{"id":4981,"date":"2021-10-20T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2021-10-16T13:05:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T13:05:11","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/10\/20\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-75\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 75"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kepa felt a sudden stab of pain shoot through his chest. Panic rose as he felt another as something slammed into his chest. Were more bullets ripping through his body? Again, he felt something smash against his chest. Was Donny standing over him, emptying his gun into Kepa\u2019s mangled body?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He opened his eyes. Maite was kneeling beside him, slamming her fists into his chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou bastard!\u201d she screamed. \u201cHow could you do that to me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa took a moment to reorient himself. He was laying on the floor of the Noriega, but in its older abandoned state. Donny was nowhere to be seen. He smiled to himself. It had worked! They were back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite slammed another fist into his chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOw!\u201d he cried. \u201cWould you stop hitting me?\u201d He looked up to see tears flowing down Maite\u2019s cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite slumped away, nearly collapsing to the floor as she sobbed. \u201cHow could you?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat did I do?\u201d asked Kepa as he sat up, his chest on fire, though he couldn\u2019t tell if it was Maite pounding on him or Donny\u2019s bullet he was feeling. Instinctively he reached up to feel his chest. There was no hole. \u201cI just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and I didn\u2019t see any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut sacrificing yourself like that?\u201d cried Maite as she looked at him, her vision blurry with tears. \u201cWhat if you were wrong, and that wasn\u2019t the zatia? Or it didn\u2019t work the way we thought it should? You would have died! Why take the chance?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt worked, didn\u2019t it?\u201d said Kepa with a weak smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you couldn\u2019t be sure it would!\u201d screamed Maite. \u201cDo you know what it was like, seeing you die? Feeling your body jerk as that bullet hit you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it didn\u2019t really happen, right? The time bubble popped and we\u2019re back where we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt did happen, at least for me! For a brief moment, I thought I\u2019d lost you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa reached up, but couldn\u2019t bring himself to touch Maite. He let his arm fall to his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d was all he could manage to say, his words barely audible over Maite\u2019s sobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite looked at him again. \u201cI love you, Kepa. And I can\u2019t imagine going through all of this with anyone else but you. But if you are going to be so reckless, I don\u2019t think I can do this at all. I can\u2019t watch you die a thousand different ways. Even if, in some way, it isn\u2019t real. To me, it is. I saw, I felt, you die. Wasn\u2019t it real for you too?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa thought again about the bullet tearing through his chest and exploding his heart. The pain had been unbearable. Any other time, his life would have ended and he wouldn\u2019t have to relive that pain, but here and now, he remembered every detail. He realized that his dreams might never be the same again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He nodded. \u201cBai, it was real for me too.\u201d His hand reached for his chest, where he had felt the bullet enter his body. \u201cI thought it would all disappear when the time bubble popped, but I forgot that our memories of it don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really experienced what happened in the bubble, even after it pops. Our memories don\u2019t get wiped out. Somehow, the magic of the zatia keeps the bubble alive inside of us, in our memories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa looked up at Maite. \u201cI never meant to hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite sighed, her cheeks still wet but her voice stronger. \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, I love you too,\u201d added Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite threw her arms around him as her lips found his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kepa felt a sudden stab of pain shoot through his chest. Panic rose as he felt another as something slammed into his chest. Were more bullets ripping through his body? Again, he felt something smash against his chest. Was Donny standing over him, emptying his gun into Kepa\u2019s mangled body? He opened his eyes. Maite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1il","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4982,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions\/4982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}