"You came back."It was half-question and half-statement. The old man was very much surprised to see Leo back on his farm, ready to do more work. He just stood there staring at him in disbelief. He thought he had been broken and defeated the previous day!"Well, uh... I guess you want more work?", the old man stammered, finally recovering from his initial shock. In response to the question, Leo nodded eagerly. He was all smiles and confidence.The old man looked at him from head to toe again, thinking perhaps it was his twin brother. Was this not the same person who had limped out of here just yesterday??Even though he found all this very amusing, Leo was beginning to feel a little embarrassed from all the staring and shock the old man was displaying."I'm wondering if there's any work to be done?"The sound of Leo's voice seemed to knock him back to reality and he shook his head as if to clear the fog from his brain. "Yes... yes, of course. There's work... there's always work. But a
Later that night, after they had all had a quiet supper with no mention of what had happened earlier in the day, they each went to their respective rooms and were soon fast asleep. Assured by Leo's promise that he would never do odd jobs again, Mara had gone to bed happy and quite satisfied. She knew that he would keep his word. She trusted him completely.Leo, on the other hand, did not fall asleep so easily. He stayed up for a few hours thinking about his current situation, his increased reliance on a young girl and what exactly the future could hold. He was not a pessimist, but he was sure that Mara's expectations were too unrealistic.If he was going to be the man she predicted he would eventually become, the best way to achieve such a goal would be to work towards it. But she didn't want him to work! This, as far as he was concerned, was a serious dilemma. How on Earth was he going to overcome it without hurting her? He was not really a fan of prayers, but he soon found himself m
The next day, Mara woke up with a little headache. She had not slept much through the night. For some reason, little Leo had refused to sleep after waking up. He had peed in his diapers and the discomfort had made him cry out. After Mara had changed the diapers and put him back to bed, she thought he would fall asleep almost immediately, but the young rascal was in a playful mood and wanted his mother to join in or he would make sure that she and the entire neighborhood would have their ears ringing with his cries.Mara had no choice but to oblige him and they played deep into the night. Each time she felt that he would soon get tired and fall asleep from exhaustion, he only proved that he was ready to keep her up all night. At the end, she was the one who became exhausted and involuntarily dozed off to sleep. When she woke up over an hour later, it was daybreak and her son was very much wide awake. Obviously, he had not slept a wink!"You'll never cease to baffle me, Leo," she murmur
When Mara arrived at her workplace, she couldn't find her immediate superior, but from the presence of her bag on her desk and her computer being on sleep mode, it was clear that she had come to work and may have left to go do something or the other. With a sigh, she dropped her bag and phone on her desk and instantly, the phone lit up, showing the beautiful smiles of her two Leos.Mara couldn't help but smile too and bring the phone up to kiss the background picture. She loved the way she had become so close to Leo nowadays and her heart filled with joy whenever she remembered the moment he offered to look after little Leo. Since the day he picked her up from the streets till this day, never for once had he judged her or looked down on her. He had accepted her and her son with open arms without second thought and with no discrimination whatsoever. Till this day, she still had not told him anything about her history and neither had he asked nor hinted at it in any way.She loved him,
When Mara got back home, she had hardly stepped past the front door when she perceived the sweet aroma wafting from the kitchen. Hmmm, seems we're in for a wonderful supper, she thought.Getting rid of her bag and overcoat, she made her way over to the kitchen only to find the two Leos having fun. They were splashing drops of water on each other's faces and laughing happily as they both tried to outdo each other. They had no clue of her presence, so Mara took the opportunity to just stand there and watch them. They looked so perfect together!Not wanting to waste the precious moment, she brought out her phone and took a quick picture of the playing duo. It was the flash and the shutter sound that alerted the boys to her presence. Little Leo squealed in joy, stretching out his arms to demand an embrace. Mara swooped in and picked him up from the table, showering him with kisses."You guys have been having fun without me, eh?", she said in a mock accusing tone."Oh no, no. We were just p
Clad in just her nightgown, seated cross-legged at the dining table and chewing on her pen's cover, Dalia sat thinking. She had only one thing on her mind – the exact same thing she had had since early Tuesday morning at work.She kept replaying the incident over and over in her head. But no matter how many times she thought about it, she still couldn't make anything of it. It was nothing short of a mystery and God knows she had no liking for mysteries, no matter how harmless they were. But this one was clearly far from being harmless. That was the biggest problem – the fact that it looked so threatening. What could have given her such high level of audacity?? What could have made her so fearless and confident? There were only a few possible reasons and only one was topmost on Dalia's mind, that was why she was so scared."Hey, don't you ever quit thinking?" Marks breathed into her ear as he came up behind her wrapping his arms around her neck."My thinking was what got us everything
The next day, when Marks arrived at work, the first thing he did, after going through the pending appointments which his secretary had submitted, was to send for Angela, and within minutes, he heard a knock on the door."Come in!" He called, after properly positioning himself to look like he was hard at work.The door opened and Angela entered."You called for me, sir," she said and walked up to his table."Yes, I did. Sit," he ordered without looking at her.She sat down on the sofa in his office and he went on turning pages and scribbling meaningless things, just to prove that he was busy.When he had acted to his complete satisfaction, he sighed and put the papers away. "You can see I'm very busy, but I had to call you and let you know about this as quickly as possible."Angela nodded, more out of the need to please than anything else. She really didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't want to risk losing her job and he knew it."First, I want to start by asking you a few q
When Mara got home from work, her two Leos were there at the front porch to welcome her. Little Leo was so overjoyed and kicked happily with arms outstretched, demanding to be in mummy's arms. If he could he would have flown the distance, he would have done it without thinking twice. Mara grabbed him and bathed his face with kisses, calling him all the sweet memes she was never called as a child and he laughed and clapped in joy as if he understood the full meaning of the names she was calling him.When she had exhausted her store of names, she tried to hand him back to Leo, but he protested the change, instead clinging tightly to her."Whoa! That's a strange new one. You're rejecting your favourite?", Mara said in astonishment, but Leo was chuckling."I scolded him earlier when he did something wrong," he explained."Oh! So, you're looking for someone soft who's going to give you all the petting and spoiling you want, eh? Well, you're in the wrong place, boy."Saying that, she handed