The Keepers Read Free Page B

taking so long? She looked around at the walls, at the portraits
and the stillness of everything inside. She closed her eyes for a
while, taking in the peacefulness of the place. After a moment, the
peacefulness turned into the opposite, causing a certain distress
in her heart.
    What Monica felt was
loneliness. She did not admit it, even though the distress was
there, for deep inside her she felt as if admitting it would make
her loneliness much worse.
    Yeah deep
inside me alright , s he
thought.
    The book-store’s doorbell rang
as the door opened and Lysei entered carrying two full grocery bags
filled with plastic covers. Reflexively, Monica’s mood was elevated
and her depression disappeared as would the morning sun melt away
frost.
    “ I had to go
to the hyper-market downtown,” Lysei told her, “Over here, they had
the explicitly ornamented sort and the fallacious sort too.”
    “ If I didn’t
know any better, I’d think you’re trying to impress me with those
big words.”
    Caught out, Lysei only smiled
and asked where they should be put.
    “ Over here on
the desk,” she said .
    He stood still. Thought. Then,
as if injected with a combination of testosterone and adrenaline
made his decision. Instead of going towards the
front of the desk, Lysei passed and went behind it, where Monica
was sitting. She stood, surprised at him and tried to make way for
him. He placed the plastic bags on the desk, shuffled for something
in his right pocket and withdrew the change which he also placed on
the desk. Running his left hand through his hair, he looked down at
his polished shoes confusedly but not showing.
    This is as
great a chance as any Lysei , h e
thought. Forget about your
status…
    He looked up and met her
confused stare. They looked at each other straight in the eye.
    “ What if
someone comes in Lysei?” She had read his mind.
    No one ever
comes in. Why should one decide at this moment, after all the time
one has had, to come in? h e
thought.
    Taking the question as
permission he walked round the desk quickly to the door and locked
it. The two large windows gave view to the world outside, but they
were the sort that the world outside could not see inside. They
were built so that passers-by at night with criminal intentions
would not be able to see inside. He went back to her (she had moved
to the front of the desk) and they embraced tightly. It was as if
by a simple hug, their bodies were able to achieve the intimacy and
closeness that only sex gives. He pulled back his head from her
shoulder and kissed her passionately. The kiss grew more intense
and rougher. He grabbed her derrière and lifted her on to the desk.
She moaned. Continuing to kiss, his right hand ran through her
chest while his left hand tried to unzip her dress from the back.
She was feverishly trying to undo his belt when-
    There was a knock on the door.
A loud and aggressive knock. A knock that an angry father would use
on her daughter’s door if she was suspected of being with a boy
inside. A heavy knock that went on relentlessly six times, stopped
and would continue again. The four weeks Lysei had worked there,
only a handful of old and bitter customers came to the book-store
who hardly had the strength to open the door, let alone knock so
loud. They tried to ignore the loud and aggressive knock but it
continued relentlessly and a certain reluctance built up in her.
Lysei sensed the reluctance, and not wanting to seem selfish took
his queue.
    “ Lysei” she
whispered as their lips detached “I’m still somebody’s daughter.”
Her words were also meant to imply that even if there had not been
anyone to disturb them, they probably would not have had
intercourse.
    The knock continued more
aggressively. “I knows der’s sum-one in der, I saw you wit them
bags, quit trippin man.”
    While she straightened her hair
and dress and went behind the desk, Lysei fixed his shirt and
fastened his belt and made his way to and opened the door.
    “