"Obsession"
by Blackjack Gabbiani
Chapter FourteenAsaph had told me over the past few weeks that soon he would make a new acquisition, so when he called me one evening to tell me that he finally had the item in his possession, I could scarcely contain my excitement. He would pick me up early the next morning and take me to his mansion, which lay just over the Seafoam bridge on the mainland. I had never been invited there before; all my meetings with him were either here or some place he would take me in his ship, so I wondered what sorts of things I would see in his own collection.
What would my future collection hold? What wonders of the world would I come to someday possess? I pushed such questions to the back of my mind as I lay in bed, trying in vain to sleep. My window was closed, as it was getting colder outside, so I could not hear the ocean that night. But with the absence of the sea breeze to which I'd become accustomed, a dull silence spread across my room, and I found sleeping to be difficult. Eventually, lulled by promises of what the awakening day would bring, I finally drifted off.
I rose early, with the sun, and I could hear my father down the hall. It was rare of me to wake before the factory opened, so I dawdled in my room and waited for the hallway to fall silent before heading to wash up.
The greatcoat that Asaph had gotten me was off being cleaned, so I attired myself in simpler clothes. Black slacks and a plain green dress shirt felt so common compared with what I had seen at the party, but I figured it was good enough for private company.
Satisfied for the time being, I went downstairs, keeping as quiet as I could. I could hear my father talking in the kitchen, and I assumed it was to Helen, since she was the only one who would come into the house.
"When I heard you were sick, I assumed the worst," he said. That's right, Helen had been absent the past few days.
"You big worrywart," she teased. "It's just a cold."
I was about to join them in the kitchen when he continued. "I was thinking about Gloria. She used to expose herself to all kinds of weird stuff and then try to cure it. That's what wound up killing her, in fact. She found something she couldn't cure."
It took me a moment, during which time I didn't move, and everything fell apart. Had he just said what I thought he said? As the world slowly reassembled itself, I concluded that he had. But rather than shake and cry as I would have before, I grabbed the thing closest to me and beat it firmly against the back of the couch. The book in my hands, some tome on engineering, shifted sharply with each impact, causing the cover to pinch against my fingers. But I didn't care. How dare he? How DARE he?
I heard the sound of his voice saying my name, but I didn't care to look. I didn't want to see him, not now, not ever again, so I threw the book as hard as I could in the direction of the voice, grabbed my shoes from the entryway, and ran out the door.
The sun was rising behind me as I stormed away from the factory. As soon as I was positive that he wasn't following me, I stopped to put on my shoes, tying them with sharp pulling movements that made them too tight for my feet. But I wasn't about to do it again, so I kept walking as much as they hurt.
I figured I would stay on the road until the bridge, and then wait for Asaph's car. There would be very little traffic heading into Seafoam this time of day; most of the scant vehicles on the road were heading further inland for a day of work.
"Stupid roads," I muttered, pausing to brush sand off my shoes. It seemed that even separated from the shoreline, the sand found a way to annoy. With every step I heard the telltale crunch of the cursed grit against pavement, and I swore under my breath at the sound. It seemed to increase with each move I made, until finally I was stomping in a circle, a long, loud shout escaping me.
What was he thinking? How could he say something like that? What kind of an idiot was he? He *wasn't* thinking, that had to be it! He never thought about what he did! He didn't care about me or anything! He didn't CARE!
Words failed me, and I continued to scream my rage at him with base sounds. I must have been quite the sight--calling out and flailing around, kicking at the ground and nearly falling over from the effort as the sun crept up over the city.
Finally, my body had taken all it could, and I found myself on the ground, staring out at the road, with one hand over my knees and the other balled up at my side, hitting the sandy road lightly every few seconds. Someone across the street came to their door to see what had caused all the noise, but I didn't move. I saw her watching me for a second, out of the corner of my eye, before going back in her house and leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I sat like that, my back to the cement wall separating the beach from the main road. It was only on the eastern side of town; the tourists preferred their views unfettered. My clothes were covered in sand. What would Asaph think? I couldn't face him looking like this, he'd be horrified. But I couldn't go back to the house either, that was simply out of the question. So I remained there for a while, sitting by the side of the road in a little ball.
A car stopped near me eventually, but I hardly noticed it until the door opened and a man stepped out. "Jiri? Young master Jirarudan, what are you doing out here?"
When I realized that he was talking to me, I looked up hazily and immediately regretted it. "Asaph..."
He knelt down to me. "What happened? You look--"
I raised my hand, wincing to keep tears at bay. I wasn't about to cry like a child in front of him. "We should go," I muttered, most undignified, as I pulled myself to my feet and brushed some of the sand off. His hand joined mine, dusting off the side of my pants. He looked up at me, concern evident in his expression, and looked as though he wanted to say something.
Finally, as he stood, he did. "You'll want to get washed up when we get there," he said softly, patting me lightly on the back and ushering me towards the car. His chauffeur, a grey-haired man with a black cap, smiled kindly at me from the front seat.
But before I could take my seat in the rear, someone began speaking. "Is that your kid?"
Asaph and I looked up. The woman who had investigated my outburst earlier was standing in her doorway. "I look after him, yes," he replied. "Why do you ask?"
She spoke to him, but kept her eyes on me, something that made me extremely uncomfortable. "He was out here screamin' and carryin' on about something about half an hour ago. Woke up the whole house."
He glanced down at me for a second. "I see. Well, I apologize. I will speak with him. Thank you for telling me." And with a hand to my shoulder, he nudged me into the car.