Sitting on the chair, I looked at the bowl of warm soup in front of us. It was her signature rock soup. Made with special rocks harvested from a clean spot in a nearby river, the rocks were then boiled in a bowl together with some seasoning leaves for a salty and rich flavor.
Causally scooping up the soup with a spoon and sipping it with great joy, I saw Frank and Ralph smile nostalgically. However, unlike the two of them, Linel glanced wearily at the soup before taking a small taste.
"How interesting!"
His eyes lighting up, he exclaimed as he took a larger scoop of the soup.
"Right! It takes a while to cook, but it's one of my Mom's best recipes!"
Bragging to the three of them, we quickly finished off the soup and drink before carrying them to the kitchen to wash.
"You four can go back to playing, I'll wash."
Standing up slowly from the table, my mother reached out her hand to take our bowls. However, in a playful manner, I pulled the bowls away from her reach and smiled at her.
"We can wash it ourselves. You sit down and rest."
Without giving her time to react, I plucked the bowls from the other's hands and rushed towards the sink.
Hearing a half-laugh-half-sigh from behind me, I quickly cleaned up before we retreated back to the room.
"Are your mother's legs alright?"
As soon as the door closed behind us, Linel whispered in as soft a voice as possible. Frank, who knew the whole story, showed no expression as he walked over to the bookshelf to pull out a news book.
I sat down on the floor and signaled for the two of them to sit as well.
"To be brief, when my brother was diagnosed with MDVA, our family of three were hit pretty hard by his passing. At that time, we had moved into this apartment for less than a year and were just getting settled in. Luckily for us, Dara was a lifesaver in waiving off a lot of our piled up rent and not charging interest even when my Dad lost his job. During those times, my Mom also quit. And that was when a neighbor of ours also pitched in to help us."
Speaking up until here, Frank sat down next to me and placed down a news book. It was turned to a page where Camellia's son, Eren, was smiling brightly in his photo. His sunny grin a chilling contrast to the contents of the article.The title was '6 Missing Children last seen around Middle Street, Report if seen'.
"Unfortunately, her son was involved in a kidnapping incident and was brought to Bottom street. One good thing was that her husband is a police officer so they managed to find and rescue him quickly. But it wasn't quick enough. The doctor had said that the traumatic incident had caused him to develop MDVA, and he was sent to the euthanasia center the day he was saved."
Frank flipped the page as I ended my sentence to another article, a couple days later. 'Boy kidnapped to Bottom street diagnosed with MDVA'.
"It was during the rescue operation that Mom hurt her leg. The neighbor also didn't get away without any injuries, but in exchange they managed to save many children that day."
Although they couldn't save their own children.
Breaking my eyes away from the news book, Frank closed it as I finished my explanation and set it aside. The atmosphere in the room had turned solemn again.
As I peeked at their faces to gauge their reactions, I was surprised at the two different scenes in front of me.
Linel, although usually cheerful and bright, had a dark look in his eye. His teeth were clenched, his knuckles white, and I could almost feel the rage radiating off of him.
Ralph was the opposite. He was as calm as ever, but his eyes shone with sadness at the tragedy that had taken place where he used to live. However, judging from how unsurprised he was, I guess that such incidents were not too rare in Bottom street.
"Linel, are you alright?"
Slightly intimidated by his furious look, Frank asked timidly from the side. His worried tone snapped Linel from the fire that seemed to consume him, and Linel returned back to his smiling and cheerful persona.
"Yeah I'm fine."
Beside Linel, Ralph's gaze slowly panned over to the news book Frank put aside and he leaned over to take it. Flipping through the pages of the book, he stopped at the article with Eren's face and gazed hard at it. He then closed the book and stood up to return it to the shelf.
"Could you tell me more about the kidnapping incident?"
Leaning forward, Linel asked me with a serious look on his face.
"Of course, it's fine if you don't feel comfortable talking about it."
Suddenly realizing he was too close, Linel straightened his back.
"Sorry. I was house sitting throughout that incident. My Mom didn't allow me to go, and I also stayed in case Eren managed to escape and make his way back to the apartment building."
Hearing my answer, I saw Linel deflate like a burst balloon. He seemed disappointed in my answer, and even sneaked a glance to the door. But then he shook his head and forced his focus back to our group.
At the side, Frank took the pile of boxes and handed them out.
"We should continue where we left off."
Smiling, he passed the boxes around until we each had one, and when we were all properly sat down in a circle, he suggested one of the games I had introduced earlier. Putting the heavy topics behind us, the four of us distracted ourselves with several games. In fact we were so distracted that we lost track of the time.
"Boys! It's getting dark!"
In the middle of one of our rounds, we heard my mother's shout from outside and paused.
"Sure! Just one more round!"
Shouting back at her, we quickly finished up the final round of the game before packing up.
"See you tomorrow!"
Linel and Frank waved at us as they descended the stairs.
"See you!"
Waving back at him, I waited until we could no longer see their figures before turning to Ralph.
"Want to stay at our house until your mother comes home?"
Looking at me, Ralph nodded his head slightly and leaned forward to slip his hands into mine.
"Then let's go!"
The two of us turned around and were about to reach my apartment when I saw the Justice's apartment door swing open slowly. Then, to my surprise, I heard the familiar slow footsteps of Camellia as she stepped out of her house.
"Do you boys want to come over instead?"
Seeing her gentle smile, I paused in shock for a couple of seconds before nodding my head.
"Then come in!"
Waving her hand in a beckoning motion, the two of us followed her into her house.
The Justice apartment had a similar layout to ours. With a decent sized kitchen at the back next to the only toilet in the house, and a living room in front of that kitchen that was also connected to the three bedrooms.
"Sit here, I'll prepare some drinks for the two of you."
Camellia gestured at the hand-carved chairs at the living room table as she entered the kitchen.
Turning my head, I quietly observed her house. Previously, before Eren passed away, Leo and I had come over frequently to play. After all, Eren was the child closest to his age in this entire apartment. At that time, the house was bubbly, warm, and inviting. It had a colorful interior design with playful scrawls hung up on photo frames and childish laughter radiating from the walls.
It was full of life. And I was afraid that after Eren's passing, that feeling would be gone.
Looking around, I recognised the same old scrawls and crayon drawings littering the house. Except this time, the house was more gloomy, more quiet. The childish laughter had disappeared, replaced with a cold imitation. Like the 'breath' of a person who was already gone.
Turning my head, I saw Ralph glance around at the interior design of the house with serious eyes. It was like he was trying to remember the person who had been here through what they had left behind, and carve those remnants into his heart so they could live on in him.
"I hope the two of you don't mind some simple juice."
Carrying two glasses of orange colored juice from the kitchen, Camellia set them in front of us and sat opposite us.
We carefully held the precious juice in our hands and sipped on it, savoring the taste.
"Ralph, was it?"
Without even introducing herself, Camellia went straight to the reason why she called us in.
"Could you tell me more about Bottom street?"