Remember Who I Am

Chapter XIX

December 24, 2023

11:32 PM (JST)

Tokyo, Japan

After having dinner at a very late hour, Clover left her nephews and cousins to go open presents. Clover still sat at the dining room table. Her aunt sat in the kitchen with her.

"Dārin." Her aunt, Guanting, said, which translated to Darling in English.

Clover stood still, not a word or utterance. She seemed to be staring at nothing.

"Dārin!" She spoke softly.

Clover snapped her head to Guanting.

"Are you okay?" Guanting asked.

"Uh, yes, auntie, thanks. I just..." Clover tried to word out.

"I know, is okay. It must be hard for you to deal with death of a mother." Guanting said in her not-so-fluent English.

"It is." Clover said.

"Is okay. You know, she loved you very much. She did lots of things for... everyone. She taught me the English, after all. I am still... learning of course." Guanting said.

"Yeah... I... it's fine, auntie. I've been recovering." Clover said.

"It must be hard to--"

Clover sighed. Guanting felt interrupted by Clover's sigh, despite this sigh not being intended to interrupt her. Clover pushed her chair back before standing up; "I need to go outside for a minute."

"Yeah... I get it, Clover. Here, we had list for store but we were not able to go out. The kids were late, remember? We had to wait for them. You want to go out and get them?"

"Yes, please." Clover said politely.

Guanting ripped a piece of paper that had Japanese on it. She held out her brittle arm and Clover carefully took the paper out of her two fingers. 

The paper read;

鶏肉料理 (Chicken Dish.)

クリスマス用ケーキミックス (Cake Mix For Christmas.)

The list was relatively short, but Clover just felt that she needed only a little time outside. They had played Christmas music in the living room, but she didn't feel like listening. Clover walked toward the living room, where the kids were.

"Hi, auntie!" One said joyfully as they ripped open their wrapping paper.

Clover chuckled. Clover walked toward the door and twisted the knob, opening it. She walked down flights of stairs as she thought about the subject of her mother's death. It didn't help at all to think about it. Clover realized that she didn't get much mother/daughter time. Clara was very uptight and just focused on whether Clover could defend herself. Clover didn't initially feel terrible when she died. But she knew who did.

Guanting had possibly suffered the most out of Clara's death. Guanting loved her sister so much, she found it hard to even put it into words. And to hear that she died made her quite literally drop down to her knees and weep. As Clover continued to walk through the apartment building, she reached the outside. It was snowy and cold.

* * *

Xavier drove his car up to the warehouse that Rich had said he was in. It was the same one that Xavier and Rich had first met in at Brooklyn. It was about 8:16 AM on the 24th of December. It was snowing. Xavier examined it before unlocking his car door and slipping out.