Chris frowned, "You don’t have to do anything, Ethan. Kylian will be here soon."
"I just asked you to drop that phone!"
Chris flinched at that yell. He could count how many tis Ethan yelled since he was young, as he would always keep the anger bottled up while talking coldly instead.
"Drop it," Ethan repeated, and this ti giving Chris no choice as he took slow steps closer to him.
Chris had no choice but to drop the phone, his head tilted in confusion at Ethan’s behavior.
"I dropped the phone, Ethan. You should keep calm now," he whispered.
"I am calm...she loves ," Ethan smiled.
"What?!" Chris asked disbelievingly. Weren’t they just talking about Shikera and what he told her now? How did that have any connection to love? And who was the ’she’ anyway?
"What are you saying?" he asked again when he received no answer from Ethan. His hand began to crawl back to the phone as he decided to call Kylian after all. An annoyed reaction from Ethan after hearing what he said to Shikera would be normal, but this silence and calmness was new. Chris concluded it could only be Ethan’s symptoms getting worse.
"She does love , Shikera Anderson...And she would not love a crazy person," Ethan stated, turning on his heels to walk out of the room.
Left alone in the room, Chris frowned in confusion. He had expected so action at least from Ethan, knowing how he usually behaved but he got nothing. Not sure if this was a good thing or not, he picked up the phone and punched in another number.
"Find Shikera Anderson, and make sure you do this without drawing Ethan’s attention. Inform imdiately you find her," he ordered, and dropped the phone imdiately.
He could not care less about Ethan’s reaction to Shikera’s disappearance, as long as it didn’t affect their company, family, or his own wife. And lastly...as long as he didn’t find Shikera and bring her back. And he, Chris, would try everything within his power to make finding Shikera impossible.
★★★
Shikera stood a few tres away from the old woman from the previous night whom she now knew was addressed as Grandma Cooper, watching as the woman cleaned the fish net from which she had just poured fish out.
"Co in if you will," Grandma Cooper said, without turning to look at Shikera.
Shikera obeyed, taking slow steps into the kitchen where the woman was as she went to stand beside her.
"Ma’am..." she started, only to be interrupted imdiately.
"It’s Grandma Cooper to you, unless you really want to be a sightseer in this small town where there is nothing to see."
Shikera nodded vigorously even if the woman could not see her.
"Grandma Cooper," she tried the na, smiling at how smoothly it rolled off her tongue like she had been calling it for a long ti. She continued, "Why did you introduce as your grandaughter when you barely know anything about ?"
Earlier that day, she had followed Alan and Mignon...or was it Leah, to the community hall where all the community mbers were having a eting and she had been introduced as the grandaughter Grandma Cooper went to bring from the city the previous day.
It was there at the community center that she heard the ’story of her life’, as Grandma Cooper had lied to them. What else could she do but accept the story that the woman fabricated on her behalf so she would be able to integrate seamlessly into the community?
From what Grandma Cooper told the others, Shikera learned that she was Leah’s younger sister who went to the city together with her and only just ca back to the island, just like Leah ca back four years ago. She and Leah were the daughters of Grandma Cooper’s only daughter who died years ago in an accident together with her husband, leaving the two girls under the care of their grandmother.
As grateful as Shikera was that the woman and the others in the community accepted her wholeheartedly, she could not help but wonder how this happened? How did Grandma Cooper find out she was here to stay and not to sightsee? She could not ask Mignon as that one had imdiately left the community hall after escorting Kera there.
"Who told you I barely know anything about you? For one, I do know you are stupid," Grandma Cooper said emotionlessly.
Shikera wondered why such an old woman who seed to be against her at every mont, just like now, decided to help her.
"I do know I am stupid but that is not the only reason, right? I’m sure i am not the only stupid person on this island so why aren’t they all in your house?" she questioned.
Grandma Cooper’s hand movent stopped as she paused what she was doing, before standing up to face Shikera. "Because they do have sowhere to go. They have hos," she replied.
"How...how did you know I don’t have a ho?" Shikera asked again.
Grandma Cooper shrugged,"Because there’s no way I wouldn’t know. Who would co sightsee on an island that isn’t on the country map? Coming in the middle of the night with all those clothes covering your face can only an you are running from sothing or soone and I am not that heartless to see a stupid motherless chick running about without trying to help it."
"Wait...you helped just because of that? What if I am a criminal, a thief or even a runaway prisoner? Would you have helped all the sa?" Shikera asked, surprise evident in her eyes.
"You cried...that was all the verification I needed," was the woman’s simple answer as she went back to what she was doing.
Shikera fell quiet. Did the woman hear when she was crying? She had made sure not to let any sound out when she was crying, hadn’t she?
"Don’t think I am doing this for free though," Grandma Cooper suddenly said.
"Uh...oh yeah. How much do I pay you?" Shikera asked, only a tiny bit surprised by the woman asking for paynt. She just hoped her predicant would not be taken advantage of and she be scamd out of her money.
Grandma Cooper’s next words shocked her to the core.
"Pay ? Do I look like I need money? You are joining to beco a fisher woman today!"
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