"Issac," Araya said, staring at her brother looking blankly out the window of the living room. "Issac!"
"What?" He turned to her yawning. "Do you want something?"
"Yes." She said, walking to him as she slammed her hand on the table. "Go to bed and stop drinking only syrup!"
She snatched the almost empty bottle of syrup from the man's hands and walked to the cabinet.
"Why do I need to go to bed?" he asked, standing up as carefully as he could with the bandages wrapped all over his torso constricted his breathing.
He wore a black dress shirt with simple, stretchy brown khakis and some random shoes she pulled out of nowhere.
Hands on her hips, she looked at him cynically, "Look at yourself move and then ask that question again. Go rest. You only woke up yesterday."
"I am fine." He said dismissively. "Besides, I need to go to work."
"You are not going to work in that condition." She said as he walked to the door, grabbing his keys. "Are you listening to me?"
"Araya. Father left something behind when he died. What do you know about it?" He asked, looking into her eyes as he tried to observe her reaction.
"I don't remember anything." She said, holding eye contact.
Heart rate is normal and she does not look like she is lying. Issac concluded.
"Ok." He said, opening the door of the house. "I will be gone a while. And I have a favour to ask of you."
"Why would I do it for you?" She asked, sighing. "You never listen to me."
"I will get you that imported spices you wanted so bad before." He said, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.
Araya scoffed, "You will not be able to get them ... right?"
"You will be surprised with the people I know." He twirled the keys in his fingers. "But I will only do that if you can find that person for me."
"When do you want them found by?" She asked, giving in.
"The sooner you find them, the sooner you will get it." He said giving her a blank smile. "Tonight is fine too."
"Fine. I don't have anything to do anyway." Araya took off the apron she wore and began pushing her hair out of the way of her face.
"Here." Issac grabbed a clothespin and threw it at her. She caught it with ease and used that to hold her hair up.
Sticking her hand into her left eye, she pulled the glass eye out and dug inside again, pulling out an orb similar to the one that Issac pulled out but hers has a tiny leaf embedded inside.
"This shouldn't take long." She said, turning to Issac as the blood rolled down her black hole of an eye. "What are you still standing there for? Go."
"I am not used to other people doing that. I can see why they would feel uncomfortable now." He said, pursing his lips. "I will leave you to it then. Bye. You know where to contact me in."
"Ok." She said as he closed the door behind him.
___________________
"Yes. I am on my way, please wait for me at the door. Yes. I am very sorry. I did not expect the traffic to be this bad. Thank you for your understanding."
Sighing heavily, Issac kept the phone down while he stared at the long line of vehicles in front and beside him as the honking grew from the impatient drivers.
Issac ignored all that and looked at his gloved hands before balling them into fists.
She lied to me. He thought, as her memory flashed across his mind's eye.
It was very short but he knew what he saw. It was the garden painted on his wall that Araya stood in. There was a small cottage that she and the old man entered in.
Dread filled her when they entered the cottage covered with overgrown plants and creepers. But he does not know anything else from there.
I don't know what this is or why I suddenly have it. But … maybe I can make use of it for the time being.
First, trial and error. The vehicles began to move once again and Issac picked up his speed as a slight smile came on his face. Good thing I work as a psychiatrist.
Oh. Must not forget my glasses.
____________
"I see, and how does that make you feel?" Issac said, sucking on a lollipop as he looked over his glasses, the thin gold chains that hung down from the side matched the gold rims to a T.
They complement his twin brown eyes perfectly.
The old woman sitting in front of him with her husband stared at the man as smiled at her.
"Ma'am?" he asked, putting the clipboard in his hands down. "I was addressing you."
"A-ah." She said suddenly, snapped out of her trance. "Apologies. Do you have a girlfriend at the moment?"
"Dear." Her husband sighed, leaning back against the couch. "I apologise on behalf of my wife. She can be a bit … intrusive."
"I do not mind," Issac said, holding his gloveless hand out to her and she took it in a heartbeat. "What are you thinking about now?"
"Just the world in general." She said softly as Issac smiled and nodded at her.
"I see. The world is a … vast … topic."
"I know." She grinned at him as he pulled his hand away as gently as he could. "If you do not have a girlfriend, I can introduce my granddaughter to you."
"Oh?" He said, writing on his clipboard as calmly as possible while trying not to go to the sink that very second.
"Yes, she is still in college at the moment, studying to be a lawyer." She said proudly. "Do you know, she is the first from my family that has made it past high school?"
"That is impressive," Issac said, pushing his glasses up as he made eye contact with the husband slowly falling asleep. "I do believe your husband is tired."
The woman turned to the man, sighing in annoyance as she slapped his thigh, jolting him awake.
"We are in a clinic." She scolded and then turned to Issac. "This is why I do not like going anywhere with him. He always finds ways to embarrass me."
"You are embarrassing yourself, woman." The man grunted. "Talking that way you do about your husband, where is the respect?"
"I will give you respect, when you tell me one reason I should respect you besides the fact that you are my husband." She argued back as Issac watched the exchange, fingers rubbing against the armrest.
He glanced up at the clock and turned to the two, "Ok. It is 2:46 already. I think we are a little beyond our session but I will not be charging more."
"Aw~. What a sweetheart." The woman said, pinching Issac gently on the cheek.
"I am merely doing my job, ma'am." He said, gripping the clipboard like he was about to rip it in two as he stood up. "Same time next week."
"Ok." She said standing up with her husband who looked at Issac dully.
"I apologise again." He said as they walked out the door in complete silence.
Issac watched them until they drove away, no matter how much he wanted to go inside and close up already.
After a final wave, he dropped his smile and closed the door, locking it as he took off his clothes, folding them and then shoving them into a bag at the corner of the room.
He jumped into the bathroom, not the common one that guests use, and began washing up as he scrubbed every inch of his body as hard as he could.
Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.
He felt her warm hand lingering on his cheek and subconsciously began rubbing it with the loofa as hard as he could. A sharp pain in his side stopped him from scrubbing the skin off his face accidentally.
He looked down to see the reopened wound, now stitched close again, and forced himself to calm down.
Running his hands through his hair he took in one deep breath before releasing it again. And again.
While steam filled the room from the hot water flowing from the showerhead just above him.
___________
"Ow," he remarked, wrapping himself in fresh bandages after disinfecting the wound again while sitting on the couch.
Satisfied, he wore the spare shirt he kept in his office and walked over to his desk to read the clipboard and put his glasses on while pulling a chocolate bar from one of the drawers.
"Mr and Mrs Tombow." he read out their names. Just then, the memory of what he saw when they touched hands made him shiver.
She was having an entire music video play in her mind with just Issac smiling at her replaying over and over again.
There was a moment where the vision changed and he was in a suit, getting married to a woman he could only presume to be her granddaughter.
Issac sighed, flopping down on the couch as he noted down more of his observations.
Adding to the list he complied just from that day itself and underlined it five times.
*No control over what you see in a person's mind*.
This is going to be harder than I thought it would be. He remarked, looking at his hands. I have taken a bath seven times today already. Will I be able to keep doing this?
Ding!
A message appeared on his phone and, reading it, Issac quickly stood to his feet, almost doubling over as he felt something tear at his side.
Ignoring it, he took his coat and walked out of the clinic as quickly as he could, remembering to lock it behind him.
Tossing his phone into his car, the message he opened was still visible. It is from Araya.
"Found him."