Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (2 page)

Kyra Johnson-Rossi was sitting at a table in the Food Court of Eaton Center with Quincy and Cyndra. Absent-minded she poked listlessly in her Caesar salad. Cyndra and Quincy looked knowingly at each other. "So, how are things going at home? “Quincy’s question was seemingly casual, but it had Kyra wince. "Ok, I guess." Then, all of a sudden she threw her fork carelessly to the side, pounding a fist on the table, having the dishes clattering, "Oh, it’s sickening!" Cyndra blinked irritated. She wasn’t used to such uncontrolled outbursts from Kyra. On the contrary, usually, she was the calmest person she knew except when it came to her daughter.

Cyndra got up as if nothing had happened. "Anyone for a cup of coffee or one of these delicious muffins?" Quincy only rolled his eyes shrugging, and Kyra ran her fingers through her honey-brown hair mumbling something unintelligible. Cyndra loved harmony and meditated daily to find inner balance and this afternoon there were apparent bad vibrations in the air. She was in no mood to deal with it. Kyra was apparently upset, and she would leave it to Quincy to cheer her up. She tripped away to get the desserts from the bar on her new sandals with the killer heels, which were a feast for the eyes, but uncomfortable as hell. There was a line of people waiting. Normally Cyndra was mostly in a hurry, but not today. She even looked forward to be waiting in line. So, there was a slight chance that lovely Kyra calmed down before she would get back with the Lattes and the sinful desserts.

Kyra’s eyes followed her, then, sighing she looked at Quincy. Her flaxen-blond friend, still managed to look fantastic, even wearing his black Adidas sweatpants and his Airmax sneakers. No wonder the two of them were in such a bright mood. They had no teenager at home driving them crazy. Worst of all Luca was always taking Leyla’s side no matter what she had been up to." Well, Quincy, Cyndra and you have the time of your life. You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to worry about someone, and you don’t have to fight all the time because you don’t agree on parenting that special someone." With a dull look, she stared at her half-full plate, and said, "Besides, my sister will get here tomorrow. In truth, I don’t know how to get through all of this. Yesterday I had a nasty fight with Luca. It got so bad that I almost took the door off its hinges when I slammed it with full force in his face. On top of all, Leyla spends the most of her time in her room and is no longer attainable. For more than two weeks now! Sometimes I think that she enjoys being grounded." She looked furious. “But damn, we haven’t been talking about her constantly staying in her room.", she sighed again.

Quincy had no idea what to say. As it seemed, she didn’t expect any comment because she went on "I just don't get through to her, but I see that she is suffering. It is clear that she is terribly heartbroken and scared. If this crazy thing about that damn Indian tribe is true, which I still can't imagine.” Once more, her fist pounded on the table, and Quincy winced noticeably. "Quincy tell me what am I going to do? I can hardly praise her for emptying the bank account and for lying to me. From the day a child is born, nothing is ever the same again, no matter what people say. The days of being just a happy couple are history."

Cyndra had come back meanwhile carrying a tray with the desserts and the lattes. The two of them stared puzzled at each other. They had no idea how they could cheer their friend up. They just lacked the experience of having to deal with teenage issues. Leyla had always been reasonable so far, and Kyra never complained about her behavior up to now. However, this seemed to be old news, and she apparently did everything right now that she had left out in the past years. At least, it felt that way to Cyndra and Quincy looking at their friend’s miserable, sad expression. Kyra had even argued with Luca, which happened quite rarely. After almost twenty years of marriage, the two of them were one of these rare couples, visibly still in love.

Quincy felt uncomfortable, since Cyndra was pregnant, she was even more delicate than before. She took everything with a pinch of salt, and given the fact that her role model Kyra was having troubles with her teenage daughter was mixing up her golden plans of motherhood, and he was the one paying for it, by trying to calm down his hysterical pregnant girlfriend. 'Thanks very much Leyla,' he thought to himself. Why couldn’t this damn teenager at the least wait to cause troubles until after Cyndra’s pregnancy? Maybe he should try to have a word with Leyla. It would eventually help to calm Cyndra. He had no idea, but he thought if everything continued like this, his highly sensitive girlfriend would go nuts during pregnancy. Possibly, even cancel the planned wedding.

Leyla was sitting on her math homework trying hard to concentrate, but it was a complete waste of time. Her thoughts kept on drifting, and there was nothing she could do about it. Nearly three weeks had passed since Gregory left and there was no mail, no text, in short terms, no vital sign of him so far. She was worried sick about him. What if something had happened to him? He had solemnly promised her to get in touch as soon as he arrived in Sicily. The uncertainty drove her crazy, as well as being grounded probably forever.

Yesterday her parents had a bad fight because of her. They had different points of view concerning the empty bank account. Dad had taken her side and wanted to go easy on her. Mom had been furious and on top of it, she almost lost it when she found out that her father, Leyla’s Granddad was involved in it. Granddad had become a - persona non grata - for her mom. Even her uncle and her aunt had apparently dug up the hatchet and announced their arrival next week. Leyla sighed, how did she get into this whole mess? Even the only opportunity to get out of her room, - school - was torture. Constantly she felt Brooklyn's compassionate look on her, let alone Melissa’s gloating expression. Not even her Judo sessions could take her thoughts off her misery. Even though Judo was the only possibility to leave home apart from school, it was literally, the way to take the edge off and blow off some steam. She felt like a prisoner and had no clue how long her life would continue like that. She decided to take a break from math to watch some YouTube Videos and switched on her laptop. Brooklyn had become an absolute fangirl of this new Canadian Teen Star even Aiden was slightly irritated by her behavior. The Songs were all over the Radio. She had to admit that at least one song was brilliant, and she liked it because it was so beautiful and sad. Each time she listened to the song "Crazy," she burst into tears, which was not any different this time around. Determined she wiped the tears from her face searching for a song to cheer her up. There it was, this was the song that was to improve her mood. "Better to be loved." She started tapping to the beat of the music, humming the catchy melody to herself when the doorbell rang. Since she was home alone, she had no choice but to go for the door. She shuffled downstairs, not being too enthusiastic about the interruption and opened the door.

Quincy, her mom’s business partner was standing in front of her, looking at her suspiciously. "My God Girl, what’s the new look, are you becoming what they call a punk? Now I finally get why your mom is in such a bad mood." Leyla frowned, what was wrong with her look and why would he care anyway?
"Hi Quincy. Mom is not home. She's at the dentist. I think she 'll go back directly to the studio," her voice took a slightly irritated tone that made it quite clear that his appearance was disturbing her. Leyla hated being disturbed lately, and would rather linger in her room all by herself sulking, and listening to some depressing music, which matched her mood. She tried to close the door, but Quincy seemed more persistent than usual and was apparently not willing to let her chase him away by her chilly manner. He even squeezed his white Nike Airmax into the crack of the door to keep her from closing the door on him. With his round tanned face, his sad brown eyes, the sorrowful forehead wrinkles, and his flaxen blond hair, apparently treated with an extra dose of gel combed back tightly, he instantly reminded Leyla of a turtle. He cleared his throat looking uneasy. "I'm not here because of your mother. I actually would like to talk to you." Oh no, not that! Leyla thought and tried to suppress the impulse to roll her eyes. Her smile was tense when she asked him in. She shuffled into the kitchen. "Do you want some coffee?" Quincy nodded following her. He was in a state of shock.

Something was wrong with that girl. He knew Leyla since her early childhood, and she had always been a sweet, friendly girl with good manners. During the few weeks in which he hadn't seen her, she had completely changed. Puberty was apparently a terrible time to go through. He watched her as she struggled ill-tempered with the coffee machine. Leyla took a cup out of the cabinet with an unsteady movement. Good god, she looked terrible. She was far too skinny, her face was very pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Apparently, she no longer took particular care in her appearance. She wore a shabby looking T-shirt and some sweat pants, which had seen better days and were a couple of sizes too big. There was a huge hole in her stockings, and she seemed totally absentminded. If Quincy had not intervened, the coffee would have overflown. God, now he could understand Kyra, and if he had been Leyla's father, he sure would worry as well.

He had to prevent Cyndra from seeing Leyla like this. Otherwise, he would be confronted to hear about her fears and concerns for days, about whether she would be capable of being a good mother. From the way it looked Kyra was Cyndra's role model in all aspects of life. Apparently she had not managed to bring her only daughter unscathed through puberty. If Cyndra ever found out, he was well into some significant discussions, which he’d rather avoid. Because after all, who knew what would happen. Life was a mystery and to be honest, he didn’t even know what would happen the next five minutes, let alone how his life would be in ten years. But, Cyndra didn’t care, she sometimes was from another universe, fluttering around him like a hummingbird, making him nervous. He truly wanted to avoid that to happen. He loved Cyndra, but sometimes she was a bit capricious and exhausting, an unfortunate peculiarity enhanced during her pregnancy. Last night, when she had felt a sudden inner urge for a Ben & Jerry Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, he hadn’t been able to talk her out of it, even though their freezer was full of various ice creams. She insisted that it had to be that particular Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream and man, she could get outraged lately. So, finally, they had been cruising around the darks streets until they finally found the damn ice cream at a gas station.

He’d gotten so lost in thoughts, that he didn’t notice that Leyla was standing in front of him, staring sullenly at him. Startled he heard her annoyed voice close to his left ear, "So shoot, what did you want to discuss with me?" He looked at her pale, tired-looking face and said without really wanting to, "Are you on drugs?" Indeed, an ill-considered question, he could have kicked himself. If she were doing drugs, she would hardly tell him and let him in on it. She frowned shaking her head in disbelief. "What makes you think something stupid like that?" She was looking at him, shaking her head. Since when did Quincy care that much about what she was doing? He had certainly enough on his plate keeping his rather Bitchy girlfriend happy.

Leyla liked Quincy with his childlike mind. He had always been kind to her in the past when she was a child hanging around the gym being bored. Back then he played hide and seek with her for hours. A smile crept across her face, as she remembered. It had been kind of weird as she always hid in the same spot behind a curtain and all Quincy had to do, was look from time to time behind that curtain saying, "Got you!" After that, he could continue to do his job without being disturbed. Then the game had started again, on and on.

Suddenly it dawned on her why he had appeared on her doorstep today. Apparently, mom had a good cry on his shoulder after she'd been fighting with dad yesterday. Quincy had gotten comfortable in the meantime sitting on a bar stool at the kitchen counter. "What's so funny about that?" He asked suspiciously. Leyla turned around putting the coffee on the counter in front of him. "Nothing, I was just thinking about how you played hide and seek with me when I got bored hanging around the Studio when I was little." Quincy smiled at her, "Yes, I remember, those were probably the good old days. Now it seems that you don’t have much fun anymore, and neither do I." Leyla frowned, "Why what’s going on with you?" "Cyndra is pregnant, and she is driving me crazy." "Congratulations," Leyla said grinning at him knowingly. "When is she due?" "Oh, it will still take a while. Next April." Leyla said, "Hey, then it could happen that the baby will see the light of day on my birthday." Her face had lightened up considerably. Quincy pulled a face, "I asked her to marry me." Leyla asked, "So what's the fuss? Did she say no?" looking curious and a bit worried for him. "No, that's not the point. She said yes, but she gets so excited about every little thing lately since she is pregnant." Leyla shrugged, "Well, I think that's normal, and you'll get through that. Do you know whether it’ll be a boy or a girl?" His face lit up all of a sudden. “It’s a boy, and we even agreed on a name, which is something close to a miracle." "Oh, what's the Name then?" "We've decided to call him Gabriel." Leyla looked at him in horror, "What? No, under no circumstances, you can't." Quincy frowned, "Are you, crazy girl? Why?" Leyla shook her head, "Bad Karma, I just feel it." Quincy was in no mood to discuss it any further with her. These women, they all drove him insane.

"Anyway, we'll see about that, and that’s not why I am here. Your mom is worried about you, and I wanted to talk to you about it. Maybe I can help you somehow. You know that you can tell me anything. No matter in what kind of mess you are in. I've known you all your life, and I am here for you, no matter what." He seemed serious about it. "Quincy, have you ever been desperately in love?" The question caught Quincy completely off guard. Quincy had expected quite other troubles than lover's grief. "Of course, High School is a difficult time, and everyone gets heart-broken at least once." Leyla looked sad again, "No, you don’t understand. I mean the immortal, eternal kind of love. Something such as Romeo and Juliet against all odds. Do you know what I'm talking about?" "Oh," Quincy said, "you are talking about Gregory I get it. That moron broke your heart and if I get him, …" He slammed his fist against the palm of his hand as if he was going to hit someone. "But you'll get over it, life goes on."

"You don’t have any idea what's going on!" She shook her head in despair and yet a thought crept in, what if he was right? Was that it? Would she eventually move on and forget Gregory? No way!

Her vibrating phone ripped her from her thoughts and at the same time the front door opened. Her dad appeared in the kitchen. God, it felt like being at the central station in here today. There was no time to listen to what her dad had to say, as she took the call. She didn’t recognize the number, but being engaged in a phone conversation was a good way to avoid her dad's as well as Quincy's questions. “Hi, who? Oh yes, I remember. Ana, right? Sure, why not. Wait a minute." She turned around, where had her dad gone? She found him outside the front door talking to Quincy. "Dad, can I go to the Eaton Center with Ana and help her pick out the right Judo clothes and whatever else she needs to buy for the training? Please, she's new at the club and needs support." Her dad seemed to be involved in a serious discussion with Quincy. He looked up briefly, and then he nodded. Oh great, she asked herself what the two of them were up to now. "Ok Ana, I'm going to change quickly, and we’ll meet there in an hour. There is just one thing. I have to be home by five, because I'm grounded for eternity and beyond. It doesn't matter. Maybe I'll tell you one day. See you, Ciao." She stormed upstairs to the upper level of the house to get changed quickly before her dad would change his mind.

Ana, the new girl at the BJJ, the Judo Club, was quite nice. Brooklyn lately had mainly cheer-leading, this teen pop star, and Aiden on her mind. Not necessarily in that order and Mila brought back too many memories, and except during school, there was no opportunity to hang out with someone because she was grounded. Therefore, Ana came in handy. She was just about to leave through the front door when she saw that her aunt Shannon and her uncle Franco got out of a cab. Her dad and Quincy gave them a warm welcome. What next? Damn, what did Gregory's stepparents do here? They shouldn't get here until next week. She made a U-turn heading to the back yard to leave the house. At least she had some time to figure out how to behave around these two tonight. They would certainly ask her some tough questions that she couldn't answer. She sighed and headed to the Subway Station.

Gabe glanced benevolent at his younger half-sister. "Well done Ana, soon we will know where the Savior is."