9
After the long search, we finally gave up.
Ton and I walked out of the house feeling tired. We tried everything to bring back my memory. Ton thought of many theories that might be useful to solve the problem, but nothing worked. We couldn’t find any clue that really led us to the truth.
“This just becomes more suspicious.” Ton rubbed his forehead. I suddenly knew that his headache was back again.
“Shall we take a rest?” I asked. “You’ve been tired all day.”
“I’m fine.” He waved his hand. “You shouldn’t be worry that this burdens me. I’m also interested.”
“Didn’t you say that we shouldn’t come here?” I raised my eyebrows.
“I did, but your case is just like… the Milk Jigsaw.”
“It does? How?”
“Indeed, it’s dangerous, but it’s also a kind of puzzle. It’s like we’re putting pieces of the white jigsaw together.” He rubbed his head. “Every event isn’t related to each other, but I can feel that something can put them together.”
I nodded before asking.
“And what about the bloodstain? What did you want to say at that time?”
“I’m just curious. Before you moved out, the smoke downstairs was already that much?”
“Let me think.” I rubbed my chin. “As far as I can remember, it didn’t.”
“Then that’s strange.” Ton rubbed his neck.
“Why is it strange?” I asked.
“If the attacker is still around, he might try to cover the evidence, but even that is really strange.”
I tried to think as Ton said, organized and analyzed the information as much as I could.
“What you find strange is that… he doesn’t have to erase the evidence, right? Because those blood strain can’t prove anything by now.”
“Yes. I understand that you want to come here because of those messages, but it’s different for the attacker. What you saw is just images from your memory. The attacker sent those strange messages to you means that he must know about this. I think the attacker shouldn’t send the message from the beginning. If he didn’t, it should be better for him. Those blood strain… from what you told me, it should be at least three years now. It should be no longer of any use. Why does the attacker try to cover it?”
“That’s right.” I lowered my head in deep thought. “I feel strange about this.”
“About what?” Ton raised his eyebrows.
“I hit the wall then the smoke came off. Have you cooked?”
“Sometimes but I’ve never make the kitchen that lot of a mess.” He laughed. Suddenly, Ton knotted his eyebrows as he realized something.
“You want to say that the smoke is new?” I nodded in reply.
“Then that means…” Ton paused.
“The attacker is still around, and he might not be far from us,” I said.
Ton opened his mouth before shook his head.
“I know that you want to know the truth, but if we insisted on digging deeper, we'd be at a disadvantage.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, even if we know who the attacker is, we don’t have any evidence to prove in court. The messages were deleted. The mere note you took can’t be anything for the police. If the attacker doesn't do anything more obvious than this, he’ll be safe.”
“But if it’s as you say, it’s also mean that we can look for the truth without having to worry. The attacker seems to be careful about that already.”
“You’re not wrong. However, we might be his target by now. If he covered the blood strain with the smoke recently, it means that he might already know about us.” Ton sighed. “He might be careful but don’t forget that there are so many ways to harm us without gaining attention from the police. Moreover, he can hide for three years with you and people around you don’t even realize. Why can’t he do it again this time? We have a huge disadvantage.”
I nodded in agreement. What he said was reasonable. Finding the trust was risky. We are to the disadvantage of the attacker in every way.
“Let me ask you a question,” I said. “Like you said, the attacker doesn’t have to hide anything. He doesn’t even have to frighten us. Then, why does he try to cover that blood strain? Even when I learn the truth, I can’t do anything anyway.”
“I’m thinking about that, too.” Ton said, looking away from me. “I think the attacker might don’t want you to learn the truth but covering it now… It’s a signal warning us that he’s still around. Why does he do that?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my chin in deep thought.
While we were on our way back, I noticed a middle-aged woman walked from the other direction. She looked at me with uncertainty for a moment before approached us.
“Hey, are you Dream?” She asked. I nodded in confusion.
“From your look, you probably can’t remember me.” The middle-aged woman laughed. “Can’t you remember? I’m Aunt Orn.”
My eyes opened wide. When the confusion was gone and replace with familiarity, I gaped.
“It’s Aunt Orn!” I called excitedly. “I remember now. I haven’t seen you for a long time. How have you been?”
“Right. Since you moved away. How is your class? Are you a university student now?”
“I’m a second-year student. Liberal Art.”
“Good, good.” Aunt Orn nodded. “We haven’t met for a long time, and you’ve become even more beautiful.”
“Not exactly.” I scratched my head.
“It’s good that you don’t look like your father.” Aunt Orn laughed. “So you become charming like your mother.”
I laughed. People usually told me that I looked like my mom. Mom used to live here with us when I was small. She was friendly with everyone, offering friendship without boundary. That made she beloved by the people here, unlike Dad who was silent and preferred to be alone.
Before mom moved out, everybody came to bid her farewell. I could remember that day until now. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. On people’s face were sorrow from the parting and happiness from spending time together. Mom was someone whose life was fulfilled with love and ready to give love to any person shared her path. Since then, I’d always wanted to be like mom, but I couldn’t be the person I want to be.
“Well, since we already meet again.” Aunt Orn said. “Let’s go to my house and have a chat. It’s so long since we met.”
Aunt Orn placed the teapot and some snack on a small table. Ton and I received them with proper manner.
“When you were still around, I haven’t got a chance to do something like this.” Aunt Orn sighed. “You father didn’t like to socialize with us, so you hadn’t got the chance, too.”
Ton looked around the house with interest. The living room’s wall was painted with dark red. Gold traditional Thai decal was presented and told stories of it. There were four cupboards in the room. Two of them kept antique tea sets. The others showed off tiny dolls and old books. A lovely gold ceiling fan turned slowly. I drank some more before placed the cup down.
“Yes. Dad doesn’t like talking.” I laughed lightly. “But he’s fine now. He’s a lot better than he used to be.”
“Is that so?” She laughed. “It’s good then. So you can normally live like other teenagers now.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s good your father becomes less strict.” She poured tea into her cup. “I still remember. You used to fight with him a lot. Sometimes it was so loud that I could hear both of you fighting from here.”
“Really?”
“I was worried about you, you know?” Aunt Orn took a sip. “But I didn’t dare to do anything. I think you probably very stress during that times, but I didn’t know how to help you. It’s good that your neighbor was there to help and talked with you a lot.”
“My neighbor?”
“You can’t remember? The one who moved in the last.”
“I rubbed my chin before shook my head. “Not at all.”
“Well, it’s fine.” Aunt Orn smiled. “When you had any troubles, you liked to go over to that person. I’d never seen you talking with him. However, every time I heard you fought with your father, I would see you ran to your next door. So, I guessed you went to talk with him.”
Suddenly, I heard footsteps from the stairs behind us. A middle-aged man was walking down. He looked at us with interest.
“Hm? Isn’t that Dream?” He greeted. “How come you’re here?”
“Hello.” I greeted him. This man should be Aunt Orn’s husband.
“Can you remember me? I’m Uncle Chai.”
I shook my head with embarrassment. Uncle Chai laughed.
“It’s fine. It’s not strange that you can’t remember me. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time anyway.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, really.” He smiled. “But I accidentally heard you talking, had someone stayed in the house next to yours?”
“It had.” Aunt Orn scolded him. “He died two years ago.”
“Didn’t he just move out?” Uncle Chai scratched his head.
“No. He was sick.” Aunt Orn shook her head. “After he died, his relative moved in before moving out, too.”
“Is that so?” He laughed. “Maybe I’m too old now to remember everything wrong.”
Uncle Chai walked to the kitchen, took a water bottle, and walked back to upstairs. “It’s good to see you again, Dream.”
I nodded in reply. Aunt Orn shook her head before turned to smile at me. “Don’t mind him.”
“It’s ok.” I smiled.
“You may not remember now, but I think you could be happy at that time because he helped you.” Aunt Orn smiled. “Every time I saw you left his house I suddenly knew that you felt a lot better. I often saw you smiled when you left.”
“Is that so?” I felt embarrass when hearing about this.
After that, Aunt Orn and I talked about trivial things. The longer time passed, the more I missed those memories. This place was full of memory and happiness. If I could turn back time, I wanted to live here again once more.
Every time Aunt Orn talked about the man who used to live next to my house, more of my memories came back. When I was in high school, there was a man who always gave me advises. Even when I couldn’t remember his face now, the warm feeling was still there. I immediately knew that this memory was real.
Ton listened until he was bored. I talked with Aunt Orn a little more before I bid her farewell. Aunt Orn waved goodbye to us with a smile on her face. She told me that I could come back anytime. She and the others were always ready to welcome me.
“People here are sure nice.” Ton said. “If we come back again, it’ll definitely be a lot more comfortable.”
“Stop it.” I elbowed him in his chest.
“Well, where should we go next?”
“Well.” I tilted my head. “Um… let’s go have a look at the house next to mine.”
Ton nodded as if he knew what I wanted.
We walked back to the way we just passed. I brought some flower from a shop nearby before heading to the old house located deepest in the alley.
I placed the flowers in front of the house, bent myself down a bit, and weaved my hand together as if praying. Memories and feeling circled around my mind. I thought about when I came to see him when I was hurt. Every time I came here, I went back home with a smile and hope. He was the one who helped me grew up to be a happy person. He was another force that never let me gave up. I felt a bit guilty that I couldn't remember his face, but I promised myself that I would remember everything he’d done for me forever.
Ton looked at me from afar without an expression. He let me freely spend the time with the memories that couldn’t take back.
We both stayed like that for a long time, letting the silence comforted our tired souls.
I opened the door. Dad sat reading the newspaper on the sofa. He turned to look at me briefly before turned back.
I walked upstairs, looking at the pain on his face before went into my room silently.