Camryn: Painful Past 02 Part 1

About 30 minutes after we ate lunch… or I guess brunch for me.

“Um, R-Ren?”

“Yes?”

“Are you busy right now?”

He was on his laptop right now, but maybe he isn’t doing anything important right now.

“Not really. What do you need?”

Good.

“I-I want to go somewhere.”

I was hesitant, but I wanted to go somewhere. This city was interesting, but I didn’t want to sightsee — maybe I’ll do that later. This trip — or rather, this mission — was to retrieve something.

“Sure.”

“Great!”

I nodded determinedly.

“So, where do you want to go?”

This was why I was hesitant — I did not know. It wasn’t that I was just bored and wanted to go outside, or that I had a strong feeling I had to be somewhere because it was important to a connected and powerful spirit, no, no, no. I knew where I wanted to go but did not know what the place was. I felt a little bad because I had to make Ren deduce what the place was. I’ve been to this place before, so I had to give a description based on looks.

“S-Sorry, but I don’t know…”

I gave a small embarrassed laugh.

“B-But, I know what it looks like.”

“Oh?”

“You see, when I was homeless, there was a place I went to. I, um, forgot something there.”

Forgot? I think "left" was a better word. But anyway, I’m not entirely sure if it would still be there. I mean, more than two weeks have passed.

“I see… Well, do you remember what it looks like?”

“I think so. Hm…”

I looked down and tried to recall that time two weeks ago…

…

I wasn’t sure what the exact date was, but I think it was the last week of June. It was a cool evening. I was sitting on a bench in a park — out of all parks littered throughout this city, this park was far from being the most interesting but it was still relaxing.

This park was small, but it had a good mix of grassy and manmade areas. One, there were two playground areas with things for kids to play on. One was bigger than the other, but they were both relatively small — they both had swings, but one had a geometric structure for kids to play on and the other had slides and rope bridges. Two, there was this strange looking sculpture. It was like this long stone that stood up at places to form round shapes — like other things in this city, it was weird but appealing. Three, there was this fenced-off area with trees and ground made of something that wasn’t grass? I knew it wasn’t something harmful, but I never stopped to find out what it was — dirt or wood chips? And surrounding these things were stone brick paths and lampposts. Overall, a nice park.

But the most notable parts about this park were the things that weren’t this park — I mean the things that surrounded it.

Let’s get the boring parts out of the way first — this park was smack-dab in the middle of the city. Although, I found the surrounding neighbourhood to be rather interesting. The roads were narrower with cars parked along the sides and the houses were rather old-looking. They were totally different from the more modern-looking high-rises that were just a block or two away.

Next, there were two things that honestly competed with each other in awing me. At the foot of this park was a building that looked like a mansion — it was like this park was this mansion’s front yard. This mansion was similar to the houses that belonged in this neighbourhood, so whatever. But there was something that made this mansion unique — namely that this wasn’t a mansion. Yeah, this mansion was an art museum — different from this other museum I saw that looked like an old building with a huge crystal growing from its side. Like that other museum, this one has a twist that makes it look crazy. That twist was that it was connected to a big blue box — or at least that's how it looked from my view. This blue box was made from what looked like glass, and near the top, it had a spiralled tube that presumably brought visitors from an area to another that was a floor above… again, weird but appealing.

And there was the other thing. It was smaller than the art museum, but it was crazier. South-east of the museum was… a regular brick building — cue the sounds made in disbelief! No, that’s not it. I mean, there was a regular brick building, but the thing that sparked wonder was what was above it. It was a white rectangular box with square black polka dots on it — polka squares? Each black square was a different size and they did not follow a regular pattern. The bizarre thing about this structure was that it was supported over the brick building with what looked like giant pencil crayons. Giant pointed pillars of different colours… wow! I think that the building under the monument was a university. I wasn’t sure what the university specialized in, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was art. Again, weird but very appealing!

I looked around this park. With the fascinating structures that surrounded me, the overall vibe given by this park, and the cool temperature, I felt… comfortable.

But along with feeling comfortable, I felt… something else. It wasn’t that cold, but I was freezing. There were people on late strolls around this park, but I felt lonely. There were cool buildings to look at, but I felt bored…

But most notably-

…

Stop, stop, stop! No, I shouldn’t do this. The only thing I had to do was remember what the place was like, but other memories were intruding. But if I’m reminiscing, that’s to be expected… I don’t want to remember, but I guess it can’t be helped if I do.

I shook my head violently and told Ren.

“Yeah, I remember! So, it was a park. And next to the park was a building with a big white rectangular box above it supported by giant pencil crayons.”

I guess this surpassed the museum in catching my attention.

Ren nodded. I guess it didn’t take long for him to deduce the location… To be fair, I guess it would be easy to find the place with two iconic-looking structures literally beside it.

“You are referring to Grenge Park, correct?”

“Sorry, I don’t know the name of the place. But, that does sound right.”

I actually didn’t know if that was the place. But it’s worth a shot checking there.

Ren nodded again.

“Okay, that is not really far… If we go now, we can ride the subway to get there.”

“The subway? Are those the underground trains?”

Ren looked at me curiously.

“C-Correct. Um… Have you never been on a subway train before?”

“Y-Yeah…”

I was a little ashamed.

“I never really had the money to do so. Ah ha ha…”

I gave another small embarrassed laugh.

“Do not worry, I will pay.”

I was surprised.

“What? Really? Wait, that’s not necessary. Um… I know, I’ll walk!”

Ren shook his head.

“No, it is fine. You are under my care, so you should not have to pay for things on your own. Besides, the fare is not really expensive.”

I see… I guess I forgot about that part for a bit. Honestly, it is still a little unbelievable to me. To find someone so accepting…

I bowed.

“Thank you so much!”

“O-Oh. Bowing is not necessary — please raise your head.”

Ren quickly went into his room and quickly changed into something more fit for going out. It wasn’t a suit for work, but rather an informal light blue collared shirt and brown pants. Wearing long sleeves? It’s fine, but wouldn’t shorter sleeves be more comfortable in this weather?

“Um… It is Summer and a weekend, so it will probably be crowded — please stay near me.”

Do I have to remind you of my age? But… thanks...