Storm and Silence Daydreams

Oneshot 1: The Boy ( II )

Something was wrong. It has been slightly more than a week since he was supposed to receive a letter from her. The letter was supposed to arrive around the middle of the month, every other month. Normally arriving somewhere along the 12th to 18th day of the said month, but it was already the 26th day now. He wrote to Karim, whom he appointed to be in charge of his family's security at the countryside, approximately three days ago.

For Lilly's and their child's sake, they had to have the best security system he could provide. He did a cost-benefit analysis like the one he did on the sinking ship, and again, Lilly's safety outweighed his. Especially now that his son was a factor, a crucial factor. Therefore he sent Karim to watch over his family. Karim stayed with them while he had Warren remain with him in London.

In his letter to Karim, he questioned him what had caused the delay in the arrival of the letter, and reminded Karim that he certainly does not appreciate tardiness. He ordered Karim to quickly see to the problem.

But even Karim didn't reply.

Three days was enough time for his letter reach Karim, write his reply, and certainly enough time for a letter to be passed back to Rikkard.

Karim knows better than to ignore him.

With that thought, he grew even more anxious. What if something happened to them that even Karim and all the men couldn't protect them from it?

His thoughts raced faster and faster, and all the more agitated he became. At some point, he started pacing back and forth in his office. Pacing was a complete waste of time, but he couldn't help it. His finger had twitched too many times to count already and he still hasn't seem to have found a possible cause to the problem at hand.

He flipped open his calendar and studied the dates. He bracketed 12th-18th, the dates when the letters normally arrived on. He studied the dates surrounding the bracketed ones, recalling if any of those other dates were of any significance.

Then he noticed that the 28th was circled in red ink. He thought back to why he circled the 28th...

My son's birthday! Of course, how could I have forgotten...

He had started worrying ever since no letter from her arrived in any of the bracketed dates, and that worry distracted him from remembering his boy's birthday. He hasn't even prepared a present for the boy. For the past two years, he took days to plan for his birthday.

He gave him a rattle, made from the finest silver that came from his mines, for his first birthday. Then for his second birthday, he gave him a rocking horse made from the sturdiest wood that came all the way from his lumber industry in the colonies. The rocking horse was custom made. It had a cushioned seat, and safety features like a secure reins and stirrups.

He wouldn't want to place so many men to protect his son only for his son to fall off a rocking horse, would he? Of course not. He was an overprotective father. He wanted his son to have fun and be safe at the same time. He wanted his son to have a better childhood than he had.

No one would have predicted that the stingy miser Mr Ambrose to be indulgent when buying toys, but that's what fatherhood did to him. He wanted only the best for his son. Of course he'll teach his son to work hard for money so he can stand on his own feet, but leave that for the future, right now he's still a mere child. Of course he's still the same stingy miser, it's just that his child is the only exception.

His thoughts raced again, but this time, he was thinking about the best present he could come up with in the short amount of time. Wait... how could his son's birthday connect back to the delayed letter?