A Crash, A Song, A Wave

Chapter 4

TW in the description
Art by Mwah!

Giulia POV

Giulia barely flipped the sign in the cafe from "Open" to "Closed" when an out of breath figure came dashing at the door.

"Sorry we are closed!" Giulia called through the door.

But the out of breath man shook his head and pointed at her.

"Me?" She asked.

He nodded, placing a hand on his back, trying to pull oxygen into his very red face. The man was shorter than her, round, bald with a white mustache under his nose. He looked like a shrunken Santa clause. Giulia stepped out of the door.

She rested her arm on a hip and waited as he struggled to pull a letter from his bag.

"D-delivery. For Mattias." He said handing her an envelope. "Was supposta' give it to him directly but," He jerked a thumb at the hill leading to the hospital. "That damned hill will kill me."

"It's a pretty steep hike." Giulia admitted.

"And these old legs aren't what they used to be. I know you're his little missy, will you pass it to him?" He asked.

At this moment Giulia realized this was a very late letter from the post office. She usually got mail at the beginning of the day - this one must have been written, sent and delivered all within a few hours. What could possibly be so urgent?

"I'll get it to him, thank you!" Giulia called after the man who was already waddling away.

Giulia examined the envelope, and in the light of the setting sun, her heart sunk. The same insignia was printed on the front. The same one from the letter Mattias hid in his office. A rearing lion and dragon around a letter "B". And again, the purple sash going through the center of the "B" made her spine shiver.

But this letter was different. The last one bore no sign who it was from, this one had a clear address. It was from Talia, Mattias's younger sister. Giulia remembered Talia from when she interned at Mattias's hospital for her nursing degree. And she knew Mattias corresponded with his sister regularly. But this was the first time Talia ever sent a letter with this symbol on the front - and in such a hurry too.

For a moment Giulia was tempted to open it. But she quickly stopped herself. It was one thing that she received the letter by accident and saw it, it was another to actually open his mail. No she would wait. But part of her was glad the delivery man was too tired to climb the hill and give it directly to Mattias. If he had, Giulia suspected she wouldn't have known about it at all.

She stuffed the letter into her apron pocket and returned to the cafe. She had a little more cleaning to do before going home. And once she was home... she would confront Mattias about it.

Mattias POV

"You did such a good job." Mattias complimented a very proud Misha sitting on the patient table. She was enjoying the crinkly paper a bit too much.

"You can pick a sticker you like." Mattias said offering the little child an array. She picked the pink unicorn and stuck it to her shirt.

"Are we done?" She asked.

"Mhmm. All I need to do is clean up and we can go home." Mattias said setting tools in sanitation bins and making sure his samples were secure in the fridge.

With Ksenya's permission, Mattias conducted some basic tests on Misha to learn more about the Nochni people. That was the name given to the Indigenouse tribe of the deep. The Nochni had a much more complicated series of clicks and sounds they made when referring to themselves, but Eshe managed to settle on this single word.