CHAPTER 24

ZARIA

 

I sighed. “I said, is there anything important on your phone that…”

 

“Oh,” Wang interrupted, smirking. “I have cloud.”

 

Uncle Thomas frowned, shaking his head. “You two speak riddles. Cloud? Cloud in sky!”

 

I hid a smile.

 

Wang brightened immediately. “Cloud is back up,” he explained. “Everything on my phone is saved online. Pictures, contacts, files. Even if the phone break”

 

“Good,” I said. Then I dropped it. The phone hit the ground face-first with a sharp crack. I lifted my foot and crushed it. The screen shattered completely with the pieces scattering in the dirt.

 

I stepped back and lifted my head to find Wang’s mouth hanging open. Uncle Thomas was staring at me as I’d just murdered someone in front of him.

 

“Why?” Wang started. “Why did you do that?”

 

I shrugged. “This is the countryside,” I said simply. “Who needs a phone anyway?”

 

Uncle Thomas blinked. “You crazy.”

 

“Maybe,” I said, turning to him. “Now show me around, Uncle. Or I tell Mama Li you are rude to me.”

 

He swore under his breath. “Trouble girl. Come inside. Later talk.”

 

I smiled.

 

Deep down, though, something else settled in my chest. You see, Renzo being in a coma might not have been the worst thing.

 

After everything he’d put me through… it might even be the best revenge. And somehow, I found myself looking forward to the day he would wake up and start looking for me.

 

When he did, I’d be ready to make his life hell.

___________

 

Wang was quiet. He didn't move from his spot, clearly still processing the sight of his phone in pieces on the ground. I sneaked a glance at him.

 

Maybe, I shouldn't have done that. “Wang, I'm sorry.”

 

He exhaled, averting his gaze from me. If it were any other person, I would be dragged about like a doll. But this guy… I just tested his patience, yet he was cool with it.

 

What came over me?

 

“Aiya.” Uncle Thomas clicked his tongue and shook his head, muttering something about city people and madness as he bent to nudge one of the shattered fragments with his shoe.

 

“You break things like you have money growing on trees,” He said. “Phone is not stone.”

 

“I’ll get him a new one,” I replied easily, brushing dirt off my palms. “A good one with a really big screen.”

 

Wang finally found his voice. “You… you don’t have to”

 

“I said I will,” I cut in, already walking past him toward the narrow path that led deeper into the compound. “Consider it compensation for emotional damage. You should be angry with me, you know.”

 

Renzo would be angry. The thought flashed through my mind unwantedly.

 

Uncle Thomas snorted. “Emotional damage,” he repeated, amused. “You hear this boy? She break your heart and your phone.”

 

Wang laughed weakly and followed us, still shaking his head.

 

“Come. We use the backyard.”

 

The backyard opened up into something that felt less like a house and more like a living village square.

 

Chickens scattered as we stepped in, lifting dust into the air. Somewhere to my left, a radio blared loudly with the signal crackling between music and a man’s voice shouting about rice prices. Children ran past barefoot and one of them almost collided with me before stopping short and staring openly at my stomach.

 

I pulled my jacket tighter.

 

“This is where you live?” I asked, scanning the place. “All of you?” I thought it was one big house. This was… a hostel.

 

Uncle Thomas shrugged. “People come and go. Sick people come, hungry people come, people who have nowhere to go come. We don’t lock doors here.”

 

I frowned. “That sounds… unsafe.”

 

He laughed a loud, booming sound. “Unsafe is city. Here, people know each other. If you steal, everybody know your mother.”

 

Before I could respond, a shrill cry cut through the air.

 

“Uncle Thomas!”

 

A woman came running from the far end of the compound, hair half undone, slippers flapping as she moved. Her face was red and wet as she nearly fell at Uncle Thomas’s feet.

 

“My husband,” she cried in Mandarin so fast I barely caught half of it. “He collapsed again. He cannot breathe properly.”

 

Uncle Thomas’s entire demeanor changed and the teasing stance he had vanished instantly.

 

“Where?” he asked sharply.

 

“Inside… inside the back room.”

 

Uncle Thomas turned to Wang. “Bring needles. And moxa. Hurry.”

 

Wang was already moving, darting into one of the rooms. I stood there, stunned, as Uncle Thomas followed the woman without waiting for me. Instinctively, I trailed behind them.

 

The room we entered was small, crowded, and unbearably hot. A man lay on a low wooden bed, his chest rising and falling shakily, sweat soaking through his shirt.

 

His face was flushed, and his lips were slightly blue.

 

Two children clung to the edge of the bed, crying quietly. The smell of smoke, herbs, and sickness mixed with the air that was already suffocating.

 

Jesus… this man shouldn't be eating.

 

“Shouldn’t we take him to a hospital?” I blurted out without thinking. “This looks serious. He needs oxygen or something. An IV”

 

Uncle Thomas shot me a look so sharp it shut me up immediately.

 

“You say strange things,” he said firmly. “Hospital is three hours away. Government clinic has no doctor today. Even if they go, they pay money so they don’t have to be told to come back tomorrow.”

 

The wife sobbed harder as if to confirm his words. She started talking again, her voice trembling as she explained how her husband had been working in the fields since dawn, how he complained of chest tightness but refused to rest, and how he suddenly fell while lifting a sack of grain.

 

Wang returned, kneeling by the bed and laying out needles carefully. Uncle Thomas rolled up the man’s sleeve gently.

 

“Hold him,” he snapped, inserting…

 

Before I could step back, Wang grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward.

 

I gasped.