Friday, July 3, 2009
Chapter 6. Bad News


“Eeek!” shrieked Nessie as a snowball hit her little head, right on target.

Nessie aimed the snowball in her little hand at her attacker. Jacob tried to duck behind the snowman they had just finished building earlier. But he was few seconds too late; it hit him squarely on his chest.

“Yay!” shouted Nessie gleefully, as Jacob clutched his chest exaggeratedly, and pretended to drop dead on the ground. What Nessie could not see was what Jacob was secretly doing with his right hand hidden behind the snowman. There was a pile of snowballs, all waiting to be thrown.

Another round of shrieking and shouting began.

I smiled while I watched them from the comfort of my warm little cottage. I still hated the rain and snow; I remembered the cold, uneasy feeling they always made me felt when I was still human. They do not feel as cold as they did to my fragile human body; they felt like normal room temperate now, slightly warm in fact. But one thing still remained the same; it’s still wet.

I returned my focus to the task on hand; cooking an entire tray of scrambled eggs and toasting another loaf of bread. I held my breath while I did the cooking. They used to be my favourite; I remembered polishing off a lot of eggs when I was still pregnant with my little nudger.

Maybe that’s the reason why that had become her favourite human food now, I mused at the newly discovered connection I’ve found. However, if you asked me, I only had one word to describe the smell of human food that I used to love so much – revolting.

I set the two plates down on the table. The difference between them was simply astonishing. One small pink plate held Nessie’s breakfast, just two slices of toast with a hash brown and an omelette; while the other blue plate, twice the size of its neighbour’s, held a couple slides of bread hidden under a heap of scrambled eggs.

Before I could call out for them, Jacob burst through the door with a shrieking Nessie hot on his trail. They circled the dining table twice before Nessie pounced on him, tackling him to the ground.

“I got you!” exclaimed Nessie excitedly.

“Alright, you two. Come have some breakfast before it gets cold.”

They got up obediently and got started on their breakfast. Nessie ate like a fine young lady, I observed proudly, but I can’t say the same for the one sitting next to her. Jacob was wolfing down his food like someone who had not eaten for two days. He was asking for seconds before Nessie could even finish hers.

Reaching for his plate, I piled another mountain of hash browns and hot dogs on it before passing it back to him. He wolfed down that plate in record time. I watched in fascination; I wondered if he would emerge as champion if he went for those hot dogs eating contest that they often held on Independence Day in New York.

Just as I was debating with myself his chances of winning against the six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, I heard light footsteps dashed across the snow covered forest. Edward appeared at the doorway seconds later. I skipped happily towards him.

He was wearing the light blue sweater that I have knitted for him last year. I had been taking knitting lessons from Esme in the past year, in attempt to fit better into the role of a dutiful wife and mother. After nine sweaters with mismatched sleeve lengths and plentiful of holes appearing at the wrong places, I finally presented a decent looking one to him as a handmade birthday gift.

I loved his reaction; his golden eyes were wide with surprise when he opened his present. When he looked into my eyes, I felt my body go limb as he gave me a tight hug. We did not exchange a single word; but yet we knew what each other was thinking. He wore the sweater immediately, despite the fact that it was in the middle of summer.

One-sixth of a second passed as I registered this person standing before me. Something was wrong with this image. My perfect angel did not have his signature crooked smile on his face; instead, he was frowning and worries tinted his now amber eyes.

“Bella, love. We have some bad news. It’s about Charlie.” Edward whispered gravely.

Realisation slowly hit me as I registered his words. My world had seemed to crash in that instant.

***

9:02 PM