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Chapter 87

“Sir,” said Manami, sitting after dinner next to Peter at the dining table and holding Eir in her lap.

“Your forehead is high…” Pascal tried to rationalize her beauty, while sitting across from them. To fit it into certain standards, molds. “…oval. You have strong cheekbones. And then it gets narrower towards your cute chin.”

“We have to discuss how we will function in the shelter. You will put your clothes in the machine. I will turn it on and wash them,” Manami continued.

“Your nose is flat and small. Your upper lip is fuller. Its upper edge dips down in the middle. And your lower lip is smaller. And thinner. Actually, your lips are the shape of a small heart. Which I want to kiss so much. Do you know that, love? Do you know that, darling?”

“I’ll dry it and iron it,” Manami explained.

“Your eyes are unusually large… for such… dark and slanted eyes. I like it when you let your hair down. I also like it when you wear it up… but more like this…”

“Sir! You are not listening to me at all!” Manami was cross.

“I’m listening, ma’am, I’m listening,” Pascal answered

“Well then, will you take your laundry to the machine?”

“I won’t,” Pascal answered calmly.

“You always speak quietly, Manami. And when you raise your voice, you also raise your eyebrows.”

“What do you mean ‘you won’t’?” Manami was surprised.

“And your eyebrows are not as round as your forehead… They somehow look sharper. And now… now that I’ve explained it all to you so nicely, explain to me, my love, why do I find your face to be the most beautiful of all? Why do I love you so much? Why is it that because of you I’ve become the world’s greatest coward?”

“Sir…” said Manami, noticing how Pascal was looking at her.

“I just won’t. I’ll take care of my own laundry,” Pascal finally answered.

“Nonsense!” suddenly shouted Peter, who was silent until then. “A man washing his own laundry?! I’ve never heard of that! My father would never wash his own laundry!”

“You’re right, Manami. You didn’t decide that I would be a coward. I decided. It’s not your fault, you’re not responsible for being, for existing” thought Pascal, and then twitched and said

“Peter, your father is a different story.”

“What do you mean ‘different’? You are the president of Earth, Mr. Alexander! How can you wash your own laundry?”

“Peter, we’re in…” Manami tried to explain to her son. “In an unusual situation. Mr. Alexander might be embarrassed. Perhaps dad would be… Do you understand?”

“Dad? What does he care who washes his clothes? He just wants everything to be clean and ironed.”

“Sir,” Manami was getting uncomfortable, “I rather not discuss this topic any further. You will do as I said. This is the end of this discussion,” Manami concluded with a firm voice.

“Alright, ma’am. As you wish,” Pascal agreed.

Chapter 88

“Peter looks a lot like the Mayor,” said Pascal.

“That’s what everyone tells me!” shouted Peter proudly.

“Your hair is a bit darker,” Pascal smiled. “And your face is narrower… and your chin is smaller, like your mother’s.”

“They tell me that I’m exactly like my dad! Eyes, and eyebrows… and everything!” ten-year-old Peter was relentless.

“Yes you are… exactly like your dad,” Pascal laughed.

“Both in appearance and in character,” Manami smiled, brushing the hair from her son’s forehead.

Peter pulled his head back. “Don’t, mom!” he said.

He parted his hair on the right, just like his father. But he grew it longer. So that it fell over his forehead, all the way to the left eyebrow. That was the hairstyle that boys at school wore.

“And Eir…” Pascal said, while gazing at the two-year-old girl, who was playing with a doll on the table, while sitting in her mother’s lap. “Eir is just like her mother.”

“That’s normal. She’s a girl,” said Peter. “Elevator! Dad!” he shouted, hearing the elevator doors open. He jumped out of the chair and ran to the shelter door.

Seneca appeared a few moments later. He silently nodded to Manami and Pascal, who had gotten up to greet him. He stroked his son head

“Peter, take your sister and go to your quarters. Play with her. I have to talk to mom and Mr. Alexander.”

“Alright, dad. Come, Eir,” said Peter, lifting his sister from their mother’s lap.

“What’s happened, Julius?” Manami asked frightened, when Peter and Eir had left, looking at her husband’s tense face.

“Erivan has killed more than three hundred people. The heads of the Company, Inspectorate… the heads of Kaella’s state.”

“Awful!” Manami cried out. “Did he also…”

“Yes, Manami. Both of them.”

Manami screamed. Seneca hugged her and held her to his chest. Pascal turned around and went to his room.

Chapter 89

“Alexander,” Seneca knocked on Pascal’s door.

After a few moments Pascal entered the living room.

“Yes, Mr. Mayor?”

“Please sit with my wife,” said Seneca. “The children are asleep and I have to go… so that she’s not alone.”

Pascal locked the door to the shelter and sat on the couch, next to Manami. She was sitting with her hands in her lap, shoulders slumped and head hung low. She was crying. Pascal wrestled with himself not to hug her. He finally wiped a tear with one finger.

“Who are the Levis? The mayor of Capital City?” he asked quietly.

“Yes. Our best friends,” Manami answered. “He was like an older brother to Julius. He was the one who recommended Julius, who wasn’t even thirty at the time, to Prince Kaella for the mayor of Megapolis. And Sophia… what a woman. What a lady… Noah is upstairs… with Julius, in his office.”

“Noah?” Pascal asked.

“Their only son. They wanted him to study here, in Megapolis."

“A student?”

“No. He’s with the Inspectorate now. He already holds a high rank. An extraordinary young man… What is he feeling now? He doesn’t have anyone anymore… Julius won’t let him leave his side… so that Noah doesn’t do anything to himself. So that he doesn’t go to Capital City… Awful… only now do I understand what you must have felt when we told you… when I told you about your friends. Only now…” Manami looked at Pascal. “You know what, sir?” she raised her voice. “I will tell my husband that it isn’t enough that he has switched off all the media and communication in the shelter. When he brings such news, we can’t do anything to change that… I cannot pretend in front of the children… when this… hurts so much… I will tell my husband not to tell us anything anymore. And I forbid you to ask him anything. Not in front of me.”

“I will not ask the mayor anything, ma’am. Nothing at all,” Pascal said.

“You have to know what is going on. So that you are prepared when the moment comes for you to take the presidential office.”

“Presidential office? Ma’am, you don’t still believe in that?”

“Of course I believe. That’s the only thing…” Manami paused. “Sir…”

“Yes?”

“May I…? Just for a bit… a few moments… rest my head on your shoulder?”