Eutopia (First version)

Chapter 14

‘Eutopia? Are you ok?’ Jinn was unable to keep the concern from his voice as he knelt in front of the girl, supporting her slightly drooping head with one hand.

‘I’m fine, why?’ she asked, groggily, pushing Jinn’s hand away and sitting up to lean at a more comfortable angle against the willow tree. Jinn settled back down beside her stretching his long legs out in front of him, seemingly at ease in the dark though the sense of apprehension he felt didn’t leave him, it was obvious in the way his eyes slid to her every now and then.

Eutopia had fallen quiet for some time as their conversation had petered out, her blue eyes had become glazed and unresponsive as Jinn had crouched directly in front of her, before her eyelids had fluttered closed and she appeared to drift into a deep sleep that he couldn’t seem to wake her from until she had stirred herself into consciousness.

‘You sort of zoned out for a while,’ he said.

‘I’m tired, I probably fell asleep. Sorry,’ Eutopia shrugged, unconcerned as she rubbed one hand over her eyes. She certainly seemed tired now, her shoulders hunched beneath Jinn’s jumper that she still huddled beneath.

‘Were you dreaming?’ Jinn asked, ‘You were saying something, but I couldn’t quite catch it.’ Eutopia frowned as snatches of broken images and half formed conversations flickered across her memory, remembered like a picture looked down upon through a rippling surface of water, though she could only have dreamt it moments ago.

‘I think so… I think it’s a dream I’ve had before, it all feels familiar.’ She shook her head almost apologetically. ‘I can barely remember a thing about it now though. I think I was in Italy, Rome maybe…’ Eutopia tilted her head back more so that she could see the starry sky from beneath the willowy tendrils of the tree they sat beneath, closing her eyes for a moment as she imagined she could feel the caress of a distant sun on her upturned face. ‘It’s silly because I’ve never travelled further than Portsmouth,’ she said with a little laugh. ‘And even then I never got to see the sea. I’ve never seen the sea, not in real life anyway…’

‘Rome?’ Jinn asked abruptly, seizing the place name with interest.

‘Yes. I’m only guessing it was Rome, it had that sort of feel about it. I used to dream a lot about a place like that when I was younger; people in togas, marble villas, that sort of stuff. I don’t even remember studying it at school, when I bothered to go, so I’ve no idea where it all comes from. I did watch that film once, with that Australian bloke in a skirt and all that fighting?’ She clicked her fingers in frustration as she tried to remember the name and Jinn frowned in confusion, one eyebrow raised as he looked at her.

‘Gladiator?’ he asked.

‘With the huge wooden horse all those soldiers hid in?’ Eutopia clarified.

‘Uh, no. That was Troy, with Brad Pitt. He isn’t Australian and Russell Crowe who starred in Gladiator is actually from New Zealand.’ Jinn laughed softly, looking up at the sky too. ‘I’ve been to Rome.’

‘You have? Did you like it?’

‘It was one of my most favourite places at the time. Italy is a beautiful country but I don’t think it’s somewhere I will ever go back to. It holds too many memories for me and not all of them are good ones.’ He was thoughtfully quiet for a moment, before he went on to say,  ‘I lost someone there who meant more to me than anything,’  his eyes drifted back to settle lightly on Eutopia’s upturned face as she bit her lower lip.