Ch.6 First words!

Ch.6 First words!

The next 5 days passed quickly with me carefully guiding my mom to make clothes I liked. Not that I could do much, but subtly pushing some paints closer and pulling the others further to generate a focus on blue hues was doable. If you’re wondering where the blue came from it was from flowers. Leather clothes were sturdy so the only paint expenditure was for new clothes for kids when there were more than what the parents had from their childhood. I didn’t know why exactly I was getting a new set as an only child, but there was no point in complaining and no need to find out.

After the clothes were finished, I still had to wait for some of the last dies to dry. It wasn’t an incredibly colorful set. It had a brown color that came from the tanned skins it was made from and had been adorned with a dark blue. Yellow showed up here in there however on the brownish material it looked more like a vague orange and worked well as an outliner. Overall, I was happy with the result. My plan was to just thank my parents for the clothes as soon as they handed them to me. Actual full speech trained for months in secret. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be scarring them to much.

Well… My plans were thwarted as the ‘Eld-Mother’ Edith came by for the occasion… From what I got my parents were surprised by me just walking like everything was normal but were just told to be calm and tell her what I do. If my parents would have a hard time suspecting what I was, then what about this old hag? Well… There was no point in holding back. What would she do? Kill me? Besides if instead of hiding I just openly showed myself it would either make her think that I had no reason to hide or that I couldn’t care less about the threat they represent. Either way this would act both like an assurance and a bluff. I just hopped she’d not suspect anything aside that perhaps I was some sorta’ genius or sumthin’.

I was standing there with the old lady not letting me out of her sight. It was a bit intimidating and made me question what she knew. Fortunately, the wait wasn’t long as my mom soon came back with my clothes, which, were genuinely big. However, these were meant to keep me going for at least two years at my age so there was no point in complaining. I was dressed quickly while I kept trying to keep myself from being seen. Then taking a big breath I said my first addressed words in this world.

“Thank you, thank you very much for these clothes, I like them a lot.”

The result? Dramatic… My mom fainted while my father paled and smiled wryly catching her quick. The Eld-Mothers brows shot so high that I thought she’d lose them among the stars. She was unmoved otherwise and her eyes locked on me casted an even more piercing gaze at me. It felt as if her evaluation of me changed and I could feel a pressure from her. She started seeing me as a threat. The atmosphere was so stifling that I found only one way out. And so:

“Is mom fine? Why did she suddenly fall asleep? Were these too much work?”

“Uh… Ah… No don’t worry, she… She was just overwhelmed by how good you look in your new clothes, thar’s all… Uhm… I’ll get your mother to rest for now…” My father answered me with an obvious feeling of fluster.

“Come with grandma kid, I’d like to talk with you and your mom needs rest, come and granny will give you some fruit.” The Eld-Mother Edith said. The pressure she made me feel lessened after I asked about my mother.

Feeling out of options and with no better idea I followed her out. I still stumbled over my own feet however, and that wasn’t something I could fix quickly, after all I wasn’t used to walking in this body just yet… Still I think it was better than having a perfect step in this situation and since it was genuine I didn’t think I’d have problems. Once outside, she didn’t hesitate to start asking me questions.

“Since when could you talk?”

“Not sure, it’s been some time… But I didn’t feel like doing it. I kept in mind all things parents talked about and just did like them…”

“How’d you know to do that?”

I looked at her in confusion… It was the first time in this life that I heard the word for ‘know’. In my heart I was happy there were a lot of words I still had no idea about… It would make me seem like a genuine child, a smart one, but a kid none the less. One that lacks the knowledge of the language and just is really good at learning stuff. The Eld-Mother seeing the look on my face stood there for a second and judged how to explain what she wanted to know better so that I’d understand.

“How did you… do it? What drove you to do this and keep quiet?”

“I saw them talk and laugh… And laugh meant happy so talking was making them happy…. But I couldn’t talk well… I kept making the wrong sounds. So, I waited to be able to make them right. And since this seemed like… something big I decided to thank them for it…”

She looked at me as if trying to see through me. However, I said the full truth. Well, I left out the part about having the pride of an adult and that I didn’t like speaking in broken tongue. So, even if she tried to pick onto any lies or falsehoods, she wouldn’t find any. The best lie is always the truth! Although there was no need to keep a façade, I also didn’t want to cause panic considering where I came from. Understanding that there were other worlds with people just like you, that lived, died, enjoyed and cried was hard and could be overwhelming. Our world had the concepts and the mathematical knowledge to prepare the minds of its inhabitants for possible collision with other such worlds, but I doubted it was the same here. I’d rather not be treated as a monster before I had the chance to show I wasn’t.

“You’re a very smart and sensible child then, Cato. As you can see you made your mom so happy she was overwhelmed. You should keep this pace and make your parents proud… Now go back, go back and take care of your mother.” The pressure from her disappeared. I wasn’t sure but I felt that it was a use of aether.

“Yes, I will. Thank you, Eld-Mother!”

I quickly turned around and left. After all, even with both lives combined I wasn’t as old as that hag. Even if I could out smart her once it was only a matter of time until she figured something was up if she kept prying, after all I was no liar and I was already naturally uncomfortable with the truth. The fact that she let me go might just be luck and I should be happy I survived. And so, I went back into the house to see how my parents were doing.

I quickly realized that mom was still sleeping while father recovered from the shock. I went and sat next to him unsure if I should say something or keep quiet. Some time went past with neither of us saying anything. Then my father finally broke the silence.

“If you didn’t look so much like me, I’d question if your mother had you with someone else… You do stuff that are too much for a kid.”

I deliberated a little. I could reveal the truth to him and let him know everything. But then again, I lacked the words to explain myself and it wasn’t something easy to accept. I might have been his child but what if fear took hold of him and killed me. What was I supposed to do here? Just wait? How could I comfort him? In the end I took a riskier route.

“Then don’t treat me like a kid. Sure, I might lack the strength to do things, but I have a good head. Maybe I’m really not a kid.”

With me saying this we had sunk back into silence. My father seemed to think deeply of what I said while I already pushed boundaries more than it was wise. It was best to shut up and let him fill in the blanks however he wanted, but this way I’m also preparing him for when I’ll have the courage to come clean about my nature and past. I already accepted them as my parents, but they never had the chance to even think about what if I wasn’t their child. Until now and even for a while from now I’d be depending on them. No matter what I’d want to do I had to ensure my safety. If I was ever going to tell them the truth, then most likely I’d wait to first be able to repay them.

“I’ll remember what you said. I’m not sure what you mean, but I’ll try to give you the freedom to reach whatever your peak will be. I only pray I will be able to.”

“Well, I do hope that I will not need to exhaust you. I don’t want you or mom to fall like this again.”

“Don’t worry about us, you little rascal! We have a saying ‘The old tree falls to make space for the young sapling.’ Just do your thing and don’t forget what lies at your roots and return the favor when we’ll be in our old age.” Then he muttered “Can you even understand all that…”

“I won’t!”

“Haa… It feels so weird having this talk with you so soon. I feel like this should have come in 9 more years or so… If anything, you definitely are as big of a troublemaker as I was. Just in a different way…”

We had sunk into silence again. Honestly, I did not know what to say. My fear and guilt from when I were two months old resurfaced. I really did rob them of the joy of parenting… But there was nothing I could do. How could I replace this very thing. I was their first child. Only that on the inside I was an adult. How could I act like a child that needed teaching? Perhaps they will teach me a lot about maturity. The hardships of this world were definitely above what I faced in my old life and the humans shaped by such an environment although ignorant would be more mature as well. I think our world was heading in such a bad direction fully because maturity was hard to teach from one generation to another. Especially when the world was growing more different faster and faster and only the young managed to embrace the changes.

The gap between the old and the young… It made the young feel superior, so they’d shut their ears to the words of wisdom from the old. Perhaps the elderly wouldn’t understand all the struggles of the young. Perhaps they couldn’t understand and were left behind by the society. However, the world was the same. It’s over all complexities wouldn’t change… After all most of it was made out of the interaction between people. The means might change but the essence was the same. We were so caught up in forging ahead that we were unable to look back and learn from the past.

Soon mom wake up again. She looked at me as if I was an oddity but didn’t say anything. She started preparing for lunch. I wasn’t sure how dad skipping work today would play out in the end, but considering how things played out it was the best that he was here. Perhaps mom was the one suffering the most from my strange existence… So, I was happy that my father was here to support and help her bear it.

I didn’t just stand by of course. I helped mom prepare lunch, bringing her whatever she asked for. In the first 3 months dad was home to help her so I managed to memorize all utensils mom used and could help her seamlessly. It was the least I could do and I was happy to not just stand by and watch anymore. After eating I returned to my meditation. It was the only thing that calmed me in these days of continuous pressure. And the progress in this past 3 months was very exciting!