Juliet Shadows: a touch of velvet

Chapter 8

11:09am
"So, Clementine, do you happen to have any relatives or proof that you are indeed who you say you are? You know, Clover's long lost sister?" Part of me was saying the woman was lying. I mean, why now? Why come now and make a fuss of all that nonsense? But the other part of me also believed every word Clementine Velvet said and that part was loudly telling the other to shut up.

"Yes I do." Clementine produced and thick and overflowing binder with little sticky book marks coming out the side. It had a small strip of paper in the right top corner of it. The writing in it was faded and foreign. ครอบครัวของฉัน is what was on it.

"What it is it?" I asked.
"Can't you read the label?"
"It's not English. What languages it?" Caleb asked wisely. This is only the 4th time he's been allowed into a interrogation room in the 5 years he's been working with me. The reason being he tends to ask all the wrong questions and talks over everyone.
"Thai.  My Nanny, Mrs.Gift, was Thai. I grew up speaking it."
"Would you like to tell me what it says?"
"Khrxbkhrạw k̄hxng c̄hạn. It means my family."
"Ok. What's inside?"
"Everything that will answer your questions."

I looked around and smiled at Clementine.
"Something tells me you have been in one of theses rooms already."
"A couple of times. Like when Dad had a fashion show and I tried to get in to talk to him. I was 12. I was going to go down 5 months at a juvenile detention centre for antisocial behaviour. But luckily my uncle bailed me out."
"Right and you have a uncle. Would you mind if we kept your folder thing? Just temporarily. And can we have the name and contact this uncle?" I asked hopefully. Usually this is when all that was promising is now worthless because one doesn't know the details.

"Sure. After, can I go home?"
"Home where?"
"With Clover and Dad."
"Well, we shall check with them and sign some paper. What about Clover's mum?" I really wasn't expecting this.
"Please. You have no idea what it means for me to go home. It will help me feel more welcome and not a dead weight. Please."
"I said before, it all depends."
"This has been my hope. I want to go home. I have always wanted to be back at home with my dad and my mum and my sister. Granted mum isn't here any more and if she was I wouldn't have Clover but you have no clue how long I have wanted this. I bitterly hate Dad because of what he did to mum but he looked after Clover and I love Clover. There is a Thai proverb: Kār chı̂ chīwit doy prāṣ̄cāk khwām h̄wạng k̆ h̄emụ̄xnkạb kār f̄ạng tạw xeng. It means living without hope is like burying oneself. That's what my Nanny told me every night until the day she moved back to Thailand. And going home is the one hope I have."

I was slightly taken back. Wow. This girl is passionate.
"I will try my very best to make it happen."
"Thank you so much. I shall fill in anything you need me to." Clementine simply jumped up and hugged me, her eyes watering.

When she left, I let the phrase she had said run through my head.

I had studied Thai culture and language in year 10. I never heard that proverb before. I made up my mind there and then to live by that.

Kār chı̂ chīwit doy prāṣ̄cāk khwām h̄wạng k̆ h̄emụ̄xnkạb kār f̄ạng tạw xeng.