My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 2: Delia

After walking at a fast speed for hours Al finally saw a small town up

ahead. The buildings looked old but cozy. Smoke could be seen from every chimney as it was a cold winter. Some dogs started barking as they must have felt his presence but they were all chained up and couldn’t reach him. He wished he could silence them. He realized they were only doing their jobs, protecting their homes, their families. Al could enter their minds and read their thoughts. They were anxious because they felt a stranger’s presence and they were trying to alert their masters. Al sat on an old log and started to visualize what he wanted to happen: all the dogs calming down and going back to sleep. He focused on this image until quietness and

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serenity enveloped the small mountain town once more. All the dogs had calmed down and were fast asleep dreaming happy dreams, chasing cats and gnawing on old bones.

The Valentinians were extremely smart and could learn a language in a

matter of minutes. They were good listeners and could reproduce the language with accuracy which helped them blend in with the rest of the races on the nearby planets. It was an inherited skill from their ancestors and it proved very useful more than once.

- Good, now to find some food, Al thought and he approached one house in particular as a smell of fresh baked food was coming through an open window. He had never felt such an inviting smell before. He wasn’t a food lover but this smell was really something else or maybe it was because he was starving. He wasn’t sure.

Al went carefully near the open window and peeked inside. An old

couple was sitting at a table full of foods smiling to one another and laughing loudly. But there was one more chair drawn from the table which he quickly realized meant someone else was also coming. Then he saw her, the most beautiful woman he had seen in his entire life. He had never seen anyone half as beautiful as her and he had seen quite a lot of women till now as he had traveled on all the planets near Valles. Who could have thought that such a beauty could be living on one of the forbidden planets, a primitive planet?

She was slender, had long chestnut hair and a pair of large blue eyes in

which you could get lost without even realizing it. He knew his fate was sealed. The moment he laid his eyes on her he felt the rapid beat of his heart as if his tiny little heart was trying to get out of his chest and run to her.

What was wrong with him? It was as if his entire body was

malfunctioning, like a broken toy. He couldn’t control his feelings. He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling…so many emotions were running through him flooding his mind and all of his senses. For a split second he forgot who he was and what he was doing there. Then when he remembered he had come to get some food he heard her speak as if on purpose to hypnotize him once again. Her voice was as sweet as music to his ears. He knew he was trapped forever. He didn’t care about Nick’s cargo anymore or about his home planet or his job. All he cared about was standing right there in front of him. Somehow she was all that mattered to

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him from the moment he saw her.

She sat down at the table next to the elder woman. Al realized that the

elder couple were her parents. They started eating and his mouth was watering at seeing all that food and seeing them eat. He was really hungry. Then he saw something which gave him even more pleasure: they were drinking water from bottles and they had lots of them. There was water running from a sort of hose and the woman was wasting it to clean the dishes. He couldn’t believe it. Back on Valles water was too scarce and precious to waste it like that. All the food was canned and they just threw away the cans after they ate. Not wasting water to clean. Even their clothes were being chemically cleaned, no water involved. It was all new and

strange to him.

He focused and blurred all other sounds so he could hear only the three

people. He had an acute sense of hearing which proved useful many times as he had heard lots of things and many weren’t destined for his ears.- How was your day, Delia? Asked the woman.

- Fine mom, just another boring day at the job. And Delia went on eating and avoiding her mother’s gaze as she knew that her mother wanted to know something entirely different but didn’t know how to ask without upsetting her again.

- Let her eat, said the husband. She will tell us when she finds her prince charming! And he gobbled down another piece of pork meat. He was always like that, he liked to say what was on his mind without thinking of the consequences.

- Marcel! What in God’s name were you thinking? Replied the woman in a hurry, her cheeks all red with shame that even her husband had seen through her and knew what she wanted to ask their daughter. She was also mad at him because he had just said what she wanted but lacked the courage to ask. The mother wished for her daughter to find a good husband and get married as she was 20 years old already and had no boyfriend. She just did the same thing day after day: went to work and then back home with them, helping them with the household and reading or playing video games. While she wanted a grandson or a granddaughter. Delia swallowed her piece of food but when she heard her father it got stuck in her throat. She had to cough it out. And she blushed. She was so mad at both of them for not minding their own business.

Al was watching them wondering if she would like him and feeling

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happy beyond words at hearing her that she was single. He would be her prince charming… just not what her parents were expecting. Then his stomach started growling wildly asking him for food. He looked at the three in the room and decided to knock on their door and pretend to be a tourist from another town who got lost and he would see how the conversation would go from there. So he approached the door and knocked softly. Then he heard the Mom ask:

- Who can be at our door this late in the evening?- I am not expecting anyone but I will go check, answered the father. He went towards the front door and looked through the small window in the hall to see who was standing at their door before answering. When he saw a good -looking young man his heart jumped a beat. He was dressed rather odd but if his daughter liked him he didn’t care about his fashion sense.- Delia darling, the father said, I think it is for you. Why didn’t you say you had a boyfriend? You could have saved your mother the trouble of asking.- What did you say pa? Asked the poor girl almost swooning with embarrassment as she had no boyfriend and had no idea what her father was talking about. She was a shy girl who avoided men company. If she thought about it she didn’t have girlfriends either. Of course she talked to her colleagues at work but she couldn’t say that any of them was a friend. Just colleagues. She was a rather lonely girl who liked the company of books and video games more than the company of real people. She didn’t trust them. In the two years she had been working at the local restaurant she had seen her share of bad behavior and back stabbing from her colleagues to be anything more than just that, colleagues at work.- What? Mom also asked not believing her ears. Delia darling, don’t let the man waiting, it is not polite.

- I am not expecting anyone, said Delia in such a low tone that she could barely hear her own voice.

Al was standing behind the door and chuckling to himself. He didn’t

know that humans were so funny. Who knows, he might even like Terra. As for Delia, he was head over heels in love with her. She was so simple and kind. And her parents were good people too. So he thought he ought to do something to get the poor girl out of the situation he had created. He focused on Marcel’s mind and as much as he hated to intervene in other creature’s free will, he made him open the door. Al usually just read others' minds but he rarely made them do anything, just read their minds to know

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what to expect from them. He didn’t like to abuse his powers. But now he felt Delia’s distress and wanted to help her.

- Come in, said Marcel. We were just having dinner, won’t you join us?- I’d love to, answered Al and took a seat next to Delia who was looking at him and at her parents stupefied. It was as if her parents were in a trance. They were acting as if they knew the young man but she was sure she had never seen him before in their house. Finally she broke the silence:- Uh, excuse me but who are you?

- I am Al, he answered with a false calmness while drinking a full glass of water. He had eaten and then he was thirsty and he was glad and astounded at seeing all the bottled water. He poured himself a glass and was enjoying it. Meanwhile he was pondering what was to be done now. It was too late to coward out and he couldn’t have said he was a lost tourist now that her parents let him in so easily so he decided to plant a false memory of him being an old acquaintance in both of Delia’s parents’ minds fast. That way they would trust him and let him stay overnight. It was a tricky thing to do and usually required lots of focus and a calm environment. And the environment was anything but calm as he was on a foreign planet in some strangers’ home and in love with their daughter. He was trying his best to keep calm. Anyways, he wasn’t hungry or thirsty anymore at least. He managed to easily fool the parents who were old and naïve. But he didn’t want to deceive Delia. He didn’t even try. If she would someday love him it would be her choice. He wouldn’t mess with her mind. But reading her mind was something different and couldn’t hurt, right? So he decided he should read her mind and find out what she thought of him. But what he discovered shocked him. It was not something he had been expecting….He couldn’t read her mind!!!

- Something wrong with me? He asked out loud when he finally gave up trying to read her mind after a third unsuccessful attempt.- No, she answered. I mean I don’t remember you but my parents seem to know you.

- Yes, we are old acquaintances, he said not sure what to say next. They said to come by if I was ever in the neighborhood and needed shelter. So here I am. I was on holiday when my transportation vehicle broke and I was wondering if I could stay until I fix it?

- Of course Al, answered both her parents. You are welcome to stay as long as you need, her Mom went on.

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- Thank you kindly, Al answered. He felt guilty but he needed food and shelter and they seemed nice people. And of course there was Delia, a gorgeous and mysterious young girl who stole his heart and his desire to go back to what he once called his home. He felt more at home here than he had ever felt on his own planet.

- Uh, I guess you can have the small room on the right then, said Delia wondering who he really was and why her parents had never mentioned his name.

- Thank you, answered Al still wondering why he couldn’t read her mind. I will get some rest now, see you tomorrow. And he left the dining room and headed towards the small room Delia had pointed to him. He was too tired from all the walking and he needed rest. On his way to sleep she was all he could think about. Her large blue eyes…

Delia followed her Mom in the kitchen. She was curious about the stranger in their home.

- Mom, I don’t remember you or pa ever mentioning Al before. And she started washing the dishes while her mother was cleaning the table.- Uh… Al… said her Mom as she wasn’t sure what to say about him. There was something strange about him. Her memories of him were old and blurry and she really couldn’t remember much about Al. The more she tried to remember the more she seemed to forget.

- Uh, Mom went on after a considerable pause, Al is an old friend. He is my friend Ana’s distant cousin. I can’t tell you much about him, she finally said, as I don’t know much myself. Only remember having seen him once long time ago while visiting Ana. But I have a weird feeling of calmness when he is close by. And you know I am good judge of character.

Al had chosen to plant a memory of him being Ana’s distant cousin as

Ana had been Mom’s best friend until she died last year in a car accident. He had read her mind and chose this option as Mom couldn’t ask Ana anything about him now. So she just accepted the memory Al planted as being her own memory.

- OK Mom. Love you. Going to sleep too, you know I work tomorrow. Oh, there is one more pot on the oven which needs to be cleaned… and Delia was going to take it when her Mom stopped her and kissed her cheek.- You get some rest, I will clean that.

- Thank you Mom, you are the best! And Delia kissed her mother’s cheeks and then went to sleep.

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