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Cye examined the silver orca necklace that dangled
from his grasp as the light streaming in through his bedroom window cast
intricate designs on its jeweled side.
The whale's diamond eye acted as a prism, creating rainbows of vivid
color that highlighted his fingertips.
It
had been a gift from his mother after his father left, given to him perhaps out
of pity, or maybe guilt. As his mother
had always said, his father had been lost in a boating accident though Cye knew
it wasn't true. The way his mother
talked about his father had always led him to believe she was hiding something
from him. He never gathered the courage
to question her; he didn't want to hurt her, and that left him to his own conclusions. With the help of his sister, Sayoko, Cye was
able to gather that his father was not dead, far from it, in fact. He had left his mother so long ago that Cye
could no longer remember the look of his face or the sound of his voice, and he
felt much better for it. He had left
his mother alone to raise two children by herself on a barely reliable
income. There was no child support, no
letters to either his children or his wife, and for that Cye hated his father
with a passion. Whatever happened,
Cye's father was dead to him, now and forever.
Kuma
(bear), lying next to him on the bed, twitched an ear fitfully and the white
German Shepard lifted its head and rested it on Cye's leg, a passive reminder
that it was feeding time.
The
sound of a car starting just outside the house made Kuma tense, causing the bed
to jump, and he lifted his head in anticipation.
That
could only be Cye's mother, Saro, a pleasant, overprotective woman just gracing
forty with a color of hair parallel to her son's, though a touch lighter. He helped her out whenever and with whatever
he could and she was just now running into town to run some errands, something
he usually didn't accompany her on. The
city wasn't Cye's favorite place to be, he would be content to just spend the day
here with Kuma.
He
had different plans for today, however.
Cye
dragged himself off the bed and made his way to the kitchen, beckoning Kuma to
follow. The dog, loyal to Cye's every
whim, did so and even went on ahead to give Sayoko, who was preparing to leave
herself to meet her boyfriend, a quick sniff on the leg before trotting swiftly
back to Cye's side.
"Mom
will be home in about an hour," she informed him. "No wild parties and if you
do, don't play the music too loud."
Cye
chuckled. Ten years older than him,
Sayoko was getting married in two months to her Japanese fiancée, Ryuusuke, and
the closer she got to the big day the more buoyant and elated she acted. Cye wasn't complaining, he certainly didn't
want to dampen her spirits, and (he thought) it might be interesting to have a
brother-in-law. Right now, she was
taking the last of her things to Ryuusuke's home, having planned long ago to
move in with him prior to the wedding.
Cye
grabbed a blue bag from the corner of the room and began to fill Kuma's dog
bowl, listening to the familiar sounds of his sister's departure, before
grabbing the phone and dialing Kento's number from memory.
Kento
was supposed to come down for a one-on-one game of basketball with him on the
hoop just above his garage, to which Kento only agreed to if Cye made lunch. Needless to say, the game was on
immediately.
That
lunch didn't come until well after one o'clock and the boys had only remembered
it when Kento's stomach started to rumble toward the end of one of their
games. Cye had been winning, which
Kento insisted was because he was playing on an empty stomach and suggested
lunch. Cye wouldn't have been
particularly surprised if Kento had an extra stomach where his brain should
be.
Cye
was still eating his lunch - Kento had finished quickly - when his phone rang. Kento grabbed it up before Cye could beat
him to it and smirked at him as he picked up the phone.
"Hello…Yes,
this is the Mouri residence…Yes…What do you mean?" Kento's face took on a more
serious look and Cye became concerned. "When…Oh, God…Yes, I will…Okay…Bye."
Kento hung up the phone slowly.
"Kento,
who was it? What did they say?" Cye questioned impatiently.
Kento
looked at his friend, a look of sorrow apparent on his face. "It was the
hospital." He finally admitted, his shoulders slumping.
"The
hospital? What did they say? What happened?" Kento's constant pauses were
wearing on Cye's nerves.
"They
said... they said that your mom… died…."
