Running from Him by YH Yohi

Chapter 36: Aunt

In the middle of nowhere. The hospital where Arin's birth was recorded was at best a rundown clinic with barren land stretching on all sides. The heir of a billion-dollar company is such a place is already scandalous to begin with. Even if to hide an extra-marital affair, nothing could explain why such a pathetic, isolated place was chosen. Arin, the star-child of Kare companies being born here didn't make sense, it was more like a place for unwanted abandoned children.

The clinic was closed though it was only 3pm, only an old watchman sat outside on a plastic chair amidst the overgrown bushes, dozing off to the sound of crickets and rustling leaves. It took more than a few taps to finally awaken the old man. Pari almost felt sorry seeing how wrinkled and old the man was, rather than guarding someone, he seemed like he needed to be guarded instead!

"Sir, aren't there anyone working inside?" Pari asked, peeping through a dusty, broken window by the door.

"Where did you come from child?" the old man stretched and anchored himself on a stick.

"The other side of the state sir, actually my friend sent me here to collect a copy of his birth certificates, it's urgent" she weaved out a small little lie while innocently looking at the man.

"No one will come child, it opens only for 2hrs a day, 4 days a week. You'll have to come day after tomorrow" 

"Why so, shouldn't a hospital always be open for emergencies"

"Who's emergency? Do you see anyone here?" The man was right. From the time, Pari got off the boat till the long journey to the hospital on foot, she could count the number of people she saw with one hand. "So, tell me child, why are you here really?"

Maybe it was the wisdom of having lived many many years, the man knew Pari's intent was different. "Actually sir, the friend I mentioned, he realized that his parents weren't his, I was only helping him find his true origin"

"Now, you are making sense!" At the reply, Pari was genuinely shocked. In the heat of the moment, trying to keep to her story, she painted a sorry tale of a lost boy trying to find his family and oddly that makes sense?

"Follow along" the old man led her down a worn-out pathway barely distinguishable from the wilderness around it. The painstakingly slow pace the man walked at didn't bother Pari since like every other old person, he began narrating stories of the place. A former industrial township that was abandoned years back when cities sprouted across the river.  Only a few fisherman families stayed behind, and the man was among one of them. 

The island earned a bad reputation over the years being connected to horror stories, as young druggies-hangout spot and a common spot to abandon young children. Finally, the reached a destination or so it appeared. No building or structures were in sight, before her was a small, erected stone with faded carvings of names and behind it, shards of wood and stone indicating that in its place once stood some sort of structure.

"Only two types of people are born here. One, fisherman folks with a poor fate or... unwanted children from the mainland. Young women give birth here and run back home, abandoning the child here, to starve and die."

"That's terrible! what happens to the children then?"

"She took them in" he said pointing to the stone. Pari understood instantly, before her was a tombstone of a kind-hearted lady and behind her was most likely an orphanage.

"What happened to her?"

"A nasty cold, or that's what those good-for-nothing doctors said. Before we took her for treatment across the river, she succumbed to it. Poor thing, barely 40."

"And the children?"

The man shrugged. "They were abandoned again, they all left one by one, by the wooden boat there or the grim reaper's boat. No one remained here." 

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Arin finally reached her home or whatever remained of it. Aunt was always frugal that way, but he didn't complain since she did all of that for them, keeping nothing to herself. In his memory, she was a sturdy middle-aged woman with a built of a man. Intimidating at first but she had the softest heart. 

He knelt at her feet and rested his head on the earth. How many years had it been now?

"I'm here aunt" he muttered.

The tombstone still stood, the last remnant of his early years, of when he found love for the first time, and found a warm home in the heart of his aunt. He looked past the stone, and he could finally see her, smiling at him. And beside him stood Pari...

Arin sadly smiled, the two women he gave his heart two before him yet so far away. Was life even worth living anymore? As he looked on in a daze, Pari's faded image came closer and closer to him, it sat beside him cupping his face..."Arin" he heard a soft whisper.

He gently placed his hand of hers, and tears began to flow. The Pari he saw looked worried, overwhelmed by pity. It gently nudged Arin forward and engulfed him in a hug. Arin cried uncontrollably. When was the last time he cried like that, letting everything out? Perhaps when he left this place, this island which felt livelier than any other place he had been.

Minutes passed or maybe hours, Arin lost count. He sniffled, now laying on Pari's lap, holding onto the hand he felt. 

"Why are you here Arin?"

"This is my home Pari. I wanted to bring you here once we married but you beat me to it" he laughed bitterly.

"Your home? Isn't your home faraway from here?"

"Umm...I didn't tell you before, I was afraid you'd hate it"

"It's alright, tell me" Arin tightly grasped the hand he held onto and looked at her beautiful face hovering over him. "Pari...

"I am an orphan"

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Shocker I know! I'm really trying to finish the story. Thank you for staying on. Lots of love!!!