A Tender Touch

\.Liked You Here./

Tuesday, - June 28, 1988

Finally.My bed was in front of me!I just got home and it's already - I looked at my clock on my nightstand - 5:32 a.m. which means that I only got three hours left to sleep!I quickly went to my bed, lying down and turning off the light.Although tonight was pretty fun and cool, especially when you're around Michael, I did feel very exhausted and couldn't wait to drift off to sleep.Just dreaming about beautiful things and - wait!
This cream!
I practically sprung off my bed, turning on the light again and looked for my clothes which I had just taken off.I grabbed my dusky pink pants and searched for the little piece of paper which I had written the name on earlier.As I finally found it, I immediately went towards my door and through the living room to Pablo's telephone.There was only one person I knew who would know what the purpose of that cream was: my Mom!Right when I wanted to enter my parent's number, the time zones came into my head - man!
I looked at the clock again: 5:41.Ok, so between Paris and Washington D.C. are like 6 hours.So - 5:41 minus 6 are...to be honest, maths has never been one of my strengths and even less when it's almost 6 in the morning and I didn't get a single second of sleep!
Alright, 5:41 minus 5 is 12:41 and that minus 1 equals 11:41, right?So they could be still awake - I guess I just had to try my luck for I was too curious about that cream.I quickly entered their number and waited for one of my paretns to pick up the phone...
"Abelin here.How can-"
I heard my mom's voice through the phone.
"MOOM!Hi, here's Mira!I'm sorry for calling you that late but I gotta ask you a question."
"Mira darling!I'm so glad to hear from you - we didn't talk in like...ages!"
I chuckled, my mom always used to exaggerate.
"Mom, I called you just two days ago!"
"Yeah but you're so far away and I - wait, isn't it already around 6 in the morning in Paris?Why are you still up that late?"
She sounded upset.
"No no.I was on my night shift until 5!I just wanted to go to bed mom!"
She sighed.
"Oh okay...Then, what did you wanna ask me hun?"
"Yeah right.Do you know what a cream called - wait..."
I unfolded the little note.
"Benoquin is?"
"Benoken?"
She asked.
"No, Benoquin, with a q..."
"Ohh, Benoquin!Well, if I remember it right that must be a cream to treat skin diseases - more skin depigmentation.But why do yo-"
"And do you know diseases that cause such depigmentation or something in particular that needs to be treated by that cream?"
"Well, there's actually just one disease I can think of but I...what's it called again?!Wait, let me think a minute."
Oh god, that means he does indeed suffer from a disease.Not that I ever thought any of those crazy rumors about him were true but I always wondered why his skin became more white.I mean I don't really care because I'd still love him even if he was freaking purple but if there's something that affects his health or makes him suffer - I just want to know about it!
"It's definitely something with v and i...Ahh!It's called Vitiligo."
Vitiligo?I've heard of that before somewhere...
"And what does it do to you in particular?"
"Well, it mainly caused your skin to lose its natural color, so tha-"
"So that a dark skinned person could become white?"
"Yes.But it's like - they're many patches of lighter skin and eventually...you'll-"
"Lose almost all pigments you have, right?"
I suddenly felt hot tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat.
"Right honey.You sound worried, tell me what happened..."
I quickly cleared my throat, taking a deep breath.Well, I'm working at Henry's hotel because he wanted me to be responsible for the king of pop and now that I'm talking to him daily, I just found out about his cream in the bathroom and wanted to ask you what disease he could be suffering from?!
"Well, I just found that cream inside one of our guest's bathroom when I wanted to clean up there and now I was wondering what he could have."
Ok, that was actually not even a lie...But I just couldn't tell my mom right then and there.I knew that lady - she'd either scream towards the phone and would want me to tell her every detail so that I'd be ending up with no sleep at all or she'd immediately call all her friends and tell them that her daughter has an affair with the world's greatest Popstar...(not that I'd act differently if my daughter would meet Michael)
"Oh, well don't worry honey.It's not painful or something."
"Yeah but think about your body having patched all over it...You probably feel so embarrassed that you barely wanna hang out with friends mom!"
"Yes, I guess that's true..."
She said, sounding almost as worried as I felt.