A GIBBOUS MOON

Chapter 7

I was stirred from my sleep by someone shaking my arm. I grumbled and turned around not wanting to get up.

"X-ray I know you are awake."

I instantly recognised Kilo's voice and opened my eyes to look at him. He smiled and sat down on the bed while I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Do you know what date it is?"

I grab my phone to look at the date.

"Um, the first of November?"

"Correct. And do you know what that means?"

"It is too early for this."

"Well sorry that this day is important to me."

"What happens on the first of November?"

"Día de los Muertos."

"Oh, day of the dead. I totally forgot about that tradition for a second, even though I grew up in Mexico. Is this important to you because you feel more in touch with Mexican culture than Korean culture? Like what you told me on our mission together?"

"You actually remembered?"

"Of course."

"Well, yes that is why I want to celebrate it together with everyone. I have already planned everything out for today and tomorrow."

"I would like to celebrate it with you, if it really means that much to you."

His smile grew bigger, and I couldn't resist smiling as well.

"Well get dressed, we have to make an ofrenda first."

He left the room and I quickly got dressed. I walked to the common room where everyone was already gathered. Alfa saw me come in and quickly came to me and grabbed my arm.

"I have a surprise for you."

"For me?"

"Yes, it was Kilo's idea, but I had to do all the work."

"You know I have never celebrated the day of the dead before so can somebody explain what we are supposed to do? What is an ofrenda?"

I peeked Kilo's Attention and he excitedly explained what it was.

"An ofrenda is an altar you make at home. You make it to welcome the spirits of the dead back to the living world, if you don't make it, they can't come back. On the altar we put offerings for them. The journey they make is exhausting so we put their favourite foods and drinks for them to enjoy. We also place pictures and candles for every one of our relatives that has died."

"Oh."

That explanation felt like a stab to my heart. Day of the dead was a tradition to remember your loved ones and family that had died. It was a day of celebration of all the fond memories you had of them. I don't have that. I never had a family to make fond memories with. The people that came closest to loved ones are the people here in the room and they aren't dead. Kilo grabbed my hand and I looked him in the eyes.

"We know that you don't know your family and that you long for that feeling of having one. That is why I asked Alfa to investigate your heritage to see if we could find out who your parents were. What we found was that the Dias family originates from Portugal. There was only one family line there, so we knew for sure it had to be your family. The line ended with Rosana and Lourenço Dias who had a child that died at a very young age. The line ends in the 1800s so we couldn't figure out who your parents exactly were, but we thought the notion of knowing your ancestors was already something."

Kilo grabbed a photo of the coffee table and handed it to me. It was of a man and a woman with a child in their hands. I saw the resemblance and a feeling deeper inside of me of recognition. Like I had seen these people before. I was too stunned to speak. For the first time in my 21 years of existence I knew who my family was. They weren't close relatives but that didn't matter. I just kept staring at the picture ingraining it into my mind. When the initial shock had passed, I felt tears building up in my eyes. My only wish for so long was to know who my family was, where I came from. I hugged Kilo as tight as I could and let the tears fall down. The rest joined in on the hug as well. People that he hadn't even known for that long went to such great lengths for him. Kilo came with the idea. I hadn't even told him about my desire to know my family, but he knew. He understood without me saying it.