The work continued on for a little longer than I had hoped. A number of railings were broken on the far size of the house; they disturbed the wiring system. Dad had only noticed it on his evening stroll, and hence he took it upon himself to fix it.
Why was it broken in the first place?
Apparently, some…. haah. I kid you not, some random asshole had come in, chopped the tree besides our house, and that too in a way that the trunk would fall right over the fence. How? No a better question. WHY?
Then he took the tree away like nobody’s business. Even if it was night time, I would assume my family to have enough of a presence to recognize that a goddamned tree had gone missing from their surroundings. They didn't. Not until dad went for his evening before the meal stroll.
They might have, they might have not. I did not know, didn’t care enough to ask them about it. Was busy expressing my exasperation over this ridiculousness. Come on, tell me you won't be annoyed when someone comes in, steals your tree (it was a tree beside our house, so technically not our tree? EH, who cares about the technicalities), breaks your fence, refuses to apologize, refuses to explain, and LEAVES.
First of all.
WHY THAT TREE?!?!
Second, WHY US? What did we do to you? Better question, WHO ARE YOU?
This guy is not surviving tomorrow if I get my hands on him.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
"..."
Right. Back to the fixing thingy.
Suffice to say, I didn’t exactly know much about wiring systems. So all I helped out on was rearranging (and replanting? Why are we still using THIS outdated of a system? Sigh… Who even brings forth such a world?) the metal rods and beams.
I didn’t do a good job.
The first time. Then I pulled these 10 feet tall metal sticks back out, and put them back in. Properly.
Took 30 minutes… can I have them back or something? I could probably finish one of those books, was close to completing that history one anyway. Talking about histories… this world is weird. Not in a bizarre sense, it does that already. But in a… really? sense.
I seemed to be sighing a lot this evening, even if my mood had gotten better.
The talk about my perception of this world found it's way into our interactions. And parents asked for an explanation. I had given one on the cart, right on the first day too. They forgot. So I had to explain again.
That is what I spent most of the table setting on, after we were done playing bob the builder. Fixing something was not fun when you had no idea how to do it.
[…]
‘…’
What? Want to say something?
[Nothing… enjoy your next 24 hours.]
WHA-?! …You do realize that is one hell of a way to say have a nice day right?
‘…’
[I guess I do want to say something. Someone's definitely going to point out how your actions don't match your words]
HUH?
[Why so cranky? Fixing something isn't fun when you don't know how to do it, now is it?]
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"..."
.
.
.
.
.
‘Hello? You gonna follow up on that?’
Great. He went radio silent again. I have no idea why I entertained the thought of any form of communication with him. He murdered my sanity enough as is.
[You mean you murdered it yourself. Or well… she murdered it for you? No… for me?
Huh?]
‘…’
If you’re going to confuse yourself with whatever bullshit you keep spewing, how about shutting up for once?
[…]
Good.
Moving on. Where was I?
Right, the world being weird thingy.
I may have mentioned this before, thought of this before, countless times. But I could not help but repeat it.
This world, it is a blend of the past and the future. Modernized with facilities near the outskirts. Yet a magical, nearly incomprehensible cathedral at the center. The slow transition from modernity to Victorian as we go inwards, it’s as if the magic-ness of the cathedral put a halt on the development of Math and Science…..
Huh.
A reaction to my thoughts, that each and everyone of us shared. Except Mana, she was god knows where again. On that note…
“Where’s Mana run off to again?” Mom took the words out of my mouth.
“Last time I checked, she was staring at that now empty space. You know, where the tree originally stood?”
So she was staring at things again. How typical of her. Now that I think of it…
“Wait, how did you even figure out the event sequence again? All of us were outside when it happened, were we not?”
“Know that old man a minute walk away from us?”
“…”
He facepalmed. “Right, your memories. I had hoped you would have gotten some of it back by now. Anyways, he told us, he likes to see the sun set you see? Signifies the end, and the chance of a new beginning, He says.” He spoke in an exaggerated manner.
“…”
Mom had gone off to call the little brat between our discussion. Right on cue, she came dragging Mana back.
“What are you think about?” He inquired as he washed his hand.
This spoon looks shiny…Heh.
“Nothing much, just…” I took my seat, smelling the fragrance of mom’s cooking.
“How long does it take to complete my memory set?”
“Weird wording…” Huh? “But how long huh…”
“It’s never set in stone for you Eon.” Mom chimed in as she put the Rice Cooker down. The thing had a chair for itself. What are we? Asian? Wait… with our latter name, we might be. Funny thing to think of, the demons were known to be more uhhh… how do I put it? More Ethnic than most.
“Sometimes, you get it all back within a few days.” She continued, but not before —
“And those times are the ones where you have communicable headache.”
…not before Mana poked in. She got a glare from Mom though, so she won’t be butting in the middle anytime soon. It allowed me and my Dad a shared snicker, problem child much? Dad’s childish too sometimes. And how in the world is a headache communicable? Headaches are a symptom of something, so if the actual disease is communicable then technically the headache is communicable.
I digress.
“As I was saying.” She resumed her words, never once stopping her hands. With an unknown amount of experience under her belt, the arrangement of the food was a feast for the eyes.
Literally.
“Sometimes you get it back quickly, sometimes it takes an entire month.”
Sushi’s the side dish again today, not that I’m complaining. Goes well with everything else.
“And how long have I been losing them for now?”
Snap!
Mana snapped her chopsticks, sweeping a sashimi away from me.
“Don’t remember really. None of us do.” That’s weird, but they did the same thing with Mana’s birth today. The surprise factor's worn off.
“…”
I brought bad memories back again. It’s happened today, yet it feels like months have passed. Don’t wanna think about it, so don’t think about it.
We all sat down, and began eating. Okay, good food yeets bad thoughts away.
Our family dinner continued as usual, but a unsettling feeling roused within me. I couldn’t put a finger on it.
The discussions ranged from absolutely mundane, to some random neighbor’s gain. Ten minutes in, yet the chills forever remained.
I’m forgetting something.
“No… he took a three million loan from the bank.”
What is it?
Snap!
“Three million? For planting seeds? Ho-wha- WHY?”
Yeah that is stupid. Wait no, I’m getting distracted.
“Mana, you make a lot of sounds when eating with chopsticks. You have ADHD or something?”
She paused with her mouth inflated with rice, hell, some of it remained on her lips too. She stared at me for a bit.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Brat.
You like sushi right? Happy staring as I savor whatever is left and see you suffe-
NONONONONONO!
What am I missing? What am I forgetting?
Snap!
Stop that sound already! It’s annoying me!
Food? Everything’s there. Nothing’s poisoned, none would work on me anyway. If I am to go by that madman, I have some form of immortality. At least that’s what he leads me to believe…
Wait. Madman?
"..."
"Eon, your eyes look scary."
Haha.
“Mom, Dad.”
Both paused. Well Dad didn’t stop his chewing — Mana definitely took that habit from him — but he put his attention on me.
Calm down. Calm down.
“We forgot our prayer?”
“…”
“Eon…” Dad spoke.
Snap!
“What prayer are you talking about?”