Comforting Love - 5. Chapter 5

5

“Let your yea be yea and nay be nay.”

My father, Colonel Winston Mayer, had tried to instil a simplicity of vocabulary in me. It never worked though, because the more he tried the more passionate and hungry I became for new words. Our other approaches to life clashed just the same. He wanted me under his control, I wanted free of it; he wanted me to enlist, I wanted the army to be the last possible career choice, and most importantly; he never wanted his boy to be ‘one of them’. Homosexuality was a no win discussion topic with him. It inevitably end in degrading abuse. Which is why I left ‘his house’, and why I am happy I did. That said, I was never that passionate when I chose to major in journalism. Not nearly as passionate as I had grown helping Luke.

I had to gauge Luke’s breadth of vocabulary, but I knew, now, that he had to have fun with it, or I’d get nowhere. Which is why I stopped on my way from school to the mansion to pick up a box of Scrabble. Scrabble had always been my thing; either for fun with friends, or to challenge myself. I was amused that I always seemed to find solutions to life in Scrabble, and here it was helping me again … I hoped.

The game was new to Luke, so I took time explaining it. But his sparkling eyes confirmed he was loving it. It took him couple of days to understand the game and for once, I was the one being repetitive … with the rules. But, once he’d got it, oh boy, could he play! Luke had a huge and diverse number of words in him. Not only did he come up with some pretty hard words, but he had no difficulty recounting their exact meaning and their synonyms. He sure was talented with words.

Scrabble changed from being my thing to being our thing. It became our break-out after tough study sessions. We enjoyed each others’ company, and began to ease Luke out of his shell and his intelligence became more obvious. His defensive tactics amazed me sometimes. Many times he opted for simple three letter words over good six letter options, just to reduce my chances of getting a triple word score.

Smart ass!

But, we kept at the work, too, though sometimes it was tough getting Luke to study more than he wanted in a day’ Some days he’d even skip studying anything. Luke being Luke, his lack of flexibility meant that once he had decided no lessons, there was only ever going to be no lessons. And I didn’t like that he seemed pretty damned adept at deploying his signature sheepish smile. The dimples would form and I knew the game was lost and I’d give in. On the other hand, he wasn’t too careless about study. One of his mantras was “I want to be like gramma. I want to be successful.” And that was one of my key weapons of retaliation to keep him going and doing well. I could be devious too!

My finals were approaching and we were studying hard in Luke’s room. I sat beside him in case he needed help. We were reading ‘Elements of Journalism’ until Luke complained the stress was wearing his brains out. I looked up from my position at the end of the bed and closed my book with a shrug, deciding to let it go for the day. I asked, “What do you want to do then?”

Luke cast his eyes down at his hands and grinned shyly. “Scrabble?” He never looked me in the eyes and I knew he probably would. But in a corner of my heart, a spark of hope still burned for an eye-contact to just occur and turn that day into one of the happiest of my life.

Defenceless, a smile curved my lips and I nodded, “Sure. Let me get it.”

Once we had started a game, Luke’s emotions would just bubble up. His confidence rose, and his speech became more fluent and less faltering. Perfect sentences became more the norm. It seemed Luke was making the much needed headway that Gloria had talked about. Her advice seemed to be working, “keep interacting with him, Noah, at any cost. Now you are his friend, he will progress with familiarity and respect.”

His behaviours were becoming less jarring to me: when reading, he’d rock back and forth; his lips formed the words he was reading, silently; his hazel eyes scrolled side to side as he followed each line in the book. He’d also started to grow on me, and I didn’t know how to deal with my feelings. There were times I would just stare at him for hours, lost in my own la-la land.

Or like now when he was being so lenient at Scrabble …“Noah?”, he giggled, “It’s your turn. My cheeks burned as I returned from my la-la land

“Hmm … yeah sorry” I took a look at the board and then at my tiles. Before I realized it, the word in my mind had occupied its place on the board. Soulmate. The word held my gaze and I wondered what I’d been thinking to form it. I looked up to get Luke’s reaction.

He pouted.

I feared he was disgusted with me for thinking ‘things’ about him. But he was sulking because the word play was seven letters from an S already on the board, fifty bonus points plus a triple word score.

He bemoaned the score, eyeing the word. “You are so good at it.” Before I could reply, Lily peeked in and called us to dinner.

They’d been gracious enough to have me join the family dinner, rather than wait upstairs while they ate. Luke hopped off the bed, repeating his mother’s sentence as he ran out the door. “Come on Noah… Dinner is ready.”

But I couldn’t take my eyes from the board. I was stunned. I’d put that word up while immersed up in thoughts about Luke. Was this a Freudian slip? Did I regard Luke as my soul mate? Why? Just because I felt a connection with him? Because I think about him all the time? Because … because I was starting to fall for him?!

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