Secrets- ()()()(Chapter One

The mild and dark night looked almost black with its sluggish trees, quiet stars and planets, and the smell of pure and unrestricted air. Jacob got up. The candles burned dimly in the dark air. He went inside. The blind swayed and made a bang sound and let the fragrance of the night and its secretive rustling go inside. Diana raised her head which was bent to her chest and looked around. She felt dizzy. Everyone looked at her. She stayed silent. She showed invisible signs of an overwrought upheaval, she was visibly irritated, and she did not want to talk while everyone glaring at her as though they all were driven by some mysterious restlessness.

"Jacob told me you write poetry, Diana?" Tim asked with his own kind of gentleness, but obviously it was more curiosity.

"Yes, I do. You, too, right?"

Tim nodded his head. After all he was the professor of Old English Literature.

"I'm a primitive compare to you. I heard you're very good. Jacob told me you've published some. Can you recite one of your poem for us?"

Diana covertly glanced at everyone. All were curious but that is not what she saw in Thui's face. She looked miserable amongst all these professors, teacher, lawyer, candidate for PhD. Jacob came back outside and joined them again.

"Tim wants to hear one of my poems, what do you think, sweet heart?"

Jacob kissed top of her head. "That is a brilliant idea."

Suddenly Diana overpowered by confusion. The hot blood flowed in wave beneath her skin.

"I am shy."She said.

"Come on honey. It's okay." Jacob stood behind her chair and hugged her back.

"It's too dark here; I can't read."

"let's go inside then." Both Jacob and Tim said at the same time.

Oh, please!" Thui said it in her speaking mind.

They all want inside. Diana brought her book of poetry. It was a thick book and as she was looking through it, Tim and Rosa noticed that that there was not an unwritten page in it.

"I don't know which one to read!"

"Read a happy one." Ed said after a long silence.

"Poetry is not about happy and sad. You write what you feel." Diana began. "This book is the poems I've written in the last couple of years. My other ones are all put aside somewhere. In the meaning that you want happy, I don't think I have a happy one." It was clear that she was finding her way through an internal torture.

"Why don't you open the book and read what ever is on that page." Rosa suggested.

Diana thought that Rosa's advice was a fair one; so she did what Rosa had said. Then she read:

"I breathe an unheard experience,

Which its gentle sounds so intense.

Wishing with an unreal prediction

To hear easing words of benediction.

It tells me to be patient, for darkness ends;

It will be sunshine any day and friends.

It tells me the storm will be over and done;

Rain will stop, where it had begun.

In my poverty, I offered my heart only.

What I got in return is being still lonely."

She stopped. A few drops of tears fell on her cheeks. Everyone, even Thui, was saddened.

"You know all writers are creators. They invent things in their minds that in real life may not be possible or sound right; but when you hear them, you understand them." Tim paused and then continued: "It was beautiful"

Thui had already told them outside when Diana was walking, the story of Vickie's disappearance even though her husband, Ed told her not to.

"Honey please stop. Jacob is my friend. If they want, they will talk about it."

However, Thui had continued with Vickie's story from the beginning to the end.

"I agree with you." Jacob said. "I also believe that any form of art is confronting boldly things that they might even endanger the artist's life or well being. So many example..."

Diana took the book to her room. When she returned, Rosa said:

"Will you read some more?"

Diana smiled. It was obvious that she liked Rosa. "Maybe later."

Thui whispered in Ed's ear: "Lets get out of here. I don't like it when they have other people over."

Ed ignored his wife completely.

"Why are you so unhappy?" Rosa's astonishing question shocked everyone.

"What kind of question is that?" Tim, shaken, asked her.

"It's okay." Diana began. "I don't mind to answer the question. Can anyone truly be happy? You're right, Rosa. I am unhappy; and since Thui have given our secret away," She paused and looked at Thui with red eyes and then continued: "Oh, I want to be happy if I had the strength. What does my grief matter if I can be happy? But how can I when every second of my passing life, I only think about my daughter."

Everyone seemed touched by this inmost feeling of Diana. Jacob, who was sitting next to her, hugged her and whispered in her ear: "Enough!"

To Be Continued