The Matchmaker

"What are you doing here?" we said in unison, I with alarm while the other with a hint of curiousness and annoyance.

"I was told to help the person in the kitchen," he said as I caught sight of the sweat on his head.

"Your mum asked you to help me out when you're sweating with fever?" I asked in disbelief. "That must be a very nice excuse to give to a fool who isn't me."

"Well, you know that I can't sit still when I am awake unless I'm really tired. I feel too irritated and restless."

"Indeed. But that is the only choice you have now. Come on, let's go."

I pulled him away by the sleeve of his hoodie that I had been unable to remove. With the wet clothes still sticking to him, I got more concerned and dragged him away from the kitchen faster so that he could change into dry ones soon. He already seemed to be catching a fever soon.

"The fact that you had to lie," I started as we started to climb up the stairs to his room, "and make it believable tells me just how much you wanted to do something. Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"So you remembered," he said with a tired sigh. "Now, would you at least give me something to do? I can't bear the guilt that I won't be able to do anything for her."

"Come along to your bed and tell me what you need. I shall try to fetch it for you instead."

"Flowers from a wet field is a lost hope. There's honestly that I could do other than baking a cake for her, but she didn't want that either."

"Well, you can give her a heartfelt letter. I am sure she would appreciate that more than anything else. Do you have any other gift prepared for her?"

His silence answered my question. I sighed and tried to figure out what to give her so that he wouldn't be as distressed as a puppy...

I gulped down my fear and realised that he might have taken notice of the little beast since that could be one reason for him to come running down. If he hadn't, he was about to find out and I was in great panic.

This one had turned out to be a coward and he would definitely not stop screeching if he saw it again. And the pup would, of course, jump onto him if she sensed any danger from him.

"We could order a gift, couldn't we?" I asked nervously, stopping on the stairs midway. "You could get one and I would tend to the door so that she doesn't find out."

The thunder sounded outside and the pouring rain only hit against the window and roof of the house harder. He stared at me like I had become stupid, which was true since my panic was eating away at my insides.

"Do you think anyone would deliver anything and on time in this shower?" he questioned "No one wants to die from slipping into an accident or from the lightning. That is totally out of option. We'll have to do with DIY."

I slumped at the thought and rubbed my temples, feeling the ache rise in them. My eyes couldn't stop looking between the room's door and the kitchen, wondering if I could somehow stop him from entering the room without letting him write the letter in the room.

"Do you not have any plants at home?" I inquired him. "The ones that have fragrance in them?"

"Just some white ones," he said in a dissatisfied voice. "If we could get to the florist across the street, that would be some luck. But I'm sure they'll be closed."

"Let's try calling them. They might have been locked in. So they can probably keep something ready for us when the rain stops."

But we were surrounded with bad luck even on that day. The florist had closed down early because it seemed like they knew about the weather conditions. There was no one to take the orders as none picked up the phone.

"This is frustrating," I said with a sigh. "Such bad luck on a rainy day."

"Cursing won't make it any better," said the boy beside me as we both sat with our heads resting on the top of the armchairs in the living room on the ground floor. "I guess we'll have to settle with paper rings and such."

I snorted at his suggestion and received a look of judgement from him. But after giving it some thought, I realised that could save the day.

"That's a good idea," I said brightening up. "We could do some good origami with coloured papers. I hope you have that at least, otherwise, you're going to bed."

"I-I can print those," he stammered.

When I scoffed in disbelief, he tried to amend it by saying, "I'm sure there are some but just not enough."

"Alright," I said with a look of apprehension. "But I hope you have enough white paper to print those, hopefully."

He got up and started to head for the stairs, which made me jump to my feet and stop him.

"No, not at all," I said with a small pant. "You shouldn't be exercising so much by climbing up and down the stairs. I shall get them, so just tell me where they are."

"I can —" he started.

"No, no need," I interrupted. "Or else no gift for your mother. I hope you have that in your mind. Your health comes first, then her gift."

He pouted and then when to sit back in the chair whilst saying, "The first shelf below the glass cabinet on the right. The cabinet it next to bed."

"Right at it," I responded and climbed up the stairs two at a time to get to it quickly. "Don't you dare move from there. I shall see to it that you don't give her anything then."

"Alright, alright," he yelled back in a dull voice.

I scurried into the room, searching first for the pup and then for the coloured papers. Layla had, as I had expected, gone around sniffing everything in the room once Sam had left it alone. Every few seconds, as I saw through the open slit of the door silently, it would give a soft grunt of dissatisfaction like it hadn't found what it was searching for.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked her softly in a daunting tone after shutting the door lightly.

She jumped out of her skin and scurried away to a corner as though the house had a prey that could devour it whole. Then she peeked out her little head from one of the legs of the bed, staring at me with docile eyes.

I crossed my arms and gazed at her with a frown, waiting for her to come towards me as she usually would. It put a paw forward and then put it back, thinking twice about what I had commanded it.

"You made a mess her with your wet fur," I chided it. "What shall I do now? If he comes here, you'll get us in trouble."

I walked towards the cabinet, keeping a cautious eye at its movement so that I could give it a punishment when it crossed the line. I had a good mind to give her a nice penalty for being naughty for the third time.

As I stood on my tiptoes searching for the papers, the door flew open suddenly. The papers that I had somehow managed to catch hold off flew off my hands and fell in showers as autumn leaves fell from a tree.

I retracted my hand like I was committing a crime and looked towards the bed, where the pup and the papers were lying around, and then towards the door. Sam stood there panting from his quick climb as I could make out.

"We can't stay in the hall," he ranted with a pant. "Mum will find out that we're making something for her. She's already come back from the greenhouse, and there's no way she won't question why I came out of my room. And you know very well that I can't lie one bit to her."

I gave out a small gasp and held my throat. For a moment, it had felt like my soul was going to be taken away because of the scare he had given me.

"You idiot," I whispered. "I thought your mother had come in. That was the worst scare you have given me in my entire life."

"Sorry," he muttered and closed the door behind him. "I just want it to be a surprise for her. Did you make something for her?"

"Those cakes she wanted to sell out, I turned them into a big cake. Now I'm having second thoughts about it because she wanted to sell them and not give out samples."

"No, the samples will do. She still isn't confident about making cupcakes and other confectionery, so she was planning on giving them out to the neighbours. But I do want to see how it turned out to be."

"We'll see it another time. Let's hope she won't open the freezer. Can you see what she's up to?"

He peeked in through the door and then peeped over the stairs to get a closer look at her whereabouts and what she was doing.

"She came to read a book," he informed me. "We should have enough time to make those origamis. She won't be cleaning until she sees that I'm well and fine."

"Before that, please wear a mask," I suggested, warier of the wolf pup's fur than the dust on the paper. "There was quite a bit of dust there and it shall trigger you enough with your allergy symptoms being already around the corner."

After I got Layla to sit in a corner so that she wouldn't bring attention towards her and get me screwed, I went to pick up the papers. Sam came along to help but I had to shoo him off.

"You go sit there," I told him. "You're having a fever rising within a few minutes. You had better get yourself seated there on the bed and make an arrangement for the creating some hangings."

"Aye, aye, Captain," he said in a discontented voice.

I quickly managed to grab the papers and blow off the dust from them. My eyes kept darting to the corner where Layla sat in a cramped position with a sad expression on her face. I was satisfied with it sitting silently and I prayed that it would be so until the end of my time here.

We sat down to watch the video to make butterflies and flowers. We spent a great amount of time trying to get the first one right so that we could get a hang of it.

Being able to see to the usually patient Sam turning into an impatient, irritated person was a sight to see. I couldn't help chuckling from time to time though I knew that his sickness was making him act restless and irked.

"Just a few more," I told him. "You just have to make three of them to get a hang of it. You're doing better than people I have seen. They would end up tearing the paper."

"And that is exactly what happened," he said in a sour voice as he looked at the small tear that had come in the paper when he released his anger on the poor butterfly.

He balled up the paper before I could give him a method to stick it up and keep it going. I had a mind to put it at the very top so that it wouldn't be visible and would do the job it was needed to do.

He balled up the two he had made and banged them on the table beside him. I gaped at him. He had worked really hard on it but he let his frustration get the better of him.

"Make the rose one at least," I implored, but he sat there with a sulk, not wanting to make it right now.

I showed him the one I had made and told him that I would help him out with his gathering than making them myself. We made one pretty flower, though it had ended up being in the shape of a ball.

"It's okay," I consoled the sulking boy. "We'll get it right. It takes —"

Just then, Layla came up from behind me and snatched the ball-like flower from my hands. In the process, she pushed me so brashly that I landed with my forearms on Sam's burning chest. The next reaction was to close his mouth from screaming out loud at her sudden entrance.

For a few seconds, I couldn't process what to do because of what the wolf pup had done. My ears turned red as Sam stared at my speechless self. Then my mind screamed to get off him but my arms had forgotten to move.

There was a knock at the door before being pulled open the next second. Now my heart raced as my mind forgot to think of a solution.

But Sam seemed to have a better idea. He threw me to the side and I fell off the bed. Then I scrambled to the ground, acting as if I was picking up papers.

"Damn you, Layla," I cursed and stayed low, praying that the person hadn't gotten the wrong impression. "You're in deep trouble. Just you wait."