The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

“You mean the self-balancing technique?” Emma asked.

“And the utilization of gravity,” Rachel added. “Actually, I don’t really care about the beauty that ballet presents. I’m more amazed at how it works. Where you have to be strong to perform something that looks soft.”

Rachel’s answer made Emma smile in amazement. All this time, she thought that she was the only one who had that opinion about ballet. But it turned out that this long, someone had the same thought as her, and the person was Rachel Markway. The introverted girl who was gossiped to be a female monster by the other girls in the class.

“Is it like.. Jumping highly and landing like a feather?” Emma’s face brightened.

Rachel nodded with a thoughtful face, “That’s a nice phrase.” she agreed.

Emma immediately stuck her hand out to Rachel, “Then, that means we’re on the same page, Rachel.”

With a laugh, the big girl returned Emma’s handshake, “Nice to know it.”

Emma didn’t realize she had been at Rachel’s house until the sun was almost setting. Rachel took Emma to the stainless sink in the garage. Their hands were full of oil and dirt. But they didn’t think it was a problem, and instead, find it fun. It was true as Hellen said, Rachel had a rather tomboyish nature.

.....

“Thanks for showing me much, Rachel. I’m so glad I got to know you closer than ever.” Emma said while drying her hands with a small towel hanging beside the sink.

“You’re welcome. I’m also happy to be able to share the same hobby with you.” Rachel answered.

“I’ll help clean this up. Where should I put the toolbox?” Emma pointed to the dark blue box that was still lying on the floor.

“You can put it in that cupboard, please. Thank you.” Rachel replied by pointing to a rather large wooden cupboard near the closed rolling door that led to the backyard.

“Okay,” Emma immediately lifted the fairly heavy object and carried it to the cupboard that Rachel pointed out. She opened the two doors and saw a space to store the box. However, her focus was instead shifted to a large black boxing sandbag lying on the floor beside the cupboard. “Is.. this a?”

Rachel who heard Emma’s mutter then stepped closer to her after washing her hands, “Oh.. It’s a sandbag. It’s used for practising boxing and kicking. It’s my dad’s too. He inherited it for me.” Rachel explained by placing the toolbox that was still on the floor in front of the cupboard.

“Ah.. Thank you,” Emma said when she realized that her work was actually done by Rachel. “Did you use it? It doesn’t look.. dirty.” Emma asked curiously.

Rachel nodded, “My dad was a boxing athlete. He taught me a lot of things when I was very young. For some reason, I feel like I still remember his teachings. I often practice boxing to remember what my dad had taught me.” She explained then laughed, “Don’t you think it suits my above average size body?”

Emma shook her head, “Martial arts suit everyone. Male, female, fat, skinny, tall, short. Everyone deserves the ability to protect themselves.”

“Did you learn self-defence too?” Rachel asked lightly.

“Hmm? N-not really,” Emma answered awkwardly. Why did she have to lie?

“Oh.. I thought you were, because from what you said earlier, it seemed like you really like martial arts.” Rachel said, then, stepped toward the exit, “Let’s go back inside. Do you want to be here all night?”

Emma shook her head, “Nope. I just happened to be going home too.” she answered, following in Rachel’s footsteps. At a glance, she stared back at the boxing sandbag.

Rachel and Hellen took Emma to the house’s front door. The air was very cold outside. But luckily, it didn’t seem to be snowing that day.

“You can come here any time, Emma,” Hellen said by giving Emma a paper bag with some slices of Lasagne and Apple Pie to take home.

“Thank you, Mrs Hellen,” Emma answered.

“If you want to learn more, you can come here a bit late like earlier. I also just happened to be spending the holidays at home.” Rachel said.

Emma smiled at them both then nodded, “Of course, I’ll stop by another time. Thanks for having me today,”

“We’re delighted to have you as a guest. Be careful on the way home, Emma.” Helen gave her a short hug.

“See you later,” Emma replied.

***

On the way home, Emma noticed that her watch had not yet touched 7 pm. But, her stomach had started playing musical dramas.

“Looks like I’ll have to look for dinner outside,” Emma thought, feeling it might be too late if she had to go straight home and cook for dinner.

Then, she glanced at the paper bag with a picture of the sun, sitting in the passenger seat next to her, and smiled. It seemed like Emma knew where she had to go.

Emma parked her car on the side of the road which, unexpectedly, was busier than the last time she came. Out of curiosity, Emma decided to get out of the car for a moment and peek under the road which was a small river decorated with many sparkling lights.

“Wow.. This is insane! So it turns out that they are turning the river into an ice skating rink now? Looks like the water has frozen, huh?” Emma muttered, still perched on the guardrail which was a few meters higher than the river park area.

Emma did not expect it turned out that the location of the small river where she once fell now had become a tourist location during the winter break. The place was decorated with various lights so that it became stunning. It was even seen several booths selling food and renting ice skating equipment. The benches that were previously only a few, had also been added with non-permanent chairs that seem to have only been taken out during the winter break.

Seeing all that, Emma immediately stepped back into her car excitedly, then, took a cup of hot coffee she had bought at a cafe before coming to the small river.

While looking at the people who were ice skating, Emma walked down the stairs casually. She stood while sipping her hot coffee slightly.

“Wow.. The ice skating rink has become huge..” Emma muttered in amazement as she stared far away at the length of the river. Not far from her spot, she could see a long coloured bridge decorated with lights.

But, when she was busy looking around, Emma’s pretty eyes caught a familiar figure. With a bit of hesitation, Emma stepped closer to the man who was sitting alone on a wooden bench.

“Levi?” Emma called when she had stood next to the man in the black coat. She was quite sure when she saw the back of the man’s hands that full of tattoos and his haircut which was quite imprinted on her memory.

The two grey eyes then turned to the sweet face of a girl with light brown eyes whose lips curved into a smile, “You? What are you doing here?”

“Could you at least say hello to me back?” Emma’s face turned sinister.

“What are you doing here?” Levi asked again. Wondering why Emma could suddenly appear at the wrong hour. Why did she appear when he was fainally had time alone from all the fatigue and responsibilities that kept consuming his time?

“I was just walking around. This is a public area. Why should I ask your permission if I want to come to this place?” Emma answered.

Levi just sighed deeply, then, returned his gaze to the front, to the people who were playing ice skating.

Without permission, Emma just sat next to the man. It happened that the chair was also still completely clean of snow. Maybe it was because it didn’t snow that day and there were a few cleaners walking around.

“Where’s Pixy?” Emma asked by looking down, thinking the cruel man maybe put his mother cat in the snow.

“None,” Levi answered curtly, without even looking at Emma.

Emma’s eyes widened, then she covered her mouth with one hand, “Y-you.. Did you kill her?”

The question was able to make Levi turn his head in disbelief at the girl, “Are you insane?”

“With your temper, I’m sane enough to think you could do such a heinous thing,” Emma answered lightly.

“You crazy woman,” Levi muttered as he looked away again. Honestly, he couldn’t refute what Emma had said at this point. He knew he looked like a paid murderer.

“So.. why are you here alone?” Emma asked before taking a few sips of her coffee before it turned cold.

Levi moved his head like a shake, “Relaxing my mind?” he wasn’t even sure why he had come to this place.

“Ah.. Surely you didn’t expect that this place suddenly became so crowded. I wanted to enjoy the solitude by coming here. But it turns out that this place has turned into a night market.” Emma replied.

“I knew,”

Emma immediately glanced at Levi again, “You knew?” she repeated in disbelief. “I thought you were a person who didn’t like noises.”

“My life is already too noisy, that these people’s laughter is something different to my ears.” The man replied. To Levi, this was a different case with music playing in a car. The laughter of small children playing on the ice sounded sweet to his ears. In his heart, he admitted that it could calm his mind.