Cristal - Novella (11 page)

Before she could respond, he reclined his
seat and closed his eyes. She sighed and resigned herself to not
ask any further questions.

You are a funny character, Kerim
Ilgaz
.

Taking his lead, she reclined her seat and
closed her eyes. Maybe a snooze would help her relax.

Nine hours left and counting
, she thought to herself.

***

Less than an hour later, she opened her
eyes. Sleep had not come, despite all her efforts. The little girl
beside her had thankfully cried herself to sleep. Her parents now
were chattering to each other loudly across the other aisle in
their language, while shoving nuts into their faces.

Cristal’s ears were picking up many
conversations in multiple languages around her. The sounds seemed
to be increasing in volume, hurting her ears. For some reason,
words spoken in other languages always seemed to magnify in her
ears, reverberating in her skull. The worst part was that no matter
how hard she tried to understand the meaning of the words, her
brain drew a blank slate that caused her to become even more
frustrated.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Can’t sleep?” Kerim
asked.

She grumbled, “I have a headache.”

She turned her head away from him. How could
she tell him about her bizarre problem?

DURING HER FIRST YEAR as an undergraduate at
GN University, Cristal had decided to take a class in introductory
Spanish hoping to help improve her communication skills with gamers
in Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico and Spain. Truth be told,
she was envious with the fact that Harry had taught himself five
different languages. He told her that it helped give him the
advantage when playing with Truth Seekers from around the world.
She was confident that she could master the language in a few
weeks, given the fact she was able to read at super speeds.

Two months later, no matter how fast she was
able to read through the textbooks, the words never stuck in her
head. When she tried to form the words with her mouth, she couldn’t
remember what the words were. It was one of her greatest
weaknesses, which she never could overcome.

“Do you need help?” Ms. Cruz, her Spanish
professor asked her.

She must have been surprised to see Cristal
struggling. How could Cristal Hernandez, an Honors student have
problems in Introducción al Español 100?

“Come to my classroom every day after
school. I can help.”

Cristal was grateful and accepted her offer
willingly. Unfortunately, after three lessons, even Ms. Cruz had to
admit that there was no hope for Cristal. She dropped out of the
class soon after. Cristal never mentioned this to anyone. Not to
her mother. Not to Harry.

When other students asked her why she
dropped the class, she simply said, “Spanish sucks.” Soon
afterwards, something strange began happening to her. She found
that when she was in a crowd of people who were speaking in another
language, the sound would increase like a muddle of voices in her
head—all shouting to be heard. She would cup her hands over her
ears and run away to get the voices out of her head. Over time, she
was able to control the “situation” by putting on her headset and
drowning out the sound with music. Not just any music. Her
carefully selected assortment of songs stored on her cell phone was
the only way she could block out the noise.

***

On the plane ride to Tel Aviv, the voices of the
passengers were getting louder and louder in her head. She glanced
over at Kerim who was busy watching a movie on the screen in front
of him. She reached into her bag on the floor, rummaging for her
phone.
Where in the world did I put it?

“Looking for this?” Dangling in front of her
was her cellphone. Kerim had a mischievous grin as he handed it to
her.

“Very funny,” she said, grabbing the phone
from his hand.

“So what kind of music do you listen to?” he
whispered in her ear.

She flashed him a disarming smile. “Sir,
like I said earlier, I’m not interested in small talk.”

His eyebrows shot up and he shook his head
as he chuckled into his hand. She smiled to herself as she shoved
the ear buds into her ears and then hit the play button on her
phone’s music player.

She could see Kerim was still talking, but
she let the beat of the music from one of her favorite alternative
bands,
Bittersweetness
, drown out his voice and all the
other voices in her head.

Kill this desire to fly
close to the sun, burning wing tips,
singe away the feathers
Can this hollowness be filled
Forgiveness: another feather to fall from wing…

“I like that song, too,” she heard Kerim say
as his voice entered her head.

She opened her eyes. Kerim’s eyes were
closed, but he had a smile on his face. She shook her head and shut
her eyes. Her mind was playing tricks on her.

“
No, it’s not.
”

Her eyes sprung open and she sat upright,
turning her body toward Kerim.

“Did you say something?”

He opened one eye, pointed to himself and
said, “Who me?”

She lowered the volume on her phone. “You
know what I’m talking about.”

Kerim sat up and turned to face her.

“Cristal, are you okay?” he asked.

She took a deep breath, holding back the
desire to scream at him. “I’m not going to say it again. What are
you doing to me?”

He stared at her blankly, and for a moment,
she doubted herself.

Shaking her head, she said, “Never mind. I’m
just tired. Sorry to bug you.” Closing her eyes, she reached for
her phone and turned up the volume.

“
I can help you
,”
Kerim’s voice said in her head.

She opened one eye and saw Kerim was leaning
back with his eyes closed. There was a smile on his face, and she
swore she could see it getting wider.

“Help me what?” she said out loud.

“
Get over the problem you have with learning
another language
,”
he said, still in
her head.

What?
Now how did he know that? She knew he
was able to sense things about her, but how in the world would he
be able to sense she had a problem with languages? And how come she
could hear him in her mind?

“
It just started when you had your eyes closed
earlier, Cristal
,”
his voice in her
head said.
“
I could hear your thoughts.
They weren’t clear, but the more upset you became, the clearer they
were.
”

“Okay, that only half answers my questions.
How in the world are you talking to me in my head?”

“
Not sure, but I think when you started listening
to your music, I could hear it, too
,”
his voice said.
“
And for some reason,
through the music, I felt I could reach you. The feeling was so
strong that I sang the message to you in my head.
“

He sat up turning to her, his mesmerizing
eyes gazing deep into hers.

“And you heard me…didn’t you?” he asked
her.

Her heart started beating harder, her
breathing faster. Everything around her started spinning. Kerim
grabbed her hand.

“Breathe, Cristal, breathe.”

She felt her hands shaking.
Oh no!
The plane
started rocking violently. Screams from the passengers filled the
cabin.
No, please don’t let this happen again.
Tears
streaked down her cheeks as she imagined the worst thing that would
happen next.

Kerim held her hand tight and pulled her
towards him. She glanced up to see his lips so close to her face.
“Everything is going to be fine, Cristal,” he whispered, stroking
her hair.

She could smell his scent in her nostrils.
Her body felt magnetic energy move from inside her towards him.

Kerim pulled her tighter into his embrace.
Before she could push him away or say anything, his head bent down
and his mouth pressed down on hers. She felt her body flush with
excitement as she melted into his kiss. Her hand was on his chest,
and she could feel his heart beating hard. Her other hand found its
way to his wavy hair. Pulling a handful gently into her hands, she
marveled at how soft it felt in her fingers. Suspended in the first
kiss, tongues searching each other, their hands explored each
other’s body. While enjoying the moment, a part of her suddenly
realized that the plane had stopped shaking. She opened her eyes
and looked to see the flight attendants were running around.

“The plane just passed through a small batch
of turbulence. Everything is fine,” the Asian flight attendant said
to them as she rushed by.

She looked over at Kerim. His eyes were warm
and dreamy; his smile was relaxed, and his face seemed to have an
afterglow. It was then that she picked up her cell phone, and
pointed the camera lens at him.

“I want to keep the way you’re looking at me
now in my memory forever,” she whispered.

He tilted his head and raised his fingers in
the “peace” sign, the pointer and middle fingers up.

“Actually, it means
victory
,” he said
as she snapped the photo.

She liked that it could mean both peace and
victory.

She cuddled up close to him and slept for
the rest of the flight, listening to the songs on her phone with
Kerim’s voice singing along in her head.

KERIM WAS MEETING HER in the hotel lobby
soon. It was their first full day off since they arrived, and he
had promised to show her around.

The first few days going to the Global
Nation office in Haifa was awkward to say the least. Every morning
at 7:00 a.m., like an alarm clock, Harry waited in a small silver
Subaru hatchback, outside the hotel—never a minute late. Although
it was annoying, she was comforted knowing he would be there. Life
was different here. Not that it was a bad thing. It was difficult
for her not being able to speak or understand the language. Hotel
workers were generally polite.

“How are you, Miss? Do you need anything,
Miss?” they would say, always with their well-rehearsed smiles.

But if she wanted something, an extra towel
or bar of soap, suddenly no one could understand English.

***

Every night, Kerim patiently tried to teach
her conversational Hebrew and Arabic. His creative teaching style
using music was experimental, but she had to admit that it was
working. The only phrase she was able to say in both languages was
“Ayph hshyrvtym?” and “Wayne hamam?” which meant, “Where is the
washroom?”

“Well, at least I will never worry about you
finding a bathroom,” he teased her.

She smacked his shoulder playfully.

During the day, she and Harry were
supposedly restoring the server networks at GN, but in reality,
they were downloading data for Cristal to decode. If it were all
about work, she wouldn’t have minded so much. The problem was that
Harry was always trying to corner her.

“There are things I wish I could share with
you,” he said, searching her eyes, hoping to see the old Cristal,
the one who used to be willing to listen.

That wasn’t going to happen.

“Let’s keep things professional, Harry,” she
said, refusing to let him get an inch closer to her. “We’re here to
do a job, so let me do my work.”

He grabbed her elbow, pulling her to
him.“You know I care about you,” he whispered into her hair.

Her mind was telling her to push him away,
but her body froze.

“I always have,” he said, releasing his
grip. He turned away and left her feeling confused and empty.

If that weren’t enough, Dr. Saeed was
beginning to give her the creeps. He would sneak questions into
their conversations, like: “Have you been sleeping well? Have you
had any other fainting spells? Do you want to talk about the
visions you’ve had?”

How she wanted to tell him—
Leave me
alone! I’m not your lab rat.
But she bit her tongue, trying to
keep things polite.

She wished she could be with Kerim and
Gabriel instead of being stuck at the GN office. Harry had sent
them on missions in Haifa and Gaza to meet with other Truth
Seekers.

“I want to go with them to meet the others,”
she told Harry.

“No, we need you here at GN. We can’t let
the New York office suspect what we are doing,” he said. His tone
was sharp and authoritative.

“You’re the boss,” she mumbled under her
breath.

In the evenings, Harry asked all of them to
meet to discuss the missions. Cristal made sure to sit beside
Kerim. He could speak to her inside her head while she had one ear
bud in her ear, listening to her music.

“
I’ll take you back to your hotel after work,”
Kerim’s voice told her.

“
You promise to tell me everything you uncovered
today in Gaza
?” she responded.

“
After I teach you a few more phrases in Hebrew
and Arabic
.” He turned to her and winked. “
Like, I love you,
my sweetheart.
”

Her cheeks turned several shades of red.
Did he
say that out loud?
She calmed down when she saw that everyone
was focused on Harry at the front of the room. Harry’s eyes seemed
to bore into hers. He was talking to everyone, but he seemed to
only be looking at her.

“
I wish we could sneak out of here,”
she said
in her thoughts.

“
Patience, my dear Cristal. Let’s save the world
first and then we can go play.”

She glanced over at Kerim who reached over
and squeezed her knee.

Silent conversations—it was weird, but
romantic. Most importantly, it was their little secret.