"I'll come back tomorrow," I promised my mother as she stood by me wringing her hands I grabbed my purse. "I just need to go back to my apartment for the night, pick up some clothes, throw out some old food before I attract mice. Nothing major."
"Suzume," Mom said, practically trembling. "I really don't think you should do that. We've all been through so much and I don't think you should be alone."
No Mom, I thought, you don't want to be alone. Uncle Emeni had retreated into himself to grieve, I had been the one to handle everything and I knew Mom feared what would happen if something needed to be taken care of and I wasn't there. She'd need to figure it out soon though, if I did go to Asgard to hunt down Yuki's killer, I wouldn't exactly be close at hand to take care of her.
"I need to go back to my apartment," I repeated, keeping my voice firm. "I will be back tomorrow." You can survive one night without me. The thought had more venom in it than I cared to acknowledge and I felt a small pang of guilt over it but pushed it aside. I was not going to let her fear stop me from doing what I needed to do.
"My car stalled last month and Uncle Enmei might need his truck." Mom said and I resisted the urge to scowl. Her car had stalled last month, but we both knew Uncle Enmei hadn't left the house in a week; I doubted that would change today of all days.
"That's alright," I said, willing myself to stay calm and forcing a smile. "Matthew hasn't left yet and I can ask him to drive me."
"That's not fair to ask him," was the fast rebuttal. I thought it was quite ironic that she wanted to talk to me about fairness when she'd asked me to give up on my ambitions of becoming a police officer because she couldn't handle it.
I didn't say that however and opted for a different truth. "He said if I needed anything to ask and I'm about to take him up on that. I'll see you tomorrow, tell Uncle Enmei for me? Please?" He hadn't been able to look me in the face since the night I came home from the hospital. I couldn't blame him for it, but I couldn't handle the change either. It was just another reminder of how broken my family had become.
"Hey Matthew?" I called as I walked around my mother. My partner had known Yuki as well and worn his favorite jersey in her honor. I'd hear some people whispering about how it was rude, but I knew better. Yuki loved the Red Sox too. "Do you mind giving me a ride back to my apartment?"
He looked at me then briefly at the half-eaten lemon bar in his hand. "You got it," he crammed the rest of the bar into his mouth, smearing powdered sugar on his lips. He grabbed his keys, jiggling them as he tried to speak around the dessert stuffed into his cheeks.
"Thanks," I said, taking his garbled speech to be some variation of "let's go" or "come on". Either way, I was more than happy to follow him out, knowing my mother was probably freaking out upstairs in her bedroom.
We climbed into the cab of Mathew's car and we started down the road, silent as I looked out the window, watching the familiar streets and shops of Harvard go by.
"How you holding up?" he asked softly as the car came to a gentle stop at a red light.
My head jerked up, pulled out of my mindless gazing out the window and temporarily distracting me from my anxiety about meeting Sif again. "I've been better."
Matthew sighed. "I bet." The light flicked to green and we pulled forward, lapsing into silence for another few miles before he broke it again. "Okay I gotta ask, was was with all the tension between you and your mom?"
A self-deprecating smile flickered across my face. "You noticed huh?"
"You were burning a hole in her forehead."
YOU ARE READING
Queen of Asgard (NaNoWriMo2018, Completed!)
FantasyLife was simpler for Suzume Hamada before she knew gods and monsters were real. The night her cousin was murdered by a frost giant was the night Suzume learned that Norse gods were not the stories she'd believed and that there were realms far beyond...
