Sin Rooms Chapter 10 Windmill

Date: Sometime in 1992
 
 
“…. if you do, I will break both your legs,” she smiled. Her wrinkles danced and wriggled on her kind old face.  
 
I did not know if I should have smiled back or ran out of her house. That threat was definitely  real, even though it did come from a lovely old lady. “Rest assured Mrs Phillips, I would never do anything to harm your granddaughter.” I gulped. “Danielle and I are just friends,” I added. “I swear to you there is nothing going on between us.”
 
“Sure there isn’t,” followed by a shy wink that tried to escape from her ocean blue eyes. The first time I met gramma Phillips I realized where Danielle had gotten her looks from. Age could not hide a beauty hidden behind a withered old face. “You must have woken half of Windmill with your banging last night,” she bluntly insinuated. “You do realize my bed is just on the other side of that wall.”
 
“OH! shit… you heard that?” we should have been more careful. I did not want to bang, but Danielle insisted we bang. I did not realize Danielle’s bed banged so loud. “I’m sorry about that..,” I tried to apologize. “Yes, about that bang…” I was failing miserably to get out of that. “I can explain about that…”
 
Mrs Phillips chuckled seeing how my face turned shamefully red as I struggled to get out of that… “you don’t have to apologize Sam. I’m not going to break those legs just yet,” she giggled out loud adding fear to my misery. “You’re both adults. I’m not going to tell you what you should or should not do with your lives. I just want to make sure my granddaughter is safe and happy. That’s all. She’s all I got in this world.”
 
And that was THAT…
 
Well, THAT began when Danielle called me up a few days before Christmas. I usually spend the  holidays at home like most international students do. However on my second year at college I wasn’t doing great, so I decided to stay in London and help my professor in his research for some extra points. Unfortunately, that did not work out great either. I failed that course and I had to take it again.  
 
“I thought you went back home.” I answered in surprise when I heard Danielle’s voice on the phone. She usually goes back to see her grandmother on the holidays as well. I didn’t know where home was for her. I only knew it was somewhere down in Sussex. Besides, it had been a few weeks since I last saw her. It’s not like we were a couple or going steady. We were just friends, hooking up every now and then whenever circumstances passed us by. She was free to pursue her own interests and I was free to hide whenever her interests came too close to mine.
 
“Gramma wants me to invite you over for dinner at our house,” Danielle said.
 
“WHAT!?”  
 
“That was exactly my reaction when she told me so,” Danielle replied.
 
“WHY?” I had to ask such a stupid question.
 
“Because I told her about you,” Danielle replied again.
 
“WHAT!?”
 
“Wow… she said the same thing as well,” Danielle explained. “Don’t worry. I didn’t tell her everything.”
 
“Oh god… what did you say?” If I was going to be invited to a girl’s house I might as well know what I was getting myself into.
 
“NOTHING…  I didn’t tell her anything,” Danielle replied. “She just wants to get to know the guy who is shacking her granddaughter that’s all.” I swore I heard two giggling sounds coming from two distinct people on the other side of that line.  
 
“You’re fucking unbelievable you know that?!”
 
“Of course I know that,” Danielle replied. “Now stop hyperventilating and write down the address.”
 
And that was how THAT began…
 
The next day I began the journey. It took me more that three hours to get to that address. Two trains, three buses and more than forty minutes of walking until I finally reached Windmill, a small town close to the historical Herstmonceux Castle in the County of Sussex. Windmill, as the word fittingly suggests, used to have an old corn mill that was abandoned more than a century ago. The whole town comprised of thirty to forty houses scattered along a road that passes on the edge of the village surrounded by English farmland. Danielle’s home was one of those small cottages on the far side of town. With a beautiful Swiss black and white architecture it strangely blended with its surroundings. I was lucky it did not rain that day. As a matter of fact it was a beautiful day for that time of year. A little chilly but overall the sky was clear, the sun was shining and I was prepared to die. I was going to meet Danielle’s grandma. I did not know what to expect.
 
“Come in, come in, my boy,” the welcome was better than I expected. I was ushered into her house and sat on the far corner of the only couch in the living room. “Danielle,” grandma asked her granddaughter. “Can you please put on the kettle. The poor bloke must be aching for a cup-a-tea.”
 
“Thank you Mrs Phillips,” after a long trip I was really aching for a drink. Unfortunately the one person who could have helped me get out of that cup of tea was sent away to the kitchen. I was left alone with grandma.
 
“So, Sam…. Danielle was telling me you are one of her close friends,” grandma started fishing the instant she sat next to me on the sofa. “You seem to be a nice fella,” and she dangled the hook.
 
“Thank you Mrs Phillips,” I figured if I pampered her often enough I could get out of that mess. “Danielle is a very nice girl. She has tons of friends. I’m just one of them.” I tried to explain.
 
“Yes. She has always been a popular gal,” grandma added. “I guess she just makes friends so easily.”
 
“I guess… Yes she does… well, we’re just friends, that’s all.”  
 
“Just Friends!? That’s Good,” she replied. I thought she took the bait. “I wonder why she never talks about those other good friends of hers. She only ever mentions you whenever I ask her about college,” I wasn’t off the hook just yet.  
 
I was relieved when Danielle finally came back into the living room carrying a tray with three cups of freshly made hot teas. Impeccable saving.
 
“So tell me Mrs Phillips,” I tried to change the subject. “How long have you been living here in Windmill? And what is it that you do around here? Danielle doesn’t talk much about this place.”
 
“That’s because you never ask,” Danielle angrily interjected before she slumped down next to her grandma blowing on her cup-a-tea to bring the temperature down.
 
“True,” I added. “I don’t ask if THEY don’t want to tell ME.”
 
“And how the HELL are THEY supposed to tell YOU if you don’t ask?” Danielle fumingly countered. I was hoping she would not throw that HOT tea in my face.
 
“I usually don’t like to put my noise into other people’s business.” I tried to calmly reply. “I’m a little shy when it comes to asking.” Looking at Mrs Phillips as I explained.  
 
“Well, it seems you don’t have a problem putting your shy noise in my fucking...” Danielle replied and I gasped.
 
Grandma chuckled seeing how we bickered in front of her like two married couple. “You two are adorable,” she couldn’t stop laughing. “Now I know why Danielle likes you.” That shut   both of us up as we waited for grandma Phillips to start talking about Windmill.
 
“Well, Windmill has always been our home. The Phillipses have been here forever. According to my grandfather our family had been living in Sussex ever since it was a kingdom off its own, many generations ago,” Mrs Phillips was an amazing storyteller. I wanted to know all about Windmill by the time she finished her description. “I don’t know if all that is true or not, however I was born here and so was everyone I know.”
 
“But Danielle is not an English name, is it ?” I asked trying to show off my limited knowledge of English language and history.  
 
“My mother was French,” Danielle throw that in.
 
“I didn’t know that.”
 
“That’s because you never ask ….” She tried to revive that feud but refrained seeing the angry look on her grandmother’s face.
 
“Yes, as Danielle was saying, her mother was originally French. Unfortunately our connection with that part of her family was severed when my son and his wife died in that car accident. We tried to look for any relatives on her mother’s side, we couldn’t find any.” Nana Phillips explained. “To answer your question, after that accident, Danielle was left in my care. My own husband had already died a couple of years earlier so I had to manage on my own. I guess Danielle and I are the only surviving Phillipses left in Windmill.”  
 
“But why did you stay in Windmill ?” I was eager to know. “From the looks of this place I don’t see anything much going on around here. I hope I’m intruding with my questions Mrs Phillips.”
 
“Oh nonsense my boy,” grandma smiled to reassure me I was not. “That is a very legitimate question. A lot of my friends and neighbors had already left Windmill a long time ago going into the city to find work. The only thing you can do around here is farm or work at the observatory.”
 
“The observatory!?” Now that was another surprise. “I did not know there is an observatory around here.”
 
“Very few do,” Mrs Phillips continued with her story. “As I said, I had to find work to support us both since my husband’s pension was barely enough to put food on the table. Unfortunately my grandfather had sold most of our lands a long time ago, so farming was out of the question. So the observatory it was.”
 
“And what do you do at the observatory?” By then I was very curious to know everything. “Are you an astronomer or a scientist of some kind?”
 
That brought out another one of her lovely chuckles that made me relax even more. Danielle has one of those as well. It’s probably a family trait.  
 
“Oh no no …” Mrs Phillips smiled. “I’m no astronomer, nothing like that. I barely finished my O levels” She explained. “However, I was lucky enough to get a receptionist job at that place.”
 
“Well, That does explain Danielle’s interest in astronomy.” I looked at Danielle and tried to apologize, “I probably should have asked…”
 
“You think so?!” Danielle replied.
 
“Come on…You know how shy I can be when it comes to asking,” I was really trying to apologize.  
 
Grandma laughed again at our spat. “I think I’m starting to like you as well,” finishing with that famous chuckle of hers. “Well, Danielle was raised at that observatory. She probably spent more time over there then she did in this house. She would finish school and spend the night with me until I finished work. I guess astronomy runs in her blood. That’s why I encouraged her to study for that astrophysics degree.”
 
“Yes I know about that,” I added.
 
“You do?” Grandma was curious I did.
 
“Yes I do,” I replied. “I asked Danielle and she told me it was you who did.”
 
“See,” grandma addressed her granddaughter. “He does know how to ask.” Adding another chuckle to that observation.
 
“Well, he should do it more often,” Danielle replied before putting her empty cup on the table and puffing out the last of her anger in the air.
 
“I’ve never been to an observatory before,” I tried to change the conversation one more time. I was starting to get nervous with all that asking. “I hope to visit one someday.” I said.
 
“Then why don’t you.” Grandma replied.
 
“What do you mean?!” I was surprised with her suggestion.
 
“You can go right now,” Mrs Phillips offered. “Danielle can give you a tour of the place.”
 
“But it’s Christmas. Wouldn’t it be closed tonight?”
 
“Unfortunately it is. There used to be more than a hundred people working all the time at that place. Not anymore.” she explained. “However, I can give Danielle the keys. Everyone knows her over there. She can show you around until I get dinner ready.”
 
“Great,” I replied. “Maybe Danielle can also point me to an inn or a motel to get a room. I don’t think I could get a bus out of here so late at night.”
 
“Nonsense my boy,” grandma refused. “You can sleep here tonight. That is if you don’t mind sleeping on the sofa.”
 
“Here?” I was surprised she even offered her home to a complete stranger be it that stranger had been fucking her granddaughter for some time. “I don’t mind, but I really don’t want to intrude.”
 
“Nonsense,” she refuted again. “I insist. Now go see that observatory and come back in an hour or so.”
 
“She likes you,” Danielle said after we grabbed our coats and went out of the house.
 
“Well, at least one in the family does,” I was trying to break the ice.  
 
Danielle just nudged me with her elbow and said, “I like you you twit,” the ice was starting to melt. “But sometimes I feel like strangling you.”
 
“Oh God… this is the perfect place for a murder. Out in the countryside, no one is watching…. You’ll probably get away with it…”
 
Another nudge in addition to that famous Phillips chuckle, I felt the ice had finally turned into water.  
 
“But why is that?” I was afraid to push my luck but I had to know. “Why do you want to strangle me? I can leave if you don’t want me to be here.”
 
“See…this is exactly why,” Danielle stopped walking and looked at me. “You keep leaving.” For a few seconds we just looked at one another. Then she began to explain, “look Sam. I really don’t know why I like you. I just feel comfortable with you around. I’ve never really had good friends. Only acquaintances. You’re the only one that comes close to being a friend. When I figure out why I like you I’ll tell you that is if I don’t strangle you before then.”
 
“It’s probably my oral skills.”
 
“Oh don’t flatter yourself,” she chuckled. “I’ve had better.”
 
“Wow… and you call yourself a friend,” I smiled. “You’re a real confidence builder.”
 
Danielle just smiled back, put her arms in mine and we strolled towards that observatory. It was almost a fifteen minutes walk from Danielle’s house to the observatory grounds. The sun had already set, the moon was guiding our way, the night was clear, and air was crisp. The stars were shining bright, and the sky was perfect for an observation night. Come to think of it I had never looked up at the sky before that day. I’ve always lived in cities where the stars were shy behind a man made screen of light. I’ve always thought astronomy was too technical for us laymen to understand. Sure, I enjoyed a good SyFy movie every once in a while but my connection to the stars stopped right there. Until that night.
 
As we walked I kept gazing upwards trying to get into the mood. I was amazed at how many stars one could see when no lights allowed it. “What is that?” I asked Danielle as we were walking. I pointed up toward some of the most brilliant stars I had ever seen in my life.
 
“What, those?” She replied with a question. “That is the constellation Orion,” she added.  
 
“What is a constellation?” I curiously asked.
 
“Oh god.. you don’t know what a constellation is?”  
 
“Well, if I did I wouldn’t be asking would I,” I replied.
 
“Sorry… I guess being raised under the stars I always assume people knew about them as much as I do.” She replied. She held my arm tightly as she explained. “A constellation is a collection of stars that form a pattern in the sky. Many ancient cultures assigned imaginary figures to many of these groups of stars and they gave them names and made up stories about them so people can relate and remember them by.”
 
“So what does Orion stands for?”
 
“Orion was probably a warrior in ancient Greek culture.” Danielle continued to explain. “If you look up and imagine a guy, with that bright yellow star as his head. The blue star as his leg and those three stars in the middle as his belt. Those three are called Orion’s Belt.”
 
“What is the yellow star called?”
 
“The yellow star is called ‘Betelgeuse’, the bright blue star is called ‘Rigel’ and that very very bright one is called ‘Sirius’ even though that one is not technically part of the constellation Orion.”
 
“What about the stars on the belt? What are they called?” Now I was getting into this. That was all new to me. I didn’t know anything about this until that night.
 
“The stars in Orion’s belt are called ‘Mintaka’ ‘Alnilam’ and ‘Alnitak.’ Most star names we see in the sky have an Arabic origin of some sort.” Danielle explained. “I believe you know Arabic, so you probably can understand the meaning of some of those names.”
 
“I guess some make sense to me, but not all,” I added. “How about that faint star underneath the belt? Is it Orion’s cock?”
 
Danielle burst out laughing at my comment. “No… you silly sod,” she replied. “Although I can understand your point. It does look like that’s where his cock should be. But they named that one ‘Saiph’ which probably means ‘sword’ in Arabic. It would have been very awkward if people were gazing at Orion’s dick all the time.”
 
The observatory was amazing. It turned out to be a collection of domes encompassing six equatorial telescopes of different sizes. They were all part of Greenwich observatory which was moved here from london to escape the growing light pollution of the city. By the end of the tour my head was spinning from all that technical jargon, most of which I did not understand. But the idea of looking into a telescope for the first time, seeing the craters on the moon, seeing Saturn’s rings with my own eyes, changed my whole prospectus on life. Danielle changed my whole prospectus on life. Even though ours were never meant to be for reasons life would not give us answers to. Eventually I did try to find some of mine in the stars. Unfortunately not all questions were meant to be answered.
 
When we returned to the Phillips residence in Windmill, dinner was already waiting for us. A traditional english shepherd’s pie, a roast beef with stew, followed by a delicious pecan pie, a lovely dinner I can still remember to this day. By midnight grandma excused herself and went upstairs to bed. Danielle followed suite leaving me with a pillow and a blanket to sleep on the sofa. A few minutes later she came back. “Ok, get your stuff and follow me,” she said.
 
“Where to?”
 
“To my room of course,” she replied. “I wouldn’t be a good host if I let you sleep on that uncomfortable sofa now would I?!”
 
“I don’t think your grandmother would approve.”
 
“Don’t worry about nan,” Danielle explained. “She is fast asleep by now.”
 
I followed my host upstairs even though I wasn’t too comfortable with those accommodations. What kind of a person would I be if I abused the trust of those who opened their home to me?
 
“What are you doing?” I asked Danielle when she started taking off her shirt right in front of my eyes. I was still draped in several layers of clothes in addition to a layer of shame that made me even more uncomfortable.
 
“You know I can’t sleep with my clothes on,” she replied. “You can take yours off if you want.”
 
“Nop… I’m good.”
 
“Suite yourself,” she said. I thought I sensed a snicker behind those words. I’ve fucked that girl more than I can remember, yet for the love of me I still felt a chill knowing she was naked next to me that night. I had no idea why.
 
“Would you like to show me some of those oral skills you so brag about,” she suddenly said and I almost fainted.  
 
“You’re fucking kidding me?! Here? Right Now?”
 
“You do need the practice if you want to become as good as you say you are.” Now she was definitely snickering.
 
“Seriously …”
 
“Stop fuming and get down here,” opening up her legs to show me where I was supposed to be. I hesitated at first. Then I saw the look in her eyes and I could not say NO to THAT. I never could say NO to THAT. Not then, not now. Certainly not when she asked for THAT.
 
Overall my visit to Windmill was not so bad. Even though it began with a BANG and ended with a threat. Now how can I complain when I have a friend like THAT...