Kiss of A Titan
Chapter 2

We waited patiently for the next fifteen minutes inside the car anticipating her return from wherever she went to but she was nowhere to be seen nor did we hear any of her footsteps from behind and the heat inside the car was increasing with each passing minute. I didn't bother too much about it because I was sitting next to the window while Tom and Nora were already sweating by the time I noticed that Tom was getting fed up with the hot temperature caused by the sun in the sky and little did I know that he wanted to leave the car without my permission. His desire to escape from the car was deeper than I had thought and had compelled him to desperately want to exit the car through the other side of the car when he saw that I was paying less attention to him.

"Make some room", he whispered when he encountered his younger sister near the door but Nora shook her head in sharp refusal to his demands.

"Na-ah, I don't want to. Use the other door", "Rosalie's over there and she won't allow me out of the car, so move aside before she catches me", he murmured, keeping his voice down. Both kids looked at me and saw me nodding my head to the music I kept hearing from my cell phone which got them perplexed and wondering what kind of song I was listening to that had fully enchanted my thoughts of which they couldn't hear thanks to the earpiece I placed in both ears. I wasn't even looking at them but I was staring at the yard outside still lost in my world of music.

After taking a brief moment to read my actions, Nora decided to let him pass.

"Fine but you'll have yourself to blame if Rosalie gets in trouble", "I'll take my chances. I can't stand this heat and need some fresh air outside", "Suit yourself", she said and shifted aside for him to venture outside. He forcefully pushed the door open and wanted to crawl outside but the sound of the door of the car opening had caught my attention in spite of the fact that the music was loud in my eardrums. At first, I thought aunt was back from scouring the vicinity and I suddenly saw him about to crawl out of the car from the back seat.

"Tom! What the heck are you doing!"

My words stung him and he froze like an ice stature in his attempt to make it out of the car while Nora pretended as though he wasn't even there.

I took my eyes off Nora since she wasn't the one sneaking out of the car and kept them glued to Tom who couldn't move from where he was quite unable to go ahead with his illicit intentions.

"Get back here, this instant", I ordered, taking the earpiece from my ears.

"But, Rosalie, I need some fresh air, the car is too hot for me to breath" he said as he slowly squeezed himself back to where he sat down on the seat.

"Then you should have told me. What part of me being in charge did you not understand, huh?"

"I didn't mean not to tell you", "You should have tried requesting for it", "I wanted to but I didn't want to disturb you because you were busy listening to that song", "But you did anyway. If aunt had seen you outside, I would have taken the blame for it. Didn't you think about that?"

Tom lowered his head and looked a lot more guilty than ever before. Nora suddenly intruded, making things worse for poor Tom.

"He didn't listen to me either when I told him about it", "Shut it, Nora. Nobody asked for your opinion", he retorted in bold defense and they started quarreling again.

"I can say whatever I want and you can't stop me", Nora replied and pulled out her tongue in a funny way that her cheeks become puffy when her tongue came out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah?"

"Stop it, you two!" I commanded, very irritated at their warring conversations. They obeyed but Tom sneered at Nora who felt cheated at the brief end of their fight. "You guys fight a lot, you know that?"

"I guess so", Tom answered.

"He's the annoying brother and I really dislike his naughty attitude", Nora gave a sharp reply that got me giggling but Tom wasn't happy with her remark. Feeling defeated, He frowned and folded his hands against his chest in anger before resting his back further on the seat. I could clearly understand that he was upset by what Nora said because of the sullen scowl that appeared on his face after he got furious and I was about to say something when Nora shouted on top of her voice which interrupted what I was gonna say to angry Tom.

"Mom's back! I can see her, Rosalie", she said gleefully with all ecstatic excitement and with her shrill thin voice resounding loudly into my ears. Tom and I joined her to peep through the glassy windscreen at the back of the car only to see aunt strolling towards us, accompanied by some older man wearing green shorts and a tennis jersey, in his late sixties. It seems to me she must have strolled to the tennis court coincidentally during her lone search for anyone who might know the area very well.

They walked briskly to the car while we watched them wondering what must have gone wrong and they ignored us even though they saw us looking at them until aunt stopped outside the front door of the car where she stood facing the stranger. We all turned to face their direction and from where they stood, I could clearly see that the man was right next to her with his hands akimbo. He was wearing a headband around his forehead which was almost covered by the loose strands of his gray hair while his beard was pretty much unkempt which horrified his wrinkling visage. Their chattering became louder the moment they arrived at the car.

"We are here", "Yes, we are. Anyway, thanks for the heads up", she said, smiling at the stranger.

"Don't mention it. Just trying to help good folks replace a better place to live in Houston", "And you really are doing a great job", she commended with a broad grin across her face.

The man scoffed and combed his hair with his left fingers. Then he looked the other way to see if anyone else was watching them. "Nah...I'm just making sure no one gets lost around here. There have been cases like this, so ...I...huh just wanted to make sure you and your kids don't turn out to be victims", "That's nice of you, you're a cop, by any chance?" he chuckled.

"Well... No, I'm just a guy who lives around here", "A philanthropist. It's good to meet one", She nodded in affirmation to her deductions.

"You could say that. I...huh...gotta go continue playing...so...huh I guess this is goodbye then", "Yep. See you around", "You as well", he said and walked away. He took a quick glance at us watching from inside the car and went his way down the same lane they both came from.

Aunt entered into the front seat of the car and sat behind the steering wheel. I didn't wait for her to ignite the car engine before asking questions her two children know too well to be adult talk. "Found the house?"

"Uh-huh", "Where was it then?"

"Way back. We had narrowly missed it when I took the wrong turn and landed us here", "It's a relief we finally got to know where are going", "It sure is. By the way, did the kids behave while I was gone?" she asked this time around and turned around on her seat to check if there's would be doubts in my reply. Thankfully, Nora had forgotten about the stranger and had resumed playing with the item that had been the bone of contention between her and her brother earlier. I thought everything was back to normal until aunt started asking questions.

"They did. Sort of", "But something is strange," aunt replied, peering at her discovery and I suddenly felt anxious about what she had noticed from the expressions of her two kids. "Why is Tom silent?"

I heaved a huge sigh of relief after she said her observations.

"Maybe he's been a good boy", "That's so unusual and unlike him. He's always been restless and often talks a lot. Now he looks like a humble man who just lost his tooth", I giggled at aunt's joke but Tom remained quiet blankly staring eye to eye at his mother. I could clearly see the aunt's bluish iris meeting at a visual point with that of Tom's pale brown eyes.

"Please don't mind him and let's get out here", "You are right about that. There's a lot of heat in the car but I need to take a power nap before driving us out of this place", she responded and turned around resting herself on the seat while facing the other way.

As for the tennis ball player, he returned back to the court to finish his game only to replace out that his friends had long ended the game and they as well as his son who was watching from the bench the entire time he was having fun playing some rounds with his opponents though he was holding a racket as well, were already getting ready to depart.

Two of the deserters met him at the entrance of the tennis court with all their stuff inside their duffle bags as they were on their way out. One of them stopped to see him briefly while the other left heading to his car which was parked across the street.

"Terry, are you tired already?"

"Sorry, man. I feel exhausted and I got a call from my wife telling me to come home", "Alright, catch you later", he said, giving Terry a handshake. Then he looked past Terry's shoulder and saw his son putting their stuffs in the duffle bags he brought with when coming to the Tennis court earlier in the morning.

"Yeah, later, you were fantastic in today's game and I wondered why you didn't tell your son to join us", "I have my reasons", "Good luck with that", Terry replied and walked away. He strolled further into the side of the lawn court and walked up to his son almost getting his things ready for departure. For some minutes, he stood watching his son arranged the rackets as well as

"Richard, that was quick", "Where did you go with that lady?"

"Uh...that's nothing, she's just someone who got lost looking for a house around here, are you done yet?", "Almost done", Richard replied and tucked the last vest into one of the zips of his duffle bag.

"I'm done, let's go, Dad", "Alright, son", he said, patting Richard's back and carried the two bags using the straps on his shoulder. They both walked out of the court, heading straight to a black Pathreplaceer automobile which was parked beside the entrance of the court. Richard opened the truck and kept the two bags inside before joining his father at the front seat inside the vehicle.

His dad drove the car out of the vicinity back the way he had returned to the court and drove past us. I saw their car as they passed but I didn't see the man whose aunt came to the car except for his son who glanced at our saloon car as they drove by heading to another side of the neighborhood till they were out of sight.