Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Maya “This is bliss,” sighed Maya, running her fingers through the cool water. “Not going to get this in London, are you?” she teased her friends, who were floating around the pool in inflatable armchairs beside her at Maya and Ka’s home.

The Californian sun was beating down on them, and Maya could almost have forgotten the events of the past few days, were her head not still throbbing from cracking it on the bathroom floor.

“Nope, please remind me why we live there?” asked Les to Rob in his strong cockney accent, shoving Rob’s armchair away, nearly spilling his drink.

“Can’t remember, think the sunshine has bleached my brain,” Rob murmured, closing his eyes to the Californian sun.

Maya laughed and regarded her friends, the suntanned, tall and formerly dark Rob, before his hair turned silver; and the not so tall podgy grey-blonde Les, who was barely scraping a tan. Both men were in their fifties, with Les approaching sixty rather rapidly. Despite their age difference, they got on extremely well, and never thought about it.

Suddenly, shouting was coming from the direction of the house, causing them to look over, only to see Ka jumping up and down on the sofa brandishing his beer at the TV, flanked by his aggrieved looking cohorts.

“Neanderthals,” said Les faux-scathingly, as they looked through the window at their friends getting as involved as ever with a ball game.

“Don’t know what they’re missing,” mused Rob idly, sipping his acid green cocktail.

“So how’s the head?” asked Les, looking towards where Maya’s hair was covering the eight stitches.

“Getting better with every sip of this wonderful stuff,” she sipped at her own cocktail, which seemed to be both sweet and bitter at the same time.

“Gave Ka quite a scare, though the look of him gave me a scare too! I can’t believe he walked into a door frame!” snickered Les as they all looked at the enormous black eye Ka was sporting, visible from the moon, let alone the garden.

“I know, I was all strapped in and couldn’t see him, man that was scary. Waking up and not being able to move, then waking up and not being able to move! What a day,” she sighed, hoping that was not one to be repeated.

“So what’s all this about the dream anyway? You woke up out of a coma?” Les enquired.

“It was more than a dream, it was so real. Seriously, I kept waiting to wake up but it was like that was real and this was the dream. Does that make any sense?” she implored, not really wanting to know the answer.

“Dreams can be very vivid and very real,” argued Rob in his gentle manner, the sun glinting off his wire rimmed glasses.

“Yeah but, I can’t describe it, it was something else. It felt real. Even though no part of me wanted to believe it was real, every bit of me knew it was. Again with the, does that make sense?” Maya looked at each of them in turn, this time wanting an answer, for them to put an end to her musings so she never had to think about it again.

“It was a dream Maya,” Rob sighed.

“The world is ending. Nothing will ever be the same again,” Les declared dramatically, abruptly changing the subject.

“What’s up hunny?” asked Rob, feigning sympathy.

“My glass is empty!” Les cried. “And the vat of the stuff we made is all the way inside, in the faraway land of the fridge. Miles away I tell you.”

“Wow, that is the end of the world,” replied Maya sarcastically, before realising that her glass was not far off being in the same condition as Les’s.

“My, what are we going to do with our empty glasses?” Les fluttered his eyelashes at Maya. Maya in turn fluttered mine at Rob, to no avail.

“It’s so your turn,” she told Les, remembering that it was indeed hers.

“It is not!” he cried, steering his armchair to bang into Maya’s.

“Okay, okay, I’m going to the faraway land of the fridge. But if anything happens to me on the way, I’m holding you responsible.” she told him sternly, manoeuvring herself to the edge of the pool before sliding into the welcoming water.

Grinning from ear to ear, she emerged with a jug full of their concoction, having restocked the Neanderthals with what they deemed to be vital beer supplies. The change in temperature from the hot sun to the air conditioned house and back again had made her head throb more, but she ignored it, returning to the pool and good company.

“You guys look morose,” observed Maya, as Les and Rob forced smiles back onto their faces. “Whattup?”

“We were just talking about Ka,” Les confessed, holding his glass out eagerly for a refill.

“Yeah, he hasn’t let me out of his sight since. I wish he’d let up,” she muttered, refilling their glasses.

“Jeez My, you scared the man half to death. He thought you were dead!” said Les sharply, making her startle.

“But I’m not,” Maya argued, placing the jug on a step in shallow water to keep it cool, and repositioning herself on her floating armchair. “I’m not going anywhere,” she added.

“You don’t know what he was like before,” said Rob seriously.

“It was like the lights were on but no-one was home, like he’d given up on life,” Les continued from Rob without a break.

“His last girlfriend screwed him over good and proper,” Rob sounded strange using Les’s terminology with his English public school accent.

“Like big time, she screwed half of Hollywood,” Les concurred. “When he hit forty, such a young whipper snapper age I might add, he reckoned he was over the hill and would never find any meaning to life. He had money; fame as you know he’s never been too fond of; but was just wandering through life, kind of bored. Then he met you and it all changed. You’re the best thing that ever happened to him, and he nearly lost you. Cut him some slack, he needs it.”

Maya’s mouth was hanging open, it was the last thing she had expected to come out of Les’s mouth. She didn’t know what Ka was like before she had met him, she had just assumed he was always the Ka she knew and loved. She was gob smacked that she had had that much of an effect on him.

“Catching flies?” remarked Rob slyly, before grinning into his drink.

“Speechless, never seen that before,” Les laughed, trying to break the tension.

“Well,” started Maya, before giving up and returning to gaping stupidly at them.

“Chill lady, just thought you should know,” Les said as he pushed himself off the side and collided with her.

“Oh like that is it?” she said dangerously, putting her drink on the side ready for the retaliation. Rob’s armchair hit Maya’s square on, followed by Les’s in an armchair assault. This culminated with them all in the pool, dunking each other and splashing around like children, while the Neanderthals inside invented new words to describe the referee.