Twinkle

Chapter 6: A friend's name

"What is given is never wasted". That's the philosophy that was taught to Mr Aurelio and although he may have built on that philosophy later in his life, one thing remained. The technique. Giving being the crux of the philosophy, was the backbone of the technique, and currently, the exact thing I'd been struggling with.
He shrugged as he wiped his paw across the table. "Nope, don't feel a thing". I pressed both palms on the table as a drop of sweat twinkled down my forehead. "Still?". "Yep. Still as warm ever". "I admire you being optimistic, but I doubt that your father became the great philosopher he was after reading a journal and a week of digesting a foreign philosophy". Retiring to the chair, I rested my head on the table. "The technique is quite similar to the one that your father uses and it took him quite a while to learn it as well". "Really?". "Yep. In addition to there being various philosophies, there are also various techniques, and this one's pretty tricky. It works by imprinting your...", "seal on the surface of what you wish to manipulate right?". "Yeah". "It was in the journal. By touching an object, a philosopher is able to engrave the object, and impose whatever rules on them. The princess came up with this laying bare on her bedroom floor". I let out a loud sigh, saying this, as my head dropped to a loud thud. "Ow". "Is there a problem?". "It was hard to learn for Aurelio as well". "That's great. He must've journaled how he overcame it right?". Face planted on the table. "Yeah. But it was a little vague and hard to understand". "Well, what'd he say?". Taking a deep breath, I rose my head. "The key to stamping is having strong will, one must be strong minded enough in order to compel his surroundings to abide by his rules". "Word for word huh?", "yeah". "Well that's settled then". "It is?". "Oui. We're gonna need you to build some muscle". He hopped off the table and strolled towards the door. "Wear some nice clothes, we'll be going out soon". "Where?". "To get some groceries".
We strolled down the familiar interlocked streets as the warm afternoon breeze burnt my throat with every inhale. "I can't do this lets go back". "But we're already here. Look there's a nice person right there let's go ask if he knows..." "Chalamet wait..." he darted off. My breaths shortened as I chased after him, before finally stopping. My head remained lowered as my heart pounded frantically, I hadn't run that far but my chest thumped like it was about to burst. "Miss, can I help you?". A voice called out. My eyes remained glued to his shoes, which Chalamet had now stood over, stalling. "You better talk now before he leaves".
Taking in enough air to fill ten lungs, I rose my head. "S... Sorry to bother but d... Do you know any grocery store around here?". "Oh it's no problem, there's a store right after the second corner to your left". My head rose to a warm smile as he walked away.
The door closed shut as Chalamet and I walked into the living room, bags in hand. "That was great". "Oui. A few days ago you were so sure getting groceries would be a mountain of a problem". My arms relaxed to the rustling sound of the items being dropped on the kitchen table.

"Nope, still as warm as ever". My body dropped on the table. "Ugh". "We need to up the antics".
A mild sunlight lit the sparse streets as a dewy breeze washed over our faces. "Why do we have to leave so early? The café's open almost all day". Expelling a deep exhale. "If I'm going to do this, it has to be this time". We watched from a distance as the sign on the café turned "Open". Bag in hand, we walked in as the bell echoed through the scarcely occupied seats. "Oh bonjour, you're our second customer", our heads tilted to the man sitting on the table next to the counter. Shakily, I rose my hand. "This is for you". She smiled. "Merci bocoup". "I wasn't sure who to address it to so...". "Marie, my name is Marie and my brother's, is Marc". My body grew lighter, giving off a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much for everything". "It's alright, we were in quite the shock when you wound up on our doorstep. We were unsure what to do, but you kept coming and you seemed to be doing alright". "I'm sorry for making you worry". "Oh don't apologize. What can I get you?". She grinned. "Toast and cranberry sauce?". "Oh no. Today I was hoping to try something a little different".
The window light flowed over his fur. "You were good out there". I clasped my arms in a fit to keep them from shaking. "That turned out so much better than I thought it would. I guess people aren't so bad after all". "Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. There's still much we haven't seen yet". I turned to the window as my palms settled. "Maybe you're right, but hopefully, we'll get to meet more people like Marie and Marc along the way". "Hopefully". Her voice crept from behind. "Your order is here".
Sunlight leaked info the room as the curtains waved in the afternoon breeze. He hopped onto the table. "Shall we?". Taking a deep breath, I placed my hand on the table as my lids fell. "I'm ready". For a moment, those where the only things that existed. "Twinkle! Twinkle!" Chalamet called frantically. My body sprung backwards as my eyes caught wind of the scene. The table had become engulfed in flames. I stood motionless as the table dyed in orange. "Come on we need to put it out". We dashed through the hallway in a frenzy, before grabbing the extinguisher in the kitchen.
My arms fell to they floor as the red barrel laid beside me. A cloud of smoke hovered as my eyes remained on the scorched table. "Was that really me?". "It certainly was, Philosopher".
The next few weeks were clustered with nimble days where Chalamet and I practiced the technique and got to understand more about the philosophy. Bare- feet, I stood at the center of the room with Chalamet sprawled across my shoulders. Taking a deep breath. "let's try that again". The room filled my lungs as my feet spanned atop the cold wooden slabs. Letting out a brief exhale, my eyes shot open as thin sheets of ice crept across the room. Retracting my stance, I took in a deeper breath as the thin sheets melted away. "You're getting really good at this". "Thank you".

Before the princess died, she had willed a bit of a fortune to Aurelio. With that, he bought his freedom. He later got married to a sculptor. She made a particular totem that he would later imprint on and leave behind as an heirloom. I had looked all over the house for it to no avail. My fingers shuffled across the books on the shelf. "Still looking for the totem?". "Yeah. I've checked here before but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything". "If it was an heirloom I doubt it would've stayed in the same place. Maybe your grandfather took it. Try looking for anything on him?". "There wasn't much about him in the journal since he was just a kid when it was finished. However, his name was Yves, Yves Aureluo, that much I know. I tried looking to see if he left a journal but I couldn't find any". My eyes peaked back into the shelf as my fingers continued to scroll. "Maybe it's with your father". I stood motionless as my gaze remained. "If something happened, I believe it would be best for us to talk about it, we could end up finding out something..." "There's nothing to know my father is dead. My own mother...". Storming out "That can't be right, Hugo wouldn't..." "WELL YOU WOULDN'T KNOW NOW WOULD YOU? YOU WEREN'T THERE!!".
My words echoed as I gazed into my ceiling. "Maybe I should just stop trying". "Everyone already left so I'm probably meant to be alone anyway". "Maybe this is all..." "THUD THUD THUD". Interrupted by the muffled bangs on the door. Rolling over to my side. "He'll go away eventually". "Twinkle". Sprung out of bed. "You can't just do that. The door was locked for a reason!". He reached his paw into his top hat, pulling out a necklace. "I wasn't sure when to give this to you". It was a locket and a key attached to it. Opening it up revealed a photo of my father with a much younger version of myself. "Where did you...?" "I'd been holding onto it all this time, looking for you". "I know you feel like you're all alone in this world but I want you to know that just as I have been holding onto this locket, watching to find you, your family has been looking out for you as well. Your family does love and care for you, and they're more alive than you give them credit for and this house and everything it is was their gift to you. You are right, I wasn't there so I don't know what happened, but whatever it was, it doesn't have to take away your reason for living. You can start afresh from this moment and decide to make something out of yourself". My eyes gushed out as I fell back into my bed. "But how do I do that?". "You can tell me about it and we can walk past it together". Through shaky inhales, I nodded. "Ok".