Chapter 34: Day With Beatrice

“Morning Beatrice.”

“Morning Ceella!” Beatrice stood at her front door to welcome me, “Your trip here fun?”

I chuckled, “It was just a walk, calm done.”

Beatrice's house had two floors-one ground and one underground–made out of a blue wood with white wood for the porch and around the windows. 

“Nah, come inside. Breakfast is nearly ready.” She grabbed my arm and I let her pull me in.

Mella begged to join me for the visit and day trip cause she hadn’t seen Beatrice in person yet, but I asked her to wait until later. Truthfully I didn’t mind if she joined us, but Tella wanted it to be Ceella’s day with her friend, not a Stella family day with Ceela’s friend.

So instead Mella, Tyell, and Tella were going to visit a history museum today. It was one I had actually visited before during one of my day’s off when we stopped by Earth for a week. Funny enough, it was because the engine had an issue and needed repair, it was good to have paid time off though. This was before I worked with Rosa, which looking back now was a little sad. It would’ve been fun to have residents join me when going through a history museum.

She pulled me into the dining room where Simon Good was waiting.

“Morning Simon,” I waved.

“Morning,” He replied. 

I sat down and Beatrice rushed back into the kitchen. Before I got the chance to speak to Simon more, Beatrice came back with three big bowls.

“Pasta for breakfast?” I asked as the bowl plopped in front of me.

Beatrice had now calmed down and beautifully pulled out her chair and calmly sat at the table.

“It's a tradition from my family.” 

“A tradition that one cooks pasta for breakfast?” I asked, pasta itself wasn’t weird for breakfast. Just when she was so excited to cook, pasta wasn’t what I was expecting.

Beatrice cringed, “Well, kind of?

Simon chimed in, “So I learned this quickly into our marriage, but in Beatrice’s family, when having a guest over for the first time for breakfast for the first time, they would make pasta.”

That’s a lot of first times.

I smiled, “Well thank you for the pasta, and for partaking in the family tradition.”

“Please be quiet, I’m reflecting on my behaviour in the last hour… so embarrassing.”

“I say it's the same behaviour you’ve had for the last month.” Said Simon

“Dear please…” 

Simon and I laughed and we all dug into the pasta. Pasta with a sauce, broccoli and some other purple vegetable I hadn’t seen before–tasted good though.

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“The beach huh,” I said, as we hopped out of Beatrice's car. For the most part, Earth cities used public transport to move around, cars were still a thing but normally used when you needed to bring extra items with you.

“Yeah, it's been a joy to visit.” Beatrice closed the door and locked her car, “Where I lived before didn’t have any beaches, actually never been on one until I moved to Earth but it's been a blast. I usually go with Simon or my co-workers, I do sometimes go alone but it’s a much more pleasant experience when with friends.”

Beatrice asked me, “So have you been to them often?” 

“Actually yes, went for a walk along one during the night recently.”

“I thought you didn’t like the cold, it's nearing winter?”

“I’ve changed a lot.” I again didn’t clarify and we found a spot to set up our chairs and umbrella. 

But as we stepped onto the actual beach and the sand went between my toes I asked, “Wouldn’t the sand be bad for your hair?” 

“Not for me,” she replied, smiling at me.

We started the day by just sitting down and watching the waves.

“This is fun for you?” I asked.

“I know you like it.”

“I do–” I could still see the stars, “But when you said you ‘enjoy going to the beach with friends’, sitting down doing nothing wasn’t the first thing I expected.”

“Fair enough, but we can do the fun stuff later. It's easier to relax at the start than at the end.”

“Well… I’ll trust your words of wisdom, great one.”

“Why thank you.” 

After an hour had passed, a certain scene caught my attention. In the distance, there was a kid playing with a spherical sports ball.

A nice warm sight but I had a slightly bad feeling from a man further along the beach in the boy’s path.

I stood up and Beatrice got up as well, “Everything good?” She asked as she stretched her arms.

The kid kick his ball far and as it neared the man–it should’ve bounced past 

“No playing games on the beach brat!” And with mana infused into his leg, he smashed the ball towards our direction up the beach, aiming for the streets.

“No!” The kid yelled, smart enough to know the ball was heading far into the area he wasn’t allowed to go. 

I was about to move to go catch it, but before I did I felt a surge of mana from Beatrice so I held back.

Beatrice’s hair animated and lunged towards the ball. The strains of hair wrapped around it, stopping the momentum and catching the ball 

“[Hair Specialist] huh,” I said, looking at the ball which was being held in the air next to Beatrice by her hair.

“Yes.” Beatrice smiled and winked, tossing the ball back to the kid.

The kid caught the ball and cheered.

“All good kid, just make sure you stay away from bad people like that.” Her hair pointed at the grumpy arsehole. 

The kid nodded vigorously and jogged off. 

“Hey, you bitch!” The bastard started walking over to us.

“Does this happen often?” I asked.

“No, this is the first time ever actually.” Beatrice looked at me and sighed, “And I don’t even mean on the beach, in all of Newcastle I haven’t seen a person who would just kick a kid's ball and just be a bugger of an arsehole.”

“Hey!” The insect asked again.

(“ You going to burn him away? ”)

Quiet.

Beatrice concerned asked, “Ceella are you a magnet for trouble or something?”

“Oh for the love of the stars, I hope not.” 

“Why aren’t you listening to m–!” As Beatrice was about to trap him.

“Quiet,” I commanded.

Thud

The man fell to the ground.

I had knocked the man out with a wave of soul pressure. I surrounded him with it before he even came close and I could feel a skill start activating when he walked over. It was the new application of soul pressure Espr had taught me, I was still suspicious of why it taught me but it was useful. If my soul pressure was around someone I could feel if they were activating a skill and if it possessed an energy. However, this didn’t work on anyone with a stronger soul than me or those who could use soul pressure.

“Um… what?” Beatrice questioned. 

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, “Want to start swimming?”

Beatrice shrugged, “Yeah, why not.”

We proceeded to spend the next four hours enjoying the water. We swam around initially before moving on to the jet skis and wave boarding. Both activities Beatrice frequented and knew the people to rent who we rented from. I even tried surfing and was able to nail it easily, even using my flames for a speed boost. Which was a trick that made Beatrice jealous.

“I want to be able to do something like…”

“Oh passion for one’s Vocation wasn’t it? Switching again already.”

“Haha, quiet you.” We played and joked around but before long it got late.

Beatrice and I returned to her home late in the afternoon.

“It looks like you both had a fun day.” And we were welcomed by Simon staring at our smiling faces.

“Yes, I guess you could say that dear.”

Simon asked, “Are you going to start cooking right away, Beatrice?” 

“Hmmm.” She thought about it and clicked her finger, “You know what, I will.” She started walking to the kitchen. “Elly, the Tv is all yours, Simon guests get priority.”

“I know.” He laughed. Simon whispered to me, “She forgot about that rule once when my friends came over to watch sports, she went bright red when I reminded her.”

I quietly laughed, “Thanks for telling me.”

“All good.”

I enter the kitchen after Beatrice, “So Beatrice, what is dinner?”

“Well, leave first.” She tried to shoo me away, “It's going to be a surprise.” 

So I walked back to the lounge room where Simon was still standing, he probably expected the exchange.

“Hey Ceella, want to come with me to the back deck for a moment.”

“Sure, I like being outside at night.”

“Haha, you always did love the night sky.” He picked up a bottled drink from the fridge, “Beatrice told me so many stories about that stargazing behaviour of yours.”

“Nothing bad I hope.”

“Depends on your perspective of bad.”

We walked to the back veranda and sat on a wooden bench placed on it. With a clear view of the sky.

“I wanted to say, thank you for coming back alive.” He took a massive sip of the bottled drink in his hand.

“Well, thanks for not wishing me dead then.” I joked. 

Simon chuckled, “You’ve changed. A lot, but you’re definitely still you.”

“Thanks.” It was good to hear that, even if I felt I had changed more than I had stayed the same. 

“I mean it a lot though.” He took another sip finishing the bottle, “I know we weren’t great friends, we didn’t talk much in the grand scheme of the job, but you were a good person, and what happened to you didn’t deserve to happen.”

He continued, “ … I know there was nothing that could be done, accidents happened after all, but it really hurt Beatrice, she recovered, but an injury is still a wound.” 

He placed the bottle to the side and stared at the stars, “But when she got the message and confirmed that it was really you, it really brightened up her life, haha, there has been nearly a literal joy in her step.”

“Well she was never this excited when we worked together, so make sure you don’t underestimate the impact you had on her yourself.” I grinned. “Good job Mr and Mrs Good.”

We laughed and leaned back in the chair. The two of us stayed there watching the night sky and enjoying the peace and quiet.

“Do you know what dinner is?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to spoil it.”

“Wow, what a devoted husband.”

“Why thank you very much.”

Finally, Beatrice called us in for dinner and I got to enjoy the wrap which concluded my day.