Power Microcosm

Chapter 25

  The missing presence of Azrael within the house is seems to invite more of the cold into the interior, and I feel slightly sad about it. Actually, sad itself is three letters, but less than three-percent of what I want to convey. Wherever Azrael goes, he takes a piece of me with him, maybe every part, and I'm stuck motionless. He does leave something for me though, but it's only thoughts of him. He went out with Duke to grab everyone at home groceries and dinner, and the sunny bright skies permitted it. Almost as if the weather wanted him out of the house. He could use if though, as vitamin D is not something you want to lack.

  Walking around the hallways of the house, I search around for a presence to talk to. It's been two days sine Christmas day, which was a nice experience, needless to say. The weather is cold and that may chill the experience, but I still enjoy it. The reason for that being the life that walks around on a steady gait and stand just to my shoulder height. 

   Thinking now, when I go home, and get back to my apartment in D.C., I'll feel lonely without him. The place I called home will be devoid of the familiar comfort will be as alien as it was before I moved in. It won't have him and that's going to be as awful as now, maybe more. Why can't I be near the person I like, and why won't I be able to?

  Walking along the hallways more, I spot pictures and look at them. I'm just looking around when I notice that the picture that Azrael choked up on when he saw it is missing. The negative space created by its absence leaves a hole in the otherwise evenly spaced rhythm of the framed pictures.

  That girl with the blond hair and grey eyes. The one with the waning smile.

  Maybe though, I can look around more and find the picture and the girl together. Whoever that was. It's not that the girl is demanding my attention as I have my eyes on Azrael. But when it comes to the relevance of her to Azrael, I can't help but feel there's a crucial connection to understand.

  And the last time Azrael tried to hush a piece of information, it turned out to be worthwhile to know. Azrael I can tell now when looking back at it purposefully made sure that information of how Luke, Clementine, and Duke raised him was not disclosed. The reason for that I don't know, but it does have some relation to him, and I sense that it does have to do with the awful relation with his father.

  Maybe, Luke, Clementine, and Duke because Rafael was a absent parent and so led to Azrael being raised by them. That could be an explanation, or it might be something else that led to that fact and later the omission of that reality. 

  But for now, in order to really figure out the true reality of the strange upbringing of Azrael and the mystery girl of the missing picture, I first need to find the girl and analyze it more before I can even start to think of a reason for the connection.

  From what I can see, none of the pictures seem to have the girl. The farmhouse is large and may hallways wind through the building of it, and with that comes a large number of pictures. Continuing to walk, I try to find her again, but there's nothing of that nature. No girl, and no answer.

  Aside from these pieces of information though, the pictures do tell something interesting. One picture is the wedding picture of Clementine and Duke, and later they have a picture of their kids. Duke and Clementine apparently have two of their own children, and I can tell that they are so. The kind happy smiles and the hair and eye colors tell me that much. The wedding photo has me looking at something more than just the overall happy atmosphere captured. Their family picture actually contains three children: their own two children, and Azrael.

  Azrael appears in pictures as a young infant and later a toddler, the grey eyes telling me the identity. And later when the two other children appear he's in some of the pictures as well.