Embracing a new life

18: Nice to meet you



A shrill sound wrenched River ruggedly out of his slumber. Little light managed to penetrate the special curtains made of sunlight deflecting material, so it took him a moment to adjust his eyes to the darkness and find his mobile.



“Yeah?” he answered the call.



“It’s Hayashi. I’m at the hospital right now; Eriko is getting our baby!”



That woke River up. “She is?!”



“Yes, she’s in labour. I need to get back, now, just wanted to let you know. Would be great if you managed to come.”



“I’ll try!” River promised immediately. He heard a click in the line – Hayashi had hung up.



River looked at the display – it was half past three in the afternoon. Great! How was he supposed to get there in time?! He dialled Andreji’s number. After a few seconds, his lover answered the call.



“Is that your revenge, now, for not staying with you in the first place? Making sure I don’t get my beauty sleep?” Andreji asked in lieu of a greeting.



River snickered. “You had over four hundred years. If you haven’t managed to obtain passable looks by now, it’s too late anyway,” he retorted cheekily.



“We’ll talk again in four hundred years when you’re in my place.”



River moaned. “I’ve hated it when my mother said that sentence: ‘we’ll talk about that in fifteen years when you’ve grown up’!” He imitated his mother with a squeaky voice. “Anyway,” he continued before Andreji could say anything further, “I call for a reason. I just got a message that Eriko is having her baby. I still don’t really know how you’re doing it, but your spirit enables you to travel fast, doesn’t it?” he demanded.



Andreji confirmed that.



“Could we get to London tonight?”



A short pause on the line. “This is important to you.” It was not really a question but a statement.



“Yes, it is.”



“Fine,” Andreji conceded, “Come to the house above the caves. We will start from there.”



“Thank you,” River said and meant it.







River waited until seven o’clock. Then he took the bus out of town. From the bus station, it took him further twenty minutes to reach the house, so that he arrived at the house at a quarter past eight.



The blond knew that it would take a while before Andreji would fetch him, and he did not feel like going down into the caves either, so he sat down behind the house, his legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, and watched the orange sun turn blood red while it disappeared further and further beneath the horizon.



A lone seagull landed next to River and ogled at him as if expecting him to feed it. “Sorry,” he shrugged and showed his empty hands. The bird ogled some more, hopping around him, then it took off again. He smiled and turned back to the sea to watch the waves lick at the stony beach below.



The light faded more and more. When the sky had turned a deep, inky blue, two inhabitants of the caves below crawled over the edge, inclined their heads, and disappeared. So they were some of the younger ones, River gathered.



As the time slowly crept by, more bloodsuckers passed him by, one after the other. Andreji only emerged when the night had turned pitch black.



“Finally,” River breathed and jumped up as Andreji threw his bag over the edge and came into view.



“Everything has its price.”



“Is it really impossible for you to come out earlier?” River asked interestedly.



Andreji opened his kitbag and let River’s small weekender disappear in it. “Not impossible, no.” He threw a warm coat towards River, who was dressed in light clothing due to the mild August weather.



The young man eyed the garment sceptically.



“Put it on; the journey is going to leave you freezing,” Andreji prompted him.



River did as he was told. “Not impossible – but why didn’t you, then?” he asked in answer to Andreji’s reply to his initial question.



Andreji shouldered his kitbag. “It is unpleasant. And since this is not a life or death situation, I think you will understand that I wait until my time has come.” With that, he approached River and swept him up into his arms, to the surprise of his fledgling. “Snuggle up against me as tight as you can,” he was prompted.



Before River could enquire what was going on, Andreji started murmuring, and immediately he felt a strong wind surround the both of them. Andreji had bound his hair back with several ties, and now River saw why – the wind pulled at it mercilessly. He had also closed his eyes, and River reluctantly followed his example.



The next thing River felt was something move against his behind and remain there. When he peeked down, he gasped quietly and clung closer to Andreji: they floated in the air, drifting higher and higher up! The firm pressure on his behind came from Andreji’s knees that he had apparently drawn close to his body to gain more stability in flight. River’s heart pounded fiercely in his chest. Was this safe? What if Andreji’s spirit grew tired of them and dropped them? What if Andreji could not hold him any longer?



The air rushed past them. River’s ears grew cold. He wished for a toque. His eyes were screwed shut. Luckily, Andreji’s coat had a big lapel behind which his fledgling could hide from the biting cold of the wind.



River drifted off to sleep for several short periods when the monotony and the incommodiousness of the journey had worn him out. He came to when his body registered a tremor. Regaining consciousness of his senses, he noticed that the wind had ceased, and his ears slowly and very painfully began to un-freeze.



River opened his eyes. They were back on the ground, apparently having landed in a dark park.



Andreji helped him back onto his own feet and rubbed his arms and legs to stimulate his blood circulation. “Come, let us get you something warm to drink.”



“Where are we?” River wanted to know while he followed Andreji on shaky knees.



“Just a few hundred feet from the hospital.”



The blond’s eyes widened in surprise and sought the face of his watch. It was half past two in the morning.



When they stepped into the light of a street lamp, Andreji looked over his fledgling. Retrieving a comb from his bag, he held it out to him. “You look a little too windswept for a quiet night like this,” he explained. While River took care of the problem, Andreji untied his own hair and shook it out, combing through it with his fingers several times. Subsequently, they stowed away their coats and entered the hospital.



River went to the reception and let the nurse point him to the maternity ward.



On their way, they passed a vending machine. Despite the balmy August night, River’s hands were still feeling like ice cubes. “D’you have some coins?” he asked Andreji since he knew that he only had paper money at hand.



Andreji put a hand into his trouser pocket and held out a handful of loose money out to River who took a coin and dropped it into the machine’s slit. They heard the metallic sound of it falling down and hitting the coin covered bottom, then River pressed a button and with a loud clack, a plastic cup came out and was slowly filled with hot liquid. River took the drink and handed it to Andreji. “Want one, too?”



Andreji sniffed at the cup, wrinkled his nose, and shook his head.



River fetched a cup of coffee for Hayashi, then they knocked on the door. It took a few moments before it opened and revealed a tired looking young man. Hayashi’s face lit up as he saw River and beckoned him inside, saying that Eriko was still in labour.



River turned to Andreji with a questioning glance.



His lover shook his head and handed him his drink. “This is family business. I would be out of place here.” He leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on River’s cheek and murmured in passing, so that only his fledgling could hear, “Don’t forget the sun.” River felt that Andreji pressed something into his hand. With that, he inclined his head towards the soon-to-be father and walked back down the corridor.



River shoved the coffee into Hayashi’s hand who smiled gratefully. “Eriko’s just taking a bath to relax and hopefully speed the whole process along. The first time that I can take a break – I was just dreaming about getting that cup of coffee myself.”



“Hayashi!” Eriko’s anxious voice called out from inside the room.



The baby took further three hours before it finally and very reluctantly consented to see the light of day – or rather the artificial light of the delivery room at half past five in the morning. Fifteen minutes later, mother and child were reunited after the first bath of the newborn. Still tinged bluish, the tiny daughter lay in her tired mother’s arms, who - despite the lengthy ordeal of birth that had left her hair clinging lank and sweaty to her face – looked content and happy down on her firstborn.



Eriko and Hayashi had chosen the name Naoko Jasmine for the girl, giving her both a traditional Japanese name as well as an English one that nevertheless gave reverence to her cultural heritage. Naoko yawned lazily, an in itself quite ordinary behaviour that made the whole room chuckle, however.



After half an hour, the two men were quite unceremoniously banned from the room by the nurse, saying they could come back in the late morning, when the young mother had had some rest. River greeted this ‘suggestion’. Despite Andreji’s passing present that had turned out to be a strongly flavoured cream that River had smeared under his nose in an unobserved moment, the sweet smell of the newborn was almost overwhelmingly sickening him. He took a deep breath when they stepped out into the fresh morning air.



While Hayashi used his mobile to ring his parents who had left the hospital late that night to catch some sleep but had asked for immediate notification when their grandchild had been born, River dialled Andreji’s number.



“Yes?” his lover answered.



“It’s a girl. Naoko,” River told him happily.



“I see,” was Andreji’s neutral answer.



Catching the hint, River voiced the true purpose of his call. “Can I join you, wherever you are?”



Monosyllabically Andreji named an address. “Take a cab; I will give you the money.”



Half an hour later, the cab stopped in an area that seemed distantly familiar to River. Since Andreji had taken his bag with him, he was forced to ring the bell next to the name that Andreji had given him. He felt the suspicious look of the driver on his back.



After a few moments, he knew exactly where he was as the clicking of pointed heels preceded a sexy lady. She smiled broadly at him and opened her arms widely to hug him, even though they had met only once before. “So good to see you. I knew you would come around eventually,” Emily said in a husk, male voice, referring to River’s tense relationship with Andreji when they first had met. She handed him the money to pay the cab, then they went up into the apartment.



“Make yourself at home,” Emily encouraged River when she opened the door. “I’ll slip off to work in a few minutes.”



The freshly turned uncle moved toward the bedroom. He knocked, entered then into the small space behind the door that was shielded from the rest of the room by a curtain, and then closed the door before he stepped into the room. He had not paid attention to this before, but if Emily went through such troubles as to modify her apartment to accommodate him, Andreji must be a quite regular visitor.



A moan of disgust greeted his entry. “Please go and take a shower before you get any closer to me.”



River stopped bemusedly and bent down to sniff at his clothes. Ew. “Right.” Baby smell. With regret he mused that his time with Eriko would probably have to be cut even shorter in the next years unless he found a way to handle the stench.