Forget Me Not

Chapter Eleven

Korn's life was under a microscope. His mother and sister had shown up just as they'd said. One minute he was contemplating where his day fit in the hierarchy of worst to best when it started vying for first place. It was pure luck that his house was clean. He usually did his chores on Sunday; washing his clothes and giving each surface a scrub and wipe. He'd been so busy, he hadn't had the time to make a mess of anything. Any dust that had accumulated during the week was hardly noticeable.

Uncomfortable with the thought of making them share a bedroom, he'd given up his room to his sister (who could stand his idiosyncrasies) and put his mother in the spare room. The first night was easy. Their trip had been tiring and they had just wanted to eat and sleep.

"How have you been Korn?" His mother asked when they sat down at the breakfast table together.

"Fine."

"Really?" She sounded upset but Korn wasn't willing to acknowledge it. Not yet anyway. "You can disappear from your family and your friends, then say everything is 'fine'?"

He didn't have an answer for her. Was he supposed to be more miserable? Was he supposed to question his every move? Was he supposed to regret every action, every decision, every failure? That was already the case. But he wasn't about to wallow in self-pity. Sitting around wishing he could change things outside his control was senseless. He knew—he'd tried.

"What's for breakfast?" P'Kavitra walked into the kitchen and broke the stalemate between mother and son.

"There's congee in the rice cooker and you can add what you want from yesterday's leftovers," Korn said as he took his bowl and headed to the table.

It was hard to ignore someone sitting right next to you but Korn tried. Paying attention to his food and scrolling through his phone.

"What would you tell my mother if you could see her right now?" He asked Mew in a text.

"Uhhmm...hey mum, hope you're well."

"Mew says hello and hopes you're well."

"You're talking to Mew again?" His sister asked, sitting next to him and trying to take a peek at his phone.

"Yeah...he comes this way for work sometimes." It probably wasn't a good idea to bring Mew up but was easier to talk about him than himself.

"Did your mum come to visit? Does it mean she's willing to talk about your sexuality? Are you okay with that?" The three messages pinged his phone in quick succession.

Those were a lot of questions and Korn only had one answer. "She's here but I don't know why."

"That's a start. Good luck." He added a thumbs up emoji for good measures.

Korn sighed and looked back at his congee. It had no answer for him. "Why are you guys here?"

P'Kavitra nearly spat out her food and his mother looked at him disapprovingly.

"I mean, Mew just asked if you're here to talk but you aren't talking. What did you come for?"

"I wanted to see how you are."

"I'm fine. But you already knew that."

"Good. I'll let your father know," she said standing up and taking her bowl to the sink.

Korn shared a look with his sister but she shrugged and went back to eating. His bowl joined his mother's in the sink with the promise that he'd do the dishes later. Only later came much faster than he'd expected; his mother and sister were ready to leave in less than an hour.

He saw them off and the hug he got from his sister was reassuring. But his mother just stood to the side and waited until they were done before stepping into the cab. Alone again, he wasn't sure what to think about the visit. It had been too brief and he couldn't see that anything had changed. Unlike Mew, he wasn't sure it was a good start to anything.