For the Love of God

λ | eleven

"I AM SO EXCITED! Oh my god, oh my god, I think I'm going to die before I even see it!" I squeezed Tyhi's arm tightly.

"I don't understand why you are jumping with such joy. Haven't you visited a library before?" He asked, wincing as he peeled my fingers from around his arm.

"Not one in Olympus," I gushed, "I love libraries. The smell of the books feel like the stories in the book are inviting you to have a taste of them. The lines of differently coloured book spines are a sight for sore eyes. And, the feeling in a library is something so unique. Imagine the world falling apart behind you literally and you find that the library is the only safe ground. It feels like that to me everytime I enter it. The library has always been there for me. It's something I can always rely on."

Tyhi glanced at me with a warm smile that sped my already racing heart. He leaned close to me and said,"Be careful. You are passing your excitement to me. We can't both be lunatics, can we?"

"Tyhi!"

He chuckled.

Tyhi had taken me out the first thing in the morning before we could be assigned any chores. Since I was a foreigner in this beautiful realm, he took me on a different route to entertain me. That's when I noticed that there wasn't anything that didn't grow in Olympus.

You had date palms and cotton growing next to each other. You had bottle gourds winding its way up an oak tree. It was so strange that I wanted to laugh at how jumbled and unorganized everything was. But at the same time, I envied it. I always wished there were fresh grapes and coconuts available in my town. It had to be imported from the plains and valleys because it wouldn't grow on the hills.

Olympus was truly a dream, I thought to myself with a sigh.

"It is indeed a shame that you are pretending to be mute. You could've livened up the mansion. It's quiet in there," Tyhi said, breaking my thoughts.

"Well, feel grateful that you are lucky to have someone 'liven' you up. You seem like you could use it."

He paused. "Why do you say that?"

"There is a sadness behind every smile of yours, Tyhi. There is yearning and a feeling of uncertainty, as if you don't have control of the road you've taken. Maybe that's why everytime I hear you laugh around me, my heart races. Because it's genuine. Because it means I make you forget."

Tyhi's face paled.

"I-I'm sorry —" I started, wondering if I'd spilled too much.

"No, you haven't said anything wrong. I-I am surprised that you gathered all of this in two days."

I smiled and intertwined both my hands. "The people who work in my father's estate are so worn out and tired but they always put on the brightest smile when their children come to fetch them or bring them something. Sometimes, I would watch them sip their hot coffees with a lost look on their face, as if wondering where life was heading towards. You carry the same expression. You know, everyone has a story that they don't tell others. But sometimes, all it takes is just one proper look at their eyes to know what they're hiding," I said.

"I wonder what's your story," he whispered.

"Mine would make a good bedtime story," I laughed, "a monotonous exhibit of averagely good things in life and nothing else. But you know what? My visit to Olympus would make a good twist, don't you think?" I asked.

"Like a fairytale?"

"Yeah," I replied, "And I wonder what's your story. I bet it's got some deep elements. It must be more interesting than mine."