I moved on the path of the to the village as I remembered in my memories. I came across various mud clad houses and then dragged myself with the wooden stick across the mud houses for almost 30 steps, then came the lane of cemented houses.
Then the familiar view of a blue colored house came from the third house among the line of the houses in the right side. The lights were still lit up at this hour of time.
"H-h…ome!" the words came out of my mouth as if it was natural.
Then I dragged myself to the house and my hands reached to the button of the door bell on its own. This feeling of familiarity was too much soothing to my heart and in a way, it felt… good.
"Coming!" a sweet childish voice spoke. Then the door flung opened. A small tiny figure as tall as my knees with a cute face and deep yellow hair and sharp teeth stared at me. Even though I was not able to know who it was, but there was a tint of familiarity that I could feel from her.
"May I know what you need?" the little girl asked with her sweet voice which was quite refreshing to hear.
I on the other hand did not had much energy and was too tired to talk with her.
"Yuki! Who is it?" said a voice coming from within the house. The was that of the of a woman with an elegant tone. I felt this voice to be somewhat familiar. Then the word came in my mind, 'mother'. I remembered; it was the voice of my mother. It felt like ages since the last time I had heard this voice. Tears rolled out of my cheeks.
"Um… Mom! Some stranger with ragged clothes is in front of the door and is crying and also… I guess that he is a mute." said the little girl named Yuki.
Then a young-looking lady came carrying a plate in her hands and polishing it with a white cloth.
"What are you talking Yuki? How could there…" her words stopped midways as her eyes met with my face. When the lady saw my face, tears rolled from her cheeks and the plate she was carrying dropped on the ground. She, spoke in a broken voice, "K-K-Ka…te!"
"W-Where… have you been… these years?" she asked to me with great pain.
With the last bit of my voice, I spoke the word, "M-Mo…t-ther…" After saying those words, I fainted in front of the door.
"KATE!!!" she screamed as she saw me fainting in front of the door.
She ran and grabbed me with her hands as I was falling. The warmth of her touch, the fragrance of her smell, it soothed my heart in an incomprehensible way. These were the last things that I could remember before getting unconscious.
Everywhere around became dark, I was not able to see, feel or hear anything. Then came the memories, exploding again in my head, I screamed upon in the endless darkness as I felt the endless pain. Now the memories were much clearer than previously.
I could see the happy childhood time I had with my dad, mom, brother and sister. I could see the smiling faces of my family members, then the images changed to that of my so called "best friend" of mine back then when I was having a good time up to time I was betrayed by her.
After this much memories, my consciousness came about. I was in a room, it felt familiar. It was… my room as I saw that the structure was the same as of that in my memories.
No matter how hard I tried, I could not remember anything after the incident of betrayal back then.
As I looked around, I say my mother lying by my side and the girl named Yuki was sleeping soundly on the sofa of the room. I tried to lift myself up, "It seems that my strength is back." I spoke.
My mother woke up. "Kate… KATE!!" she screamed, and there came the voice of Yuki in her sleeping state, "Umm… please… I don't want… more chicken drumsticks."
Then mother calmed down and spoke in lower voice, "Lets get out of this room and talk." she said and I agreed to her words with a nod.
Then I got up and we both left the room, as we reached the main hall of the house, we stopped. She asked, "Kate… where have you been for these five years?"
"It is already five years?" I murmured. I thought of this for a while and then a feeling came to me that it was way more than five years. But the feeling itself was too odd to think.
"Forget it." she said, "What happened to you back then and why did you… left us? she asked with a said face.
As she asked this question, my mind was completely broken and my heart was in peril, there was only the negative emotions of hatred, wrath and pain that I could feel now. It was too painful that I lowered my forehead, pressing it with my hands and gritting my teeth hard.
"Kate are you alright? If you do not want to say it now, you can say…" as she was about to complete her sentence, I screamed in complete pain, "Aaarrrggg!!!"
"Kate!! Calm down!" she approached.
"I… I… I WAS THROWN INTO THE ENDLESS ABYSS BY MY VERY BEST FRIEND!!!" I screamed with great pain in heart. The endless cry of mine that was flowing out like a river changed it colors to red and it was now the dark red blood flowing out of my eyes. The pain was too much unbearable and I desired to die rather than to feel this pain.
Then, a feeling of warmth touched me. I could feel my state of mind was calming down little by little. I could feel the broken heart of mine soothing. As I saw up, it was my mother, she was pressing herself towards me and giving me a tight hug. This feeling... was the feeling of happiness.
"Its all right now Kate. Now you are back… no one can break our family ever again. It does not matter, what had been in the past let it remain in past."
Her words were cutting my feelings of hate and anger as she spoke. I could feel much calmer and better from before.
"Hum…" I spoke with a calm and lowered voice.
"Ok now! Kate go and take a shower, the smell of stink coming from you is too much to bear." She now started to tease.
"Mom!" she spoiled my mood. But I could not argue with her on this as even I could feel the stinky smell from me. So, without saying more I went to the bathroom to have a shower.
After having my bath, I shaved my overgrown hair. As I saw the image of mine in the wash basin mirror, I could see my figure clearly. I have medium height, pale skinned, sharp teeth like that of my father and dark black fluffy hair and of course with a handsome face, as I was checking myself out I saw that I have a scar on my back, I was not able to remember when it occured.
There were various things which I could not understand and felt awkward with. The thing which was the weirdest was that even though my sight was pretty clear, it felt as if it was way too unclear for me to see clearly. Well those matters were not something that I wanted now to ponder upon too much.
Then I came out of the bathroom. Mother was standing right by the side of the door with some clothes in her hands. "Here, for now, make use of the clothes if Kelvin."
Then the curiosities of my mind came about and I asked, "Mom, where are Yumi, Kelvin and dad. Also… who is that girl named Yuki?"
"Well, how bad of me! I almost forgot to inform you about this matter." She spoke.
"Your dad, brother and sister Yumi are doing fine and they are in the Taixing city. Your dad had found a better job there and that brother and sister duo of yours have gone with your dad too for academic purposes. We too were planning to leave within a week. Good thing you came before the date of departure. And as for that little child Yuki, she is your very own second sister and is two years old in age." she answered my question.
"What??" I was confused with excitement. "My own sister?"
"Yes, your own sister." she answered my question with a smile.
"Now go and sleep, its already mid-night." She said while yawning.
"Ok mum." I returned to my room. I saw my little cute sister almost about to fall from the sofa in her sleep, but before she could fall mom grabbed her.
"How about you sleep with her for tonight sharing the bed? She does not have a habit for sleeping on the sofa and might fall off and, after all she is your own sister."
"All right." I replied.
Then mom placed Yuki by my side and I place the blanket upon her and lied down myself.
The face of my little cute sister near me and that to in her sleeping state was too much refreshing and good to see for my heart. Without much of a further eddo, I too closed my eyes and fell in my deep slumber as I was too tired.
This feeling of secureness and happiness when being with my family is something which I feel I had been in desire of for a long time. I wish to cherish this happiness and wanted look up to the wondrous tomorrow that has to come. But I still have thoughts of how long will this happiness last. Also there was a feeling that I had completely forgotten about something very important and something precious to my heart. But yet I was not able to understand it for now and could only hope to remember all my memories soon enough.
****************