Marucho was dragged to a chicken coop. "These are our chicks!" Allie said, extending his arms out to show it off. It was a caged up area with miniature houses that Marucho assumed housed the chickens.
"I'm actually supposed to feed them right now." Allie ran off to the shed next to the coop. He came out with a bag of chicken feed and poured the contents into the strip container. The chickens peeked their heads out of their houses, and as soon as Allie was out of the gates they all ran to the food.
"I think they're scared of me, but they could also just be very shy!" Allie exclaimed as he put the bag back in the shed. "We'll need more of that soon. That means Mega will come soon!" Allie closed the door and excitedly skipped over to Marucho to grab his hand again. Marucho made sure to hold onto the bottom so that it wouldn't slip off.
He dragged to the outside of a pig pen, wooden gates holding most of the muddy area in, but some of it spilling out past them. "I already fed the pigs breakfast, they usually eat my mom's scraps." Allie said. Marucho looked up at him and tilted his head again.
"Oh! I'm not supposed to call her that. My mom is Frederick. I saw you come from the direction of the house, so I assume you met her." Allie replied. Marucho straightened his head again. The pigs were all together, away from the gate which was unusual behavior.
"They're pretty shy too. But there is an animal that isn't shy!" Allie yelled as he ran away from the pigs. One of the pigs hesitantly went up to Marucho. It's nose flared at him a few times before it made a loud 'oink.' Marucho reached out to it and rubbed it's head.
"Come on Marucho!" Allie yelled with a wave. Marucho patted the pigs head once more before going off to Allie.
"Her name is Sora Perse!" Allie said as he let go off Marucho's hand to take off one of his gloves. Marucho stepped closer to the horse to admire it. It was a black coated horse with white splotches that covered her stomach, the right side of her neck, and her snout. Her mane was black as well as her tail. Marucho looked back at Allie, who had a bare hand to the horse's face.
Marucho just stood and stared at the hand, not knowing exactly how to react. It was pure black, inhuman it looked almost burnt. His nails were red, but not as if they were painted, more like they were just naturally colored that way. Allie took his hand away from the horse and put his glove back on.
"Um, would you like to pet her?" Allie asked. Marucho held a hand up to her but his wrist was grabbed before he made contact. "You can't pet her with your glove, silly. You'll miss out on the feeling of it." Allie said. Marucho pulled his hand away and shook his head.
"You don't want to pet her?" Allie asked, confused since Marucho was so eager to just a second ago. Marucho shook his head again and pulled at his glove. "Marucho, what are you doing?" Allie asked. Marucho stopped his action and instead pet the air next to the horse, then he pulled on his glove again and shook his head. "You want to pet her without your gloves?" Allie asked. Marucho tilted his head back in disappointment and just shook his head.
"Oh wow, what's that?" Allie asked as he went to poke at Marucho's neck. Marucho quickly put his head down and pushed his box against the top of his head. Then he felt where Allie's finger would have landed. Just a mole, he was safe. "Oh, did your mom tell you to cover up too? My mom said that I would scare people off if I showed any skin." Allie said.
Then he looked to the hand that he was petting Sora Perse with. "Uh oh. Dang it, if my mom hears about how I took of my glove I won't be able to do chores for a week!" Allie said, pacing back and forth and holding his sleeve.
"Promise you won't tell her? I really like seeing the animals every day." Allie pleaded. Marucho rolled his eyes from inside the cardboard box, making a zipping motion over the mouth of the box. "Oh yeah, I guess you don't really talk anyways." Allie explained to himself.
"Well, other than that, there's moo moo meadows where I found you and the crops. But I'm guessing you don't want to stare at crops with me." Allie said. Marucho just stared at him. Allie put his hands on his hips, "well, I hope I did a good job today." Marucho gave Allie a thumb's up.
"I'll show you the orchard later, right now you should head back to the house. Don't want whoever takes care of you to find out you were with me." Marucho really didn't want to leave the kind man, but he also knew that he had to go back. He nodded and gave Allie a wave, which Allie returned.
When Marucho was far enough down the path back to the house, Allie sighed and pulled off his hood, combing his hair to make it less uncomfortable. He really messed up today, and he hoped that Marucho actually was a mute. If he wasn't, Allie wouldn't get the opportunity to ever see him again. Not that there was a high possibility that he would see him again otherwise. He walked back over to Sora Perse, petting her.
Sora Perse made him feel like he had someone, or something like him. Then again, Marucho did seem to be in the same predicament as him. Covered skin that he was more careful of. Yet, Allie saw nothing wrong with the part of the neck that he saw. But he did remember when Marucho took his box off for a second to take in the atmosphere, he was far but could see a shine. That shine was probably what Marucho was hiding.
Did he glow? Ooo, like a flashlight that he would be able to take anywhere. Allie was content with the answer for now, since he didn't have any other assumptions to make. He really hoped that Marucho would come back and show him that glow again.
And after he was done with his chores and the sun had fallen, he went back to his corner in the barn. He took off his glove and stuck one finger out, using the nail to carve into the wall. A nice 5k33py marked. He smiled and looked at the other names. Mega and Frederick (a.k.a mom). He crossed out the words in the parenthesis again. There were already ten marks there; when will he learn?
He sighed as he looked at the spaces between those three names. There were at least thirty other names on the wall, all crossed out since they were dragged away by their parents, or they ran away when Allie accidently showed a part of his skin. And there were very few occasions where he accidently showed his skin, but the punishment was always the same. Stay put in the back of the barn until mother tells him that he can do chores again.
He ran two fingers across Marucho's name and smiled. Marucho was different, he wouldn't tell on Allie. Then they can be best friends! Just like him and Mega!
Allie looked over at his makeshift calendar. The days of the week listed above tally marks. He looked at which day had one more tally than the rest. It was Saturday today, meaning he would get to see the people who brought the supplies. Allie smiled widely at the thought of seeing more people again. He rested against the wall of names, today was a good day.
Marucho arrived at the house just in time to hear the two ladies talking about him. "Ye shouldn' baby that boy. He abouts ready ta be claimed by a woman. Work in labor fer 'is family. Why don't ya let him work 'er as trainin'? Be good for the lad." Frederick said.
"I'll think about it. I think he should get settled down first. How about in a week?" Tate replied.
"Ey, that what we call good parentin'. Yer growin' so much already!" Frederick said.
"Thank you. Well, it's about time I go find him and we head home."
"Ain't hard ta find 'im. Been standin' by the door fer a while." Frederick said, pointing her mugged hand to Marucho.
"Oh, did you hear, Marucho? You'll be working here in a week! Isn't that exciting?" Tate said, happily clapping. Marucho nodded, imitating Tate as a way of showing his excitement.
"Yay! Now farewell Frederick. We shall be off now." Tate said, standing up and bowing her head in respect.
"Bye. See ye two in abouts a week." Frederick said and sipped her tea again. Marucho waved to her and was guided outside by his mom.
"So did you see any monsters?" Tate asked with a giggle. Marucho didn't register it as a joke and shook his head. He knew that she probably has never seen monsters, but who she was implying was one, wasn't at all what Marucho would call a monster. Marucho looked down at his feet, it was times like these where he wished that he was able to speak. But he couldn't, and he had only the monsters to blame for that.
When they arrived at Tate's house, Marucho jumped through the doorway and into the dining room. Tate calmly followed him as he sat down at the table and grabbed the calligraphy pen again. Marucho stared at the piece of paper as his pen stayed still on the paper. He didn't know how to spell 'Allie.' Tate came to put a hand on his shoulder.
"What's up?" Tate asked. Marucho looked up at her, not knowing how to describe what he was trying to do. He scraped the pen across the paper to hopefully make the word that he wanted. He let her examine it, but she only looked confused. Marucho put the pen against the paper again and drew a stick figure, then he drew an arrow from the figure to the scribble of a name.
"Oh, who's that?" Tate asked, pointing at the figure. Marucho let go of the pen to guide her hand to the word. "I don't know what that says." She replied. Marucho tried again, dipping the pen in ink first. He wrote out another scribble. She just shook her head. Marucho tried once more before dropping the pen.
"Do you not know how to write?" Marucho shook his head. "But you know how to read?" Marucho shook his head again. "Huh. How did you learn your name then?" Marucho looked at her, watching as she realized he had no way of answering the question.
"Very well, I shall teach you how to read and write from this point on. I must have some children's books here somewhere." Tate said as she went into her room.
She came back with a children's book that had thick pages. "Here, this is the book that I used when I was a kid." Marucho took the book from her and opened to the first page. Familiar symbols lay in lines of each page. He flipped through the pages and found no words that he knew.
Of course, he only knew his own name, but that wasn't in the book. Tate scooted a chair over to him to sit at. "This is going to be harder than it would with most kids. So, you must tell me now; can you talk? At all?"
Marucho thought about it, he opened his mouth to reply, but the words couldn't get passed his throat. He swallowed them back down and shook his head. "Okay, well, I'll accept the challenge then!" She said as she turned the book back to the first page. "I won't bother with the sounds of the words for now, seeing as you wouldn't be able to say them yet anyways. We'll just try memorizing these words instead." Tate said.
Marucho nodded and followed her finger which pointed to the first word.
"The," she said clearly, then moved her finger to the next word.
"Fat," she repeated the first step.
"Cat." Marucho listened to the words that she spoke as she pointed to the symbols. To him, it only made sense that he would memorize the words. That was the way he had learned. And later that night he had the book at his bed and repeated the words that he had learned that day in his head.
His finger went to the first word. The.
Second word. Fat.
Third word. Cat.
Fourth word. Ran.
Fifth word. In.
Sixth word. A.
Seventh word. Race.
Marucho had been told that the dot at the end of a line of words made them a sentence. He had learned one sentence today. Then he heard footsteps down the hall and gloved his hand again, light disappearing from the room. He placed the book on the floor and turned to face the wall. He heard the door to his room open and footsteps approach him.
"There it is." Tate said, picking up the book. She was about to leave the room but stopped and looked back at Marucho.
"You know, I've always wanted a child of my own. I spent years creating clothing for this future child, from when they were a newborn to when they become an adult." She laughed and walked towards the bed, sitting in the stool beside it.
"I never thought that a teenager would stumble into my life. But I'm glad that I at least get to put these books to use." She looked to the 'sleeping' boy.
"Make sure you take that box off your head before you go to sleep. If you don't you'll have a real Allie pain in your neck." Tate said, getting up from the chair and walking back over to the door. She stepped outside and was about to close the door but stopped.
"Goodnight, Marucho. Don't let the bed bugs bite." Tate closed the door and walked to her room. She sat down at her sewing desk and looked at the book in her hands. At least she could pretend to have a child. Even if that child hides their face and stays silent, at least she had a child. She hoped that today wasn't just a cruel dream, but she couldn't change anything if it was.
She just had to hope. That was the only thing she could do.