Brothers

Her face in the crowd called to him. It moved towards him, painfully slow. He could see it, see her, most of the time but now and again something, someone, blocked his view. Then he panicked. He imagined her trampled, squashed under a hoard of feet. It became hard to breath for a second or two before he spotted her once more. Every time she came a bit closer, but she was still too far away for him to reach her.
Suddenly she saw him. She started to run and he could see horror written in her face. In half a second he was running too. 50 meters, 30, 10. He scoped her up, squeezing her, shielding her. Her breath was ragged, her face wet and warm.
“What’s wrong?” She held onto him like a koala-bear.
“Just take me away, please!” She whispered it desperately, right in his ear.
“Ok.” He picked up her bag with his right hand, never losing his grip on her, and carried her to the bus stop. She was shivering.
The bus stop was empty and deserted. They must have just missed the bus.
Christopher stood there for a while, humming in his tune-less way. She still hadn’t answered him or relaxed in his arms. Wetness spread from her face to his shoulder. Tears. They stood there. The air around them was full of urban noise, but the silence emitting from them pushed it all away.
Then he felt her take a deep breath. She moved, now she was facing him. He stopped humming and reached up to caress her wrinkled forehead. She winced.
“What’s wrong?” He spoke like he was talking to a small child or a scared animal.
“A man.” She inhaled before continuing. “He seemed nice... But then.... It was on the train. He.... I felt so....” She broke herself off with a shudder. Her eyes were shut tight, her words tumbled. Someone had turned his skin to ice and his stomach to burning lava.
“You’re safe now. I’m here.” He had to fight not to let the anger seep into his voice.
The bus came. It was empty and they got a pair of seats in the back. They sat in silence.
Her phone called, the ringtone some Norah Jones melody.
“Hi Grace.” There wasn’t a trace of sadness or fear in those words and he looked at her, impressed by her acting skill.
“No, I’m out of town.” She smiled and looked happy again. Normal.
“Well, if you’d said anything before I might have. Sorry, but I gotta go now.”
She laughed at some question.
“As a matter of fact, yes. And I’ll stay here a while so don’t...” The person at the other end (Grace?) said something else.
“No! I’m hanging up now. Bye!” She laughed again and put the cell back in her pocket.
“Sorry ‘bout that. Grace wanted me to come over. She asked me to tell you that you should come to my place instead of dragging me off to the end of the world all the time. ”
“As usual. It just wouldn’t be Grace if she didn’t say that.” Grace and Mel had been friends for as long as he’d known them. Or at least for as long as he’d known Mel.
“Are you ok?” He heard the concern in his own voice.
“I’m ok. Just needed to take it easy for a bit, you know.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Don’t worry! I’m fine, really.”
“Right, ok, merry Christmas, by the way!” He hugged her, hoping she meant it.
They got off the bus, climbed the stairs to the small apartment and went inside. He left her in the bedroom to let her unpack and decided to make some tea while he waited. First, he turned on some music.
The water was almost lukewarm when she entered the kitchen. She came up to him from behind and laid her arms around him.
“I got you a present. It’s in the bedroom.” She moved over to his side and kissed his shoulder.
“Do you want me to open it now, or later?”
“Now please. I’ll fix the tea for us.” She kissed his lips and turned to the stove.
“Go open it! Chop chop!”
He smiled and went into the bedroom.