Living in a small village was prestigious for having a cup of coffee on the porch and watching the sunset.
Sonya inhaled and she was about to take some sips of her coffee when her ears captured a woman’s voice, but it was not either hers or Auntie Caroline.“Sonya…your journey will begin…” that voice whispered so gently in Sonya’s ears.‘Whose voice is that?’ Sonya put her coffee cup on a table that was in front of her and Auntie Caroline.“Auntie, did you hear that?” she asked Auntie Caroline who was sitting next to her on an old wooden chair, but Auntie Caroline didn’t hear what Sonya said to her as she was too absorbed in reading something from the magazine in her hands.Sonya took a deep breath as she knew that Auntie Caroline missed her question, otherwise, she didn’t want to ask twice about that.Auntie Caroline finished reading a magazine that she brought at that time Sonya took her coffee cup again from the table and sipped some.“It’s getting colder for my old bones, Sonya!” Auntie Caroline rose from her seat and walked into the front door. “Will you serve dinner?” She turned her head to Sonya before entering the house. Her wrinkled hands with some vein lines were folded in front and held tightly to the side of the sweater that she was wearing.Sonya nodded. “No problem! Let me look for some menu!”Auntie Caroline smiled and tapped her shoulder. “Enjoy your evening coffee time, dear!”Sonya held and kissed Auntie Caroline’s hand before that old woman drew it and left her alone on the porch. She inhaled deeply and looked at the horizon above was becoming more reddish and orange.“What a wonderful sunset, Lassie!” She talked to the German shepherd dog who was sitting on the long sofa next to her.‘I never enjoyed an evening so relaxed as this evening!’ She smiled as she put her coffee cup on the table and looked through some menus for dinner on the pages of the magazine. She was busy flipping over pages when she heard someone talking.‘Hey, coward! Why are you staring at me?’ a throaty voice of a man stopped Sonya’s eyes from the magazine in her hands. She turned her head and looked around and there was nobody in the front yard or near her.‘Hey, stupid cat, why now you are staring at her?’ again that voice appeared.Sonya closed the magazine and the voice sounded so nearby. She saw Lassie was staring at something. She followed Lassie’s eye that directed at something behind the plant pot outside the terrace. Then, her ears captured a meowing sound from there.She turned her head at Lassie. “Did you speak?” She wrinkled her forehead.Lassie woofed softly to her as his eyes looked into her.Sonya sighed. “Glad you’re barking!” She continued to read the magazine again.She rose from her seat and asked Lassie to come with her into the house as the dark approached.Behind the front gate, she could see that the street was getting quiet and dark, there was no street light along the street side since it was only a street of a village that bridged the area with the nearest market. Alongside the street, there were some maples and two old oak trees.Her family house was built in a spacious family land and resided quite remotely from the nearest neighborhood. It took a fifteen-minute walk to get there.‘Granny used to make maple syrup from those trees and served it with some pancakes for breakfast, some grated cheese on the top!’ She remembered that and started to become a little bit nostalgic as her eyes caught the swaying dances of some maple trees’ leaves.Sonya found Auntie Caroline fell asleep in front of the television that she should have been watching as Sonya entered the house with Lassie. She locked the front door quietly to avoid the key’s clicking sound startling Auntie Caroline. After putting the magazine on the magazine shelf, Sonya entered the kitchen.‘Hey, Sonya, Sonya. Look at those hams. It looks so delicious!’ Again, that sound appeared at the time Sonya opened the fridge door to prepare some stuff for dinner.‘The voice seemed so near, as it came from my left side!’ Sonya closed the fridge and wiped her nose as her heart started pounding. ‘Whose voice is that?’ She turned her head to her left side. Nobody was there except Lassie who was sitting on the floor with his begging eyes kept looking at her. Lassie woofed again as Sonya looked at him. He put out his tongue with his half mouth opened as he craved for something.Sonya stared at that dog for some seconds. She was so freaking confused.‘Did the voice belong to that dog?’ She inhaled.She opened the fridge and took two slices of hams from its plastic bag. She put those hams on the floor slowly while her eyes still stared at the dog.Lassie turned his head to the right side as he seemed to ask why Sonya looked suspicious of him. Later, he ate those hams after woofing at her.Sonya sighed and put one of her hands on her waist.‘Am I freaking?’ She rubbed her forehead and backed to slice some vegetables, onions, and chicken breast meat that had already been cooked to make fried noodles.She had prepared the dinner and took off the apron that she wore. She folded the apron and hung it on the handle of the oven. As she walked in front of Lassie who was sitting on the floor and his eyes kept staring at the dining table, her ears captured that voice again saying this, ‘It smells so nice, Sonya. May I….?’Sonya stopped her steps and looked at that dog who also stared at her with his widened eyes.“Are you talking to me, Lassie?” She asked in a low pitch and the dog answered her question with his barking sound.She sighed and walked to approach her Auntie.“Auntie, let’s have dinner!” She whispered in Auntie Caroline’s ear and woke the old woman up gently.“I must’ve fallen asleep!” Auntie Caroline chuckled and rose from her lazy seat.They were having dinner and spending time talking about many things.“I think the late Uncle Elbert loved you!” Sonya ate some bite slices of watermelon that she bought from the nearest market that morning. For desserts, Auntie Caroline chose some peeled-off small cutting pieces of a banana.Auntie Caroline sighed. “The last story that he wrote was about us. The way we met! How rough life had been to us in our early years of marriage!” The eyes of Auntie Caroline looked more sparkling when her lips gushed the story about her last everlasting love, Mr. Hengelbert.Sonya swallowed her water as deep down inside her heart, she desired to find out the kind of love that the late Uncle Elbert brought to her Auntie.“But he never finished that story!” Auntie Caroline gripped the napkin tightly as she remained the last story of Uncle Elbert.Sonya let Auntie Caroline leave the dining room while she was alone and taking a seat. She did some contemplations as her mouth was munching some crisps from the jar. When she glanced at Lassie who still sat on the chair next to her and stared at her eating. Sonya gave her plate with the remaining noodles from her and Auntie Caroline’s dinner meals for Lassie to finish up. Lassie seemed to not mind helping her clean all the stuff on the plate before she washed the culinary tools used for dinner that night.She glanced at the dog who was eating next to her and rubbing her forehead. “Tell me, did you speak to me?”She stared at the dog and was still questioning where the voice came from while her mouth was busy munching.Lassie stopped eating the noodles, looking at her and woofing at her.Sonya’s eyes were wandering through the window of the kitchen to the family land. ‘It looked so dark there!’ She sighed. All she could see was the shadows of trees and some swaying leaves that were blown by the wind.In a few moments, she saw the walking fog approaching to overwhelmingly cover the family land and the house where she was sitting. It seemed that the fog had built a wall guarding off the family land and the house from any sights coming through the mansion.Sonya inhaled deeply. ‘I couldn’t see the shadow of the mansion! The thick fog made it invisible and separated off. Like we are on different islands.’Sonya drew the curtain to veil the window as she finished washing the dishes. Lassie was sitting in front of the television. Sonya thought Auntie Caroline had to go to bed. She turned off the television.She was going to sleep in a room on the attic floor. Her footsteps sounded thudding lightly at the time she stepped on the wooden stairs.Sonya remembered that she used to be afraid when she was a little girl to sleep in that room alone. She used to imagine that the sound of the wind coming through the ventilation glass which opened slightly and was covered by the mosquito trapping filaments, in the middle of the night, could transform like the humming sound of someone pronouncing a kind of mantra.“Good night, Lassie!” She pulled the blanket and saw Lassie reclining near her feet.Lassie moved his eyes to her as she turned her back and started to close her eyes.‘I have never seen the fog so thick as I saw right now!’ She wrapped her body with a blanket.‘It should be chilling but it feels warm here in this room!’ She pulled down the blanket. She leaned her head side with one of her arms. She saw the walking fog didn’t come through the opened ventilation glass. ‘They just passed through!’ Sonya whispered in silence.In a short moment, her eyes felt so heavy that Sonya could not help to close her both eyelids and fall asleep.The time was passing slowly and inaudibly, unwavering moment as the sounds of nocturnal animals were dreadfully voiceless and the animals seemed to hide inside their nests.In the middle of the night, the walking fog stopped to wander and faintly came through the opened window. Within the fog, there was also a bright light that was hiding.The fog faintly covered the room and it slowly moved to spin into a spiral movement, approaching Sonya who was reclining on her bed. It sounded like a mantra whisper as it tried to cover Sonya’s front body as she was sleeping.Sonya and Lassie were sleeping profoundly as they were wandering into a dream land and neither one of them realized that the fog had passed and nudged into the nostril as Sonya inhaled in her sleep. Only took a few seconds before the fog completely disappeared and smoothly streamed into Sonya’s nose as she was breathing in.The fog seemed to move and talk like an entity and now, it had profoundly enshrined its ethereal substance into Sonya.The night had shifted.One morning came as the sunlight woke Sonya up with its warm greeting.Sonya stretched out and got up from the bed. She didn’t see Lassie on her bed anymore.‘He must be in the kitchen with Auntie Caroline!’ She came out from her bedroom after putting the pillow on the left top side of the bed and tidying up the sheet.She grabbed a morning coffee and made tea for her auntie as she arrived at the kitchen. She didn’t see Auntie Caroline and Lassie there.She changed her footwear with outdoor sandals and took a morning walk. As she walked through the path, Sonya found Auntie Caroline and Lassie standing near the brook.Auntie Caroline was talking with a man.“Morning Auntie!” Sonya greeted Auntie Caroline who turned her head at her.Sonya handed her a mug with a warm tea while she was holding her morning coffee mug.“Thank you!” Auntie Caroline to
“Two bouquets of white roses!” Sonya spoke to the woman at the flower shop where she stopped before going home.She intentionally visited the shop after having breakfast with Frank, as she remembered that Auntie Caroline sent her a message to buy two bouquets of white roses to celebrate the full moon festival.Sonya inhaled, she didn’t have any idea what the full moon festivals were and why they should celebrate it. All she knew was that every full moon night, she and her parents would stay at home all night, they lit some candles at home and bedroom, and they ate only vegan and fruit menu.Once Sonya asked about the meaning behind all the festivals, her mother always smiled at her and said, “Making our gratitude for the mother of Earth and taking appreciation on other’s living souls as our company on this earth!”And, this answer had already shut Sonya’s mouth to ask further as she was busy absorbing it
The night was running slowly. Sonya was in her room in the attic compartment and Auntie Caroline had gone to bed a few hours later after she finished her story about Rose Duville. Sonya inhaled she had spent an hour reading a book that she borrowed from the library but she couldn’t close her eyes. At the time she looked at Lassie, the German shepherd dog had already cowered underneath her feet. Sonya inhaled and got up from her bed. She saw a music box on the table next to the bed that Uncle Elbert gave her on her fifteenth birthday. ‘A ballerina girl music box!’ she smiled as she examined the music box that still looked being kept up well. Gently, Sonya scrolled the key to play the music box. A lullaby song was played as Sonya returned to the bed and reclined herself. She tried to close her eyes and enjoyed the lullaby. Within a few minutes, Sonya found herself in an empty large hall as she tried to get up from her reclining position. Her eyes captured a slightly opened door tha
“So, Mr. Jackson will return and stay in the cabin again this evening?” Sonya poured some coffee from the coffee maker into two different cups; one cup of Auntie Caroline and the other cup was for her.“No. He’ll be back in three days!” Auntie Caroline chewed some green salad and almond chunks that Sonya had prepared for their breakfast.“In three days?” Sonya lifted her eyebrows and stopped eating her toasted bread with peanut jam. “Why does it take so long for him to take a break?”Auntie Caroline took some sips of her coffee before answering Sonya’s question. “I think he has some business to do in his hometown!” She reached for a piece of toasted bread and crushed it into crumbles on her salad.Auntie Caroline’s answer triggered Sonya’s curiosity to get to know Mr. Jackson, a poker-faced man. “Does he celebrate the full moon festivals like us?” Sonya too
“So, are you going to settle in this village?” Clayton looked at Sonya as they were walking on the small path.Sonya inhaled, uncovering her sight from any hair strands that were blown away by the morning breeze. “It’s a good place to contemplate and restructure my life again!” She smirked and glanced at Clayton.Clayton nodded and put his two hands into his jean’s pockets. “Yeah. I understand. A new beginning in our life needs a lot of effort and struggles but that’s life. Life needs us to transform into our new chapter, don’t you think so?” His hazel eyes stared at Sonya.“Auntie Caroline told me about what had happened to you. I mean she is concerned about you a lot!” Clayton shrugged. “Please, don’t think that I am too nosy in your personal life!” He stopped walking and looked into a pair of Sonya’s brown eyes.Sonya smiled. “Of course not. I knew tha
“Have you got anything that you’re looking for?” Auntie Caroline sipped the camomile tea that Sonya made for both of them.They were having dinner for the second night of the full moon festival. The dishes were served differently in a paradox set of main courses for the Duville and the Stein.Clayton paused slicing some chunks of half-cooked red meat on his dinner plate. “Some, Auntie. I need to continue doing tomorrow.” He sipped his wine.The candles were lit up in a chandelier and were put in the middle of the dining table.Sonya looked at Clayton through the candle lights. She saw his eyes were sparkling under the light reflection. She kept chopping some vegetables on her plate with her fork.“Are you going to stay in the cabin tonight?” Sonya reached for some dried raisins from the bowl. She saw that Clayton had anything green or fruits on his plate unless his chewy red meats were cooked half-done and served in a raw dish without any ingredients.Clayton nodded. He wiped his lips
“Looking for something?” a bass voice of a man tried to say something near Sonya’s ear.Sonya inhaled, getting up from her bending position as the man already made her clumsily stand in front of him. Sonya wiped her cheek with one of her backhands. She just tried to sneak into the hole in the wall of the mansion as she was curious to see that mansion from a reachable access, the mansion looked gradually maintained within days.“I think I heard a cat that got lost!” Sonya smiled at that man. ‘Damn! I wish he didn’t assume that I was sneaking into the mansion!’“You mean this cat? Is it yours?” the man smiled as his hands lifted up a black cat that was hissing at him. He was standing under the archway gate of the mansion.He was tall, a well-built man with a pair of dark blue eyes, and those eyes looked so captivating as Sonya tried to not look into them.He was wearing a casual sweater and navy jeans with a nice musk scent that accompanied his style that morning.Sonya nodded, reaching
“Clayton, wait!” Sonya tried to catch the rushing steps of Clayton. “I don’t know why you got salty as I told you about Richard, the heir of the Cardinals!” She explained but it seemed too ludicrous having Clayton stop his steps and hang on to what she tried to say. They were walking along the small path.Clayton kept walking and put his two hands inside his jeans pockets.“Listen!” She ran after and stopped in front of Clayton, making him halt from walking. “It sounds silly to you but I need to find out the history of Rose Duville, Wolf Hügel, and her relationship with the eldest son of August Cardinal!”She sighed as she found Clayton turn his head away and grit his teeth.“You can find it out by yourself through Uncle Hengel’s handwriting journals!” After staying in a few seconds of his pause, Clayton inhaled deeply and aimed his thrusting glare at Sonya who was standing in his way. He slid aloofly his body to move, trying to walk away from Sonya, and continued his stroll to the ca