"How are you doing, Tha?" It was just a lip service.
I smiled and told him I was fine. Then, I chose to chat with him.
"Ryu, how is your wife?" Mother interrupted our chats. I looked at his confused expression, "I heard she was sick after she had the baby. Is she alright now?" as she asked she kept her eyes fixed on mobile phone screen as if she did not care for him at all. I sighed looking at her behavior.
"Fine. She got well and can go back to work," he replied short.
She nodded, then turned to me. Her gaze was so serious, "Tha, you father said that you made a mistake with the wizard group?!" her voice was intimidating. "Is it true that you have stolen something from them, and killed one of them? Don't you know that your father has tried so hard to convince them not to chase you and to catch you? Why can't you stop looking for troubles since you were a kid? I am wondering what I have to do with you,"
My smile was wry and my brother gave his shock look. 'Damn! I should have shoot his head, too!' I swore silently.
"Yes, I killed one of them," I stared into her eyes, "Just as they did to Zie. Tooth is for tooth, blood is for blood. I am not a fourteen years old girl who cn be used as experiment for the wizard pack of father." She stood up and slapped my face, but I caught her hand. my brother wanted to split us, but I signaled him to stop. "You can love that man, I don't mind a bit. But just don't sacrifice us," I turned my eyes to the man whose body circulated the same blood as in mine. "Don't judge me by listening to one side and ignoring another side. Mom, your status is only the wife of that man but the mother of ours. Don't put your children at stake anymore." I said firmly. Then I let her hand go.
Not long after that, someone came to our table. He was my father, with his belittled and mocking look. My brother chose to bend down his head and keep silent knowing all that.
"Tha, how are your friends doing?" it was another lip service, "They still have their body intact?!"
I smiled, but not to greet him, instead, it was to convince myself I could face this demon. "He is very good now," I let go off my eyes from fear of him, "I believed you group that you sent got difficulties to find himnow," I was still displaying my fake smile, "Father, Hows that hooker doing so far? Have you buried her body?" My mother looked confused to what i talked with father. She looked at us in turn. It was obvious that we were talking about things father had not informed her yet. "she was beautiful, too bad she faced a tragic death,"
I grimaced when I saw him standing and wanted to hit me, but my mother's question stopped him, "What are you talking about, Tha?"
"Didn't he tell you that he was with, hmm…," I left my words unfinished.
Mother stared at father, looking for explanation, "What does it mean? You did not tell me anything,"
"He was with another woman," I told her the truth, "Mom, I went to see him. I did expect him to help me. But that expectation was too high. I found out that his group wanted to kill me, instead," I showed her my arms full of marks of scratches.
"You are a thief!" he accused me. "She took the object for the experiments, then she ran away with two witch animals." He spoke as if I was the culprit.
"I did not!" I cut it, "You wanted Zie so that you could be admitted again in that group. Kerberos knew that. He asked me to leave his house. And since then, your group keeps hunting me. Fortunately, the doll is not with us anymore, and they are losing track of him, now," I tried to tell my mother the whole story, "Father is never changed, but keep hoping the false dream,"
"Tha!," Mother interrupted, while my brother sat still without any words.
"Now I know why you invited me. You want to help father to find that doll." I glanced at him, "He is not with me anymore. Kerberos has taken him to the spirit realm. We have found ways to split that spirit from that wooden body," Mother looked confused, but I did not want to detail that to her, "Mom, if father were successful to bring that doll, he would gain trust from his group, then he would leave you for another woman. Unfortunately, I killed her first," I smiled triumphantly when I saw anger in his face.
Mother stared at him demanding an explanation, "Who was she?" she threatened.
"She is one of the witches from his group," I replied faster because he was unable to reply her.
I glanced at my watch. It was 1.30, it was fifteen minutes later than I expected. "Sorry, but I have to go back to work," I stood and left them without waiting for their approvals.
…
I went back to the florist with mixed up emotion. One big question was how father would tell that to mother? Did he really want Zie to gain that trust back? But why did he have to slander me?
It was really confusing me. I really did not understand his thoughts.
"You are looking awful, kid," Mickey was sitting in front of me, "You just met your parents, you are supposed to be happy, aren't you?" I sighed. Yes, I was supposed to, but it worked on the other way around.
I stroke that tubby cat's hair, and he looked happy. I could hear his soft purr. "Yes, I was supposed to. But today it was awful. I cannot imagine how that family meeting will work later," I gave in.
"I guess it was not a good meeting today," his sapphire eyes were searching. "What did your father do to you?" he was curious.
"I cannot tell you right now," I spoke softly and smiled to him. "Trust me, I still can handle it," I tried to convince him and I hope he believed me.
…
Today we did not have many buyers and the good thing was I had to replace flowers in two different offices. Miko, Emma's driver, helped me do that job the whole day today. We usually did it with three of us, so it felt much hard with two of us today.
We dropped by in a restaurant not far from the office we just visited. While eating our food, Miko told a lot about weird things I was not familiar with. Witches, magic spells, rituals, until he mentioned Zarina. At once, it attracted me. Kami memutuskan untuk mampir di sebuah restoran yang tak jauh dari tempat mengantar.
"People said she was very beautiful, the most beautiful witch ever lived," he told enthusiastically.
I still remembered very well Kerberos and Mickey said that Zarina had horrible scars on her face, 'Is it the same Zarina? My heart wondered.
While eating, I still listened carefully to Miko's chatters. He talked many things about such stuffs. I was wondering where he got all that information.
Almost all what he said was correct, about rituals and about human sacrifice, fire lily that became a must when proposing a request. I did not ask back because it might make Miko suspicious that I knew something about it. I would rather listen to gather more information.
"Tha, do you know that fire lily was used to be looked after by one of the Manjis?" I shook as the answer. "There used to be three Manjis, two of whom had no eye balls so that they could not see the fire lily. But the other one was different. She could see, so she became the only one could choose precisely the right flower. Perhaps that was the reason why Zarina wanted to kill her. But the Manjis fought back which made Zarina had a horrible wound on her face," that was quite make sense I guess.
It felt like scattering puzzles in front of me eventually fitted to one another, the connection of fire lily with Zarina and the Manjis, the rituals that used fire lily a mandatory requirement for making a request, and where the horrible scars for Zaruina were from. I guess it was not a story told by ordinary people.