Chapter 18:

Their Wings

I Can Hear You


“Do you think that something like an immortal person exists?”

Fennel had such a serious expression that it almost made it harder to take her seriously, not like I would laugh at what she could say, but talking about immortal persons in a context where we are already talking about an angel ghost… Yeah, this thing just couldn’t go any weirder, well it could, but it wouldn’t be an optimal situation.

“By this point, you could tell me that you can turn into a dragon and believe me that I wouldn’t doubt about what you are saying”

Her face almost turned into a smile, but she clearly didn’t want to express those feelings at that time as she instantly hid that under the usual façade that is her poker face.

“Adam, you should know that a ghost can’t last forever…”

To be honest, out of all the things that I have heard until now, this feels like the weirdest one…

“A ghost can only last up to a few hundred years, and once they reach a certain age, they’ll disappear… By that point, there’s no turning back…”

“So that’s why we should help them?”

“That’s right, and that’s why Bob’s role is such an important task, without him tons of souls would have been lost. Before his son came to this land, helping ghosts was a task for certain of those angels, but after that, the restrictions of his world were hardened, and since his son was responsible, Bob had to take his place as a guardian for the spirits who inhabit this world”

“And now his time is ending as well… That’s why he needs an heir to his role, right?”

“That’s right, my master has an extended time because he isn't a human, but even someone like him can’t stay forever around here…”

“And why didn’t he look up for someone to succeed him before? He’s been in this world for years, so he should have done something before”

“Believe me, he did try with a lot of persons, I even managed to meet one of them at some point, but at the end, no one wanted the burden of staying behind for centuries to come, and obviously my master isn’t going to force this role into anyone…” – Fennel truly cares about Bob, that can’t be denied, I would even accept the role if it meant avoiding the sight of her sad face while talking about her master’s suffering… Sadly, that wouldn’t be a good idea…

“I will think about it…”

“Thank you, Adam…”

The situation was getting a bit awkward… I guess that my lack of experience with other people, especially with girls my age, making it a bit worse.

I got up and decided to go to the kitchen; from there I offered her a coffee.

“Uh, okay, thank you, Adam!”

Fennel got up and went to the kitchen with me; the water was ready to drink.

“Do you want sugar?”

“No, I don’t eat anything with sugar”

“But now you’re going to drink…”

She chuckled a little bit thanks to such a bad joke, after such a tiring day, her smile was almost like medicine for me.

We kept talking for some time, nothing meaningful, just jokes and a bit of chatting about the things that we like to do, our hobbies, and all those random themes. Apparently, we share a common taste in movies, but we would never play the same videogames, obviously, my taste is a bit better.

One of the best themes to ask her about would be her family, but it would’ve been weird to ask her about something that must be too personal to explain in front of a person that she barely knows, although I guess that I am the person who barely knows anything about her…

“Who took you in Fennel?” – Could I have worded that question a bit worse?

“You mean who adopted me? Man, I get why so few persons want to be attended by doctor Forte…” – Her mockery was coming back! I was happy about her, but not surprisingly, I would become a victim once again…

“What do you mean?”

“You’re so timidly awkward”

“Come on, I’m not awkward, maybe shy could be a better word…”

“Yeah, that’s cute though”

“I guess…”

Even with the awkward sensation that her mockery caused, it has been a while since I had such a long conversation with someone who I could almost call a friend, even if I just met her, this relaxing ambient when you can just joke about anything with someone else, it just feels good.

After what seemed to be like an hour or so, an strong sound came and resonated through my whole body.

“My transport has come”

“Oh, so someone was coming for you”

“Yeah, I called my father and told him to come to your house”

“I didn’t notice that you called him”

“I called him when I was searching for my master”

“Wait, so you knew where I live?”

“*Haha* No, no; If I did, I would be something like a stalker”

“Aren’t you already something like that?”

“Uh… Maybe you could say that I am something like that” – She gave me a little smile that almost infuriated me… It almost did…

“But then how did he manage to come here?”

“He must always know where you are to ask you for help; Wait, you don’t know what my last name is, right?”

Oh no, I know that something is coming…

“Uh, no… I guess that I don’t know… What’s your last name?”

Here it is… Is coming…

“Secall, my last name is Secall *he*” – Her little laugh didn’t make it any easier.

Fennel gave me a little hug, even a little head pat to Lemon, I guess that her fear of dogs isn’t as bad as I thought… After that she went out of the apartment, Fennel walked to the car that was waiting for her out there, and then I saw him, Abraham Secall himself, my boss…

The next day, at the hospital, I went directly to talk with him, with Abraham, if he was the person who raised Fennel then he must know more about Bob and our weird condition.

“I know as much as you do” – Was his answer.

“But you know who Bob is”

“Yes, I’ve known him for a long time”

“So you also knew about my situation”

“I’ve known since you were born”

“So you can also see things like I do”

“You know that these powers are directly tied to your emotions, to what you can feel, right?”

“That’s what the old man and Fennel explained, so I guess that it must be right”

“Well, at one point of my life I met Robert”

“Robert?”

“Do you even pay attention to other people’s names? That’s Bob”

“Oh… right…”

“Robert, or Bob as you call him, came to me when I was a teen, he was looking for an assistant, so I became his apprentice; sometime later he met another girl, and we obviously became friends, the three of us became somewhat of a team…”

I really didn’t know where this story was going, but it’s my first time with Abraham actually opening himself to me, so I guess that I should respect this special chance that he is giving to me.

“Just like the job you are doing now, we started helping people who were trapped in this world, if you didn’t know, when you help them, they go to Robert’s world”

“So I guess that it really is something like Heaven”

“Yeah, I guess that you could say that it’s something like that”

“At the end, every myth must come from another place”

“Maybe you are right.; so after we started doing those things, some time passed like usual, nothing meaningful to remember, but I noticed that my companion started to dislike this task that was entrusted on us, especially the fact that one of us could be the person who would later take our master’s place”

“No one would blame you if you had the same fear”

“That’s correct, but I was never scared about what could happen, if you thought that it could be the reason as to why I didn’t become the successor; and being honest, she wasn’t completely scared either… Some weeks later she came to me, we had a little talk under the moonlight, and she suddenly started crying; being honest, I was in love with her, and I thought that, based on our conversation about life, she was going to say that she loved me as well, but she didn’t, she confessed me that she loved an old friend of mine…”

“So she stopped working with you?”

“She did, but even worse than that, after she confessed I didn’t have any major problem, then she started a relationship with him, over the years they even more than one offspring, meanwhile I was just starting my work as a doctor, I married another woman, then we had a daughter and everything seemed to be perfect… until a disease came and I wasn’t able to save any of them…”

“I never knew that something like that had happened to you…”

“Don’t worry, almost no one else does, I’m not a man who likes to share his life with people who he doesn’t care about”

“So you do care about me?”

“Don’t overdo it boy” – I guess that he didn’t like my joke, maybe it was just the bad timing.

“I obviously care about you boy, I’ve always done, you’re almost like family to me, even if your father has changed over the years, your father has always been an important friend, and the things that I lived with your mother, with Betty, those things were more for me than my feelings for her…”

“Wait…! So, the girl in your story…?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Well, after I lost my family my senses were off, I couldn’t feel the same way I did before… I lost the capacity to see what you can see…”

“So you didn’t ignore that position, you just couldn’t accept it…”

“That’s right, but don’t feel bad about me, some years later a girl came walking to me while I was walking, she said that she was looking for a home, I instantly knew that she was alone, but I didn’t know what to do until she told me about who told her to come with me, Robert Damian”

“So that was Fennel…”

“Yeah, she was too young to be ignored, and since then she became my daughter, even if we don’t have any kind of relationship aside from a crazy ghost master”

“I guess that it would be akin to being siblings then”

“Don’t make this more awkward Adam, it always feels like you actively try to ruin the mood”

“Uh sorry, *chuckle*” – I guess that I am really bad at maintaining a good sensation.

We kept talking for some time, it was my first time without thinking about his bad attitude or how much he liked to say that I was lazy or dumb, only half of that being real, it was almost like talking with my father… I guess that even Richard, dad, isn’t as bad as I thought… Who knows, the next time I see him I should hold a better conversation with him…

This little reunion actually brought some kind of nostalgic feeling to me, like I had been hating certain things about this familiar sensation for so long that I even managed to ignore the good sides of my life, I can’t be totally sure about that, but next time I’ll face things with a new attitude, that of a man who can feel things on a different way…

I didn’t even realize how time had passed, minute after minute, who knows, maybe even an hour could have passed during our chat and I wouldn’t have noticed… Then I had to go, I got up from my seat, extended my hand, and for the first time in all this time, Abraham extended his hand.

“See you Adam” – He was smiling…

“Thank you” – For the first time since I’ve known him, I also showed a real smile…

I was going out of the hospital, and then I heard this voice that I started liking a little bit more every time I heard it…

“Hey, Adam, you forgot this on dad’s office”

Fennel came running to me, or however you a fast-paced move that it's actually allowed inside of a hospital.

“So you actually call him dad”

“Do you have any problem with that?”

“Not really, it just sounds too cute for you two to act like father and daughter”

She laughed a little bit at my stupid comment, then she put her hand inside her pocket and took something, a letter that she handed to me. When I saw the letter I didn’t know how to react, should I be happy? Or should I be mad? Maybe even sadness could be an option, nostalgic perhaps. The only thing that I could be sure about was that I was utterly surprised…