Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Remembrance
"Mother! Don't leave me! Come back! NO!" shouts Eke as he reaches towards a womanly figure with a glow as if it were an angel of which he could not identify its face but he could feel a spiritual connection with the angelic being. As he sobbed and shouted, he lunged towards the light, forever inching closer only to find out each time how far away he really is and always will be. "NO!" shouts Eke, as his head ascends off his pillow, only to be greeted a painful blow to the top of his pate and knocked back toward the cushion. "AH! Turd muffins!" he shouts as he had jolted up right into the top bunk of his bunk bed. It was morning. The majestic orange light piercing the bedroom and lighting up all of his and Sunny's possessions. Sunny, who slept on the top bunk, woke with a start because Eke's abrupt wakening and shouting scared her. Sunny leaned over the edge of the bunk saying "Youngest brother, why do you wake with such anxiety?". Eke sat up straight slowly, still rubbing his head, saying "The occasional nightmare is all, don't worry. You wanna get breakfast, Sunny?". Sunny and Eke nodded as they both got up and grabbed their clothes. Sunny had no problem changing in front of Eke but Eke still put up a curtain to divide the sides of the room when they got dressed because he felt very awkward when watched doing his business. After getting dressed, they crept out into the hall together and traversed across the loose floorboards of the upper floors balcony, down the wooden steps of the house, and into the kitchen which, to their surprise, had the smell of Fortuna's famous flapjacks and sausage with maple. Eke rushed into the kitchen sniffing the beauty of all foods shouting "Num Num times!" as he lept to the table to join the other early birds at breakfast. As he scarfed down the food, Sunny slowly entered into the kitchen and bestowed a gentle good morning to Fortuna. "Oh, boys! Slow down! The hogs ye' are! Tom stop drinking all the orange juice sweety! Eke pass your brother a napkin and DON'T tip the maple too much Don!" says Fortuna in such a hurry while dealing with the children that Sunny smiles at her diverse families quarrel and joins in. "Good mor-SUNNY! Don't throw sausage at Tim! Oh, the lot of ya'!" says Fortuna again. As they went about the rambunctious morning, they all had fun and washed up as to begin the day.
Eke grunted as he did his push ups in the courtyard. Eke then did squats, pull ups, benches, and sit ups while counting to keep score of his workout. "229...230! Done! How are you two doing?" says Eke as he rises and stretches. Over to his left, Thomas and Timothy were struggling and still on their first rep of the entire workout, the push ups. Thomas was laying stomach-down in the dusty yard while Timothy pushed on but not too far as he was only at "9...10...11...12...I'm going to pass out!" and rising. Sunny had been occupied in the basement, still working on her project.
Earlier the morning, she had asked Eke and Donivan to go with her to trade her groats in for scraps of steel at the wasteland area behind town. Eke had been wondering why she needed such metal, especially one so heavy, but he didn't ask. Donivan, however, had a different mindset. "Why should I carry such rubbish for you Sunny? It only takes one person anyway to get at least three pieces of scrapt garbage." said Donivan as he wobbled. His lean body had no tone whatsoever so he was getting restless. Eke was sick of his complaining so he took Donivan's stack of steel and carried it without so much as a groan. "Donivan, grow up! If you think your so good then you go do it. This is our sister and we should definitely help her, related or not!" shouted Eke at Donivan. Sunny was very quiet and she didn't even answer Donivan's question so they kept walking home.
Donivan was sour the rest of the evening so he went out with his girlfriend to an inn called "Rodents R&R" for a "good time". Eke wasn't stupid so he knew what Donivan meant and just shrugged with loathing when he told Fortuna. "I'm going to go check up on Mom and Sunny, okay guys?" said Eke as he began to pedal slowly backwards into the house. "Yeah, you do that." said Tom as he hesitantly rolled onto his back, showing all the dust and dirt lathered across his face and clothing. Eke turned the corner of the orphanage hall and walked down a smaller hall towards an iron hinged door with a sign, clearly carved by Fortuna's nice handwriting, stating "Do Not Disturb Unless Otherwise". He pushed the door open and hustled down the steps as to be welcomed by a loud stone-grinding sound and turning the corner of a stone pillar to see Fortuna helping Sunny carry a long but large steel shape across a limestone wheel. Sunny glanced at Eke as he entered and quickly greeted him with a smile while she continued to work. Eke smiled back with his pearly whites and walked over to see what the steel shape was. Fortuna lifted it off the limestone wheel and onto a wooden tabletop with Sunny holding the handle. The keeper and the orphaned girl then welded the handle firmly onto the end of the steel shape with a small bucket of melted hot iron from an oven filled with burning coals. Eke, curious on as to what he was witnessing, asked "What in rat's ass is that?" as he went to poke and prod at the fine metal only to have his hand slapped onto it instead on accident. Fortuna had went to slap his hand away but knocked it the other direction onto the still scorching hot handle. "AAAH! CRUD!" screamed Eke as he pulled his hand in recoil and shoved it in his mouth to have the saliva cool it off. Sunny put the object down and took her gloves off, rushed to Eke, grabbed his humorous, and shoved his hand, covered in spit, into a bucket of water by the table. Fortuna shook her head and said "Eke, how many times do I have to tell ya' not ta' touch things that aren't yours?". Eke frowned and looked up from the bucket to Fortuna and spoke saying "Thanks for caring Mom." Fortuna, the keeper, laughed a bit at Eke and his comment. She turned around and wrapped the project in a layered cloth as she walked away and up the steps out the basement. Sunny stayed downstairs with Eke as she wrapped his burned palm. Sunny spoke without looking at Eke saying "I'm glad you came down brother." Confused, Eke asked "Why? Did you know I'd want to touch it?". With that, she tightened the bandage around his burned hand and looked up with a small smile. Eke winced at the sudden tug and looked back at her confused as she said "No brother. You learned not to touch things that aren't yours." and she laughed while Eke gave a sarcastic "Ha Ha Ha! Very funny Sunny."
After they left the basement, Fortuna had everyone come into the family room. Everyone but Donivan of course. Thomas, Timothy, Eke, and Sunny all entered and sat down on the soft, wolf fur rug to listen to Fortuna. Fortuna cleared her throat and began to speak. "Boys, Sunny, all of you know that today is a special someones birthday. Do you know who?" Eke tilted his head to the right as if to say "All?" while the others nodded in vigorous agreement to this knowledge. Then Thomas and Timothy stood up and hopped to Fortuna's side while Sunny stood and gave Eke her hand to pull him up with her. Eke was still so confused as he thought "What is going on? A project, a family meeting, and Fortuna saying 'all' when there's only five of us here? Who's birthday?". Then, the front door around the corner burst open as many people poured in, at least a dozen, including Donivan and they were all shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" as they all, one by one, gave Eke big hugs. Eke was so surprised, he didn't care who these people were, he just wanted know what was happening. Eke gave one old lady a hug who gave him a medium sized bag of farthings for a gift and then marched up to Donivan and Sarah, his girlfriend, and said irritably but in a whisper "What is happening, Don!?". Donivan smirked cockily and said "It's your Finding-Day, dumby! We found you and remembered the day we did, the 7th of Rebmeced, the month of winter. You're, what, 15 now? I don't keep track but be happy I'm being nice, you don't get it often, scullion." Eke was surprised at Donivan's mood. He had never known Donivan cared as to give him a day of remembrance. Eke smiled and went back happier than before by giving everyone hugs and thank yous all around. The night was joyous and at the end of the night, everyone was heading home. Donivan saw them out and gave Sarah a kiss good night as she left possibly intoxicated from all the whisky Donivan had shared with her from the inn because she giggled tremendously. As all of them cleaned, Eke turned to Donivan and stared at the tall boy as Donivan did vice versa. He loomed over Eke as Eke stared back and then said "Thank you, turd muffin." and wrapped his arms around a startled Donivan. Donivan looked about and then slowly accepted this praise as he said "Shut up, little bro.". They laughed at their rivalry and headed to bed after finishing the kitchens dishes and the hallways paper confetti piles. As Eke said good night he plopped himself onto his bed and knocked on the top bunk to see if Sunny was still up. "Nope, she's out like a light." whispered Eke. He had then noticed a shadow in the corner of the darkful room in the moonlight. He climbed out of bed and inched towards the shape. It was the project, finished with a bowtie and some glittered wrapping. He unwrapped it and found out it was two long steel shapes. "Swords?" said Eke as he saw a note under them. He read in his head;
Dear, Little Brother, Eke,
I've crafted a weapon of such fine material for you for your birthday. You look like you enjoy combat so I thought might enjoy fencing. I've read many books about knights, dragons, archers, ninjas but my favorite was the samurais. I based these swords off the kitanas they wield for you. I hope you enjoy the academy we signed you up for too for the fencing classes.
With great thought, Sunny
Eke smiled as he lifted the blades into the moonlight. In Japanese, Eke couldn't read it in the ill-lit night but he guessed, it said Day Of Remembrance: "Tsui dē no hi". The beautiful white light beamed off the twin blades as his golden orange eyes glinted in their shine. He stared out the window into the beautiful, full moon night as he stood there taking in his new goal with a determined stance and a pearl white smile. He knew what he wanted to be and he whispered it to himself as he stood there. "I'll be the greatest swordsmen ever, Sunny, just you wait!" is what he said. He then put them down and pushed them under his bed. He climbed onto his bed and fell asleep with a warm smile on his face while Sunny, still awake but silent as air, smiled an equally warm smile because she knew he loved her gift. They fell asleep in peace that night but what Eke was awaiting was for more challenging and his goal, harder to get to. They both had one last thought, the same thought, before deep sleep. "I'll find you mother. One day, bet my life."
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