Lethe's Lament

Chapter 5: Talk

Lily was still curled up in bed, wrapped into a thick blanket, even though the early spring weather had been quite forgiving and warm, even on inevitable rainy days. Comfortably bunched up and bathing in the warm orange light oozing through her curtains like honey, she had started to feel significantly better than she had that morning. Her mom had brought her a cup of tea a few minutes ago, and it was calmly steaming away in a gigantic, stupidly colourful mug on her night stand. The mug had been a gift from her dad when she was six, and it still made her feel a bit like the happy little toddler she'd been back then every time she drank from it. She missed her dad, with his cute gifts, eternal positivity, and bubbly attitude.

Lily remembered quite clearly a scene from when she must've been about five years old, with her dad in the kitchen. She'd come home upset, and stomping her feet, because some older kids had been picking on her at school. Her dad was in the kitchen doing the dishes, and gently asked her what was wrong. "I wanna be bigger now" she'd said, trying to climb up on the kitchen table. "I don't wanna wait." Her dad had grinned, lifted her up and sat her down on the edge of the table, before feigning a serious attitude and looking her right in the eyes. "I don't know, snowball, I think it's best you don't grow up at all." Lily had frowned at her dad. "Daddy, that's impossible. You're being weird again." He had solemnly shaken his head back. "Being an adult is boring, and you have to do all sorts of chores, and be serious all day." He planted his pink-gloved hands firmly on his hips and stood up straight. "But I can proudly say I have managed to never grow up!" Lily giggled. "But daddy, mommy still makes you do all the chores!" Her dad pulled a face. "Come here, you little rascal!" he said, as he lifted Lily up on his shoulders and started running through the room. "We're fleeing from chores forever!"

Lily grabbed the mug from her night stand and took a careful sip. It burned her lips a little, but she didn't mind that much. Thinking back, her dad actually reminded her a bit of Aaron... speaking of Aaron, she just remembered she hadn't answered a text she'd gotten from him a few minutes ago. She hastily picked up her phone.

"Hey, wanna maybe grab some ice cream together after dinner?"

She smiled. He knew she couldn't resist an invitation to Freez Fizz, the ice cream parlour with the dumbest name, and greatest flavours. She quickly replied:

"Sounds like a plan. See you at Fizz around 8?"

After a few seconds, a reply popped up:

"Deal. Don't be late again!"

Lily looked at her alarm clock. It was around six. She noted it was probably a good idea to go downstairs to see if anything edible was being made. Funnily enough, her dad had always been the better cook, and her mom was still struggling to take over the job. With a big swing, the blanket was thrown off Lily's bed and she rolled out, before sliding back into her clothes. She was about to leave the room when she changed her mind, lunged back and carefully took her mug with her.

As it turned out, pasta was being served for dinner, and it was actually relatively decent. For the first time she actually recognised her dad's recipe, though it was still not nearly the quality of the original. After dinner, she slouched around for a little while, zapping through a few uninteresting TV channels before just settling on scrolling through assorted social media for a while. At around a quarter to eight, she zipped up her hoodie, yelled something about going for ice cream to her mom upstairs and stepped out onto the streets. It was chilly, but not too cold, luckily. It was already quite dark. Clouds covered up the moon and the few stars that were speckled around the night sky, but she wasn't scared. She'd grown up on these streets, and knew it was about the safest neighbourhood around. The night brought with it a kind of infectious silence, which gave Lily the strong urge to start breathing more quietly, and plant her feet gingerly on the sidewalk with every step to preserve the serenity. After a calming walk, she turned a corner to face the little patch of shops Freez Fizz was a part of, and spotted a big head of brown curls in the sharply illuminated store through the glass front. When she opened the door, a little bell rung and Aaron spun around on his high stool. The shop was relatively small in width, but went back quite a ways, and featured exactly three tables. The first were two normal tables with three chairs each, to the left and right of the door. past the tables, the floor went up two steps, and against the right wall was a relatively tall, semi-circular table with two high stools on either side, and Aaron, as always, on the one facing the counter, cheekily grinning at her.

Lily quickly hopped onto the other stool and leaned her head against the wall.  "Good evening, mister Stanley! However do you do?" she said, grinning right back at him. He chuckled and answered "Hey, stranger! it's been a while!" Lily smiled, but somewhere inside her the word 'stranger' hit a sore spot. It must have been visible, because Aaron frowned a little, and leaned forward. "You okay?" Lily nodded. "I've just been a bit under the weather today. I'm fine, don't worry." To change the subject, she turned around and greeted the owner. "Hey mister Grant! Can we have two blueberry chocolate-chip coupes with extra nuts?" The shopkeeper smiled and nodded. "Coming right up."

Lily smiled back at him, before turning back to Aaron. She started to bite her lip a little, but Aaron kicked her shin and she quickly stopped. "Come on, by the time I finally get you off that addiction I'll have broken both your shins!" She sighed. "Yeah yeah, I know. But uhmm... Can I ask you something?" Aaron shrugged. "No smart answer guaranteed, but you can certainly try."

She thought back to her second dream from that morning.

"Have you heard the name 'Lethe' somewhere before?"