Spare Time

It seemed funny to Adella that several months ago all she wanted was to be away from her husband, but now that he was gone all she wanted was to be near him. He had gone back to his homelands, New Orleans, to do some business or another…and she missed him. No one to greet when they got home, no one to sleep next too, no one to cook dinner too…yes, very boring. And lately she hadn’t been feeling well, she had been feeling…odd. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but she just blamed it on the fact she missed Andre and wasn’t used to being on her own. She could have gone with him she supposed, but it wasn’t like he had asked. So after three days bored at home, she decided she needed to get out. She had taken a taxi into town and while she was walking around saw a new sign in front of the museum saying they had a gecko exhibit on display. Well, that drew her right in.

She had been to the museum many times, but she never got bored, she was fascinated by everything and always loved when they had new exhibits. When asked where the gecko exhibit was and wad directed upstairs, where new glass cages were lined up on the far wall with signs describing the different gecko species they had in each display case. She smiled and went over to the first, and spent her time finding and admiring each one for about twenty minutes. Why not take her time to enjoy the beauty of them? She had nothing else to do anyway.

She was infront of one of the display cases that held some kind of desert gecko, she assumed, she couldn’t really read well yet and couldn’t read the description about it. But it was brown and bumpy and she had almost missed it as it clung to the side of its cage against some rocks that were shaded exactly like it. She had given a little laugh when she finally spotted it and leaned very close to the glass so she could examine it better. It was just as pretty as the flashy colored one’s, at least to her it was, and very unusual but she liked it very much.

Then she heard a unexpected voice and she jumped, turning back to look behind her. No one else had been around, the museum was very empty during this time of day and during the week. At first she didn’t think it was actually anyone speaking to her, but her eyes landed on Mr. Gold and she took a step back from the display case “Sorry…” She murmured. Even after a few months here already, she still wasn’t used to much American custom. She was taking his words seriously, and thought she had been doing something bad, that she wasn’t supposed to stand so close to the displays. “I…I couldn’t see him…” She pointed towards the camouflage gecko, trying to give an explanation of why she was staring so hard.

Oh? He had been joking? “Oh…” She blushed and raised a hand to her hair nervously, fiddling with it. Andre joked with her often, and half the time she never got that he was joking. Humor wasn’t something that was seen often, if at all, in her village back home. She felt embarrassed and it showed on her face. People always took her for an idiot back at the school because she confused such things. Her gaze had drifted back off to the gecko but her attention quickly went back to him when he touched her shoulder. Touch. Another thing she wasn’t used too.

She frowned at his request and blushed even more, glancing down with a pouty expression. She hated when people asked her that. How many times in class had a professor asked her to read a passage in a book or wrote things on the board to remind the students of a homework assignment and forgot that she couldn’t read the words? Far too often. She hated it. Her husband had been teaching her how to read but, her reading level was probably worse than a kindergartens still. She fiddled with her hands next “I…I can’t…” She pursed her lips “Not that I do not want too but, I can’t-“ She glanced to the plaque and did a double take. What?!

The words. The words just…they made sense. She understood them, clear as day. She moved closer and leaned in close to it, wondering what kind of strange trickery this was. How could she read the words?! She couldn’t read! She couldn’t even read in her native language! “How is this possible? I cannot read, how can I read the words, it is not possible…” She rambled the words under her breath in French, just so surprised! She could read without any trouble! How could she read?! She looked to him startled then back to the plaque “I…I can read it” She said slowly, dumbfounded. Oh great, he probably thought now she was a whack job.

She was…amazed. Totally reeled. How could she read?! She couldn’t read five seconds ago, so how could she now? It didn’t make a world a sense! But she could read…oh she couldn’t wait to tell everyone she could read! Maybe her professors now wouldn’t be so mean. ”Oh, I do attend the university” She said then made a face and shook her head “I’m Sorry, I…I talk in French when I get excited” She apologized then took in a breath “I, I do. Go to the school. I take classes there” She hadn’t wanted too, but Dean Varrow had insisted she get an education and to learn how to broaden and control her powers, though really all Adella wanted was to just be a house wife like her mother had taught her to be.

She looked to the next and stepped over to look at the plaque. Once again she could read the words and she laughed with excitement. “It says this gecko is a Malaysian golden gecko. It comes from Asia and…it’s nocturnal and eats insects and it lives in crevices in trees” She was grinning the whole time she read it and laughed again in surprise, shaking her head. She could read! She stepped back from the gecko and just stared ”I cannot understand….how can I read it…” She muttered under her breath, completely stumped.

“You do?” What a relief! So far the only people she found that spoke French was the Dean, her private tutors and her husband. Everyone else only spoke English so she had to stumble through speaking the American language against her will. She was doing pretty well now, but still her thick accent cut through the words and made them thick. “I prefer French. I do not like English” She told him with a sheepish smile. She didn’t, she hated English, but she forced herself to speak it because she knew she had to if she was to properly fit in.

“Truly?!” She had never heard of such a thing before, but her brain was new to many wonders of the world. She had been dying to learn how to read for years and years, so why now suddenly was she able too? She supposed she shouldn’t question such a spontaneous gift but still, it was so curious! “I have wanted to read, yes. I had learned a little but, in French only.” Her eyes turned back to read over and over again the word son the plaque, as if she thought the gift would suddenly go away, then turned back to him when he asked her to join him for tea. She hesitated, unsure. In her village it would be highly inappropriate for a woman to spend time alone with another man when she was married but…Andre was always encouraging her to make friends, wasn’t he? ”Oh um…alright. Of course. Thank you…”