An Elf's Rose

CHAPTER EIGHT


Rose walked in to the dojo and kneeled in her accustomed place. She was rather nervous about seeing Orlando, after the – thoughts – that she’d had about him over the weekend. Would he see it on her face that she’d touched herself? She closed her eyes.

Breathe. Relax. Your mother didn’t. No one else is going to read your mind.

She opened them and saw sempai Jimmy in the mirror, standing behind her, instead of Orlando. She jumped a little, startled. She would have asked him where Orlando was, but she was not allowed to speak until after class.

The torture of not knowing why Orlando wasn’t there was distracting her from the lesson. Maybe he got delayed and will show up later, after class, she thought, hopefully. Rose had been looking forward all day to seeing his smiling face.

Sensei David hissed at her, making her jump. He would bench her if her mind kept wandering. He wasn’t going to waste his time playing babysitter.

Orlando never showed up, to Rose’s painful disappointment. There would be no coffee shop talks tonight. She didn’t bother to change, just slipped on her sandals at the door. She was about to leave when she changed her mind and walked up to sempai Jimmy, who was talking with another student.

Rose cleared her throat. “Excuse me. Pardon for interrupting. I was just wondering why sempai Orlando wasn’t in tonight. Is everything ok?” she asked diffidently.

Jimmy smiled crookedly at her. “I don’t know. Sensei David called me in to assist. He just told me Orlando wasn’t going to make it.” He nodded towards sensei David. “Go ask him.”

Rose cheeks colored as she looked at sensei.

Jimmy laughed. “Go on. He won’t bite your head off.”

Rose reluctantly walked over to sensei. She stood quietly until his attention was diverted from flipping through the pages on the clipboard he held.

“Yes?” he asked, not nasty at all.

“I – ah – beg your pardon, sensei. Um, I noticed sempai Orlando wasn’t in tonight. Do you – I mean, I hope everything is ok? “

Sensei grinned at her. “Is that why you were so damned distracted tonight?”

Rose couldn’t meet his eyes and stared at his bare feet.

“Don’t worry Rose. He’ll be back tomorrow. His father called earlier and said he was ill. Suffering from a killer hangover more than likely, if I know our Orli.”

Rose didn’t know quite what to think of that last statement. She refused to believe that Orlando got drunk on a regular basis. But then, she really didn’t know anything about him, other than what he’d told her. Now that she thought about it, a lot of his stories involved him and his friends imbibing a large quantity of beer. But didn’t all college guys do that at one time or another?

~~~

In any event, Orlando didn’t show up for Wednesday’s class either. There was no way for Rose to get in touch with him. He had her number, but she’d never asked for his, and he wasn’t calling. But she’d be damned if she’d ask anyone at the dojo for it. She was sure they’d think she was some silly lovesick girl.

Ha. Well aren’t you? she thought nastily to herself. Maybe the poor guy really is sick. Maybe he’s got the flu or something. It’s not like he’s not coming to the dojo anymore because he doesn’t want to see you, idiot.

~~~

For his part, Orli was ill, but not in the conventional way. It turned out that getting drunk had not been a good idea. Revealing his dark secret had opened up the floodgates to ten years of repressed grief and anger and fear. Orli was having a break-down and by the second day, Robert was starting to feel panicked.

He called his physician friend who came over immediately after hearing the whole story.

“Thank God, Jacob. I’m at my wit’s end.”

“What’s he doing now?” the doctor asked, following Robert to Orli’s rooms.

“I’m not sure. He was dozing when I came to let you in.”

“He’s been hysterical?”

Robert shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it hysteria. He alternates between bouts of gut-wrenching sobbing, and frightening displays of rage, to shivering under the bedclothes. He’s smashed quite a few things, including a couple of fingers, I believe. I’ve had to remove his sword and knife collection from his room. I was afraid he’d start flinging them at me.”

“Has he spoken at all? I mean coherently.”

“Oh yes. He’s been compulsively telling me everything that he’s been through, in excruciating detail. No doubt to torture me.”

“Hmm. Are you sure you don’t want to hospitalize him?”

Robert shook his head. “No. He’s said he doesn’t want it.” He turned to Jacob at the door of the small suite of rooms. “You know how he is. He’d have to be put in manacles to be kept in hospital.”

Orli lay curled up on his side on the bed, breathing shall, pa, pale and wan. His braid, normally smooth and well kept, looked like it had been nested in by cats. A storm-cloud eye slit open as the older men walked in.

He sat up and backed up against the headboard. “I’m not going to a hospital!” he hissed.

Jacob sat on the edge of the bed and placed his black bag next to him. “I’m not going to take you anywhere, son. I’m here to help.”

Orli relaxed only slightly. “How?”

Jacob nodded towards his swollen hand. “I’m going to splint that, and give you a shot.”

Orli allowed him to do so -- his hand was in a misery. The shot was a hefty dose of Valium.

Jacob left Robert a small bottle of tablets for Orli, telling him he should take one too and get some sleep. He also gave him the phone number of a good shrink he knew personally.

“Both of you go. You can’t deal with this by yourselves.”

Robert saw Jacob to the door, thanking him profusely. “Robert, you can thank me by seeing this man,” he replied.

Robert nodded. “I’ll call first thing in the morning.”

Back in Orli’s bedroom, he turned the unconscious form in the bed tenderly on his side, careful of his newly bandaged hand. He took a comb from Orli’s dresser and began to slowly untangle the snarls in the thick cornsilk hair, humming a cradle song his wife used to sing when their son was an infant.

~~~

Rose showed up to class Friday, hoping but not expecting Orlando to be there. She had gone with her parents the day before for freshman orientation at Loyola Marymount, the small Catholic university she would be attending down by Marina del Rey, and she so wanted to tell Orlando about the whole thrilling and frightening experience.

She didn’t see him when she walked in, so, with a small sigh of resignation, took her place on the smooth wooden floor. She closed her eyes, focusing on her body and getting herself ready for the onslaught. They would be partnering up today and sensei told them to expect bruises.

She opened her eyes to see Orlando in the mirror, staring at her with the strangest look on his face. She stared back for a second then smiled widely, turning her head to look directly at him. Her smile faltered a bit, seeing how pale he was and the weak smile he gave her.

Are you ok? she mouthed to him, worried.

He nodded and winked, pulling his right hand from behind his back. Rose’s eyes widened and her mouth shaped a shocked “O”. His hand was encased in an aluminum splint with the second and third fingers jutting straight out. She turned around quickly to face front.

Had he gotten into some kind of drunken fight? Rose suddenly felt ambivalent about him, then felt badly that she didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. He’d tell her what happened, she was sure.

~~~

Rose went up to him shyly after class. “Is everything all right, Orlando? You look awfully tired.” He looked definitely out of sorts, leaning against the wall with a marked lack of his normal strength and grace. Sensei had wanted to demonstrate how one could fight, even with an injured hand and so he and Orlando had sparred a bit, but it had left him seemingly exhausted.

“I am a bit. How are you, Rosie?” he smiled at her, and she noticed a fine sheen of sweat on his face. She wordlessly handed him her towel, and he accepted gratefully, wiping himself awkwardly with his left hand.

“I’m fine,” she told him. “I think you’re still sick. You should go home right away and get in bed.”

He averted his eyes, a small half-smile on his lips. “I’m fine, really. Let’s go over to the coffee shop. I’m starving. I haven’t eaten well in the last couple days.”

Rose was doubtful, but she went to change, not denying that she wanted to be with him badly, after almost a week of separation. He took her hand as they crossed the street and her body shivered with an unnamed emotion.

Orlando ordered a cheeseburger with everything and a large side of fries. Rose sipped her Coke and looked at him as they waited for his food to arrive. His whole demeanor was off. He was normally – well, ‘tense’ wasn’t the word. Controlled maybe. He seemed a lot looser somehow.

“Have I grown an extra eye or something?” he asked, his mouth quirking up on one side.

Rose cast her eyes down. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just that you seem different somehow. I was trying to figure out what it was.”

Orlando grunted and tapped the fingertips of his good hand on the table.

“Well, I’m on medication. Maybe that’s it.”

“For your hand? Are you in pain?” Rose looked up, concerned.

“Yes, and yes -- sort of.” He smiled his usual sweet smile at her. It made her feel better.

“What happened? How did you break it?”

Orlando looked down at his bandaged hand. “I smashed a hole in the armoire in my room. Surprised the hell out of me that I did it. It’s solid wood.”

Rose looked at him wide-eyed. “Why did you do that?”

“Oh,” he replied casually, still not looking at her. “I just went a bit mad for a while. But I’m alright now. The meds help.”

Orlando was spared anymore questions as the food arrived and it was a bit of work for him to pick up the burger one-handed.

“Do you want me to cut it up?” Rose asked, seeing him struggle.

He laughed, swallowing a bite. “I’m not a complete cripple yet, sweetheart.”

“Don’t use that word, it’s not nice,” she told him sternly.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise but said nothing, stuffing a French fry into his mouth.

“So, what does a Hobbit do on a Saturday night?” he asked, changing the subject neatly.

She shrugged. “Not much. I either read or surf the web. Of course, when I was in school, I had a lot of homework, so I usually did that. Sometimes my parents take us somewhere.”

“What, no TV?”

“No, most TV programs are stupid. More interesting things happen in books.”

“So you don’t have any plans for tomorrow night?”

Rose looked suspiciously at him. “Why are you asking?”

Orlando shrugged. “Thought that if you had no plans, you’d maybe want to come with me to see some friends of mine play at a pub in the city.”

Rose looked at him in shock. “Are you asking me out?”

Her reaction stopped Orlando in mid-chew. “Well, I didn’t intend to insult you – “

“Oh! No, I – I didn’t mean it like that!”

“All right, then. Say yes, Orli, sure I’ll come. It sounds like fun.”

Rose twiddled with the straw in her Coke. “I can’t go to a bar. I’m not twenty-one.”

“Well, that’s the lovely thing about pubs, eh? They’re like a restaurant because they serve food, so you can bring the kiddies.”

Rose’s cheeks colored. She hoped that’s not what he thought of her. But there was a more important issue to bring up. “My parents won’t let me go with you if they haven’t met you.”

Orlando sat back. “You’re serious?”

“I told you, it’s different with my family.”

“All right, I’ll meet your folks. Not a problem.”

“You’ll do that?” Rose asked, surprised. She was sure he’d back out. Most guys did. It made casual dates too serious. Rose supposed that was her parent’s intentions. They didn’t want her to date casually. Too many temptations for sin.

“Sure. They probably want to make sure that you’re not going out with an axe murderer. Or if you disappear, they’ll know who you were with. I can get behind that.” He smiled and took her hand. “So you’ll come?”

“They’re going to ask you all sorts of embarrassing personal questions,” Rose told him, giving him another out.

“Rose, I told you, I’ll come and meet them. No offense, but your parents don’t frighten me in the least.” He sounded exasperated. Then his mouth quirked up with humor. “Besides, how personal can they get? Will they ask me the about frequency of my bowel movements?”

A huge smile blossomed on her face and she giggled. “Ok. What time are you coming?”