My Perfect Lady

Jim put one leg over the handrail, wondering a thousand times in his head if this was how he was supposed to die. He must have been a grave sinner, for Karma to want to throw him off a pipe. Even morons like his great-great grandfather had died a better death (the man had put his head in a tiger"s mouth as part of a challenge. The tiger, unfortunately, ended up closing its mouth). Up to this date, there were times when at family dinners, it was described as proof of the valour running through Hunter blood.

Which was bullsh*t, of course.

Miya looked at his cowering leg, as the man stood with half his a.s.s on the rail and half of it leaning towards the pipe. She pressed her forehead in distress and sighed.

Then walking towards him, she said, "Come on Mr. Hunter, it"s barely four strides for a huge, I mean tall guy like you. Even Ben does it in ten!"

Jim shot her a dirty look.

"Don"t rush me, okay?"

"Okay, but we are kind of in a hurry."

Hurry, my foot. Jimmy cursed himself for underestimating the woman. This ordeal was not what he had planned or prepared for.

When he stood still in the same position for a whole other minute, Miya lost her patience. She grabbed him by his arm.

"Look, I"ll hold you. Just step down, alright? I"ll hold on to you till you"re all set and ready to get going, okay?"

Jim looked at her foully.

"What if you fall over me? That way, we"ll both die. And faster too."

"I won"t fall on you. Don"t worry, I"m very strong!"

"You shiver when I glare."

"That"s different! You are scary."

"And you stagger within five seconds of standing on your toes. I –"

And then, Jim froze. Aw sh*t. He wasn"t supposed to refer to that.

Miya"s face turned pale, and Jim was so scared of his outrageous emotions, he couldn"t utter even a word. So he quickly jumped off the rail and stuck on to the pipe. His heart stopped as he felt gravity pull him down with full force. He didn"t want to die.

"Please don"t let me go," he told Miya unsteadily.

She regained some colour as she watched Jim amusedly. He held the pipe as if his life depended on it. Which according to him, it did. She almost laughed at the notion. Then shaking her head, she whispered:

"Not in a million years."

She then sat on the handrail like a pro, and leaned over to grab his bicep.

"There, now try to sc.r.a.pe your foot against the wall. It has grooves, so it won"t be too troublesome."

Step by step, Jim followed her every instruction, all the while maintaining a death grip on the pipe. The wall indeed was ridged, so he didn"t feel like a man hanging in mid-air. She also wasn"t wrong about him being able to cover the distance in four strides. Once Jim was done, he carefully treaded over the handrail of this new apartment and jumped to the other side.

Oh heaven.

He had survived that!

Grinning c.o.c.kily to himself, Jim stared all the way up to the pipeline, unable to believe he had actually slithered down the distance. He was about to praise himself more, when he heard an amused voice.

"You"re not very smart. Why do they show you on T.V.?"

Jim turned around to look at a smug-faced Ben.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, careful not to pick a fight. This was a midget he was dealing with after all.

"You can"t even climb."

"Because I"m a man, not a snake."

They would have quarrelled further, but right then Miya had slid down and leapt over. In a flash, she was standing between the two.

"Okay," she huffed, breathing heavily, "No fights. We need to go." She then nudged Ben slightly in his back and said, "Come on, big guy, I want you to lead the way."

Ben happily trotted down, sticking his tongue out at Jim, while Miya followed after. Jim rolled his eyes, but kept close behind, walking rather grumpily.

They stepped down the fire escape and into an alley.

The lane was quite narrow, and mostly was the backend of various residential buildings like the Regal Apartments. There were quite a few fire escapes here and there. Besides that, the street was rather empty.

Miya breathed, and then looked back at Jim, smiling brightly.

"Well, then, Mr. Hunter, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for everything, including sliding down the pipeline for me. Now we can safely part ways."

Jim frowned and then exhaled noisily.

"For someone who talks so sharply," he said, restlessly, "You can be pretty dumb."

Miya raised her brows.

"Well, it isn"t rocket science, Miya, that the police won"t figure out where you went. Of course they"ll know it was the fire escape. And they"ll follow you like hounds, especially if the charge on you is of kidnapping me."

And they"ll be here in five minutes, my dear, if I ask them to. You"re not getting rid of me that easily.

Miya looked worried.

"But I don"t want to trouble you anymore!"

"It"s alright. Just lead me to the main road so that I may catch a cab."

Miya had half a heart to protest, to tell him to use GPS, but she remembered how cooperating Jim had been. So she agreed reluctantly.

They went further down the alley. Jim"s heart was pounding a little. Night had almost fallen, and it was seven in the evening. A cold wind blew, making him shiver slightly. He followed behind Miya in silence, and watched her back.

She was still in the same red and white clothes. Her hair, from the back seemed even messier, almost as if several strands had wound together in a way that could never be unlinked. She walked straight, erect, as if she were on alert. She looked like any other rustic. Only, something about her entranced him.

The way she walked. The way her posture was so staunch, unmoving. The way she skilfully hid a gash on her hand from her son, simply by rolling down her sleeves, saying it was getting colder.

What was it about her, that seemed so familiar?

Jim walked behind, observing her carelessly for a long time.

They finally turned around a corner, and Jimmy heaved a sigh of relief. They had been walking straight for too long now. Almost immediately though, Miya ran into a huge man.

She had been enjoying the cool wind that brushed through her skin. The weather outside was not usually this pleasant. Mr. Hunter was walking a few steps behind, and she was relieved she didn"t have to make small talk. Ben, she saw, was enjoying the weather too. She chuckled. He really was like her in some respects. The rest, he had totally taken from his father.

Ben grabbed at her hand, pointing at a yellow leaf that flew through the sky. Miya suppressed a wince, but forced a smile, suddenly remembering she had accidentally sc.r.a.ped her hand on the wall while gliding down the pipeline. She quickly took her hand away, rolled down her sleeves, and when Ben looked at her in question, she told him it was getting colder.

Ben had laughed, calling her "weak mommy".

The path was fine till then, when suddenly, while turning around a corner, she walked into a huge man. Her head almost hit his chest.

"Oh, I"m so sorry," she began, rubbing her forehead, "I didn"t see you there."

The man looked down at her. It was dark now, and no light had yet been put on in this street. She couldn"t clearly see his face. But when he spoke, a cold shiver ran down Miya"s spine.

"Of course you didn"t, you b*tch.," the colossus of a man spat, "If you had, you"d have disappeared into thin air by now, aye?!"

The f***.