The Genius' First Love

In one of the loveliest set-ups in this province; exactly at the head of a steep private valley almost a mile long, stood the Richmond Ranch.

Aside from the Grey Cottage that acted as a picturesque eye-catcher up in the hill, the ranch was surrounded by barns, pigeonniers, fences and vast thick woodland. Beyond it, peaceful hills drew a skyline sharp as a razor that serves as one of its crowning glory views. At the west side floor of the valley lays a glittering loch that connects across the sea. The rich farmland swept down to the edge of the water where few cattle and sheep grazed on the upper slopes.

One suns.h.i.+ny morning, Xhemin woke up to the sound of humming pigeons. She opened her eyes slowly welcoming the brightness that peaked behind the curtains few inches from her bed.

She saw the wide gla.s.s door that led to a small balcony, and beyond it, the sky- pale, pristine, cloudless. The outline of the hills was sharp as a gla.s.s, the topmost peaks was touched by the first ray of the rising sun. Just on the edge of her balcony, pigeons were flocking up just as they always do on mornings as beautiful as today.

"Happy morning everyone!" She exclaimed as she jumped out the bed and to the balcony, scaring the pigeons away. She raised her two hands in the sky, trying to stretch it as far as she could, without minding that she was still in her pajamas and her ivory hair was as messed up as spider"s web.

She closed her eyes as she felt the morning breeze but then something caught up in her nostrils that alerted her senses in an instant.

"Strawberry jam!" Without a second of delay she flew out her bedroom, banging the door, and down to the stairs.

"Careful child, the strawberry jam is not going to dry pretty quick!" She heard her grandpa"s call as she made her steps down the stairs. She slowed down in an instant, not wanting to disobey her grandfather.

She found him in the kitchen looking majestic on his blue stripes ap.r.o.n. She smiled knowing that it was she, who sewn the ap.r.o.n and gave it to him as a gift on last year"s thanksgiving.

"Dear child look at you "His grandpa commented as soon as she came in the kitchen with her rippled pajamas and messy hair. " Do you want bacon or egg?"

"Can I have both?" She asked, looking real hungry. She dreamed of the beast again last night and her dreams of him were all breath-taking draining all her energies away. It made her famished in her sleep.

She eased herself between the small Formictopped table and kitchen chair. She saw the bread toppled all over with the pink gelatine like thing on it, spread on one of the plates. Her grandpa did this for her. She smiled as she picked it up and gave it a bite.

"I thought we ran out of strawberry jams already" She mumbled with her mouth full. Strawberry jams are rare in the whole country as it is exported from abroad. A tropical country like the one they live in cannot grow strawberries as it requires 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit constant temperature, which rarely happens in this country.

"We did, but a Montarini manservant came this morning and gave us a basket of those" Her grandpa answered, forking the bacon from the pan onto a warm plate.

"Huzey is home?" She asked as she took a big swallow of the fresh orange juice already sitting on the table beside her plate. "That fast?"

"Sure he is, otherwise there will be no strawberry jams" Turning back to his cooking, her grandfather slipped the fish slice under the fried egg in the pan and turned it.

"I"ll go to the Montarini Manor later then" She decided knowing that her grandfather never once said no when it comes to visiting their neighbors.

"How was your experiment going?" Being reminded of her granddaughters self-projects, he suddenly got curious.

Perhaps by the influence of growing up in a farm or her addiction to strawberries, this granddaughter of his grew an interest in botany.

That interest roughly turned into an obsession to the extent that he have to fenced up an acre of land to be solely dedicated to her plant experiments and have to turn one barn into her own laboratory.

Nevertheless, though he is a little frustrated that her own granddaughter did not pick up an interest in medicine which is his expertise, he was kind of thankful because her skills was very beneficial to the ranch. Her early training in botany was spent on experimenting the ranch"s products that boost out their crop productions the last few years.

Now, after she took botany as her field of expertise in Rivendell Academy, her experiments were quite intense and a little too ambitious. But as what very supportive grandfather does, she let her do her own thing and learn from them, though he give her advice once in a while when he knew she needed it.

"No luck" She answered expressionless, but the dismay in her face was obvious.

She had been trying to grow strawberries for the last few months and now she was about to lose hope. Though she had successfully grow healthy vines which made up her success rate to seventy percent- the harvest season however had already past yet not a single fruit sprouted. The past weeks she had spent in figuring out what"s wrong with her plants.

"Don"t be too hard on yourself child, the weather in this country is a little too harsh for strawberries" Pus.h.i.+ng his hand to her hair, he said gently trying to cheer her a bit.

Xhemin took another bite of her bread when suddenly a sound of engine came gus.h.i.+ng into the front yard. Someone"s here. She saw her grandfather turned off the stove and head out to the front door to welcome the guest, she followed him.

A black Ford pulled off just in front of their front door, panicking all the chickens and raged the tethered sheepdogs. A minute after, the door of the ford swung revealing a man in his business suit trying to pull off a suitcase lying on one of the car"s seat.

Xhemin remembers this man, Mr. Cheng. Apart from their neighbors and few locals in Hamps.h.i.+re, he is one of their constant guests. The only weird thing is that he comes to visit them once a year and she rarely sees him when he comes. She"s either too busy in her experiments or she"s out with her best friends.

"General Manager Cheng" His grandfather greeted the guest with a warm smile extending a hand.

"Dr. Miles" Mr. Cheng greeted as he welcome his hand for a handshake. Suddenly he noticed the girl standing still beside his boss. Mr. Cheng turned to Xhemin"s side with a weird look.His mouth fell in an instant. It"s as if he was appalled of something she doesn"t know off. "Little Miss?"

"Oh no!..." Xhemin exclaimed when she realized she was still in her pajamas and her hair is messing up around her head. That could be the reason why Mr. Cheng gave her a weird look "If you"ll excuse me, I"m gonna go and take a bath."

She didn"t wait for them to respond. She ran toward her bedroom feeling ashamed of how she looked. They don"t get to have visitors on mornings as early as this so she didn"t really thought of was.h.i.+ng up before heading down especially that the strawberry jam is waiting for her on the table.

Mr. Cheng, quite appalled of what he just saw cannot help but gape open in shock. He had always come to visit Dr. Miles yearly yet this was the first time he laid eyes on her, face to face.

As soon as girl left, he let go of his inquisitive interest about her "She looks exactly like her-"

"And exactly the same reason why we have to stay here" Dr. Miles cut him off. "No one must know" He added reminding his a.s.sociate about this predicament.

"I understand" Mr. Cheng who knows the long history of the past knows what his boss is trying to imply. Being the General Manager of Feather Healthcare Corporation and one of the loyal a.s.sociates of Dr. Miles, he is under duty to protect the secrets of the Dughmoh family.

"Now run to me the annual reports" Dr. Miles commanded while walking towards his home office.

"Of course" Mr. Cheng obeyed, but as soon as they entered the room he couldn"t help but asked again. "Dr. Miles, does the child knows?"

The room sank in silence. Dr. Miles look at his a.s.sociate with an unreadable expression and gave out a deep sigh.

"Not a bit" The old man finally answered as he retreated to his desk.