Missing Pages

Christmas Morning

Chapter 6 - Ageha

As I said, I wished that spend a half-hour to organize all my stuff...

However, it took me to the whole morning to do it as sometimes I would move things around two or three times before I decided they were in the perfect place.

Funny, right?  

... Yet now, everything was in the way I wanted, ready to be used...

A week quickly went by after that, and my routine beginning again when I received a new project.

Anyone would think I would see Yukihiro as much as I wanted now that we lived in the same house, however it was such a liar.

... I didn't know where everyone else had gone, besides Makoto that I would meet sometimes in the kitchen, and even the 'family time' during the meals were suspended at the moment...

And to be honest, I kind missed everyone as it felt so weird to be alone in this big house, which seemed to be the perfect place for a horror movie or something like that.

... Which I hated so much...

  I was thinking about if it would be better if I had stayed in the apartment where I lived with my mom. The place wasn't big, but I felt less lonely there than here.

... Even with the sad memories of her...

The subtle melody of what seemed to be a cello was what bought me back from my thoughts, and somehow the music was familiar to me.  

Deciding to find out where this was coming from, I went to my balcony, only to see that Samantha was in her room.

... She was the one, who was playing it...

Through the glass of her door, I saw how easily she handled the instrument, unlike years ago...

It was a Christmas morning, and the little girl smiled so happily while holding the gift that was almost big than her.  

Unlike now, her brown hair wasn't yet dyed in red as she showed to everyone in the room the cello that her mother has given to her.  

She was only eight at the time, but my cousin has always been in love with classical music ever since, and I was happy to see that this passion hadn't changed over the years.

... On the couch, my mother was talking to my aunt, who had a newborn Makoto in her arms, sleeping like an angel while his sister tried to play the instrument, which was yet too big for her like I thought.

Closer to the tree, my father talked to a Japanese man that I believed to be my aunt's husband and my youngest cousin's father.

... Sam and Makoto didn't have the same father...

Memories kept returning to my mind as my cousin continued to play...

It was the Christmas morning of the year that I turned three years old, and Samantha had stayed with us a few days when my aunt went to the hospital to give birth to Makoto.

He was almost a Christmas baby, and my dad would joke around how my aunt's children seemed to like to born close to holidays... However, I couldn't remember when Samantha's birthday was, despite everything.

I could remember how my aunt said that I wasn't so different, being almost a Valentine's Day baby, and it soon started a discussion between both siblings, making my mother and uncle laugh from their childish way.

... It really was a happy day that Christmas, before Makoto's father left them in the following year...

  I didn't know how or if it was the song, but I just knew that it was true, and so far, it was the only thing I could remind from the time that I lived there before.

My aunt was so heartbroken in the following month, leaving Sam with my family when she traveled alone with Makoto and thinking now... I believe she would have left him too if he was a little older.

Samantha and I were so close back then that she didn't even mind her mother's decision, and now I understood why she seemed to be angry with me since I arrived. 

... My father wasn't the only person that I couldn't remember about...

I couldn't remind about her, her brother, my aunt, and all the moments that we spend together too.

"But why?"

I asked myself, just to have a headache when the music stopped, and the sunlight seemed to worsen it, making the pain stronger and me unable to move. 

I heard the door open before hearing my cousin's voice.

"Are you fine?" It was the first time that Samantha didn't seem to hate me when she spoke, and the floor seemed to be moving around when I opened my eyes to look at her.

"... Sam..." I tried to say something to her, but it was too later as I felt her arms around me before I passed out from the pain out there.