Chasing the Sun

077

I woke up to the sound of Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" blasting loudly on my eardrums. When I extended my hand to check if New was still asleep, my hand felt nothing but the sheets. I opened my eyes to see if the wheelchair was still beside the bed, but it wasn't.

Brushing my eyes off as I yawned, I got out of bed and went out of the room to see where New had gone to. When I opened the door, the smell of something burning accompanied by a cloud of smoke welcomed me. 

"What's happening?", New's mom, who was also woken up by the sound of the music, said as she went down the stairs down to the living area.

I followed the sound of the music, and realized that it came from the kitchen where the smoke was coming too. 

"Up already? I haven't finished cooking the pancakes yet!", New said as he smiled at me from ear to ear, splats of what seemed like pancake batter all over his cheeks. Beside him, a plate of severely burnt pancakes were sitting.

To say that the kitchen was a mess was an understatement, seeing how the ingredients were strewn all over the wooden floor. Empty bowls were on the sink, flour and other powdered ingredients scattered on the floor, and even pieces of vegetables, which I didn't know why they were even there, all over the kitchen. It was like a storm had hit the house, but only the kitchen was ransacked.

"Oh my god! What happened here?", New's mom said in shock as she looked at the mess that was lying before her eyes.

"Mom, I cooked breakfast!", New replied as he fished the last burnt piece of the pancake from the pan, and lifted the plate of poorly cooked breakfast in a proud and accomplished manner.

All we could do was pull a rather forced smile as we looked at the monstrosity New created, and I could feel my throat drying just at the thought of shoving the coaled pancaked into my mouth.

"Let's eat now, you should taste my cooking.", He heartily said, completely unaware that he just created an unpalatable dish.

"We won't die from eating it, will we?", His mom whispered in my ear as we looked at New, who was still smiling.

"I hope not."

I remember sending my prayers to all the gods that I knew at that time, wishing that the food wouldn't get me an upset stomach. I had to swallow countless of times before forking the food, and even if I didn't really like adding syrup into my pancakes, I drenched mine in a lot of maple syrup in an attempt to save my taste buds from deactivating. On the far side of the table, New's mom was also looking intently at the piece of pancake on her plate, and I could tell from a glance that she was doing the same thing as I was.

"Think of it as a token of appreciation for taking care of me at the hospital. You guys have been tending to me for the longest time, and I couldn't get anything from outside to give you, so I just googled a recipe for pancakes and made one.", New said looking at us. 

It was very sweet of him to do something such as cooking for us, and we really appreciated his effort so we thanked him for cooking us breakfast. Still, I couldn't keep the look on my face that said "this is not looking good", New eventually noticed it.

"Don't you guys like it?", He asked, his voice in a weird tone as if he was disheartened seeing our long faces as we looked at the burnt pancakes.

"No, of course not! It looks delicious. Wait, I'm gonna grab my camera and take a picture of this."

At that point, I was just finding excuses so I could prolong the uneventful moment of eating New's cooking, although I knew I had to do it anyway.

"Your camera, how long have you been using that?", New suddenly asked in the middle of my unnecessary photography session.

"This? I've been using it for five years now.", I said as I stopped taking pictures to look at my camera.

It was a Sony Alpha A6000, and it was a very special camera for me as it was the one I used to take pictures of New from the very first time I saw him. It's been with me for five years, and just like any item people have, it gets worn out through time no matter how much I took care of it. The sides of the camera had scratches, and even the strap was worn out that the logo was no longer readable. On top of that, its specs were no longer of top quality as better looking and more upgraded models of cameras were released with each year that followed.

"Don't you want to buy another one? You're preparing for a competition right? why not buy a camera with better features?", New asked. I was curious as to why he was suddenly interested about my camera, but I thought that it was good that we were having that conversation so I could excuse myself from eating the food. His mom however, was on the unfortunate side because she couldn't join in on the talk, leaving her with no choice but to eat.

I could feel his Mom's stomach turning inside out with each bite of the bread, but she still tried to smile bitterly because New was looking at her from time to time to see if she really was eating. It almost felt like being in a suspense film sitting on the table with that food, with a pair of hawk-like eyes observing each mouthful that we made. 

"I don't have the money yet. If there's one thing I'm proud of owning in all of my things, it's this camera. I bought it with the money I saved from my allowance in my younger years in high school, so until now I'm still proud of having it. Maybe that also explains why I only use it on occasions that really deserve to be relived in the future...like this.", I said as I pointed the camera to New's face, and captured a photo of him with his eyes wide open in shock, his face still messy with the dried batter sticking onto his skin.

"Hey!"

My laughter echoed across the room, and although New was annoyed that I took a photo of him without his consent, he was laughing loudly too when he saw his face in the picture. New's mom, who was feeling sick just seconds ago, also burst into laughter when she saw New's face.

"This has to go in the photo album!"

We laughed even more, and although the speaker was still blasting songs of Frank Sinatra that morning, our chortling was even more audible from across the house.

"Hey, you haven't touched your food yet. You think you're getting away from my cooking?"