LETTIE
It took me three days to finally go to Chi-chi's house.
During this period, I sank into a dark, deep and apathetic state of lethargy.
After saying goodbye to Piccolo, I gathered all my belongings in my old backpack and went to the second place on Earth that brought me more comfort than our Camp: the Hot Springs.
I lay down on the grass in front of the large lake in that ethereal landscape and just existed, crushed by the pain of grief and contemplating those natural pools, realizing that I would never again experience all the wonderful experiences we had there.
If it wasn't enough that I thought about Piccolo in the moments when I was awake, when I managed to fall asleep, he appeared in my dreams, with his body destroyed in my arms and his voice pleading how much he didn't want to die.
I remained in the Hot Springs until the pain of losing him became unbearable. The image of my nephew was what made me muster up strength and stand up. I needed to see him. Surely he had already been discharged from the hospital and was at home with Goku. Having the company of my family was just what I needed.
As soon as I got up, I looked across that vivid painting for one last time and allowed one more tear to fall from my red, swollen eyes.
Here I say goodbye to the place that brought me intense joy. Now all I have left is a future full of fears and uncertainties.
What comforted me was that I still had my brother and my nephew. Well, at least, that's what I thought when I flew off from the Hot Springs and headed to the address written on that sheet of paper that Chi-chi gave me.
During the way, my stomach complained in protest at having gone so long without eating, and my weakness affected the quality of my flight. I only know that it must have been close to noon when I finally arrived at Goku's house, and I hoped, from the bottom of my heart, that they would serve me something to eat when I saw smoke coming from the chimney.
Despite my emotional state, it was impossible for me not to notice how lovely their house was. Confirming Gohan's words, the building was located on a large land located in the countryside, surrounded by mountains and nature. It was made of white bricks, with a roof and some details in woods, which gave an appearance of simplicity and luxury at the same time. A concave circular annex, covered with smooth white stones, recalled the aesthetics of the modern architecture present in cities.
Rubbing my hands together, I walked toward the front door of the house and rang the doorbell. A feeling of anxiety, mixed with nervousness and shyness, came over me. It felt like I hadn't seen them in decades, and not just a few days. From the outside, I heard the sound of a pressure cooker muffle the sound of hurried footsteps.
The door was opened by Chi-chi. She was wearing the same set of clothes as when I first saw her, only with a kitchen apron over it.
I confess that her typical stern features made me cringe, and I wondered what the heck I was doing there. Did I expect her and her family to help me or take me under their roof? I can't say. Besides, realizing the deplorable state of my clothes only made me cringe more in embarrassment.
Thankfully, my fears dissipated when she gave me a little smile. "I suspected it was you." She stepped aside and gestured into the house. "Please, come in."
Even though Chi-chi was receptive, she still exuded an aura of authority over me. I mentally cursed myself for forgetting to take a bath in the Hot Springs. But grief makes us forget even basic stuff.
Dying with embarrassment, I adjusted my backpack on my shoulders while cleaning my heavy boots on the carpet in front of the door, trying to appear a little more decent in front of my sister-in-law, and went in.
I expected to be welcomed by Goku and Gohan. At least, I was sure that their presence would make me feel better. However, the only presence I found other than Chi-chi and the wonderful smell of food was loneliness. Well, they must be in the bedroom or bathroom, I thought. Let's wait.
"Please, sit down." My sister-in-law guided me to the dining table in the center of the kitchen. "I imagine you're hungry, right?"
My undisciplined stomach responded for me, and I wanted to bury myself underground.
Chi-chi noticed. "Don't worry." She smiled as she returned to the stove. "That's a sound I hear the most in this house."
I replied with a pale and shy smile as I pulled out a chair to sit down. No sign of my brother or nephew.
"Th-Thank you for having me..." I said, watching her take a roast out of the oven and place it on the table. "I'm sorry it took me so long..."
Chi-chi just nodded. As for me, I had to restrain myself from devouring that roast in one bite. During a brief period of silence, I looked around that beautiful, cozy kitchen, until I stopped when something caught my attention on one of the counters: medicine boxes.
As I narrowed my eyes, I read the label and recognized the medicine.
They were for depression. I know this because that kind old lady who sheltered me for a while used to take them.
A deep bitterness hit my chest as I reflected on what made Chi-chi need them. Certainly, the sudden news of her husband's death and the kidnapping of her four-year-old son by his rival must have been a pretty terrible blow. It was impossible for me not to put myself in her shoes and feel empathy and compassion.
Was she already recovering? Or did she still suffer from it?
"Where are Gohan and Goku?" I asked to start a conversation.
"Eat first." Chi-chi placed other plates of food on the table with a playful chuckle. "I know your genetics well enough to know that your mind works better after eating. Please help yourself."
At first, I hesitated. However, that feeling of authority that I once felt in her, little by little disappeared from her eyes, giving way to a friendly and compressible expression.
I attacked that lunch without any shame.
How good it was to eat something different from our soup and fruits from that region! Gohan was right. Chi-chi was a great cook.
Minutes later, all that food was devoured by me (except the dish that Chi-chi made for herself). In fact, eating helped to relieve some of my deep state of sadness over Piccolo's death. Just a little.
"Thank you so much for the meal." I gave a little shy smile. "It was delicious."
"Gohan told me you also like cooking and that you have a lot of potential." She rested her arms on the tabletop. "I'm happy to know we have something in common. It'll be a pleasure to teach you everything I know about cooking."
"I appreciate your offer. It'll be an honor to learn from you," I replied, almost also calling her "Master". A little uncertain, I looked around and continued, "I-I… I thought I would find Goku here…"
Chi-chi pushed away her empty plate of food and replied, "Goku is traveling."
"Oh…" I raised my eyebrows. "Traveling? I thought he was resting, recovering from the battle."
"Resting?!" She laughed out loud. "That's a word that's definitely not in his vocabulary."
"Right… So… he's… traveling… on business?"
"Pfft!" Chi-chi snorted with clear disdain. "On business. HA! I wish..."
Okay. Despite not knowing her well, my sister-in-law's behavior was quite strange, but I was afraid to ask for more details. We still weren't intimate, and she didn't seem comfortable with the subject at all.
"But, Goku just came back from the dead," I said. "He… didn't want to spend time with you and Gohan before he left?"
Chi-chi looked away and shrugged, but not long enough to hide her teary eyes from me. Something about her showed me a deep… discontent and unhappiness. Without meaning to, I pondered whether, in fact, my brother and sister-in-law had a good relationship and marriage.
Yeah... I still had a lot to learn about my family.
"Well..." I tried to sound optimistic. "What about Gohan?"
Chi-chi quickly wiped away a tear that escaped, and returned to her upright posture. "Gohan will also be away for a while."
I straightened my back. "What?"
Chi-chi avoided my gaze and fidgeted in her chair. Something bothered her, a lot. "Lettie," she made eye contact, without breaking her posture, "although I'm proud of my son for helping to save the world, I can't deny that he was away from his studies for too long. So I sent him to a boarding school. Far away from here. He'll stay there until I think he should return."
"A boarding school?" I widened my eyes.
"Yes." She nodded, firmly. "It's... uh... It's in another country. One of the best in the world. Gohan will become a great scholar with such an institution on his resume."
No. Chi-chi couldn't be serious. Resume? Gohan was five years old and they were already thinking about his resume??? I know I had no right in her decisions about her son. After all, she was his mother. But, wow! It wasn't enough that Piccolo was taken from me in such a brutal way, and now, Gohan, too?! And I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to him!
Look, to tell the truth, I had to hold back A LOT to keep my indignation invisible. I didn't want to ruin our relationship that had just begun, but I confess that her food suddenly felt heavy in my stomach.
However, still...
Despite the innocent appearance of a simple mother and housewife, living peacefully in a little house in the countryside, I now had confirmation that there was something wrong with that talk. Something was happening. I may not be the smartest woman in the world in the academic sense like Gohan, but I wasn't stupid.
"Please, Lettie, don't think I'm doing this out of spite, or that I want to attack you," she said, probably noticing my disturbed expression. "I like you, and I already told you that I owe an eternal debt of gratitude for what you did for my son." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So I think I better start paying it now."
"What do you mean?" I asked, still recovering from the shock of the news that I wouldn't see my brother and nephew for a long time, right now when I needed company the most.
Keeping her serious face, Chi-chi looked at me and said, "Gohan told me your whole story before he," she cleared her throat, "before going to the boarding school. I know about your current financial condition and I am truly sorry. So, as an act of gratitude for taking care of my son during this year of Training with Piccolo, I want to give you something."
I watched my sister-in-law get up and go to a keyholder hanging on the wall. After grabbing a keychain, she placed it on the tabletop in front of me.
"Here are the keys to another property I own, not far from here. I'm giving it to you. My family is very rich and powerful, so material possessions and money are not a problem for me. In addition, I'll also give you an amount to support yourself for a few months until you completely recover, find a job, or do… whatever you decide to do."
I froze in that seat, mouth wide open as I became in complete shock.
Did I hear it right?
Chi-chi was giving me… A HOUSE??? An entire house, with ceiling, walls, floor, furniture and everything else???
"N-No!" I jumped up from the chair; my body tingling. "I can't accept this, Chi-chi!"
Surprising me with incredible strength, she took my hand and placed the set of keys in it, closing my fingers around those small metallic objects. "Lettie, listen to me. I don't go around giving houses away to people." Her tone was obstinate, as well as her strength. "Accept it. We can sort out the documentation later."
I let out an incredulous gasp. It wasn't possible. It could only be a hallucination caused by grief!
However, the metallic texture on my palm was pretty real. Chi-chi finally released me and I opened my hand, analyzing those keys to what now belonged to… my house.
MY HOUSE!!! Can you believe it?!
I... I wouldn't need to live on the streets anymore! I would have a roof over my head; a place to shelter me from my current fears and tribulations. The dream of having my own little house, which I thought would take years to come true or, even more likely, would never come true… materialized right there, in front of me, in the shape of my sister-in-law!
For a moment, I had to ignore everything she had said about the sudden absence of my brother and nephew. The emotion I felt was too great. I threw myself forward and hugged her as if she were my sister.
"Thank you!" I cried into her neck. "Th-Thank you so much!" I took her hands, squeezing them with genuine affection. "Chi-chi... I have no words... Now I am the one who owes you an eternal debt of gratitude."
"I have an idea that will make us even." She smiled gently.
"What is it? Tell me, I'll do anything."
"Would you accept," Chi-chi's eyes filled with tears, "to be my friend?"
With my heart swollen for that little moment of happiness in the midst of so much darkness, I watched my sister-in-law carefully.
Chi-chi could be a strong-willed and difficult-tempered woman, she could raise her son in a way I didn't agree with, she could have a strange marriage with my brother, but...
Those boxes of depression medicine didn't lie. Just like me, she needed help and someone to comfort her when no one else was there, even if her flaws bothered me.
After all, isn't it what true friendship is?
***
My legs gave way when I contemplated my house.
I fell to my knees and placed my hands on the ground, feeling the dampness of the green grass that surrounded the entire area.
In front of me, the coziest little house in the world stretched upwards. A porch covered the facade of that wooden building. It had the perfect size; not too big, not too small.
Clutching the keychain to my chest, I got up and climbed the few steps to the porch, noticing the wicker armchairs under the main windows, placed in such a way that the user could enjoy the landscape view.
I sat in one of the armchairs and gasped in amazement at the sight of the sun setting behind the mountain range that filled the horizon of that entire valley full of trees.
It would have been quite useful to have a camera at that moment, but I knew my mind would never forget such a spectacular sight.
Finally, I went to the front door and opened it with one of the keys.
In a mixture of tears and laughter, I admired the interior of the place I would call Home from that moment on. And what a Home!
Still standing at the front doorway, I saw the space of an open hallway that separated the living room area on the right and the kitchen on the left. The super soft couch practically invited me to throw myself on it, in front of a television propped on a sideboard, with two more armchairs and a coffee table in the middle.
Covering my mouth but not holding back my tears, I walked to the kitchen of my dreams. It was simple, with light, neutral colors, but so, so pretty! It had a stove, refrigerator, microwave and all the necessary utensils that a culinary lover like me would need to have fun with the most outrageous recipes that I planned to create. A six-seater wooden table demarcated the hallway, with the couch doing the same on the other side.
The last rays of sunlight entered through the wooden windows all around the area, and I opened them to let the air circulate; the evening breeze caressing the white curtains.
Continuing forward through the hallway, I opened three doors; two of them led to two bedrooms, one of which was for guests and the other was decorated in a more childish style, which I suspected was where Gohan slept when he came here. The other door led to a bathroom.
The last door revealed to me what would be the couple's bedroom, surrounded by more windows and with wooden beams spanning the ceiling. I opened a smile of contentment by spotting the wonderful queen-sized bed, full of pillows and comforters organized like in decoration magazines. Next to the bed, there was the door to the suite's bathroom, and I gasped in happiness when I saw a bathtub worthy of a SPA in the city.
I wandered around my house, laughing like a dumb as I analyzed every detail, every object, every color. It was then that I noticed one last door, next to the kitchen. When I opened it, I almost fell backward.
It was a large Training Room.
Chi-chi must have had it built for Goku, perhaps to at least try to keep him indoors while he trained. Now that I noticed, the room had the same modern style as that white, circular concave annex that I saw in my sister-in-law's house. The entire floor was covered with excellent quality tatami mat, with weights, punching bags and other equipment for physical exercises organized on shelves.
In addition to the house, I now had my own private gym.
I headed to the middle of that room and lay down on the tatami, in silence. The sunlight reflecting off the glass windows gradually gave way to the darkness of the night. It was so strange... From now on, I would live surrounded by walls, after being surrounded by nature for so long.
I felt overwhelmingly alone.
How was it possible for me to feel so much happiness and sadness at the same time?
Come on, one of my biggest dreams was materialized there around me. I now had a home, a place to spend the rest of my life.
But I had no one to share it with.
It would be so good to have Gohan here to spend a few days with me or on his studies breaks, having fun exploring all the magnificent nature of that land. I would cook lots of delicious dishes and we would watch his favorite cartoons on that comfortable couch in the living room. Then, I would put him to sleep in his bedroom and, if he had a nightmare at night, I would cuddle him to my chest and make sure that no harm came to him.
But Gohan wasn't there anymore.
However, above that, neither was Piccolo. Oh, if only life had given us the opportunity to build something together...!
Would he… eventually… propose to me? Did he… even love me, the way I loved him? Has he, like me, ever thought about having a simple lifestyle? He is, or rather, he was so difficult to make out... So restrict concerning his feelings...
Was there a possibility of a future where we would be together? I bet that perhaps not even Piccolo would deny living in a house like that, instead of living in the middle of wild nature like we did. We could spend hours training together in this room, just me and him…
Could it be that, if this were to happen, in a while we would have some pairs of little feet half Saiyans and half Namekians running around this house, calling us Mommy and Daddy?
No, Lettie... Who are you trying to fool?
What's the point of thinking about possibilities that are left behind? They would never happen again.
Still, I swore an oath on Piccolo's grave. I promised that his memory would not be in vain. And it would be in this house, in this very Training Room, that I would keep my word.