[Legacy of a Martyr #2] Liberation from the Masquerades (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 83

It was late in the morning, but I just woke up. Morning and I were never very good friends.

T let me sleep in her bed, and I'm pretty sure she slept on the floor in that bag Ain used when T wasn't feeling very good. She knew I wanted to be with Ain, because he wasn't feeling very good.

I didn't really understand what happened to him. It was kind of scary to see him like this. Being able to hold him made me feel better, though.

I didn't know why, but I'd been shivering since I woke up.

T rubbed my back. "You're cold, aren't you?" Her voice was soft. "I need you to do things for half an hour. I can take care of Ali by myself."

"Do things? What things?" I asked.

"That's up to you. You just need to take a little time to warm up." She ruffled my hair. "Ali would want you to do that, too, if he could say so. It's important for you to take care of yourself, too."

I sighed. I wasn't gonna win. Sometimes, T knew what I needed better than I did...

I was slow about it, but I trudged out of bed. If T wanted me to do other things, then this was a good time to shower.

It wasn't fun being cold. The hot water would fix that. I used water as hot as I could, because I was so cold.

Anyway, I ran into Ain's daddy when I got out. His face was hairy but not.

He raised his eyebrows. "Is there a reason you're all red, son?"

I shrugged. "I just took a hot shower. It was nice."

"It looks like you might have overdone it a bit." He looked into my eyes. "You're worried about him, aren't you?"

I nodded. I couldn't help it. It was hard to see him like that even though I knew he would get better soon.

"I am, too, but my boy is a fighter. He'll pull through like he always does." He gave me a pat on the back. "What are you planning to do now, son?"

My first instinct was to feel my pocket watch. It hadn't been half an hour yet. I still had nineteen more minutes. That shower didn't eat as much time as I hoped it would.

"Not sure..." I rubbed the back of my neck. "T wants me to take a break still."

"From watching him?"

I nodded.

"What do you want to do then?" he asked.

What did I want to do?

"I wanna read one of the books I just got, but I don't wanna bug the others to do that."

My cheeks got hot when I said that. I didn't like to talk about it. It was frustrating sometimes that I couldn't read, and I didn't like to just tell everyone about it.

"Why would you bother anyone if you wanted to read?" he asked.

"I'm bad at it... I can't read the book I really want to, because it doesn't talk."

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Can I ask why it's hard for you to read?"

I sighed. Why did I have to go and open my big mouth?

"It doesn't matter how you flip a chair. No matter how you flip it, it's still a chair. Letters aren't like that." I groaned. "Some of them are the different, but there's a bunch that only different because something got flipped or there's extra lines." I turned my head. "I like talking books better when I want to read something by myself."

He got down, so I didn't have to look up at him. "You know, son, you're not the only one who's like that. There are lots of people who have a hard time with reading. It might not be as hard for them, but it's still hard. They find ways to deal with it."

Was that really true? I wasn't sure. I never got to meet anyone like that, because we were stuck in that room for so darn long.

"Lan never told you that?" He rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know what things are like where you're all from, but your family and your school would have helped you with that here if you'd grown up with Lan."

That wasn't a big deal here? I didn't know what things were like back home, but T and the others didn't know how to help me. That wasn't their fault, though. It might not have helped that T and I grew up so fast after we got out of there.

I wanted to learn how to read, but I'd be okay if I didn't. I didn't want my stories to not be fun, because reading made me mad and not feel good. Last I asked about it, T and Ain told me they didn't want those things to happen, either.

"I could help you get through a chapter of the book if you want." He got up. "There's probably a more 'sensitive' way to say this, but I could use a distraction. It'd be a win-win for us since we're both getting things that we want."

I guess that did, so I couldn't complain...

After that, I brought Ain's daddy into my room and got the book I wanted to read.

"What chapter were you on, son?"

"I was on chapter seventeen, I think..."

He took the book from me and sat down. "I don't know if I've told you or sister this or not, but you can call me Atsu." He laughed. "It's weird to think that I'm your uncle, huh?"

I nodded. That was still a hard concept for me to understand. Ain's mommy was my aunt because Mommy was her big sister, but I still didn't get what an uncle was.

Uncle was really good at reading. I was surprised that he seemed to enjoy it so much. Uncle Atsu seemed to be really serious. I thought he'd just read the words, not tell a story the way Ain, T, Recah, and Marshall did.

When he was done, he smiled. "Why don't we go check on Lan?"

I smiled. I wanted to be with Ain. It'd been more than the half hour T wanted me to do other things.

***

Thoughts on Eni's interaction with his uncle? Theories? Predictions?

~Shino out!