Marven’s First Novel, chapter24

     One afternoon, it was raining heavily. Michal went out of a side street into the Escolta whose cobblestones glimmered due to the downpour. She covered her person under a seemingly-durable black umbrella and was wearing a black jacket over a white dress whose flowing skirt reached down between the knee and the foot and a pair of short black pointed boots that had elevated heels. Her hair was laid back, and her clear skin was enhanced by the blackness in which she clothed herself. She turned and walked down the street and afterwards approached a heritage building whose ground floor is a dining place. She entered and then looked around and found Aldo sitting at a table, on whose surface, he rested both his arms, the hands of which was whitened by the cloudy surrounding outside and by the sweater he wore over his collared formal shirt. Michal went to where he was and then sat opposite him.

     "Good thing this just arrived. You must be feeling cold as I am." Aldo placed a large cup of smoking brown coffee with a heart topping in front of her.

     Michal took it with both hands, lifted it into her lips, and sipped the drink little at a time because it was still hot enough to scald. Doing so seemed to have caused her body to stop trembling.

     Aldo drank alongside her.

     When they both set the cups down, they smiled at each other and started talking lively. And from the outside through the establishment's glass wall and illumined by the mellow lights from the ceiling but blurred a little bit by the continuous downpour, they could be seen bantering.

     When they finished there, they went out into the Escolta that is now moderately or mildly poured on by the rain. They sheltered themselves under Michal's umbrella, with Aldo holding its handle with his left and Michal's shoulder with his right, ostensibly to keep her from freezing. Apparently she was because she was crossing her arms. The way the street was paved naturally led or lured them and other pedestrians alike into the riverwalk along Muelle del Banco Nacional and Muelle dela Industria.

     They walked by the river for some time until the rain stopped and the sun shone as if a curtain was just replaced. The sun started to warm them, and Aldo folded Michal's umbrella that turned out to be not folding, thus making it durable, and handed it to Michal who simply hung the thing on her arm along with her bag. They walked some more steps until Aldo decided to take her to the port area and said it to her. Michal agreed. Aldo waited until a kalesa passed by; and when one did, he hailed it and they rode. Now at the pier, they could now be seen sitting at a bench at the end of the dock looking towards the sea and at the sunset. She rested her head on his shoulder. When they were done there, Aldo took her in a side trip to the frontline operations nearby and introduced her to some co-workers. When they were done there, they hailed a kalesa and rode off. As it just went out of Del Pan street and turned left to Muelle dela Industria, it stopped and out of it came and alighted they. They ascended the steps of the riverwalk and resumed their stroll by the river.

     After taking less than ten steps when they were within proximate sight of that ubiquitous red roof of a bungalow in Fort Santiago, Michal stopped near a lamp post, removed her jacket and set it down and her bag on the surface of the balustrade, and hung her umbrella on the same.

     Aldo was surprised or appeared surprised, but the first thing he noticed in this action was Michal's back and shoulder blades or wing bones. "What is it?" he said.

     Michal gracefully turned around and faced him.

     Aldo remained motionless but nevertheless noticed Michal's bare arms and her collar bones down her neck as he gazed at her statically.

     She drew near him and took a step very close to him. Then she embraced him and rested her head on his bosom. Aldo wrapped his arms around her in response. Then she looked up at him, tipped his chin, caressed his face for a second, and then kissed him passionately. Aldo went along, of course. While the two of them were in middle of it, they were surprised when they heard human voices cheering and whistling, apparently at them. They sprang away from each other, looked where the voices came from, and saw that it was from the promenaders up on the sidewalk of the Del Pan Bridge. Aldo looked up and saw the sculptures of animals and human heads but not the faces of the real heads because they were against the light. His chosen response to the promenaders was to wave his hands gracefully at them say, "Thank you. Sorry." Then he gently turned his back, panned also Michal's back with his touch on her shoulder, took down his hand and, with it, held Michal's hand tightly, and led her to walk as briskly as he did.

     "Let's get out of here," he said.

     "Is it because of them?"

     "Yes. Let's walk fast." Aldo pulled Michal to walk as fast as he did. Then he said, "In fact, let's run." Aldo started to run and hauled or dragged Michal with him."

     "Why are we running?" Michal asked.

     "I don't know."

     They covered some distance, after which, Aldo made the two of them stop; and they transitioned from running to walking fast and then resuming normal pace.

     "Let's rest," he said, panting. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I made you run like that."

     "I'm okay." She also heaved deep breaths.

     After feeling less fatigued, Aldo retook her hand, pulled her as he stepped towards a lamp post, and rested his back against it without letting her go. "It's safe here," he said. Then he settled and pulled her into himself.

     Face to face again with each other, they wrapped each other in each other's arms and looked into each other's eyes.

     "Are you okay?" Michal said.

     "Are you angry at me?" Aldo replied.

     "Right now, I'm not."

     "Thank you." Aldo caressed Michal's face. "I'm angry at them. They interrupted you." After taking a stance in a count of three, Aldo moved his head forward and kissed Michal with such a passion, with which, she did it earlier.

     Feeling it, Michal caressed his hair and his back. And after such a smooch of a considerable duration, they let go, drew back, and, to their surprise, still grasped for breath. Realizing they were still quite fatigued, they both frowned, smiled, and giggled at each other. But also knowing they haven't had enough and not wanting to be hindered by such a pesky exhaustion, they let the mirth die down and set each other for a repeat. Still overcome by that sentiment they didn't want to let go just yet, they looked mellowly into each other's eyes, aimed for each other's lips, and then proceeded to pecking each other repeatedly like chickens.

from The Simple Adventures of a Simple Simpleton

by: Marven T. Baldo