Loving Pride

Like In Her Dreams

Thomas Marquez Agaria never knew who his father was. He never cared because he'd always had his mother. But now he hated the company of the Colonel so much that he was glad that he wasn't his father. That was until the Colonel told him the truth behind the little boy's straight hair and grey eyes.

From that day on, Thomas began despising the Colonel all the more.

For the past two months, his mother brought him to Colonel Marquez Agaria at 9 in the morning sharp, and he was stuck with the quiet old man in his office for two hours. Meanwhile, Lydia cleaned all five rooms and the hallway every day. The highest floor was always spotless due to her hands. Thus, every day, the Colonel paid her thirty torrens for her service.

Lydia Thorne had rented a small room that had basic necessities for her and Thomas. She had never attempted to talk with the Colonel since the day he agreed to tutor their son. She never thought it was needed. But Thomas complained every day that his father was either too rude or too quiet, or both.

"But he's teaching you well, right love?" She'd smile at Thomas while having dinner. He'd nod hesitantly. But he didn't understand why he had to refer to his father as the Colonel or as Sir.

The two hours that he spent with Colonel Marquez Agaria often began with Thomas standing beside him, watching him work until the Colonel gradually turned to him with a piece of paper and asked him to write down alphabets and a new word against them.

Thomas had learned every alphabet this way, even though he found words difficult. If Thomas ended up having blank spaces next to the letters, the Colonel would take the paper away and hand him a book instead, asking him to read. The child barely read one sentence every day and would underline it. An hour into their lesson, the Colonel would ask him what he understood from the sentence, and Thomas described it. The Colonel corrected even the tiniest mistake he made, making the boy despise him further. Afterward, the Colonel would ask him to write down numbers from a certain digit to another digit. In this way, Thomas unknowingly realized that all numbers had a predecessor and a successor, and he could easily identify them.

Sometimes he'd see his father fiddle with numbers on a vault, and one fine day, he had mustered enough courage to ask the Colonel why.

"Why do you write numbers down after entering the same number in the box?" The little boy asked.

"This is a vault," Colonel Marquez Agaria replied. "It's a metal box with a passcode. A passcode is like a key to a door, but I don't know the passcode for this one. Your mother found this vault behind one of the paintings, and I've been trying for the past three months to decode it. There are nine digits to it and only one number between 0 and 999999999 is the passcode."

For the first time, Thomas was fascinated by something his father had said. "How do you open it?" He had jumped off his chair and leaned too close to the table—too close to the Colonel—making the older man fidget mildly.

"You have to find the right number by trying different possibilities. In simple words, by entering the number one by one until you find the passcode," the Colonel showed him how it's done. Thomas's eyes lit up and there was a bright grin on his face. Finally, he had found a purpose for his studies.

When it was evident that the boy showed interest in the vault, the Colonel handed him a paper in which he had written the keys that he had tried so far. Thomas attempted to try the next one. When the vault still hadn't opened, he noted the number and tried the next.

And thus, for the first time, the Colonel smiled at the boy.

A week had passed since then, and the Colonel informed Lydia that he would be traveling for two weeks until he returned to Rovania. Lydia was as platonic as always. She gave him a blank nod. Even though her heart ached to be away from him, she gave up on her illusion that Colonel Marquez Agaria loved her.

Meanwhile, he was just kindling this fire within him.

During the two weeks that the Colonel was away, he thought of Lydia and Thomas, even if it were for brief moments. He missed them both equally, yet his pride wouldn't allow him to admit it.

Sometimes the way Lydia looked at him annoyed the Colonel because he could swear that she had stars in her eyes. But she'd hide them immediately. On the inside, Lydia Thorne and Marquez Agaria were simply a woman and a man whose pride pulled them away from conversing with each other.

In the world outside their own, the war was going strong. the Red Army captured many important provinces of the Black Unity and their foes did the same. Many soldiers, generals, and civilians were killed. Yet, the Colonel believed that the war would last until the last man standing was either a Red or a Black.

Two weeks later, when he was back after aiding Captain Torres at a military camp, he sent a letter to Lydia Thorne, asking her to meet him in the barracks with Thomas. He promised a prolonged session of three hours from 8 to 11 at night.

Lydia went, of course, she couldn't wait to see the Colonel again, while Thomas couldn't wait to try decoding the vault. She wore nice clothes that night, but the Colonel glanced at her only once and asked her to carry on with her chores while he taught Thomas. Lydia obeyed and was done by 10, then she waited outside the room for an hour.

When the Colonel appeared again with Thomas, Lydia smiled at her son and lifted him into her arms.

The Colonel now stared directly at her. "It's raining outside. You can leave in the morning. Leave the boy in one of the rooms," he ordered before walking towards his bedroom.

"But it's not... raining." She blushed while looking his way.

"Come to my room once you've put him to sleep," the Colonel glared at her before closing the door behind him.

Flustered, Lydia went into the room closest to the Colonel's—it had a large bed that Thomas loved very much. She gave him all sorts of warnings to not step out of the room in the middle of the night, and she gave him the shaving knife. For some reason, Lydia trusted it to be good luck as it had always protected Thomas and her.

The little boy fell asleep easily, and Lydia used the opportunity to quietly slip into the Colonel's room. He was pouring himself a glass of whisky when she stood beside him, near the table.

"How was... um... the journey?"

"It wasn't pleasant," He mumbled, "The war is growing but we have chances of victory."

Lydia hummed while distractedly smoothing her dress out, "You said it's raining, Colonel."

"Are you afraid of lightning?"

"Sometimes..."

"Well, there's going to be a thunderstorm tonight."

With those words, the Colonel gently tipped her chin up with his fingers. He kissed her like in her dreams.