Chapter thirty five: caelum's mother
Ding-dong.
Ding-dong.
The soft chime of the doorbell echoed through the quite street but no one came out.
Aruey stood looking at the brass handle of the door. After a moment, she pressed the button again but it
yielded nothing but silence.
'Still no answer..' she contemplated.
"Is no one home?" after saying so, she stepped back slightly. Scanning the windows for any signs of movement.
She exhaled. "Did I get the wrong place?" she murmured under her breath, looking at the number plate by the doorframe.
She glanced down the street, then back at the house. 'Should I break in and see if anyone's there?' The thought made her crack a mischievous grin.
"Nah," she brushed the idea away. "I should just come back later."
Just as she turned to leave, a soft click broke the stillness behind her, it was the unmistakable sound of a door creaking open.
Aruey stopped mid-step, then turned around instantly. 'Oh.' not to her surprise, she found the door cracked open.
A lady looking to be in her fifties stood in its frame, She had short, neatly brushed hair that curled slightly near her ears. Her outfit was modest and old, soft blue tunic with faded flower patterns along the sleeves, paired with grey cotton lounge pants. A thin shawl hung across her shoulders.
The lady's face was calm, but not welcoming. She studied Aruey as one might examine a stranger.
"Yes?" the lady asked, resting her hands on the door's edge.
Aruey straightened her posture and gave a small smile. "Good evening. Sorry for showing up like this."
The woman didn't respond immediately, insted her eyes scanned Aruey from head to toe.
"Good evening. But may i know who are you looking for?" the lady asked with a curious gaze.
"It's been a while, miss," Aruey said in a composed voice, her chin dipped slightly in respect.
The lady in the doorway stared at aruey, her brows drawing together.
"I don't expect you to remember me," Aruey continued, folding her hands loosely in front of her. "But I was a friend of your son's in high school. My name is Aruey."
The woman squinted slightly, studying her face with curiousity, flipping through her old memories. Then she nodded, slowly. "Ah… you were his friend? Forgive me but I don't remember you."
Aruey smiled politely,"No it's alright miss." But the middle-age lady kept staring at her, from her clothe to her heels.
'Is she staring because of how I'm dressed? Or because my way of speaking doesn't match my dressing?' aruey's eyes briefly flicked down at her own black crop top and pants before returning to the woman's gaze.
The woman, after her intense staring, Stepped back gently from the door. "He's gone to work, and won't be back until evening. But if you'd like… you can wait inside." the lady's tone loosen slightly, maybe because aruey said she was her son's friend.
"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to trouble-"
"It's no trouble for me," the lady cut in, her tone softening further. " afterall, You're a friend of my son Cafley." She offered a gentle smile as she stepped further aside, motioning to the hallway inside.
But unlike the lady's smiling face, aruey's smile froze. She was dumbstruck without any resistance.
'Cafley? Who the hell is Cafley?' a note of confusion rang clear over her face. Her lips parted slightly, to ask. "Who is Cafley?"
The lady blinked at aruey, "Huh? My son, of course." startled by the question, her expression changed drastically. "Wait… aren't you here to see my son?"
"I thought I was," Aruey said, as she tried to untangle her thoughts. "I think there's been a mix-up. I'm talking about your son caelum."
The lady's face, already touched by age, now folded further into uncertainty. "I'm sorry, who?"
"Caelum," Aruey repeated.
"Caelum?" there was bewilderment in the lady's voice, as if the name was foreign on her tongue. "I… don't know anyone by that name."
A tight silence formed in the space between them, both of them staring at each other equally confused.
Aruey's lips parted again, but nothing came out. She felt a sudden jolt through her spine. "I see…" her voice was so low, that it was almost drowned by the soft rustle of the breeze.
She took a step back, feeling deeply unsettled. "I must have made a mistake, I'm sorry to bother you." she looked at the lady and apologized.
Looking at aruey, the lady felt unsure of what to do. But before shecould reply, Aruey turned on her heel and strode off, her long cardigan trailing behind her.
She didn't look back, and kept walking away hurriedly down the road.
-----
Once the house was well behind her, Aruey stopped and turned. She glanced back down the street, her eyes looking in the direction where caelum's supposed mother lived.
"That woman… she didn't even recognize his name." her fingers curled slightly around her phone.
"I remember Caelum had an older sister and a brother… so that Cafley, he must've been his older brother." The tension around her face was visible.
"But I'm sure that was caelum's mother, even though she clearly denied it. Which mean." aruey's discomfort grew.
She pulled out her phone and opened the taxi app. Her thumb hovered above the screen.
"Hah." A soft breath left her.
"I came as soon as I could," she said in a tone only audible to her. "But it looks like I was too late."
She looked up at the overcast sky, as her lips pressed thin.
"Your mother doesn't even remember you anymore," she murmured. "Which means only one thing…"
"…You've already found the quill, haven't you, Caelum." a hint of regret flickered in her eyes as she spoke.
Her thumb tapped the screen, booking a taxi back to the boka coda hotel.
-----
--
Inside the painting space, in somewhere in dharti.
'I think I get it now.' caelum's back pressed against the cool mud-brick wall, he crouched low in the shadow of the mud brick house, hidden just beyond the reach of the campfire's slowly dying glow.
The shouts and voices of the villagers drifted through the night air.
'To summarise everything, these people are the lineage of the first humans, hmmmm.' His eyes narrowed on the man who had spoken the loudest from the start, the one boasting about the "creator's blessing".
'That one… he got their face. And I feel the same vigorous spirit I felt from that old couple in him, he definitely is the son of the old couple through and through.'
Caelum's memory pulled up the images of the wrinkled old couple, staring at him in stunned silence as he redefined their bodies, pulling them back into their prime.
'They aged naturally after that, and died probably years ago.'
The once-roaring campfire had started shrinking into itself, but the group around it spoke on, undeterred by the cold or the dark. Caelum's thoughtful gaze slid past them.
'But one of them is still alive... the elder.'
'I'm sure it's that one kid who fell flat on his back, just from seeing me float down from the sky.' unbeknownst to him, there was a mischievous smile on caelum's face.
He could still picture the fear-struck face, the boy's wide eyes and trembling arms as the old couple rushed out after hearing his shouts.
Caelum exhaled through his nose.
'So he is alive... and somehow managed to become the last elder? That means he has enough authority in this village.'
The starless sky of dharti dimmed. Somewhere behind him caelum, the wind scraped dry leaves along the wall.
'Hearing them talk about "blessings," "creator," and that golden-eye. It seems there is already a stable hierarchy here.' caelum recounted everything in his mind ones again.
----
After a moment of quiet contemplation, Caelum straightened his back.
"I should give him a visit," Without wasting more time on the group around the campfire, he turned on his heel and walked in the opposite direction.
The coarse and weather-worn mud wall loomed beside him. He followed it closely, looking over the crude architecture of the village with his wandering eyes.
The houses were all built from the same rough brown mud bricks, they were simple in shape but solidly constructed.
Even though what struck Caelum wasn't how they were built but..
'They form a ring.'
Each house is clung to the inner edge of the circular wall, leaving a massive, open clearing in the middle of the village. A space that looked too empty.
'Why leave all that room in the center?' Caelum frowned. 'They won't grow crops in such a place, it's nothing more than open air.'
The layout nagged at him. He couldn't tell if it was tradition, or some culture they came up with.
His boots brushed through patches of dust and stone, walking along the curve of the wall for several more minutes before he stopped.
'If he's the last elder, with a bit of authority over the village, then this is the place he will live in.' caelum's voice echoed in his mind, as he looked at the single structure that stood at the heart of the open space.
It was unlike the others, this house wasn't pressed against the perimeter. It sat squarely in the middle, twice the size of the other homes and built from a richer blend of red and brown clay. The roof of the house was covered in thick tree leaves, giving the mud house a charm of its own.
'That's got to be it.'
A warm orange light flickered through what seemed to be square shape hole.
The mud wall wasn't high, it was nothing more than rough-packed earth baked under time.
Scaling it wasn't that big of a deal, even from someone physically weak like caelum. All it took was a well-placed foot on a crack, and a quick pull, and Caelum was on the other side.
Once inside the ring, he weaved his way through the houses. Each one stood apart from eachother, with empty lanes of hardened dirt yawning between them.
He turned his head slowly, scanning the place from inside.
At the heart of the village stood the structure larger than the rest, caelum approached it quietly.
"The only flames I've seen in this whole place… are the campfire back there," he whispered, "and this glow leaking out from here."
He stopped before the entrance to the house, the warmth from within was mixed in air, Clay walls curved around. The scent of soot and packed earth clung to the doorway.
"They discovered fire long ago," he murmured, "so why only two places lit by it? Is it scarcity? Or… fear?"
He shook his head lightly, dismissing the thread of thoughts. "Well, whatever the reason..."
He placed a foot forward and crossed the threshold.
The house had no door, just an opening wide enough to walk through. Caelum passed into the light and the scene inside made his eyes wide open.
A/N I wasn't able to post due to irl issues and probably won't till june 20th, but there will be regular uploads after that.