TABOO TALES(erotica)

“Every day, ever since I found out about her, I have invoked the Guardian’s protection, now he has been bound to her until I find her. Do not laugh, she needs him, and I need the Goddess’s help, and I think she will want to help me now, now that I am helping myself.”

Her speech was suddenly very formal, almost as if the stately, ancient-sounding phrases she was speaking earlier had altered her way of speaking, and I listened, facinated, to the clear and simple way she was explaining her actions.

I hugged her close, not dreaming of scoffing. I have a problem understanding religion, and as far as I was aware, the last time I was in church, I got my head wet, but I had learned that a man’s wife, his daughter, and his god are three things you disrespect at your peril. So I saw nothing wrong or strange in Nia harking back to the beliefs of her people; after all, it was a deep-rooted part of her mother’s culture, and she was just as much Vietnamese as English.

I looked into her beautiful, deep blue eyes and asked her one last question.

“Princess, what was that language, those prayers, I’ve never heard it before?”

She smiled at me. “That was Cham, the old language of Vietnam, it’s like a sort of Latin, I only know the Len-Dong ceremony prayers, and I don’t really know half of what they mean, but it’s the traditional prayers to ask for her help, and to invoke and bargain with Hu Ye, and to give thanks.”

Mum was excited to see us, again carrying on like we’d been gone for weeks instead of just a short break, and was overcome with tears when Nia showed her the ring. Dad hugged her, actually smiling about it, which I hadn’t expected, then signalled he wanted to talk to me in private. ‘Here goes’ I thought, and braced for a broadside, but that’s not in his nature, and he and I sat down to talk.

He began. “You know, Jamie, I always knew that this day would come, that I’d be talking like this to the bloke who asked Nia to marry him; I always thought it would be some local sprat, or some sharp-suited, corporate lawyer-type. It never seriously crossed my mind that it’d be a buccaneering oil prospector, or that I’d be talking to you! We fathers have a really hard time letting go of our daughters, and the very worst time of all, for a father, is the first time she looks to someone else for answers before she looks to you; that’s when you know you’ve lost her, that your little girl is truly gone. That’s all the heartbreak in one big hit.”

“I never had that, because I lost her to you long, long ago; you were always more important to her than I was. Yes, I know she always had me twisted around her little finger, but the only person she ever really trusted to make it right was you, I was just her back-up plan for when you weren’t around. Was I jealous? No, not in the slightest, you adored her from day one, and she owned you from the cradle, and I was so very proud that you were so eager and ready to be what she needed throughout her entire life; there’s precious few brothers in this world who’d devote their lives to their baby sister the way you did, and I always admired you for that. You put up with an enormous amount of, well, Nia over the years!”This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

He grinned at that, and continued.

“I’m also happy about the fact that you don’t need to learn about each other, maybe find out in a few years that you made a mistake, that you’re not right for each other, and break each other’s hearts when it all goes wrong; you’ve both had an entire lifetime together, and you fit perfectly, like two halves of the same thing, have done since day one, so I have no worries on that score.”

“I assume you’ve agreed on a way forward from here; after all, engagement is only a step, next comes the wedding, and family, and all the commitments that come as part of that package. I’m going out on a limb here and assuming you’ve found a way to do this and make it work?”

I grinned and explained Nia’s scheme, letting his logical mind chew it over for me.

“Very good, Jamie, she obviously got more from me than just good looks and charm!” he grinned. “I think it will work really well, and I think your mother will approve too, so yes, go ahead, not that you actually need my permission, of course!”

He chuckled. “I just hope she never embarks on a career in Bank fraud; I’m not sure I’d be able to catch her!”

He looked up to see Nia standing in the doorway, trepidation written on her face, and beckoned her in, patting the arm of the chair for her to sit down. Dad slid his arm round her waist, and took her hand to look at her ring again.

“It’s a beautiful ring, Nugget, almost as beautiful as you!” He grinned, the way he always did when he paid a compliment, almost as if he couldn’t quite believe he was hearing what he was saying, and hugged her closer, while Nia draped her arm around his shoulder as she leaned against him.

“Dad, daddy, you’re not … angry are you, I mean, I know this isn’t what you wanted and all but…!” Dad stopped her.

“Nugget, what I want isn’t important or relevant. I know this is what you want, have known for years, it just took me a long time to accept it. You and Jamie are going to have enough problems without me adding to them, plus I still have to live with your mother!

I want what’s best for you, for both of you, and what seems to be the best thing for both of you is each other. I see how you complement each other, each of you has parts that the other needs, and like I said to Jamie just now, you’re both two halves of the same thing; I could never be churlish enough to come between you and break you apart, I’d never be able to fix either one of you, and I can’t destroy my children’s happiness like that. You two will do just fine, I really think you will!”

Nia hugged her father while she cried silently, and I turned away to give them their moment together, let them snuffle for a while. As they didn’t need me, I thought I’d go and talk a little with mum, give dad and Nia some alone time.

Mum was just as teary, sitting me down so she could hug me round the neck and cry about the step forward we had taken.

“Look Mum,” I started, to be instantly cried down again, so I had to let her snuffle herself out before I could get a word in edgewise.

“Mum, we’re not getting married and moving to Timbuktu tomorrow!” I grinned, “This is just the beginning. Nia will need time to get used to her job, she may spend long periods away, so us getting engaged is really a placeholder, something we can come back to and finish when the time is right!”

Mum shook her head. “You wrong, little boy, Nguye’t want get married soon as she can, she say she waited long enough to get you, she not waiting much longer, I think you talk to her soon, start making plans for wedding, she not in mood to start making plans for waiting!”

I gaped at her, Nia had never intimated she was in any rush, although maybe the ring had crystallised things for her.

Mum continued, picking her words carefully.

“Jamie, you my little boy, my sister give you to me to love you, and be my son, you the only part I have left of sister Laura, and I not want to see you or Nguye’t be unhappy for anything. I know sister want to see her little boy happy too, if you unhappy, she very sad, and I will feel her tears and know she crying; I will not let her be unhappy where she resting, it will be a bad thing, she must wait for you in peace, not in sadness.”

“Your mummy not gone, she just not here anymore, and she still talk to me inside, and I tell her about you, and I feel always that she proud that you such good boy, so in love with my daughter. Right now Nguye’t want her Jamie to marry her as soon he can, I agree, it best for you, it best for her and it best for both of you, it will make you very happy! If you wait, it will make you unhappy, and soon all will be unhappy! Nguye’t tell me her plan, it a good plan, it give you what you want, that is your next thing to do. Make my little girl happy, my lovely little boy!”

Mum sat down next to me, took my hand between hers, and looked into my eyes.

“When you very small, daddy and I take you to Beckenham Park, want to see you run around, play with squirrel, feed birds. You did not want to play, not want to do anything except come back when Nguye’t old enough to play with you, you say can only play with her, she only want to play with you. Even then you know what she want, so now, you know that what she want is you, now. I look at you now, I see little boy then, to me they are still same boy. Follow your heart, but listen to hers as well, my little boy!”

I hugged her to me, overwhelmed with love for this tiny little lady who’d made me her son, loved me for all my life, and only wanted me to be happy. Her loyalty to my mother was humbling and instructive, she really was an object lesson in commitment, I could be no less to her daughter, my half-sister.

“Jamie, put me down, cannot breathe!” she giggled and choked, and I realised I was holding her off the floor, holding her in a bear-hug.

I gently put her down, and she playfully smacked me on my upper arm.

“You big boy, Jamie, but you make Nguye’t cry, I find broom handle and we see who bigger!” She’d been joke-threatening me with the broom handle since forever, and we both started laughing.

“Now go get your father and sister, lunch ready, you will be hungry after long trip, yes?”

Something about the look in her eye told me I’d better be hungry. I peered inside one of the pots on the cooker, reached in to try and sneak something, and got a smack on the knuckle with a wooden spoon.

“Not touch clean food with dirty hands! You do that again, get ladle on back of head! Now go get family, and wash dirty hands!”