Dark Memories Submerged by I. T. Lucas
Shai
Once the meeting was over and the council members left, Shai stayed behind to wrap things up. He added the recording he’d made to the archives, wrote a summary and put it on Kian’s desk, and lastly, cleaned the conference table with a disposable wet wipe.
“I’m heading home to have lunch with Syssi.” Kian pushed away from his desk. “Would you like to come along?”
It was an invitation that neither of them expected Shai to accept, but he still appreciated Kian for extending it.
Shai had already seen the little princess, and although he wouldn’t have minded getting another look, someone had to stay in the office. With Kian gone, probably for the rest of the day, it was up to him to answer emails and handle phone calls. The more he could take care of without involving Kian, the better.
“Thank you, but I’ll just grab a sandwich at the café. Are you coming back to the office?”
“Not unless I have to. Call me if anything urgent comes up.”
“Sure thing.” Shai smiled. “Give Allegra a kiss from me.”
Kian’s expression turned softer than any Shai had ever seen on him. “I will.”
When the door behind his boss closed, Shai let out a breath and walked over to Kian’s desk. Booting up the computer, he sat down to read over the emails that had accumulated during the meeting. None required Kian’s immediate attention, but a couple needed him to read them over, and he marked them as such. He answered the rest himself.
The truth was that he could have taken care of the other two as well, but it would have been overstepping his position.
Kian wouldn’t have minded. In fact, his boss would have been happy if Shai took more responsibility upon himself, but that was precisely what Shai didn’t want to do. He was a great administrator, and with his excellent memory, he was a good assistant. But there was a difference between remembering all the chess moves his boss had made since he’d started working for him and coming up with new ones of his own.
Shai wasn’t an entrepreneur, and he didn’t have the guts to make decisions that might lose the clan money. He was perfectly happy with his job of keeping Kian organized and ensuring that his boss had all the facts he needed to make good business decisions.
Some might have thought of him as lacking ambition, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Shai’s dreams were big, but they didn’t include running the clan’s businesses, or any other business for that matter. He’d minored in economics, so he wasn’t clueless, but his real passion was movies. For now, however, writing screenplays was a hobby rather than an occupation.
L.A. was full of wannabe screenwriters who waited tables and worked in phone rooms. It was even embarrassing to admit that he was part of that group, which was why Shai never talked about it.
The main reason he never mentioned his stories, though, was that they were too personal, a way for him to tell what was in his heart, his soul, without actually telling it to anyone. It was a form of therapy.
Would anything ever come of it?
Maybe. At seventy-eight, he was a young immortal, and he had plenty of time to write his masterpiece. If he so wished, he could spend centuries on perfecting his craft. On the other hand, his immortality was also a major impediment for crafting his screenplays.
The advice to novice writers was to write about what they knew, and that was what he was trying to do. The problem was that without the immortal element, it was a struggle to convey what he was feeling and the motives behind his actions. All the alternatives he’d come up with fell short of the emotional impact the real story had.
He’d toyed with the idea of writing the truth under the guise of a paranormal or science fiction story, which would have solved the problem of authenticity, but not anonymity. It ran the risk of his clan members figuring out that he was telling his own story, and that needed to remain a secret.
Shai had managed to hide it for twenty years, and he would keep doing it until it was no longer relevant. The thought of that eventuality saddened him, but there was nothing he could do about it. As the saying went, he’d made his bed and now he had to lie in it, but despite all the difficulties, he didn’t regret it.
On more than one occasion, Shai had been tempted to throw away the story that had been eating at him for two decades and write something completely unrelated, a fresh one that he could show Brandon and get his advice.
If Brandon liked the story, he could get Shai’s script in front of the right people. Other aspiring screenwriters would have sold their soul to the devil for the Hollywood connection Shai had.
Oh, well, it was what it was.
With a sigh he pushed the chair back, got to his feet, and grabbed his laptop on the way out of the office.
The line at the café wasn’t long, and as he got to the counter, Wonder greeted him with a bright smile.
“Hello, Shai. The usual?”
“Yes, please.” He pulled out the clan’s credit card and handed it to her. “It’s not busy today. How come?”
She shrugged. “The guests are leaving soon, and many have chosen to spend time with their loved ones in the city. There is a better selection of eateries.” She put his favorite sandwich on a plate and handed it to him. “Others are visiting Syssi and Kian. Everyone wants to see little Allegra. I’m not complaining, though. Wendy took time off to take care of Margaret, and Callie can only work a few hours a day. I’m managing by myself, but I like it when it’s quiet and I can take a moment to actually talk with my customers.”
“You are one tough lady. A real survivor.”
That got a big grin out of her. “Thank you. Frankly, though, I would have also liked to take time off. Annani wanted to spend time with me, and I had to take a rain check. Once Wendy is back, I’m taking a day off.”
“Did you get to see Allegra?”
Wonder nodded. “She’s so cute and so tiny.” Smiling, she leaned closer. “We have a betting pool going on. Those who say that she looks more like Kian than Syssi, and those who think that she looks more like Syssi than Kian. In three months, when Allegra’s features become clearer, the winners will be announced.” She motioned at the two small baskets at the far corner of the counter. “Team Kian is the one furthest out with the blue ribbon tied to it, and the other one with the pink ribbon is team Syssi. Choose one and put a quarter in it.”
“What do the winners get?”
Wonder chuckled. “Being right. We will use the money to order custom-printed onesies for Allegra. Depending on which basket collects more quarters, it will either say Daddy’s Girl or Mommy’s Girl.”
“Nice idea.” Shai walked over to the collection baskets and dropped a quarter in each. “I can’t decide who she looks like more, so I’m hedging my bets.”
“That’s cheating.” Wonder handed him the cappuccino.
“I really can’t choose.” He took the plate and cup. “Thanks. If I don’t see you again today, have a great weekend.”
Shai walked over to one of the tables that was nestled against the hedge. The thing had grown so tall since it had been planted that it provided lots of shade at this time of day. He put his coffee and sandwich on the table’s right side, the laptop in the middle, and sat down.
Perhaps he should write Wonder’s story instead of his own. It was much more interesting, and Wonder had nothing to hide from the clan. Besides, humans would love the Wonder Woman twist.