Her Melting Point

Down Memory Lane

Jackie decided that asking him about the past ten years would be the easiest way to 'diffract' his direct, loaded statements.

"Pakistan, then Syria, Kenya, Guatemala, Tanzania, Nigeria, Romania, El Salvador," he listed in his usual detached manner.

Jackie forgot that a piece of fish was hanging off her fork.

"Is that what your tattoo reflects?" she asked, gawking at him. "The countries where you volunteered?"

He nodded and then chuckled. "How do you know about the tattoo?"

Jackie's cheeks flushed. She once again cursed Michael for having pointed out that part of Alexander's anatomy.

"Well, when you cut your ankle, you had to roll up your jeans," she muttered and stuffed the sea bass in her mouth.

A drop of sauce fell on her napkin, and she prayed he hadn't noticed.

"It's a ship, like in an Ardre image stone in Gotland, where my family is from," he said. "With the names of places where I've been, underneath."

"Have you considered a medical career?" Jackie asked after a few seconds of digesting the information. "You've had training, and enough experience, to apply to a med school, I'm sure."

"At the beginning," he said, "I didn't know why I was doing it. Pakistan was an impulse. I wanted to leave Fleckney. I'd just started trading stocks, and a mate whom I knew online was going to Quetta. We did urban search and rescue after the earthquake. It had nothing to do with medicine. We dug through rubble and put out fires. Syria was the logical next step; I already had the right skills. Same job; just with unexploded ordnance involved. The military conflict reached the area, where we were, three months in."

He paused, and Jackie couldn't tear her eyes off his impassive face.

"And then?" she asked; and he blinked and focused on her.

"After Syria, we needed something more peaceful. Some returned to their home countries, but many continued. It becomes a habit, you know. The lifestyle."

He shrugged. Their waiter showed up and switched their plates.

Alexander continued, "We did non-military emergency response and sports coaching, football mostly. My mates got into surfing and marine conservation, but I don't fancy water. I got a helicopter pilot's licence, and did mountain search and rescue."

"What made you come back?"

He broke off the tip of his orange and dark chocolate tart, and she watched his lips close around the pudding.

"My family," he answered and then shook his head. "Let's talk about you."

"I don't have anything interesting to tell," Jackie exclaimed. "Not after your stories. God, I still can't–" She poked her fork into the squiggle of some bright red source on her plate with strawberry cheesecake. "Still can't wrap my mind around it. I look at you and see–" She stopped in her tracks.

He watched her silently, and she gave out a shaky laugh.

"No, maybe not anymore," she said. "I was going to say 'the boy from all those years ago,' but now that I properly look at you, you're–"

Her thoughts jumbled. There was a reason why 'eye gazing exercise' was so popular among the counsellors whom Jackie had had the misfortune to encounter during the last two years of her marriage.

"I am what?" he asked slowly.

She was still lost for words, and he leaned forward.

"Jackie."