Six Centimetres Away From My Heart

I

Just how far apart do two hearts have to be in order to hear each other beat? Six Centimetres? Yearning for something was one thing—but longing for someone was another.

Emmanuel always thought that his life was a dud—like an empty doll with a hopeless mask placed on its face, with the purpose of concealing one thing—love.

*

The air smelled of tea and clean silence as Emmanuel prepared his master's favourite tea. Although he was busy with a task—his hands in their own world—his ears and heart were blessed with his master's quiet whines of frustration when he played a wrong note on the piano his wheelchair was placed before.

After various fruitless attempts, Niifẹ decided to just strike the piano keys lazily, with a heart that had thunderous questions as it beat slowly in line with each tune the piano emanated. "Emmanuel, do you believe in love?"

The spoon in Emmanuel's hand fell with a loud clunk against the metallic tray; he sighed. "What do you mean Master Falade?"

Niifẹ suspired in frustration. "I mean the word love." He turned his wheelchair to face Emmanuel. "Do you believe in it?"

"There are"—Emmanuel picked up the fallen spoon—"many kinds of love: agape, filial, erotic, so on and so forth." He moved towards Niifẹ. "Which do you mean?"

The teenager huffed like an angered baby. "I mean the kind of love I need in order to feel happy." The wheels of his wheelchair squeaked lightly as he turned and struck a sharp piano key. "Is it like the tunes of a song? Ordinary?"

"I do not know." Emmanuel handed over the cup of tea to Niifẹ. "All my parents ever told me was that when they fell in love it felt like swimming."

"Then I want to learn how to swim." His eyes had a sure glint in them.

"But Master, your condi—"

"Do I need legs to swim?"

"But you need hands Master." Emmanuel shook his head lightly. "Hands that you need in order to learn how to play the piano, as ordered by Lord and Lady Falade. "

The young master crossed his arms with a pout. "My parents say that love is euphoric. Is swimming euphoric?"

"No, it is like being weightless. Like... Like flying."

"Then I want to fly. Or feel like flying." Niifẹ nodded his head in finality. "Teach me both or one of them, then I promise that I will agree to my parents' request."

"What was it Master Falade?"

He exhaled sadly. "Marrying the person I love."

*

"Mum can you believe that Master Falade wants to learn how to swim? Swim." Emmanuel tugged off his tie with fearful grip. "Ridiculous!"

His mother held a confused expression. "I don't understand."

Emmanuel pulled off his waistcoat with so much force that it seemed like it was about to be torn. "He wants me to teach him how to love. Me! A person cursed to kill with love." He placed his fingers against his lips, nibbled on his fingernails for a split second, before spitting it out when he caught himself.

His mother shrugged with a creeping smile and hummed in amusement. "Then how is it ridiculous?" She crossed her arms. "If he wants you to teach him how to swim, then teach him!"

Emmanuel groaned and plunked onto the bed. He raised his gloved hands over his head. "With these pair of problems?" He dropped his hands. "What if something bad happens?

"Then you save him by being you."

"I cannot... I can't show him me." He hung his head in disappointment. "I can't give him me. I..."

Tears slowly clouded his vision, the silence in the room growing thicker with each second that waved by. It was broken by his mother's heavy sigh and the creaking of the floorboards as she approached him.

"Because you always wear a mask when you go to his house." She crouched and took her son's cold hands in hers. "I see the fire in your eyes that blazes everytime his name escapes your lips. 'Niifẹ', it means love. He is the embodiment of your love." She smiled weakly. "You have to take off your stupid mask in order to show him your love."

The tears fell like drops of rain against the soil, and he tilted his neck. "You know that I can't. I can't." Emmanuel heaved his hands out of his mother's grip and held them before her face. "These are my destiny."

"I can he—"

"No!" Emmanuel stood so suddenly that his mother jerked away from him in surprise. "No, you can't. I promised myself that if I have to live with this curse forever in order for you to heal Niifẹ, then I'd die a million times to save him." He choked on his spit. "You need a-all the strength you can summon so you can heal Niifẹ. Don't waste it on someone as useless as me."

His mother stood with furrowed eyebrows. "You're not useless. You're my son. Niifẹ has never complained about his condition yet you are ready to risk your life in order to save him." She scoffed. "Yet you never show him love. Show him! Let him know that you love him."

"I can't." He wiped off his tears. "I can't." He sniffled and dropped to the bed with a loud thud, the sprains of the bed crying under his weight.

His mother heaved a sigh with a disappointed shake of her head. "What if you were to heal yourself by yourself, will you accept your love in order for that to happen?"

Emmanuel raised his head. "What do you mean?"

His mother chewed on her lips and swayed on her feet. "I found a way. It... It seemed sublime."

"What... What is it?" His expression transformed swiftly into that of an expectant.

She exhaled slowly through her nostrils. "A kiss of reciprocated love."

"Excuse me?" He lifted an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"

"This is not a joke." Her shoulders slumped. "When your father and I met we were like mortal enemies. When our love grew, yes we were dying, but there was a chip—a hollow space for survival—that made it possible for us to live, to see the next dawn." She shook her head with a sad smile. "Your father finally gave me a kiss on my death bed. It was the happiest moment of my life—love in its raw form."

Emmanuel shook his head in disbelief. "But kissing him means touching him. I..." He stood up and his eyebrows furrowed in worry. "What if he doesn't love me? What—"

"Then teach him how to swim. Teach him how to love Emmanuel." She moved to him and gripped his shoulders with resolution. "Then drown in his love."