Azriel Capoue

Chapter 4

Aunt Liz waited at the table until I had cleared everything in my plate. It was shocking how patient the woman was, because my chewing game was very particular, even I get bored of it sometimes. She waited for me to finish, and her face looked like she was enjoying the sight of me eating. Talking about patience, I should have known at the time that Aunt Liz was the most patient human being in the world – the woman waited eight years for me to wake up. She catered for me for eight years, day in day out, though she wasn't getting any signs of me waking up anytime soon. I was barely breathing fully sometimes; according to them, that is. I still don't get why she did that for me, honestly. I get that she's a good woman; an amazing woman, but why would she go through all this length for just anyone? For eight long years? Aunt Liz worked at the infirmary in our town where my dad brought me after my drowning incident. He went home to get mom and Azra, but never returned. The next morning, there were reports that the Capoue family had been brutally murdered, from the father to the child. Other reports claimed the twin of the murdered child had been kidnapped by the killer or killers. Aunt Liz wasn't sure about what she had to do next. She'd wanted to tell the villagers I was safe in the infirmary; well, maybe not safe – I had just drowned. But I wasn't kidnapped or anything like that, but at the same time she felt like it might have been a trap set by the killer, or killers, to find my whereabouts and finish the job. Aunt Liz trusted her guts, and because of me, she fled the village with her daughter Mirabel. Fled the village. . . because of me. What would make someone go through this length for somebody?
Sigh. . .
I hated living in a world where my family wasn't; I strongly wished I'd died with them, or even never woken up. . . but I still appreciated what she'd done. For me.

I kept my eyes on her as she rinsed the plates with her back facing me. I pushed myself up with the dining table and continued to walk over to her with the help of my beloved shillelagh – though clearly its love towards me was oddly bias, I didn't mind. It loved my legs, and so it helped me walk, but I couldn't say same for my hands – especially the right. The handle made the inside of my palms hurt so much. Yes, I was the one putting my entire weight on it but you have to give me a damn break! I would always have a hard time clenching my fist after just picking a minute or two walking sessions with it. Well, it gets me by so, whatever, right?

I walked to her side and caught a smile across her face. I squinted with a light smile.

"Have you always been like this?" I asked?

She kept rinsing with the same smile, not minding what I had just said -- as if she was absent minded. She was.

"Aunt Liz?" I called with a soft tap on her shoulder.

"Huh?" She turned and looked at me.

"Azriel? When did you get here?"

"Well, that would need some formulas and long mathematical calculations. But using my head and all things being equal... I would say I got here. . . mayybee, a billion years ago. . . ?"

Aunt Liz laughed so hard; she teared up. I'd never thought I was that funny until then. I almost considered joining the circus as a full-time idiot – but my head was strong so I wouldn't.

"Am I really that funny?"

"Well, I found what you said really funny dear..."

"I mean..." I chuckled. "Have you always been like this?"

"Like what?"

"Well, since I woke up, I have never seen you without a smile. Though you just gave Mira this wild terrifying glare. . . but I mean, you're always smiling and happy. Even a minute ago when I got here. You were absent minded, yet you were still smiling. Or are you, you know, a little out of it?"