Twisted immortality

VII - Half imagination, half lies

Songkarn woke up in the middle of Henry's phone call. He tried to keep his composure and not react in any way that would make Henry careful with his words or anything. Though, just listening on for a couple of seconds it was apparent that there was no need for it. Songkarn didn't understand anything.

It was shocking to discover Henry talking in another language as if it was his own. Another idea came a minute later.

What if it was his own? How much did he know about Henry anyway?

Songkarn took a minute to settle his emotions before he opened his eyes. In reality, he was desperate to find faults in Lucas's logic. If his idea of Songkarn's dream to be more of a memory than a dream of an imaginary world then it meant that something was wrong with Henry.

Songkarn was a kid in the dream when he took the lollipop from Henry. He grew up but Henry didn't change. He looked exactly as he did in the dreams. If this was, in fact, not an imaginary world then there is something really absurd going on? Is this even believable?

Well, he had heard about people who believed in auras, past lives, or even aliens. Probably anything could be possible if one looked at the world from these kinds of points of view. But Songkarn had never believed in anything supernatural. He never had a reason to. His life had been so excitingly real enough. He had no reason to add a fantasy genre to his life too.

Songkarn opened his eyes and saw the passing scenery. The time it took for him to decide what to say was enough for Henry to finish up his phone call. Songkarn turned to look at Henry. When he had got through the urge to just blurt out, 'who are you?' Songkarn moved on to the next question in his immediate concern level and asked, "how far have we reached?"

Henry seemed a bit startled as if he hadn't realized Songkarn had woken up. Was he worried about Songkarn noticing him talking in another language? Or was the phone call somehow important or a secret Songkarn had no business hearing? If so, he shouldn't have been worried, Songkarn had not understood any of it. All he was curious about was already there before he heard Henry talk in a strange language. Even before he had been seeing him in his dreams. But it was hard for him to understand how it was possible so he decided to ponder on it no more.

"It's about 30min to your mother's house. Where are you staying anyway?"

"Well not back there. If you can put me down in the hotel a mile from her house, I'd be grateful. There is a small one in there." Songkarn knew that he seemed a bit harsh with his words but Henry is probably the only one who understands as much about Songkarn's family situation as he himself did. The background search had been so extensive, that Lucas also didn't understand it as Henry did. Even though they had been friends for years, Songkarn had been reluctant to share all of the details with his best friends as they made him feel small and embarrassed. But Anurak had found out most of them and seemed to have guessed the rest. Which was why he didn't bother hiding his real feelings from him anymore.

"I think we are staying in the same hotel then. Do you want to stay in my suite? You can use the second bedroom," Henry said in an almost cautious voice.

Songkarn thought for a second but decided that thinking about money, hotel rooms, and the long-awaited fight when he reaches home, made it easier to accept the offer.

"Thanks. I won't say no to a free meal."

"I never said I would feed you for free."

Songkarn was stunned but just a second later, he heard Henry chuckling. How on earth was he supposed to get used to a laughing-smiling Henry? This was a total flip side of the character he had gotten used to in a week or so. Songkarn wasn't sure about how to react. Was he supposed to laugh too?