There was one thing I wanted to do after reuniting with Aisha. I invited her into the carriage I had parked on the side of the castle.
“My, oh my. What a lavish carriage. You’ve become quite the resourceful lad. Have you turned into a ladies’ man in my time away?” Aisha teased.
“Oh, stop it. When I asked Sir Luke for some advice, he told me to prepare a carriage like this. That’s all,” I said.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wow, you went to a playboy for advice? Gosh, I wonder where you’ll be taking me next. But I suppose that’s fine. I am your wife now, after all. I’ll accompany you anywhere you so desire today. I doubt I have to ask, but you got my brother’s permission, right?”
Aisha laughed brightly, looked at the carriage, then greeted the coachman. Back in the day, Aisha would have never gone out of her way to greet someone like that. If the custom was to pay in advance, she might’ve offered a small tip or something, but never a greeting.
“Enough about how the carriage looks,” I said. “Could you get in for me, please?”
“Ooo, have you prepared a stunning gift for me or something?”
“Yeah. I really hope you like it.”
Aisha lifted the hem of her dress, so I slowly opened the door for her. I took her hand and guided her into the carriage. And waiting for her inside was—
“Aisha.”
“Ah!”
Two people. One of them was in a dress, and she looked every bit as beautiful as Aisha. It was Grandma Lilia.
“Mom,” Aisha said softly.
And, of course—
“Leroy?”
Sitting there was a three-year-old boy who, despite his small size, was all dressed up. He was a well-behaved child. At his age, I would’ve never been able to sit still inside of a carriage. Not that he was always so well-behaved. Maybe he knew who he was meeting that day. He was hardly the age where he was truly aware of his surroundings, but even then, he might’ve understood that today was important.
Aisha looked at the both of them, and then, after hesitating, she set her eyes on Grandma Lilia. Grandma nodded slightly, and Aisha reached out to her son.
“Hiya, Leroy! You sure have gotten big!” She put her hands under his arms and held him up. “I’m your mommy. Do you remember me?”
Leroy silently shook his head. There was no way he would remember her.
“Mama…”
Leroy was told time and time again that people called Mama in the house weren’t his mom. Leroy never asked who his mother was. I’m sure part of it was he was still so young, but even after he learned how to speak properly, he never once asked that question. Still, he must have wondered about it.
I loved him as much as I could, and so did everyone else in the house. My mothers never mistreated him, but they never tried to be his mother. The line was blurred at times, but they never crossed it.
“Mama…” Leroy said again. He hugged Aisha and started to cry. He could barely speak, but he must’ve sensed something.
“Oooh, there, there. I’m so sorry I haven’t been there for you. I didn’t leave because I hated you or anything. It’s because I did something bad. I’m sorry. We’ll be together from now on, okay?” Aisha said tearfully as she patted Leroy’s back. She then looked at me over his shoulder. “Arus… You’ve really become a man.”
There was one thing I wanted to do after reuniting with Aisha. I mean really wanted to do, mind you. But I knew that I couldn’t prioritize that right then.
“Don’t take too much on. You don’t have to hold back. I’m with you now,” Aisha said, as if she could read my mind.
I suppose at the time, I might’ve been putting too much pressure on myself. I kept telling myself I was a man, an adult, a father, and I was going to become the next head of the Greyrat family. I’d been trying to hype myself up, but maybe I’d actually been overdoing it.
Aisha turned away from me to face Grandma Lilia, then said: “Mom, I’m finally back.”
“Welcome back,” Grandma Lilia replied.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be the person you wanted me to be.”
Grandma Lilia looked surprised. “No. I tried too hard to mold you into the person I wanted you to be, and I’m sorry.”
Those were the words she couldn’t say after we came back home. The words that’d come to her mind that fateful day. The words she’d wanted to say.
I’d spoken with Grandma Lilia several times since then. As the cause of their falling-out, I felt I was the only one who could repair their relationship.
In the lead-up to this day, Grandma Lilia asked me over and over again if it was really okay for her to come along. If it wouldn’t be better if it was just Leroy. I told her that it would be fine, because I knew that Grandma Lilia hadn’t actually treated Aisha like one of her possessions. She was just a little set in her ways.
I’m sure that they probably got together and had a more intimate conversation in the days after, but at the time, that was all they said to one another. That was enough.
“All right. Let’s go have dinner,” I proposed.
Aisha beamed. “Awesome. I didn’t eat lunch today, so I’m starving. Where are you taking us?”
“There’s a nice restaurant in the Noble District with a great view at night. I was thinking of heading there.”
“Oh, gosh. That’s the place Luke always uses when he’s trying to win over a girl. Mom, Arus has become a bad boy in my time away! What am I gonna do?”
“Aisha, Master Arus is only thinking of pleasing…”
“I know. I’m just messing around! I guess I’m a little excited. It’s been so long, and when I think about how we get to be together again, I just… Thank you, Arus. You too, Mom,” Aisha said with a wry smile.
I could tell she was bubbling with energy, but she was still the Aisha I remembered. The girl from before we eloped hadn’t disappeared.
Well, this was Aisha we were talking about. It was possible she was faking her cheerfulness, but Grandma Lilia and I were relieved that the same old Aisha was interacting with us again.
If anything, I was probably the nervous one.
“I’m home.”
She was. She was finally home.