-----Delu POV----
I'm on my way to fetch Vylemor or else I'll be penalized. In our class, pairings were assigned to keep their partners in line. When we fail to behave like proper students, our punishment would be to serve as volunteers at school. Being a volunteer is difficult and a hassle because you will become like an errand boy. Every school clubs and organizations will pick on you and the rule is that you are not allowed to say no to it. This had been the school's tradition for senior high school students so that they can serve as good examples for the lower year levels.
"I said hey! Delu, why don't you just file a complaint about this already? You come here day after day after day just to drag him out and when you don't; he won't even show up to at least prevent you from being penalized." My friend Nabyuk had been concerned about my situation for a while now but honestly, I don't mind any of it at all.
"I'm fine Nabyuk. You can go ahead. I can handle this." "You better be or I'll file the complaint myself Delu." "Nabyuk!" Seriously, this girl can be very forceful when she wants to. She doesn't even talk about herself and here she is, acting like a middleman and all.
"I'm serious Delu. See you!" There, see? What was that about anyway? She didn't even stick until the end to find out how it would turn out.
I can't believe Vylemor won't pick up my calls or even take the time to reply my text messages. What's he up to anyway? It's probably nothing good. I dialled the number again then someone picked up.
"It is I." "Who are you Mesdames? What business do you have with Mr Vylemor? Wait, I think I heard that voice before. I'm on the verge of remembering but it just doesn't want to come out.
"I am Delu Decade, Vylemor's classmate. I just want to know where he is." "Oh, I think Vylemor is still at his house."
All of a sudden, another male voice can be heard from the end of the line, "Hey Karne! I thought you broke up with your girlfriend 3 days ago. What's with the secret phone call, your new girlfriend?" Now I remember! But how can that be? I've never even seen them talk or try to for that matter. And why would Karne be holding Vylemor's phone? The call cut after I heard Karne yell "You fool!" at the person who slipped a comment while the call was on going.
I've been a volunteer since back way when? Right, when Vylemor transferred to our school. I don't know if he's doing all of this on purpose because he's enjoying the thrill or just to get me in trouble but my usually clean record has been filled with red marks since then. I'm determined to change this; I won't allow him to drag this on forever anymore. I rang the gate but instead of a voice answering, it opened. It's actually my first time coming here because I always pick up Vylemor at the city's largest entertainment section where he spends most of his time. I didn't think that he would be at his home this time because my head is running with images of what kind of parents does the most troublesome kid in town have. The thing is that they've never shown their faces for even once in a while at school and I have never heard of them at all. Stretched from the gate to the front lawn are black array of roses with vertical red stripes. Now, I was wondering if the roses are real, for some reason I touched it to confirm my suspicion. It was real, how stupid of me. Before I could even reach the door, a very kind looking man, probably in his thirties invited me inside.
"My son is in his room this way. Would you like something to drink or perhaps a light snack? I must thank you for looking after my son because even Karne cannot keep him straight."
"I'm fine…" "Doctor Dechat" "Yes Mr Dr Dechat, I just came to make sure that Vylemor gets to school in time and as prim and proper as possible."
He led me to a room before waving me good luck and then he's gone. I was in before I knew it and I found Vylemor still asleep in his bed. My plan was to pull him out of bed but decided against it when I almost got my hand burned by how hot he is.
"Doctor, I told you I need some time to recover so please leave me alone for now pretty please."
I was out of the room like a hurricane before he could notice it was me. I told his father he's sick and he said that Vylemor slept in the rain yesterday like he always did when he's depressed. Depressed? I always thought he's not the type to be depressed. The doctor offered me a ride because if I walked, I would be late. Strange thing is that he did not inform the school about Vylemor's condition. Maybe because I know he is sick? No, the teachers acted like he never even existed. They never bothered to ask in the first place. What's going on here anyway?
"So where is that antisocial vagabond? Where is he? I need to spank his head hard so it can work properly." There she goes again. Sometimes, it occurs to me that maybe Nabyuk got closer to me so she can talk about Vylemor all day and every time she gets the chance to.
"The poor guy is sick. If you want, you can go visit him." I kept walking towards the classroom while Nabyuk followed me like a homing missile.
"I have a hard time believing that," she said as though I was joking. "Didn't they send any excuse letter or something?" There goes that unusual observation of mine.
"Well, no but we have another eccentric guy who will join our class today." Nabyuk suddenly changed her tone to one of those probing, news scanner behaviour of hers when she's found a new subject for an information x-ray.
Darn right! He's just like Vylemor; the gleam in his eyes tells you that he doesn't even care as if nothing interests him at all. He took the seat in front where nobody wanted to occupy because they'd be too close to the teacher. If that's how it goes for you then fine, I'm not interested with people who are so full of themselves. [Rage: I am called Ragens. I don't know if you can keep up with me but I hope that somewhat you humans can entertain me a tiny bit before I get bored.] Humans my eyes! Not even a single word of greetings!
"Nabyuk, would you mind explaining to me why we are following this vegetable?" I know right. We've been on Ragens's trail since ten minutes ago and I have a bad feeling about this.
"Relax Delu, it's not like we're stalking him. Yes we're not stalking him. We are just making sure that our new classmate gets home safe. Since he is a new student then perhaps he is new to this place as well. As a member of the student council, I must fulfil my duty anyway I can."
"Isn't that a misuse of authority?" I'm safe. Surely Nabyuk won't go about reciting a two-hour speech just to make sure that I believe her.
"Come on! We're going to lose our target." She hit my back so hard that I was choking on nothing.
"Nabyuk, I think I know where he lives." My hunch was right; I have been on this path where two enormous mansions stood at the edge of the city on top of a hill. There are black flowers for one and red flowers for the other. There's no boundary between them and the backyard is wide with grass all over it.
"I know what you mean. He is a neighbour to Vylemor right?" Nabyuk turned her probing gaze to me and I couldn't help but feel as though I am in a hot seat. That's how she makes everyone turn away their gaze with just her eyes but only a handful has experienced it. She's got this whole aura thing which you can only feel but to her credit, only few people catches her interest while all others had always been background characters for her stage.
"How…" How in the world did she know where Vylemor lives? I've never told her before about where he lives.
"Delu, I'm in the newspaper club remember?" God, I hate it when people sigh on me. It feels like I'm too dumb to understand what they're saying. But I'm sure Nabyuk must have put a tail on Vylemor to know this much. She's great at tracking people and uncovering secrets that's why I'm being very careful around her even if she is my friend.
"So Nabyuk is a member of the Newspaper club while Delu is a member of the Volunteers club?" Pickles and sandwiches! Vylemor caught us eavesdropping on the gate and he got the nerve to make fun of me.
"Vylemor i…" I always hated making excuses as I always prefer to remain silent but I don't enjoy it when people make half-baked assumptions about me.
"Vylemor, you didn't tell us that we have a new classmate and he's your neighbour. I suppose that I have to have an interview with you." I nearly hit my nose on the gate and got my head stuck on it instead. I can't believe Nabyuk didn't notice that she pushed me because of her excitement. They've been talking like I wasn't even there. My embarrassment couldn't have been worse if it weren't for Ragens who appeared out of nowhere, riding a bicycle while sipping on a boxed milk. He just stopped on his track without saying anything after noticing me and then looked over to Nabyuk and Vylemor who were having a conversation. He took a headphone from his pack, placed it on his ear, used his hands as braces on the bicycle head and rested his head on it with eyes closed. By then, I was silently cursing the three people who might actually be ignoring me when a woman in her twenties came from behind Ragens and smacked him in the head.
"Aunt Arte!" Ragens rubbed his head while looking so innocent. The two behind me finally noticed my awkward position and hurried to come to my aid, removing my tangled hair from the gate.
"Oh no, what happened to you?" Nabyuk couldn't have been much worse for she doesn't know her guilty sin but I couldn't believe that Ragens would ignore me as well. Any normal person would lend a hand. I know that even if an invalid were to pass, they would surely come to my aid immediately. However, my greatest concern was that they accused me of trying to enter the estate through the space on the gate. All of them did so I told them what truly transpired. Since that horrendous tragedy of my life, I don't really know if the three of my classmates were even sorry for me. All that I know is that it turned into a big gathering on the night it happened.
Now then, I actually think I might just be acting and treated this more like a drama. Which of the two is me; my subconscious or the one at the surface? 'At any rate, let the play sew a melody for which era is of no consequence nor any space accumulated over the void.'
My home is at the foot of the mountain while Nabyuk conveniently separated from me without warning. She always does. The first time she did, I totally did a clean search of the city. The next morning, she walked side by side with me and I didn't even notice until she spoke up. 'This kind of life is boring, don't you agree?'
'How convenient of you to make an appearance after what you made me do, you ghost.' I sped up with my walking until she had to hurry up to catch up with me just to argue.
'Some people don't make such corny hellos and goodbyes. I should inform you just in case you didn't know; I am one of the few.'
After that, she disappeared and I never saw her again. When the bell rang and it was time to go home, someone tripped me deliberately as I nearly bumped into somebody's posterior. The only difference is that the 'someone' who tripped me managed to grab my hood and redirect the impact point.
'Are you just going to leave without me you drama queen?' Grant it, I was chocking like a strangled rabbit.
Of course I knew who was responsible for such an embarrassing act. No one has ever done such a thing to me in my entire life save Nabyuk. She appears to be rude, mean and more of a bully but Nabyuk was just being Nabyuk. 'I told you to call me Delu and if you try that ever again, I will shove your face in a horse's feet.'
'Mercy, I fail at remembering names and numbers so if you want me to remember yours, perhaps you can scribble it on your forehead. In that way, I will not address you by how you act.' She went ahead of me before speaking once again, 'and by the way, it's better to be shoved in a horse's feet than to be shoved in your friend's fist.' Once again, she was gone. The prick managed to get one at me. Though, I cannot disagree with her entirely.
'What a truly boring routine indeed.' It felt like a waste of time. I don't know which is but things just didn't feel the way I envisioned them to be. How do people live anyway? What is it that makes things fit in with the set or perhaps, the flow of the world? I'd been playing the good girl act but all of it is just so tiring and boring, I wished for more actions. All this spoon feeding lessons make people fat and grumpy all the time.
'Hey there Delu how's school?' My stepmom peered from the kitchen. She looked far more ill each passing day. She worked nonstop judging from how she behaves at home and how late she arrives from work.
'School, well, school is the same as usual.' I went straight to my room to get changed and then went down to join my mom.
'So how did your visit with your classmate go? News from that area of the city is rather rare and unheard off. Were they a good host for you and your friend?'
'From what they had told us, Vylemor's father is a private Doctor and their neighbour is a police detective. Apparently, both are acting as single parents to both classmates of mine. They are well as host to us and we don't have any problems connecting at all. The doctor is a gentle and kind father figure while the police detective is a tattletale who could befriend anybody if she so desires. How about you mother, how did work go for you?'
Why do people love sacrificing themselves? What is so great with martyrdom when the person you do it for is sad in the process? My mother fell asleep from exhaustion, I don't even know if she had eaten yet. I knew she's trying to fulfil her role for me but I didn't ask to be doted to the point that I look like a parasite sucking the life out of her. The problem is that when I try to do all the chores at home, she'd find another way to work herself out by helping out someone else entirely. I couldn't bring myself to speak to her about it because we weren't that close before.
I put a blanket on her and went outside to harvest young chayote leaves for dinner. I ventured the nearby river for some tasty fern sprouts because it was the rainy season. Just because I was extra spirited that day, I hunted for some crabs by pulling up rocks near the bank. I had a most bountiful harvest so I decided to be the cook for once. I don't really fit in with the crowd so instead of going shopping I always prefer to go hunting or gathering somewhere less people venture into. It was a hundred and a half meter walk but I trekked farther places, deeper into the woods than just the river so it's not a big deal.
I placed my harvest on the table and began cleaning them. The next was to proceed with the cooking to which I had no idea on how to make things work with just my humanly brain. I decided on two dishes; one dry and one wet. First that I did was to boil the crab for some time before putting the fern sprouts. Then it hit me like a boulder, 'I forgot to put oil and spice first before boiling the crab and the fern sprout!'
I really miss my father's cooking now that I remember it. He was always the best in everything that he did and he always boasted it to anyone in particular. I made quick work with what I forgot and proceeded with my next dish. 'How do I cook sayote leaves dry?'
I thought of all the dry foods I've eaten. 'Let's see, should I toast it or fry it. What spice do we have here? Ketchup, Mang Tomas, mayonnaise, cheese… I know my favourite, soy sauce!'
I fried the sayote leaves until crisped and then served them on the table with the hot rice. I've never seen a person eat without rice and a sunny side egg on it. I'm not really fond of bacon that much though because it is sweet and I like salty or chilli.
'Hey mom, wake up. Let's eat dinner. I cooked a heaping helping of it for this night. I hope you like it.'
My mother is a very light sleeper even with all the exhaustion and sleepiness. She followed me to the table, 'Oh goodness, how very thoughtful of you. You didn't have to travel that far to get all these. You could've just cooked some three minute or ready to eat food from the fridge.'
I gave her a proud smile meant for myself, 'I had the itch to visit them again, the places that reminded me of father. He was the one who showed the places to me. Sometimes we go foraging or hunting some bugs when they're in season. At times, we'd soak in the fields to pick up some field snail and field oysters. Those were the foods we'd go to the trouble of travelling to far places just to get. The forest is just as filled with berries and fern fruits plus all the medicinal plants we tried to reproduce. I didn't like his fondness for snake meat though nor do I have the heart to eat a bird's egg.'
I heard her laugh at my dislike towards snakes and bird eggs but when I looked at her she was crying, 'was it his idea to fry sayote leaves too?'
I understand the reason why she's crying but I don't understand why fried leaves aren't added on the normal list of recipes in alike to French fries. 'Unfortunately, that is my original dish which I pair up with soy sauce while the crispness is glistening with oil.' I mixed the fried sayote leaves along with the sunny side up egg and rice to a good drop of soy sauce. I tasted it and I was correct in my imagination, the combination is impeccable. I can feel the super thin crispness of the leaves as they break in my mouth, the egg, the aromatic rice and the soy sauce which perfects it all. I couldn't help but relish in the sensations of my gourmet genius.
'I had thought so. I see that you find it to your liking and I am sure that I would like to taste all the ingredients in which you spoke off that reminds you of your father.' She dabbed her eyes with her sleeves and reached for the crabs gathered on her plate like a heap of them hadn't been reduced to mere shells already.
'I didn't know you liked crabs, mom.'
'Perhaps it is affiliated with nostalgia like how the place you visit with your father reminds you of him. Crabs remind me of my hometown by the sea where your father invited me to have a tour here in Dinas Torres. In the end, I ended up marrying him and never actually got a tour of the place.'
I sympathized with her greatly but we're both in the same situation and there's nothing we can do but accept it all. The only thing we can do for each other now is be with each other's side. 'Mother, I know it's probably late for me to say this now but… Please take care of your health and don't work too hard. You've got a whole barangays of a family waiting for you to visit them someday.'
My mother got teary eyed once again unlike me who seemed to have trouble expressing my feelings. The times I cried was when my head got bashed with a rock during grade one and when I felt sad for the ducks that got killed and served for a family gathering during grade three.