where he was. “Ah, of course, I would spend more time with my loved ones. My family is pretty close-knit, but we all live in different places. It would be nice to be closer to them.” The main reason his family didn’t meet more often was not the physical distance, but his overpacked schedule. Aiden did his best to be as present as possible, but it wasn’t nearly enough for him.
Then he got serious. “Perhaps I would at last find the courage to go talk to Kate. My ex-girlfriend. Who lost the baby,” he added. “Perhaps I should do that anyway, since I won’t die within a year. Hopefully.”
Nora knocked three times on the wooden coffee table. “Hopefully. Maybe she needs your apology as much as you need to say it. But I don’t want to get into your personal matters.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of these questions?” Aiden smiled, not at all displeased.
“I guess it is. If I ever go too far, let me know, okay? Meddling in your life, I mean. As for me,” Nora said, returning to the question, “I’d spend more time with my mom and Lucy. I’d probably leave my job, too, because although it pays well, it takes up all of my time, and I guess when you’re dying money doesn’t matter anymore, right? Though... we’re dying every day, aren’t we? We’re getting older and some things we want to do eventually may not be possible because our bodies are not the same or our minds are not the same. Damn. Should I leave my job tomorrow?”
“As my father says, ‘you don’t let go of the vine until you grab the next one,’” Aiden said.
“Your father, the professor, gives Tarzan-themed advice? That is so precious! I like him.”
“He would love you. You both have a scientific background. Both my parents would love you, in fact. Mum is also a Beatlemaniac; she even shares her birthday with Ringo. She’ll babble about them the whole day, given the chance, but none of us have any patience for that. She would enjoy your company dearly.”
Nora lowered her head and giggled to herself.
“What?” Aiden crossed his arms. Had he said something stupid?
“It’s just... there’s this joke about my name in Brazil.”
A joke. It had potential. “Yes?”
She giggled again. “Nora means daughter-in-law in Portuguese. So, my name is a kind of pre-made pick-up line. ‘You are the daughter-in-law my mom always wanted,’” she said, emulating a male voice.
What did she—oh. Oh. When would he learn to control his big mouth? He had just implied Nora would one day meet his mother. It was one thing to flirt, and an entirely different thing to hint at marriage. “God, I didn’t mean it like that!”
“So, I’m not the daughter-in-law your mom always wanted?” she pouted, her eyes gleaming. “Now I’m offended.”
Again he had painted himself into a corner. “I didn’t mean it like that, either. Really, Nora, you’re messing with me.” Aiden’s face grew hot. Served him right. He coughed, then changed the subject. “Why don’t I read the next question?” She handed him the magazine. “Question twenty. ‘What does friendship mean to you?’ Wait, is this a repeat? There was a question about friendship before.”
Nora slapped his arm. “Shh, don’t complain. This is an easy one. Talking about friendship is nice. And it keeps my mind off the tornado.” She straightened her back. “My friends are loonies. Kidding! I mean, they’re loonies, but I love them. It’s funny, isn’t it? How we love people for different reasons and how we end up being friends with some people because of circumstances. Like childhood friends that, if you met today, maybe you wouldn’t gravitate to, but because you know them in another context, you never let them go. And they do the same for you. So, I guess that’s what friendship is to me; never letting people go, because you love them for different reasons.”
“My answer is quite like yours,” Aiden said. “Pardon the cliché, but friends are the family you get to choose. I think friendship is the purest form of love. With true friends you have no ulterior motives other than enjoying spending time with that person. You love them not because of who they are to you, like a mother or a sibling, and not because you want something from them, as in a romance. You love them, and with luck they love you back, and that’s that.” The lights flickered. At least they had flashlights and candles at hand. “Friends also save each other during raging storms.”
Her lips bloomed into a pretty smile. “Is this what we are now? Friends?”
“Why, yes.” And he meant it. So far, his brief time with Nora had been more intense than many of his other relationships, platonic or otherwise.
“Which means you love me? My, my. And to think we’re not even done with the questionnaire.”
Nora laughed while Aiden’s mind reeled, searching for a suitable comeback. Then a deafening clap of thunder boomed outside, and everything went dark.