Travel to Infinity

Is that… all?
Hearing the noises downstairs, Lara grabbed her green nightgown and rushed down the stairs, silently praying in herself. Her quick steps were echoing all over the castle, though she couldn’t hear it: she only paid attention to her heart, which was beating a wild tattoo. The woman ran as she could, hoping, she could stop this nightmare, before it began. It’s impossible, the thought crossed her mind. It can’t be happening!
The silence in the castle that surrounded her was almost dreadful. Lara couldn’t hear neither the buzzing of the computers, nor the humming of the coffee machine; she only noticed some suspicious, quiet groan, so she put on the pace. The lack of electronic devices made her even more worried, as well the sight that welcomed her, after descending the stairs.
Lara stopped in the hall astonished, then she turned her head down to hide her tears. The hall now rather looked like a badly maintained warehouse: it was filled with several different cartoons – some of them were turned upside-down - not leaving any place to move. She sensed motion in the corner of the room, so she started to walk towards the nearly empty terminal. As she hacked her way through, she took a glance at the top of the boxes, however she quickly realized, she only tormented herself with it: after seeing inscriptions, like BED LINEN, CLOTHES and PC UPSTAIRS she really had to restrain her temper to avoid bursting into tears. She had so beautiful memories about all these objects, she could tell the story of each of them… Why did it all have to wind up like that?
Zip lifted his head, as he recognized Lara, who was standing on the other side of the terminal with ruffled hair and bloodshot eyes. Their look enwreathed for a moment, then the programmer turned away and went backwards to collect the remaining items.
“Hi.” Lara felt, her greeting was really awkward, yet she had to say something to occupy herself and stop constantly thinking about Zip, who didn’t seem to pay attention to the woman. “When will you leave?”
“At any moment.” answered the programmer so naturally, as he would have just talked about the weather. “So I have to hurry up, if I want everything to be packed up.” Zip grabbed the cables, that he used to connect the computers to each other, and threw them into a box, which he marked with a brush-pen.
“Shall I help?”
“I can get along on my own.” Zip gripped the carton and tossed it outside – or he would have tossed it, if Lara hadn’t grasped his hand in the middle of the movement. They watched each other silently, without any word: they knew, this time only silence could enlighten their real feelings. An old Hoobastank song popped into the woman’s mind, which she listened to recently:

“What happened to us?
We used to be so perfect…
Now we’re lost and lonely.
What happened to us?
And deep inside I wonder
Did I lose my only? “

Lara could easily recall every stage of their relationship, from the funny beginning until the painful end. She remembered clearly, how shy and timid that Andrew Cornelius Wayne was, who crossed the threshold of the mansion on a cold day in December, and after regaining his self-confidence how lively that Zip became, who effortlessly turned everything upside down: the computer network system, the cooking methods, and the woman’s emotions by proving himself to be an unexpectedly amusing company.
Zip knew perfectly, how to entertain Lara either with his ironic, scoffing humor or in a physical way; in the end, the woman wasn’t surprised at all, that she slowly fell in love with the programmer. Lara could remember their first kiss: the sun was shining heavily, but they were just lying in the grass outside and laughed, or the first time, they made love in front of fireplace: they were really clumsy, but they enjoyed every touch, every silent moan. How could all this temptation, love and lust suddenly turn into bitterness?
Although they were deeply in love, Lara had never claimed, that their relationship was idyllic. Their utterly different personality caused some heated argument between them every now and then: Zip never managed to truly accept the cold world of aristocracy, at least he didn’t want to be a part of it, whilst Lara kept complaining, that her boyfriend detested reading and tried not to keep notice of history and historical questions, but eventually they always made up in each other’s arm. They believed, tension kept their love alive – now Lara realized, it had rather killed it.
It all started at a party a few days ago, where Lara was invited. By that time they considered each other their companion, yet Lara tried to conceal that fact, suspecting her relatives wouldn’t have supported her choice. Still the gossips spread faster than the speed of light, and the last sentence in the invitation card rather sounded like a command, not like a request: Bring your sweetheart with you!
“Sweetheart?” When Zip finished reading the invitation, he couldn’t decide whether to shout or laugh. “Sweetheart? Come on – I won’t visit anyone, who calls me your sweetheart, just because I sleep with you sometimes.”
“This is a complimentary formula, a part of our etiquette.” said Lara briefly. “Besides: you’re not only my bedfellow, darling. Look, I also hate these stupid gatherings, where all we talk about is the weather and clothes, but if we don’t go, they will make up their own stories about our absence, and I do not want, that the next title, I’ll see in the Times is: Why does Lara Croft hide from the public? What can be her dirty secret?” she quickly went on, before Zip could interrupt. “I am a countess. I have duties, and it doesn’t matter, if I like them or not.”
The man broke into a smile and hugged Lara passionately.
“If I didn’t love you that much, I would probably reject the invitation.”
When three days later they arrived to the castle of Mrs. Courtney, Lara was sure the whole party would be a disaster. She never really cared much about the social class, which she allegedly belonged to since the moment, she was born, though to prevent finding out stories about her privacy and her carrier, she had to turn up sometimes. She always did some small talk, drank a couple of glasses of champagne, sent her cavaliers away and disappeared, before she could have been interrogated, why she had never got married. However, this time the party wasn’t a disaster – it was a real catastrophe.
Lara was discussing some archaeological problems with one of her acquaintances, when Elizabeth Courtney stepped next to her and grabbed the sleeve of the woman’s expensive green silk dress.
“When will you introduce your sweetheart to us, dear?” she asked pretentiously. “We’re all waiting eagerly.”
Lara sighed: she hoped, she managed to shun this uneasy question, but as she could do nothing against it, she simply nodded.
“Just a moment, Mrs. Courtney.”
She walked backwards, where Zip was standing near the bar, drinking an orange cocktail. He raised his head, as he noticed the woman approaching.
“Are you fed up?” he enquired funnily, when Lara grasped his hand.
“Just keep your mouth shut and follow me.” She started to drag the surprised man towards a group of excited women. Zip felt, she disliked this part as much as he did, but they had to obey. Lara stopped and released the hand of the man.
“Mrs. Courtney, Mrs. Grace, Mrs. Evans” she started confidently. “Let me present my companion, Andrew Wayne, best known as Zip.”
The air rapidly froze around the couple, who could nearly touch the tension that surrounded them. What the hell…, thought Lara, did I say something wrong? In the end Mrs. Courtney decided to break the stunned silence.
“Dear, he’s black! Did you really shack up with a negro?”
Mrs. Courtney’s desperate scream was resounding all over the hall. The couples stopped dancing; people finished chatting and were waiting impatiently, what would come next. Lara straightened her back, when she noticed, she was in the crossfire of the excited looks, and hugged Zip.
“I ensure you that Andrew is a very well-mannered and unique person, who I love…”
“Who cares about love these days?” Mrs. Courtney seemed to enjoy, that everyone was watching her, because she carried on talking louder. “All that matters is being marriageable. Where is your manor, Lord Wayne?”
“He doesn’t have a manor.” Lara felt the situation was getting more and more embarrassing: Zip squeezed her arm so strong, that she nearly cried out of pain. “He’s from the USA, and he’s an IT specialist.”
Mrs. Courtney looked at Lara reproachfully.
“You should care more about your reputation. Do you really intend to break the habit of the Croft-family and marry a man…” she paused, looking for the right words. “…a man, like him?”
Lara confidently shook her head: she didn’t suspect how her next sentence would be rounded on her.
“No, I’m not intending to marry him.”
“Thank goodness!” Mrs. Courtney heaved a sigh of relief. “For a moment, I thought, you were out of your wits, but now I see, this man is just a little fling in your life, right? Dear, you should forget about him, and look for someone, who comes up to your love. Don’t waste your emotions on him – you’re not as young as you used to be, so you should choose a decent Englishman quickly, who wants to marry you…”
Lara looked at Zip puzzled, who slowly became red of suppressed anger. The woman tried to stroke the man’s shoulder to calm him down, but he pushed her away and went back to the bar without telling a simple word.
“I’m sorry.” apologized Lara later guiltily in their bedroom, watching Zip getting undressed. “How would I have known, that this could happen?”
“Oh, right, how would you have known…” grumbled the man, as he threw his white shirt to the armchair. “ After all they’re your relatives and acquaintances, how on Earth should you know anything about them? How should you have known, that they would think, I was just an intruder, who ruined the reputation of aristocracy?”
“Alright.” shouted Lara furiously. “I knew from the beginning, that they wouldn’t like you! Are you satisfied? I assumed that they wouldn’t accept you, but I wanted to give it a try!”
“You knew?!” Zip turned around and looked into the woman’s eyes. “You deliberately threw me off your relatives to tear me up, like hyenas! How can I express my gratefulness?”
“You deserve to be torn up, when you act like that.” stated Lara anxiously. “Why can’t you learn, how to…?” she couldn’t finish the sentence, because Zip rushed out of the room, and slammed the door. The woman shook her head, and sighed.
Next day Lara saw the man only once, while he was coming out of the bathroom, but they didn’t talk to each other. The woman wanted to give some time to Zip to quiet down, but when he didn’t turn up in the evening, Lara started to get worried and decided to find the programmer.
She was wearing only some sheer lingerie, so she was cold, while she walked through the castle. The man’s old room was empty and so were the terminal and the gym. Eventually Lara found Zip sitting next to the pool, watching the water waving.
“Darling, what are you doing here?” she asked humbly, as she took place next to the man. “Come to bed, it’s late.”
“I’m not sleepy.” said Zip with a strange overtone in his voice. “I’m fine here.”
“Alright.” Lara realized, she couldn’t convince the man, so she decided to ask him a few questions at least. “And what are you planning to do all night long?”
“I’m thinking.”
The woman was surprised by the answer – Zip didn’t enjoy spending his precious time sunk into thoughts, as he once said, he was the man of actions, and her discovery didn’t make her feel much better.
“And what are you thinking about?”
“About the party. Your relatives. Our life. It all seems to be very different now.”
“Don’t tell me, a gathering like that changed you that much.” replied Lara kindly, but she felt, Zip became a bit more annoyed.
“Wouldn’t you change, if you were humiliated in front of everyone else because of your skin and social status?”
“They’re just a couple of old ladies, who like teasing people, who, well… differ from their imagination, but you shouldn’t pay much attention to them.” Lara started to comprehend, what a mistake she made by taking the programmer to that party, but she couldn’t put the clock back, and she tried to make the best out of the consequences. “And you could have stoop up for yourself and prove, that you love me.”
“So am I the guilty one now?” asked Zip furiously. “So am I the one to blame because of daring to love someone above my social class? Will you be the next one to tell, what a worthless bloke I am?”
“I didn’t mean that…”
“Well, maybe I’m really not good enough for you. I should just pack up and hit the road.” went on Zip, without paying attention to Lara’s excuses. “You’re not even intending to marry me.”
It was the woman’s turn to become angry.
“You’ve never asked, if I wanted to marry you! You can’t incriminate me, just because you’re afraid of responsibility and commitment! Besides, wedlock is just a way to stay in the circle and preserve your heritage.”
Zip looked at Lara desolately, and subsided into silence for a few moments.
“So you don’t want me to belong to your circle. But I should have suspected it before: after all you offered me to those hypocrites to munch on me… Or do I come up to your love and worthy enough to preserve the Croft-heritage? Would you marry me?”
The woman shook her head: she felt strange, that from the age of six, she’d always dreamed of having been asked this question, but in this situation, it sounded really absurd. I guess, I grew up, she thought.
“All you care about is yourself. You keep licking your wounds, instead of trying to forgive. I’d like to come clean, but you put difficulties in my way. If you can’t stop carrying on this sick blame-game, maybe you should really hit the road, Andrew.”
Lara stood up, and went back to her room, leaving the man behind. Parts of this conversation popped in her head, as she ascended the stairs, passed along the corridors and arrived in their room. She sat down on her bed, leaned back and watched the ceiling, but she was so exhausted, she quickly fell asleep… and when she woke up, she realized, how empty their bedroom became. The clothes, the CDs, the cables… everything vanished from the floor and the desk. She jumped out of the bed and ran to the wardrobe: her evening dresses and blouses were on their place, but Zip’s garments simply disappeared…
Oh, no!, thought Lara desperately. He can’t seriously intend to leave…
But he did. Zip set his hand free, kicked the box into the hall and walked out to check, if he had packed everything.
“Zip, I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry!”
Even if the man didn’t answer, Lara knew the programmer well enough to guess, what was going on his head. It’s too late, sweetie. You should have thought earlier.
Winston, as usually, walked into the hall to light the fire, but he stopped astounded, when he noticed the pile of boxes, which blocked the way to the fireplace. He looked questioningly at Lara, who turned away to show, she didn’t want to talk about it, so the butler kept quiet.
The bell rang to indicate, the truck came to help Zip move out. The man didn’t have many things to carry away: when he moved in, he only had a few set of clothes, some personal belongings and money with him. During his work, he equipped the castle with several computers, mainly on Lara’s account – at least, he was fair and took only his own PC-s. The programmer grabbed a carton with the inscription FRAGILE, and started to walk towards to door.
“Please, wait! I know the solution! We can sort this out somehow!”
“You can sort this out somehow, Lara. Goodbye.” Zip took a final glance at Lara, before he would have been disappeared for good.