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6| BLIND DATES

It seemed that his step mother had thought him lonely after finding out about him and Meila. Therefore, she had without his consent spoke to his father on the matter of getting him to acquire a wife lest his youth fade away due to him careless complacency. When he had got wind of it, he had raised the matter at the dining table and told her to forget the matter of a wife for the mean time. He promised to find one when he was ready. He still remembered the look on her face when he had said that and the quick way in which she responded to his statement.

'Ready? John, when on earth will you ever be ready?!' she asked him. 'Just find one now, ready or not. It is better to start now to find one, to start early to do so. The earlier you start, the quicker you will find.'

'But mother,' he began to protest at her words.

'No, no, do not try to sway me. What I have said is final and I am sure that your father definitely agrees with me. Don't you Darling?' she said bringing his father into the matter, and he just knew that he would never be able to get out of it.

'I am a hundred percent with you,' his father said, only looking up for a brief moment before returning his eyes to the steak he was enjoying. The man liked to eat good food. 'Do to him as you see fit till he brings home a wife who can be queen. Then work hard on her John. I really need to hear the voices of babies.' He said all these without looking up, chewing, concentrated on his meal.

'Oh father, oh mother, both of you are probably my worse favorite person at the moment,' he swore going back to his own meal. His mother simply laughed at the comment.

'In time John, in time you will thank me for investing my time in the quest to find you a wife.'

'I pray that is do for all the love of finding a wife,' he said with a grin that showed that despite the fact that he didn't like the idea, he was in no way annoyed with the both.

Well, he was annoyed days later when one of his mother's servants delivered a list of ladies to him. When he had asked what it was about, the servant had only told him that the queen requested him at noon for brunch and tea. He had arrived there in time and found her already there, having aloe vera tea. He knew it by the scent, even from that distance. His mother's maid probably brewed the best aloe vera tea. He simply wondered how she did so exceedingly well for it was so soothing and nice to the body, especially after a very long and weary day. He took a seat after greeting her and being asked to sit down. The list followed immediately. He brought it out and placed it on the table. His mother's eyes glistened with mischief the moment he displayed it.

'Mother?' he said, knowing at once that he was in the fish net, caught in trouble. She took a sip out of her tea and placed the cup back on the table before she answered him.

'That is the list of women who seem eligible for you,' she said. 'Oh, and I took into consideration the fact that you love long haired, milky skinned, tall extremely beautiful woman. That is your type, no?' she asked him. He stared at her lost for a moment then sighed in frustration thereafter.

'Mother, do you not think that this is too much, absolutely too much?' he questioned her. She smiled then looked straight into his eyes.

'In finding your queen honey, nothing is definitely too much. It is you infact that is too much for them. You are too good for them to have.' He said nothing else, just leaning back in his seat, accepting his fate and wallowing languidly in it.

That had begun the very beginning of blind dates and set up coincidental meetings by his mother, countless of them. There were endless bevies of ladies, swarms and swarms. They were there at every twist and turn that he actually began to believe that they all lived in his palace. Surprisingly, none of the ladies caught his eyes, none of them appealed to him and not even one of them could keep his interest. He, a prominent womanizer? There wasn't even one that he wished to bed. His mother had not found it funny when he had told her this the moment she barged into his quarters after about a month of continuously setting him up.

'Oh do not tell me that John. I know you. How can you meet those thousands of ladies and there isn't even one you wished to bed?' she demanded. 'Even if others failed to seduce you, I don't see how you avoided Sara. That lady is a temptress! She would tempt even me into taking off my clothes!' she snapped at him in apparent frustration.

'Ahh, Sara,' he mumbled. 'I did kiss her,' he confessed, 'Only because she jumped me without notice. Apart from that, I don't think I recall much of our meeting.'

'Ahh!' his mother screamed once again in frustration, helping herself to his bed to take a seat.

'Oh mother, take a break. I told you that I will find myself a wife. I think I take no interest in any one of them because it is you pushing me on them. They just seem clingy and totally unwanted to me at least.'

'Wait,' she said looking straight at him as if she had just discovered something that she should not.

'Mother?' he asked puzzled and getting worried.

'Do not tell me this is because of your maid?' she said to him.

'No mother, this is not because of Meila,' he quickly defended. He didn't want her in trouble of any sought. He had promised to protect her from it all. But then, the sudden light in his mother's eyes told him Meila was safe, at least from any kind of punishments.

'John?'

'Yes mother?' he answered, still wondering what had made his mother light up.

'Answer me honestly, do you live Meila?' he stared at her in surprise at the question. Then, she laughed and continued without giving him a chance to answer her. 'Oh you must, you must do so very much because you have eyes on none other but her. Oh I was so blind to not see it,' she chatted away in excitement. 'Then I do not need to find you a queen anymore. Oh I'm so silly. What I wanted was sitting right in front of me, just under my nose and yet I went searching for it far and wide.'

'Sorry to douse your excitement with cold water mother,' he began, 'but I know very well that I do not love Meila. Besides, even if I did, she doesn't love me either,' he finished.

'Well, the love will come to grow between both of you.'

'Oh mother, just give up will you. There is no Meila and I. We are just having fun and you know.' The sentence made her quiet for a while and she just sat there, apparently thinking, maybe of what he had just said to her.

'You sure have a way with words,' she told him, finally looking up at him. 'Well, I give up!' she sighed.

'Oh mother, that is-'

'I do suppose that is what you want to hear me say, isn't it?' she asked him with a sinister laugh, interrupting and totally wiping out his initial delight. He groaned at being tricked.

'Mother!'

'I will just scout for more ladies, even if it is outside the kingdom. And,' she continued with great emphasis on the and, 'I will include both your type or not, any type of woman who can play the role of mother and queen. I will introduce you to the best candidate first,' she told him excitedly.

'Just do whatever pleases you,' he said with a groan, climbing into his bed and covering himself with his covers. He was in no mood to talk to her now. She was officially his enemy for having him go through this emotional torture with his tattered heart.

'I assure you that it will please you too when the time is right.'

'Exactly!' he said sitting upright suddenly. The covers fell to his waist at the motion. 'When the time is right! The time isn't right mother. Infact, it is very far from being right. Why don't we just leave all these to when the time is right mother?' he said to her with a pleading look.

'Shall we?' she asked him as if she were considering it. He quickly nodded at her question, delight seeping into his eyes. She straightened up then and stood to her feet. 'Well John,' he stared at her desperately, 'In your dreams!' Then, she giggled again, further infuriating him. He had been tricked once again. 'Have a nice nap future king while I go find future queen.' And then she was gone, as swiftly as she had come. Oh that woman! She would not be the death of him, never!

Oma.Phina.Phire