Vol.1 Ch.9 - The Gray household

After having arrived back at the restaurant, the officer and I had just barelycaught Grandpa Arthur right as he was locking the front door to therestaurant. Turning around, naively humming to the tune of one of the localhits that bards would so often sing, the last note had suddenly peaked off thecharts as he jolted in surprise after seeing us two. Almost immediately, Icould tell that he was calculating all sorts of possibilities.An officer? I imagined his internal monologue for him, What does he wantwith me? No, hold on, Arthur, you’ve got decades upon decades ofexperience, so you should know by now when it’s time to worry and whenit’s not…Actually, I don’t know how long he’s been working in the industry for, I’mjust assuming based on his age, but that’s beside the point. Ahem, back to thesplit-second internal monologue!Hmm?, He looked down and noticed me waving at him with a smile on myface, Lune? What’d he do now? Didn’t he say he was going to reunite withhis friend? Oh, I see, now it all makes sense!“Good evening, officer.” He calmly replied, “I take it my grandson got lostagain, so you’ve come to take him home?”Whoa, Arthur’s an even better liar than me! Actually, if lying is bad bydefault, does that make him an even worse liar? Eh, no time for grammar,that’s unimportant right now. What is important, though, is the fact that Arthurhad immediately gauged the situation correctly and took proper care to use avague yet believable enough lie that’d give him some leeway if he wascaught.“Oh, so this kid really is your grandson.” The officer scratched his head,“Apologies for the inconvenience, sir. As you know, a kid matching yourgrandchild’s description was seen kicking people in the nuts and pushing hisfriend off a viewpoint, so I jumped to conclusions.”“Why the hell would I know about any of that?”“…What?”At this, Arthur glanced back at me with a frown. I simply stuck my tongue outand winked, signaling for him to just go with the flow, lest he himself getsinto trouble with me.“Never mind.” Arthur composed himself, “I think I recall now, you justsurprised me with the question.”“Right.” The officer blindly believed his words.This little detail angered me a lot, actually. If it was me who said that, thenI’d already be on my way back to the police station to once again getinterrogated. But since Arthur has seniority over the officer, that ass of a lawenforcer just smiled and agreed!“Hey!” I piped up, “How come you believed gramps so easily, but you had totake me in for interrogation?”“Interrogation!?” Arthur gasped.“Hey, kid! Keep it down!” The officer glared at me, “A-Ahem, as I said, sir,your grandchild resembled the suspect, so I made the executive decision to-!”“You dragged a kid into an interrogation room?!” Arthur snapped, “Whatkind of an officer are you? The hell kind of problem can a 13 year old makethat’d be oh so terrible?! You’re a grown ass man, yet you’re scared of anearly teenager?”This sudden outburst prompted the officer to feel ashamed of himself, thus hesimply tipped his hat while looking away as he scurried back to the station.Hehe, nice going, Gramps!“So…” Arthur looked on at the officer anxiously leaving the premises beforeturning to me, “You actually made it to Rule 4?”We laughed like a bunch of idiots at that exchange.***After double-checking that the door to the restaurant was locked, the two ofus had begun walking back to his home. Even then, while all this wasoccurring, I was busying myself with explaining the entire situation to Arthur(although of course, without mentioning any details about me pushing Ed offthe viewpoint).By the way, the reason we were going to his house was because he insistedon me spending the night there. I felt bad abusing his generosity this much, butthen again I really don’t wanna spend another night sleeping on a parkbench…“So Gramps,” I asked, reaching out to grab his hand, “How far is your house,exactly?”“Not far.” He replied, feeling a tinge of joy well up in him, “Just up aheadyou’ll see a huge market with the words “SALE” written on it. Right beforethat is a street to the right. That’s where my house is.”Actually, I’ve seen that sign before. That’s… oddly close. I mean, I get he’smanaging his own restaurant, so it probably helps a ton when he doesn’t feelall that motivated to work, but just how much did he luck out in finding aplace for his restaurant, all the while having it be so close to his own house?“Don’t look at me like that.” He chuckled after seeing me glance at him withsuspicion, “Your thoughts are written all over you face, you know? But don’tworry, I didn’t do anything shady to get such a nice location.”“Then how?” I asked.“The answer is Time.” He noted, “I was simply born before my competition.One could argue that that’s nothing more than luck, but to me, it was this Timethat I was given, which the others were not. It’s precisely because I was bornearlier that I got to experience all the hardships of the world before mypeers. Being the oldest meant I had a lot more experience than them, and itwas exactly that experience that helped pave the way to new connections,which then paved the way to both my house and my restaurant!”I see! So basically, it’s nothing more than luck, but Gramps is making it soundlike it’s something much more special. Like a power gifted solely to him orsomething, but in reality he’s just a bit older than his friends. So what, bigdeal, I was the oldest back in Whitehood as well, and I still got bullied forbeing the shortest.“It really isn’t that interesting, being the oldest…” I muttered, “In the end,people still make fun of you if you’re different.”“Is that how you view it?” He chuckled, “So you don’t even realize ityourself? The fact that the people that made fun of you are back home,enjoying their uniformity, and you’re out here, choosing to follow yourdreams and be different. Now tell me, who’s the real sucker here? You, orthem?”“That’s…!” I suddenly felt the world open up to me, “I never thought about itlike that…”“See? You’ve been on your journey for just a couple days and you alreadylearned something interesting which you wouldn’t have if you stayed backhome.”Wait, did I tell him about Ed and I leaving our homes? I don’t remember everhaving mentioned that, fearing that he’ll just send us back home immediatelyif I did, but I guess he figured it out himself anyway. This Gramps is old butwise I see.“I know I told you about me and Ed going on a journey across the worldwhen we had just met, Gramps,” I wasn’t sure if it was alright to ask, “Butare you really okay with that? You’re an adult, so wouldn’t you be against meleaving my family?”Looking far off into the distance, he sighed once before turning back down toface me with a warm smile, “Kids aren’t raised by their parents. They’reraised by the environment around them. If you just have one teacher, you’llnever know more than them, but if your teacher is the entire world…”“…Then I’ll learn a bit of everything, and become the most knowledgeable!”I finished his thought.“Heh, looks like you got it.” He chuckled, “Just in time, too. We’re here,welcome to my abode.”“You’ve got a lovely house Gramps.” I thought it was a good idea to bepolite, “It’s rather tall, too. Got any family?”“Ah, family’s a difficult topic…” He avoided eye contact.Damn, looks like I touched a sore spot. Despite his age, he’s ratherhandsome, so I had no doubts about him having a wife and probably kids.Well, looking at his age, grandkids would be a lot more appropriate of aword to say in this situation. But even still, from his reaction I can assumethat he had a family at one point, but now he’s all alone.“Actually, it’s a rather funny story.” He opened the front door, “That entireattic area didn’t even exist before she came into the picture.”“She?”Just then, the doors leading to the rest of the house opened from the inside,revealing a cute girl with black hair and brown eyes, wearing her pajamasand welcoming Arthur in.“Welcome home, Grandp-!” She went in for a hug, before suddenly joltingback after seeing me, “Who the hell is this?!”Jumping back like a startled cat, she immediately ran all the way up the stairsinto the attic that served as a second floor, presumably to get changed.Actually, right now I’m speaking from a retrospective point of view, becausein the moment, I couldn’t even register everything that happened, because itwas just that quick.“That’s…” Arthur sighed, “My granddaughter, Anna. She’s a bit shy, but Ihope you two get along.”***After getting dressed into a more fitting, casual attire, she had sat herselfdown with us to eat dinner. It was quite awkward, at least for me, but I don’teven know why exactly. I mean, she’s the one that got embarrassed, so herreaction rubbed off on me. That damned girl, she’s staring a hole through myskull while I’m trying to enjoy my salad!“So, Grandpa told me you’re gonna be staying here for a while, correct?”She decided to break the ice, all the while still glaring at me.“Don’t worry about it, we’ll get out of your hair before long.” I explained,“I’m just here to find my friend and I’ll get out of your hair, so quit giving methe stink eye.”“I am not!” She raised her voice, only for Arthur to scold her immediatelyafter.“Anna! What kind of behavior are you showing to a guest? Now, I’m onlygonna say this once, but Lune here did nothing wrong, so if I catch you tryingto butt heads with him one more time, you’re grounded!”“Hmph!” She got up from her seat, “You boys are all the same! Always beingselfish and not listening at all! How about you look at the situation from myside for once?!”Storming off, she left after just barely finishing half of her plate. I felt bad, soI tried getting up to follow her, but Arthur quickly stopped me, saying thatshe’s just nervous and that she needs some time to get accustomed toeverything that’s happening so suddenly.“In any case, did you get a lead on where your friend might be?” He changedthe subject, “It’s rather late right now, but we could continue the searchtomorrow.”“Ah, as for that, I actually overheard where they’re keeping him.” Iexplained, “Ed’s apparently under the care of some lady named Harper.Know anything about her?”“Oh dear…” He winced at my reply, “He’s at Harper’s clinic, so does thatmean that he’s injured? She’s also a rather ‘heavy-duty’ doctor, usually onlytreating the heavily injured. Oh, maybe we should head out now after all…”“Ah, ha-ha, about that…” I quickly changed the subject as well, “N-Nevermind that, I’m sure he’ll be fine! Oh, speaking of my little outing, I think Ifound a way to get your restaurant popular again! You just need to…!”“Don’t mind that, Lune.” He waved his hands as if to banish the thought, “It’snothing out of the ordinary. I had my heyday, but that doesn’t last forever. Ifmy kids were still here with me, or Anna was willing to take over after me,then maybe I’d humor the idea, but she’s just not at all interested in doing so,so don’t bother.”Whoa, Arthur’s rather pessimistic about this, isn’t he? He didn’t even hearme out at all. No, instead he just put away the dishes and told me to head tobed in one of their guest rooms. Well, I guess I’ll just listen to him then…“Psych!” I muttered to myself as I laid in bed, “Like I’m someone who’sgonna give up that easily! Arthur’s my, eh, what’d Schnell call it again,Benefactor? Yeah, that. He’s my benefactor, so the least I could do is set himup for success! Never say never!”