Chapter Five
Manny turned up the following morning as Amirah was arranging her pots and fell into his usual routine of setting up in the sheltered corner out the way. Amirah knew she needed to start working on some larger pieces this week. Arvio had expanded the general store into the next door unit, which now functioned as a boutique for gifts and home deco. If Dale and Blythe were considering staying around, she might look to see how they could expand the offerings.
Neither of them spoke as they worked, but the previously comfortable silence was now a little more tense.
Manny had started to talk to Amirah a couple of times, but each time stopped as he didn’t know how to begin. He was just about to try for the third time, when Blythe strolled up, and leaned on the fence, looking up at her. Manny knew it was his own fault, but the way Mirah’s face lit up in response to Blythe cut deep.
“Burgess has chased us away from the Temple while they clean up from yesterday’s storm. Dale and I offered to help, but he said they had it under control. Dale’s disappeared off to find Heidi, so I thought I’d come up here.”
“What did you have in mind?” Amirah asked. Blythe blushed.
“Beyond spending some time with you, nothing much. How about we all go for some lunch, and we can figure it out?”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Amirah replied with a smile. “Let me go and wash up.”
Manny growled softly, but said nothing.
As the door closed, Blythe walked over to Manny and looked at his easel. Instead of the painting of Sandrock he had planned to work on, he had a sketch of Amirah lost in her thoughts as she worked on her pottery.
Manny tore the page from his sketchbook and tucked it in Amirah’s mailbox for her to find later.
“Still not spoken to her?” Blythe asked. Manny shook his head.
"Every time I try to start, I can't. I don’t know how to say what I want to say.”
“I’ll see how I can guide the conversation at lunch,” Blythe replied.
The saloon was cool as always. Sonia pointed them to a table in the corner. Blythe and Amirah headed over and sat down, while Manny stopped to talk to Dale and Heidi who were waiting for takeout.
“Did you manage to make up with Mirah?” Dale asked when he saw Manny.
“Couldn’t get the words out, every time I tried, I froze. Then Blythe turned up.”
“Manny, you’re an idiot. I love you like a brother, but you’re an idiot. You’re still head over heels for her, and I reckon she’s as keen as ever she was on both of you. You need to get it sorted, you know.” Dale walked away shaking his head and joined Heidi to head out.
Manny looked over at the table, where Mirah was laughing at something Blythe had said to her. He couldn't do this, not today.
He stopped at the table. “I’ve changed my mind about lunch, I’m going to find Hunter, see if she can take me to the Northern Plateau today.”
“Enjoy,” Amirah said, “the view from there is something else.” Manny sighed, it was clear she was still pissed at him.
Manny was lucky and caught Hunter as she was leaving the Commerce Guild.
“Northern Plateau? Sure, I need to head over there for resources from the ruin if you want to tag along.”
“Sure, that sounds fine,” he replied.
Hunter looked at him, curiously. “You ok? Everything Okay with Amirah?”
“Hmm, yeah, I guess.”
“Want to talk about it?” Hunter asked as they headed to the yakmel stop. Manny shook his head.
“How do we get over to the plateau then?” he asked.
“We need to head to the Moisture Farm, then we fly across.”
“Fly?” Manny was shocked. “You have planes here?”
“Nope, nothing so fancy, we have a tame Martle Duck called Daisy who will fly us across.”
“Is it safe?” He sounded terrified.
“Yes, Manny, she is perfectly safe!”
The wind flew past as they flew on duck-back, making conversation impossible. When they landed on top of the ruin, Manny got off and shook himself.
“Is that the only way to get back to town?” he asked.
“‘Fraid so,” Hunter replied. “Gets easier the more you do it.”
“I think I’d better get all my sketches today, I don’t know if I fancy doing that more than I need to.”
Hunter laughed. “C’mon, I’ll take you over to where we get the best views back towards town, and you can get busy while I’m in the ruins. Shouldn’t be too long, just need some titanium ore.”
For the first time since he’s come up to her that day, Manny actually showed some interest. “Might need to talk to you about titanium, we use it for paints.”
“Sure, we can come to some arrangement, there’s a few ores we gather that might be of use. Does that mean you’re planning on sticking around?”
Manny sighed. “Touchy subject.”
“Offer to talk is still open. I’ve known Amirah since I arrived in Sandrock and while we took a while to warm up to each other, she’s one of my best friends. She’s been happier in the last few weeks than I think I’ve ever seen her.”
“How did you become friends?” he asked. “You two seem such total opposites.”
Hunter giggled. “We had a problem round town not long after I arrived. Creatures called geeglers. Human lizard hybrids that wanted to take over town. The adults are mean and nasty creatures, but the babies? Cutest li’l critters you’ll see round here, save the penskies.” She pointed to some small animals that they were passing.
“Anyway, Amirah came running up to my workshop one morning in a panic. She’d gone out to set her pots up and found several with baby geeglers curled up inside them, and as she put it, they’re just too goshdarn cute to hurt them. So we spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to rehome them, and stop them coming back. After that, we just clicked.”
Manny smiled. “I can just imagine Mirah not wanting to hurt them. She always had the biggest heart.”
They arrived at the edge of the plateau, and Manny had to admit the view was stunning.
“I can see why Mirah loves it here so much,” Manny said, sitting down and resting his chin on his knees. “Blythe and I messed up back in Barnarock, by saying the wrong thing when we thought she wasn’t listening. Now I’ve messed up again, but this time I said it to her face.”
“What did you say?” Hunter asked, sitting next to him.
“I asked if she’d ever return to Barnarock, and she said no. Then I said that I couldn’t imagine leaving there. Which Mirah took as there’s no future for us if I won’t move. Doesn’t help that Blythe has always been the smooth talker, and immediately told her he’d move ‘for the right reasons’ - you can guess how she took that!”
“I can imagine. But remember, not everyone does spend time imagining moving away from where they grew up. It still happens. I’d never have thought I’d leave Highwind, but I can’t imagine being anywhere else than Sandrock now. Light, I signed a fixed contract when I first got here, I was so convinced I was here for the experience and going back. And from what she’s said over the years, I don’t think Amirah coming here was a well thought or plan, so much as a reaction. But, again, it worked out. Guess you need to decide what means more to you - staying in Barnarock, or Amirah?”
“Even if I told Mirah now that it was her, I doubt she’d believe me.”
Hunter patted his shoulder. “Have a good think on that while you sketch, then. I’ll be a couple of hours. Please stay here and don’t go wandering, I’d rather not have to explain to Amirah that you wandered off a cliff.”
Manny gave her a wan smile and picked up his pad.
There was something about the landscape here that lent itself to Manny’s style, he had to admit it. He started with the full panorama, before moving to smaller sketches concentrating on the individual buildings. The view from here wasn’t quite what he’d expected, there were several rock outcrops round town that from here looked like a hand cradling the town. He wasn’t sure if that was comforting or worrying.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sandrock, he thought as he drew. It was warm and quirky, and he could see its future potential, too. Amirah had pointed out the home deco side of Arvio’s store, and he could see his, Dale’s and Blythe’s artwork fitting in there. He was growing to like the people too, now they’d stopped glaring at him as if he was going to hurt Amirah.
“Dale and Blythe are both thinking about moving here,” he muttered himself. “Mirah’s already here, we don’t need to be in Barnarock to work - in fact, that packaging system Arvio has worked out could be adapted for all our pieces. Travel is getting easier across the Free Cities and into Barnarock, we could keep the gallery open, and managed, just need to take occasional trips back to check in. Face it, Manny, most of what’s keeping you in Barnarock, is going to be here.”
“Sounds like you’ve come to a decision?” Hunter asked, walking up to hear his last sentence.
“I guess it just comes down to if Mirah will still have me, if I deserve a third chance?”
“If it’s meant to be, you’ll figure it out.” Hunter held out a hand to help him up. “C’mon, Daisy’s waiting for us.”
“I think I need to do something in the workshop tomorrow,” Many said, “Can you arrange me some space?”
“I think so, but let me check with Mi-an when we get back, what do you have in mind?”
“Something that will hopefully represent Mirah’s relationship with both Blythe and I.”
After lunch, Amirah and Blythe wandered back to her shop. All Manny’s paints were gone, just his easel remained, so he must have found Hunter, Amirah thought.
“I have an idea,” she said to Blythe, a blush creeping up her face.
“What’s that? Must be good to make you flush like that!”
“I wondered if, with full knowledge of each other’s skills, you’d like another pottery lesson?”
There was a glint in her eyes, alongside that blush, Blythe realised. She knew exactly what she was offering.
“Okay, but, all joking aside, I’m pretty rusty these days. Don’t think I’ve done much since a pretty girl tried teaching me, oh, ‘bout five years ago?”
“Let’s see what I can do this time, then!”
Blythe settled behind Mirah at the potter’s wheel, enjoying the familiar feeling of being wrapped around her. This time though, it was a more confident Mirah, who was pressing against him as much as he was against her.
“Any ideas what you want to work on?” she asked, settling a lump of clay on the wheel.
“No idea, let’s just make it up as we go?”
It was early evening before Amirah and Blythe looked up from the potter’s wheel and realised the time.
“How are you feeling now?” Blythe asked.
“Better, calmer, thank you.” They’d talked on and off while working, particularly about the fact that when Manny said he couldn't imagine leaving Barnarock, Mirah had heard he wouldn’t - and the two were very different things.
"I need to talk to him, figure this out, don't I? I've been just as much of an idiot this time."
They were still sat at the wheel, although there was no more clay to work on. Amirah leaned back against Blythe, who wrapped his arms round her and nuzzled her neck.
"Sounds like it," he murmured. "But I don't want to move just yet."
"Need to. I'm hungry, and I promised Manny I'd try to stop missing meals so often."
"You still do that?"
"Trying not to, after Manny fussed the other day. Want to get something from the saloon and sit by the oasis?"
"Sounds like a plan, though we'd better clean up first!"
They headed inside, and Amirah said a silent thank you that the town water problem was sorted. Her first couple of years here, it had been impossible to get all the clay off her hands due to the restrictions on water usage. Once they were ready, Amirah started for the door, but Blythe caught her hand and stopped her.
"Can I do something I haven't done for five years?" he asked, pulling her into his arms.
"What did you have in mind?” she asked, although she already had a good idea.
“Kiss you?” he said, lowering his lips to hers.
Amirah moaned softly, she’d forgotten how good kissing Blythe felt. Light, kissing both of them was always amazing. Since arriving in Sandrock she’d barely had time to think of anything like that. At first, it was because she was still healing, but after a while she was just too busy. And who was she trying to kid, she had still been half in love with them both all this time.
She wound her arms round his neck, and pressed into him, returning the heat of the kiss.
Eventually, they pulled apart. “Light, I missed that,” Blythe murmured. “I haven’t looked at another woman since you left.”
“Same,” Amirah confessed. “I’ve never met anyone that could measure up to either of you.”
“All that time wasted,” Blythe said, as they headed to the saloon.
“Wasn’t wasted, we all needed time to grow up. Do you really think we could have tolerated each other long term back then? Light, you and Manny still look like you want to punch each other sometimes!”
“We’ve been friends for fifteen years, it’s no different to you and Arvio bickering.”
“True.”
They spent the rest of the evening wandering round town, and starting to talk around the future, if not about it. They also kept an eye out for Manny, but there was no sign of him.
“He’ll be fine, “ Blythe said, “just need to give him time to calm down.”
“You sure?” Amirah asked.
They’d arrived back at Amirah’s shop, lingering on the porch, wrapped in each other’s arms, but neither of them wanting to make the next move.
“I should get back,” Blythe said finally, although he made no move to do so.
“Stay?” Amirah murmured, so quietly he wasn’t sure he’d heard her.
He tilted her chin up and looked her in the eyes. “Say that again?”
“Stay. Please?” Amirah stepped back and held out her hand, inviting him in.
“You sure?”
“Totally.”
As they reached the door, Amirah noticed the picture Manny had left in her mailbox. He had captured such a raw, intimate moment, that it took her breath away. She loved both of them, and couldn’t do this with just one. Not the first time, at least.
"Blythe, I, I can’t. Not without… I’m sorry, I need both of you!”
He pulled her into his arms. “It’s kay, I understand. It was always meant to be the three of us, I reckon.”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow, I promise,” Amirah said, resting her head against Blythe before stepping away.
"Goodnight."
Manny arrived back to an empty house. It was strange, he was used to there always being someone around. He was buzzing with his idea, but he needed help from Blythe to bring everything together.
He paced around the room. Eventually Dale and Heidi came in.
“Done any thinking?” Dale asked.
“Lot of thinking, and some reality checks from Hunter,” Manny replied. “Just because I didn’t think I’d leave Barnarock, doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t. I just need to talk to Mirah, I think we just misunderstood each other. I haven’t seen her since I left her and Blythe at lunchtime.”
At that, Blythe walked in.
"Where have you been all day?" Manny asked.
"With Mirah."
"Since lunchtime?" Manny asked. "What were you doing all that time?"
"Talking, mostly. Discussed you a lot, actually."
"And on that note, I think we'll leave you to that conversation," Dale said with a laugh, pulling Heidi to her feet and leaving Manny and Blythe to talk.
“Mostly talking, huh?” Manny challenged, once they were alone.
“Yep. Few kisses and cuddles, but nothing more than that. Honestly, we almost did more, but then seeing that picture you left - bloody good work, by the way - stopped in her in her tracks, made her realise she needed you as well as me. So I guess you need to figure out what you want.”
“Been thinking about that a lot today, actually. Chatted to Hunter, who took me to the Northern Plateau. When I said I couldn’t imagine leaving Barnarock, it’s simply because I’ve never needed to until now, not that I wouldn’t. And the more I thought about it, everything that I want in Barnarock will either be here, or could be.”
“I pretty much told Mirah that’s what you were thinking. Now you just need to convince her.”
“I have an idea for that, but I need your help.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
Despite her promises to speak to Manny, it was several days before Amirah was able to catch up with him. In fact, she barely even saw Blythe. Now they could get back into the Temple, he and Dale were working double time to make up for the days they’d lost. They managed a few brief moments here and there, but that’s all they were. And when she asked about Manny, Blythe was weirdly evasive.
It was almost a week later when Amirah left her house for the day, and found him leaning on her fence post waiting on her..
“Morning Mirah” he called out hesitantly.
Amirah walked over and wrapped her arms round him without hesitation. “Missed you. I’m sorry, I jumped to conclusions rather than talking to you.”
Manny returned the embrace, holding her tight, and stroking her hair. LIght, he thought he’d never have Mirah in his arms again. “Honestly, I’d have jumped to the same conclusion, too. But I have a peace offering before we talk.” He held out a gift box to her.
“For me? You didn’t need to…”
“I did. Open it?”
Inside the box was something she recognised as one of her mugs, wrapped in an intricate pattern of rainbow lines.
“It’s the mug you broke the day I surprised you,” Manny explained nervously. “I found a book that talked about an old Old World technique called Kintsugi. It’s about repairing broken items, but making the break and the repair integral to the strength and beauty of the new object. It seemed like a good representation of you, me and Blythe. Traditionally, they used a gold lacquer, but I got Blythe to help me, and used some of his signature glazes to make the lacquer instead.”
Amirah held it up so it caught the light and examined it carefully. The repairs were perfect, and the mug took on a new life.
“It’s beautiful. You said it represents the three of us?” Amirah asked.
Manny nodded. “I think, after the last five years, even the last five weeks, if we can get through this and pull ourselves together, we’re all going to come out stronger, individually and as a trio.”
“The man makes a good point,” Blythe spoke up from under the archway. Amirah hadn’t seen him when she came out but he’d obviously been there listening to the whole thing.
“Before I get carried away,” Amirah said, “I need to clarify one thing, I need to know…”
“I would be happy to move to Sandrock, if that’s what you want,” Manny answered, anticipating the question. “Reason I’ve been hiding for the last few days, well, we’ve been putting plans in place for all three of us to move here. Just because I hadn’t imagined moving, doesn’t mean I won’t. I’d just never had any need to think about it.”
“And now?”
“Everything I want is in Sandrock.”
Carefully setting the mug to one side, Amirah wrapped her arms round him again, while Blythe came up behind and joined the embrace, sandwiching Amirah between them both,
“Do either of you have any idea how we make this work?” Amirah asked with a nervous giggle.
“Plenty of talking and honesty, I think,” Blythe replied. “Beyond that, one day at a time.”
Comments
Post a Comment