Her soft breathing brought in the scent of vanilla and cinnamon through her nose. The smell was soft enough to not disturb her, but delicious enough that Mina opened her eyes and searched for the scent.
"Good morning there sleepy head. I brought you some vanilla soup. Your grandmother has plenty of it left in the kitchen if you want some more. And don't worry, as far as she knows, you were at the party all night with me." Lucinda, who was already dressed, smiled brightly and Minako sat up in bed, yawning and stretching before taking the bowl of the sweet soup.
"Thank you Luci. I'm sorry I must've overslept, I was just so tired." She accepted the chopsticks from her friend, and Luci poured the fried crisps into the bowl for her.
"Oh Mina, it's nothing. I just want to make sure you're feeling better. Eat up." She leaned over to Mina and whispered in her ear.
"We're going to the asylum today to get your answers, so hush-hush and hurry up." Luci was already dressed and waiting for her, so she ate quickly and got herself ready to go.
Hurrying into the kitchen, they were stopped by Minako's grandmother, who insisted upon packing them a light lunch.
"How I supposed to know that you well fed when you go into town?! That city food fattening and greasy! It not fit for two pretty girls barely full grown! It make you fat, and then you waste away into brittle sticks! No good! You have healthy and properly prepared lunch! Luci-chan, hand me that baggy? Ah, thank you! You such a sweet girl." Mariha busied herself with packing the lunch while she chattered on, and finally she rolled up the tops of those brown paper bags and thrust them into the girl's hands.
Minako's grandfather peeked up from the newspaper, and she could swear he looked thoroughly amused. If he was however, he did not say and he lifted his bowl of tea to take a sip.
"You be careful, both of you, and don't talk to strangers! Kisses Minakin, ja Luci! Have good time!" She fussed over them both, grooming them and primping them last minute as they struggled out the door, bags in hand.
As Lucinda detested the common car, her limo waited for them at the end of the walkway and together they rushed into it. It rolled away down the dirt path and onto the main road and they were soon on their way into the city.
"Now, now Mina. Please don't look so anxious. I'm going to take you shopping first so you can get some stress of your shoulders. Then we'll have a nice sit down at the park and have our lunch. We'll go get your information later in the afternoon when they start preparing for the Summer Solstice festival."
"Luci, what do you supposed they meant by not telling me I had a cousin? Why would they keep something like that from me? Aside from my uncle's family in the United States, I never knew I had any other family but them..." As far as she was concerned, this person that her grandparents spoke of was family, crazy or not.
"Oh I don't know. It's a stupid thing to have done, really. They must've known you'd have found out sooner or later, and that the first thing you'd do was go to visit him. But if he's as incoherent as they made him seem, I don't expect you'll get many answers from him Mina." She opened up her bag and took a small whiff of her prepared lunch.
"Oh that smells heavenly. I've always enjoyed Mariha's dishes. I wish the chefs at home could cook half as well." But Mina wasn't paying attention. She was staring out the tinted window, watching the trees and eventually, street signs pass her by.