Looking For A Lost Memory

8 - Papers Fly - A

Undated – I'm trying to make sense of it all.

"What if he goes after them? If something happens to them? They are everything I have, everything we have. If you don't tell them soon--"

There's someone who's after our entire family and has been for a very long time. My parents are afraid to give me the necessary details. But I know fear when I see it. I overheard a heated conversation between both of my parents. They know it won't take me long to figure out the rest, so without hesitation, my Father sits me down and explains everything.  

From what I could tell his eyes were moving around erratically, his words quiet, his voice sharp.

He's been after our family for years. One mistake, one mistake in trust is all it took, to cost us everything. The secrets we protect is what he is after, and he will go to any length that it takes to get what he wants. At this important time, I expected my parents to be entitled to tell us exactly what is so important about it. Again, he casually dismisses it away. I almost explode with anger, forgetting that he is my Father, but I restrain myself. He warns me that it won't be long before he comes after us. Yet, he tells me not to worry. "He has a problem with me, not you Hirosha." I guess I never believed him. I was right not to. Attacking one of us, is attacking all of us.

***

2nd May, Papers fly - a lesson to learn, all faces have masks

Maybe I've given up
Lost all direction
Now I wander so unsure of the distance.

I'm thinking back to a couple of days before he disappeared. I don't remember that night as vivid as I'd like to, I'm sure if I did, I'd hold grudges for the rest of my life without control.  

I was ecstatic to have we sold returned to us. Beethoven Moonlight Sonata is quite a sad song, nevertheless, I was overwhelmed that I still knew how to play each note and chord from memory. It's one of the best I can play, I treasure it. Walking through the halls of our old house, like none of our hardships ever came, running like I was free one more time.  

He knew exactly what going to happen. I could see the unease in his walking, or at random moments, he'd stop in his tracks staring at me and Lilly, absorbing our laughter and energy one more time, sucking it in as if it was his lifeline, like it was his last moments with us.

It was late in the night when we had an unexpected visitor with a sharp voice come to our door demanding questions: I didnt hear the conversation but I caught the words 'suspicious...earn....bankruptcy...stole.'

The Hushed whispering suddenly rose in volume, snatching my attention in seconds. He was still at the door arguing with the same person, , but anger slowly rising in the other person's voice. I looked across to Akira sleeping on the other side of the room, I got to my feet carefully trying not to wake up Akira, but she was already awake. She started tugging at my shirt in fear, holding me back.  

"Don't go." She pleaded.

"I have to see what's going on, just wait here," I reassured her and slipped away into the darkness and the corridors flooding light into the room.

"Wait for me!" She squealed, then she tripped up on her blanket and landed with an almighty 'thud' on the ground.

I stood on the spot frozen, anxious to make another move because the voices on the other side silenced. Akira got to her feet quickly, I pulled her close to my back, protecting her and keeping her behind me. Voices raised, I heard more thudding and slamming doors. My father ran in the room in a panicked state taking Akira and me by the hand, kneeling down and pulling us close. With no words spoken between us, I already knew what he was going to say.