The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 29 - The Girl I Never Knew

The image that met us at our destination was quite odd. Mister Garcia, with the many tattoos on his arms (as well as on his hands and the right side of his face), greeted us in his flower garden - holding a light pink watering can.

He seemed nothing but glad to see us stroll up to his house, even though he had no memory of having met me before.

I had been the one to erase the memories of his wife's death - I had told him that she would be going on a vacation to a lovely place, one which reminded me a lot of this garden in which we were all standing now.

I had, at that time, felt this to be the right choice - as it would prevent him from mourning but also from strangling me to death.

Now? Now I felt sad that he was still wandering obliviously in their garden, in belief that she was still okay and alive, without a chance to mourn and overcome.

"We come bearing news," M spoke as he shook Garcia's hand, "of your wife's passing."

Nope. Go back, erase, backspace. I take it all back, I did not wish for him to know for the sorrow and shock that followed the awfully ill-manners of M, was unbearable.

Garcia went through a good thirty minutes of denial. He offered me a cup of water (a used tea bag hung over its edge) before he knelt down before a fireplace. The matches in his hands failed to light up as he held them between trembling fingers.

He repeatedly excused his clumsy behavior. After a couple of minutes, the fireplace was lit. I lowered my eyes and welcomed Hyun-Soo's hand on my back as we viewed the distraught man.

By minute Thirty Two of our invite to the cottage, Garcia had suddenly burst into tears. The teapot he had held had chimed against the floor and split to pieces.

Hyun-Soo hurriedly knelt down next to him, to prevent the man from accidentally cutting his fingers on the sharp porcelain. Garcia mumbled something and began to gather the pieces - They clattered in his shaking palm.

"Leave it be," Hyun-Soo nodded, "I'll take care of it."

The man let go of the pieces and leant his back against the fireplace; the flames came awfully close to his jacket. Yet the heat did not seem to bother him.

I caught M yawning in the corner of my eye. Even in such a situation, he only yawned.

My hatred for him and his tactics was surely growing.
"How could you?" I mumbled between my teeth.

The rustle from a plastic bag was his only reply. M picked out a cogwheel from our broken pocket watch, and studied it. Without a care, without so much as a sign of sympathy he then squatted in front of Garcia to catch the man's tear.

The teardrop fell upon the cogwheel and M carefully smeared it in with his thumb. The wolf in sheep's clothing then dropped the wet cogwheel back into the plastic bag. Just like that. Not a care in the world for the upset and confused man in front of him. Just like that.

"We're done here." M then said, as he drew a line across the first scribbled symbol on his note.

Done. Our work was done. Hyun-Soo threw the pieces of porcelain into a trashcan before he came to my side. He supported me as we left the cottage, my legs were trembling, you see.

Trembling, because our work there was done.

Could a broken heart be thrown into the trashes as well, I wondered.

The two of us stopped by the edge of the garden, as we had left the cottage first. We gazed upon the field from where we had come - It was a beautiful place to be living in. Beautiful but lonely.