Shortly after eating our peach-cobbler, everyone says “goodnight” before breaking into our separate rooms. Jason winks at me and then says "catch you later" before going into his room. My insomnia still haunts me. All I can think about is my mother and her safety. It takes me about another hour to fall asleep.
My eyes open for the fifth time in the middle of the night. There's a faint noise somewhere outside my bedroom. It’s an unfamiliar voice. It’s a man’s voice and it sounds distant. I walk across the room and peep through the crack of my door. All I can see is a glimmer of light coming from downstairs.
I exit my room and quietly make my way downstairs. All of the kitchen lights are on. I then walk into the living room to find Kenya sitting on the sofa watching television. She looks up at me with a surprised look.
"Hi,” I greet her halfheartedly.
She then smiles at me.
"Hello, Iva. You can't sleep?"
"Not much.”
"You came down here wishing to find someone else?" she looks at me with a smirk.
I immediately let out a smile.
"You don’t need to say a word. I already know your answer,” she says.
There’s a slight pause between the two of us. I look over at the large flat-screen on the wall.
"What are you watching?"
"A soccer game. Do you watch sports?"
"I’m not into sports, at all,” I make sure she hears the words “at all” clearly.
"I watch it occasionally,” she continues. “I'm not an athlete, but I’ve been to a game before. It’s very entertaining.”
She looks at the television while thinking deeply.
"You have to admire them, the humans. They’re so carefree,” she says.
"Ignorance is bliss,” I say to myself, but the words are loud enough for her to hear.
A gentle whistling coming from the kitchen interrupts our conversation. She grabs the remote and switches off the television.
"The water is ready. You made it just in time,” she stands to her feet and breaks a smile. "Keep me company. Have tea with me.”
I follow her into the dining room. I sit down at the table as she walks into the kitchen.
"Do you like tea, Iva?"
"Do I? That’s all I ever drink.”
I hear the sound of closing cabinets, followed by the sound of water being poured into cups. She then walks into the dining room with a tea-cup in each hand. She places one down in front of me and takes a seat across from me.
"Thanks,” I say as I take a sip.
We marinate in silence while drinking our tea together.
"If you don’t mind me asking, where is their father?" I ask, realizing I shouldn’t when I see her face flatten.
She places her cup of tea down and looks at it. Her eyes are now filled with regret.
"Their father died, years ago.”
"I’m sorry.”
"No, it’s fine. Don’t be sorry. It happened fifteen years ago. My son was seven at the time. They were…" she swallows down the hurt. "…the best of friends. My son always was a bit…different. But his father understood him. When he died, it was like a piece of him died also. That’s when he became obsessed at solving things,” her eyes start to glisten a little. “A doctor told me he’d noticed such behavior before. He says it’s because some people, when something terrible happens to them and they don’t have an answer for it, they go to other things to sort out their problems. His, of course, is puzzles.”
"How did he die, if you don’t mind me asking?"
She removes her eyes from her cup and looks up at me.
"One day they were going fishing. On the way back, the car went off a bridge and into the water. An eighteen wheeler crushed the passenger side of the car. My son was stuck in there. He told me that all he could remember was water everywhere. He noticed that the roof of the car was peeling back. His father saved his life just in time. As he went to the surface, someone helped pull him to safety. It was your Uncle.”
“My Uncle saved him?”
“Yes. It was his first day on the job. Strangely, he never liked your Uncle after that. I believed it’s because he thinks he should’ve died there with him.”
“Wow, Uncle Frank never told me about that. So, did his father drown?”
“Yes. They found his body underneath the car at the bottom of the lake,” her breathing collapses as she explains the ordeal. "I was in the kitchen when I felt this pain in my chest. That’s when I knew something terrible had happened.”
"Hold on, you felt him dying?"
"Yes. We are a lot different from humans, spiritually. Sometimes, if you love someone unconditionally, you become spiritually bonded to that person. It doesn't matter where you are. If you are bonded to that person, when they are in grave danger, you will find them. It’s a very rare occurrence. I was heartbroken when I lost him, but feeling him suffer to death was the worst pain of all.”
“I can’t imagine going through that.”
The thought alone saddens me.
“When my son returned home, it was like staring at a brick-wall. He didn’t speak for a very long time after that. Some children at school started to make a sport out of him, so I kept him home for a while. He grew to be very isolated and angry. I spent so much money sending him to several doctors and psychologists. But nothing worked,” she pauses to wipe a tear from her eye. “One day, months later, he spoke while we were eating at the table. He said he wanted to be alone. And now that’s all he ever wants,” she clears the hoarse from her throat. “The person he once was and ever will be, is somewhere in that lake.”
She pauses to reminisce on the tragedy. After giving herself a moment, she breaks a modest smile.
“Well, I’m heading back to bed. Have a goodnight.”
She goes in the kitchen and places her cup into the sink.
“Try to get some sleep,” she tells me. “You have a long day ahead of you.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?”
She chuckles and says…
“You have a lot of people to meet, silly-girl.”
She then walks out of the dining room and up the steps…
CHAPTER 26: OLIVIA