“Rehan” Rehan showed himself.

The girl giggled and pointed her finger towards him, “Reyhan*?” 

“No, it's Rehan.”

“Reyhan.” her smile widened. What was so funny about it? 

“Ugh, repeat after me. Re-” he waited for her to speak but then, realized she didn’t even understand that. 

“Say Felisa!” jumped his sister in front of him, “Fe-li-sa.”

“Felisa,” easily said the girl with a sweet voice. This was frustrating.

“Why can she only say your name?”

Felisa sat next to the girl, clinging. “Because she likes me better! Right?”

The girl could not complain. She was just sitting there, tucking her exotic hair behind her ear that was falling on her face, listening, observing with her deep dark eyes. Though she seemed older, she was physically smaller than his sister. She was still feeble but looked healthier compared to the first time Rehan saw her. She had been laying at the death’s door for 9 days since then, and Rehan was glad that she lived, but it was astonishing to find her outside early in the morning, sleeping rough on the ground. 

Rehan tried to read her face very carefully, just like looking after a baby. She did not cry like one, but the muscles on her face tightened, her left eye twitched, her lips got the shape of a line. 

“Fez, I think you’re hurting her.”

“Wha- SHIT! I’m so sorry!” Having released from Felisa’s arms, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. It must’ve hurt real, guessed Rehan. 

“You don’t have to apologize if you’re apologizing.” She stopped Felisa from almost bending, then showed herself, “My name is Eda, E-da”

Was that her name? Was it just Eda? “Her name is so… simple.”

“True that!” answered Felisa, “I was expecting something like Xhozoblasiton.”

“What?”

“Like one of those people living in the stars, I mean, look at her blue hair!”

Okay, Rehan was concerned. Just what kind of stuff his sister was reading recently?

“That’s probably just dye, dear.” said their mother from behind. She was carrying food that’s smell filled the room. Something growled. From the guilty look on her face, the culprit seemed to be Eda’s stomach. Rehan chuckled. 

“Well, mom, we just learned that our starving stranger here is named Eda.” He tilted his head towards her. 

Eda nodded as if she caught on to what he was saying, “Nice to meet you, ma’am. Is that for me?” 

Rehan wanted to understand her. Was she thanking them? Complaining about her injuries? Talking about the weather? Or cursing them with a smile knowing no one understands anyway? 

“Oh my, you still have those dark circles around your eyes!” whined his mother giving her a bowl of hot soup “Why were you sleeping outside, huh? You got dirt everywhere, we are bathing you after this.” 

The girl took a spoon in haste then started coughing, causing her face to wrinkle. “Careful there!” said her mother, grabbing the spoon. She tasked Felisa to fetch some water and blew gently to cool the soup while feeding Eda herself. The girl tried to take it away but stood no chance against that unlimited willpower and solid strength of motherhood. 

Rehan couldn't help but smile. This scene reminded him of the time when he had first met his mother. He had been acting like such a brat and she was just as persistent back then, looking almost the same. She had tiny wrinkles of aging now, maybe some of her hair whiten too but no one could really tell as it was already completely blank. 

His mother told Felisa to prepare some warm water for the bath while wiping Eda’s face. His sister's eyes sparkled in a way that got Rehan the chills but he decided he didn’t wanna know. His mother also left to prepare the medical dressing leaving the two alone.

Eda got up and walked past him, looking at the lamp on the wall so closely like she saw it for the first time in her life. She might indeed have never seen one before, realized Rehan seeing how she mumbled to herself. “It is no oil lamp so where is the power input? Or a switch button?” 

The puzzled expression on her face was amusing, Eda as a whole looked absurd. Everything about her just didn’t fit in her surroundings and Rehan was itching to sketch that. He liked to draw odd things.

Which gave him an even better idea.

“Wait there!” he said as he rushed to his room, grabbed an empty sketchbook with some pencils, and went back to her. Rehan took a seat and quickly doodled how Eda fell from the sky. He showed it to her while pointing at her and the falling girl in the sketchbook. “This is you, Eda.”

She looked lost in her thoughts for one moment as if she was calculating something. “Knew it,” she whispered. 

Rehan drew them carrying her next. And Eda laying very sick after that. He thought about how to explain nine days in pictures for a while. Shall he first show the sun rising and setting for the day, then put a “9” next to that? But would she understand what even the number was?

“Dude, you are really good at this!”

Rehan was startled to hear her voice so close up, realizing her head was right over his shoulder. Having someone watch him made him nervous for no reason. He jumped up all thumbs and passed the pen in her hand while trying to cool himself down. 

Unlike him, she didn’t mind being watched. She started with fast lines, then crossed it all out mumbling “He made it look so easy.” 

He noticed that Eda was left-handed. There were still tiny burning marks on her wrist, also one on her cheek. She scratched that spot as her hair fell on her damaged skin, bothering. Her hair was long, straight, and all over her face, making her puff it every minute or two. Rehan reminded himself to get her a hair tie later. 

“Reyhan,” she called him. He didn’t bother to correct her as he was more interested in her work. That turned out to be the opposite of what he anticipated.

“Oh, you are a terrible terrible artist,” said Rehan, really amazed. It was almost as complicated as trying to understand what she said. Funny thing, she looked so proud of it.

“Look. This is me,” she pointed at a stickman with long hair, probably herself. “And here I am screwing everything and blowing myself up.” 

The stick-Eda seemed to be doing something weird and next to that was just a bunch of scrabble in the shape of a circle. Was that some type of power that caused her burns? She did not draw anyone else that might have caused it, also it didn’t make sense to be her harming herself. 

“What happened there?” Rehan asked, showing the circle.

Eda looked right into his eyes sharply. She clenched her fists first, then opened them in a sudden saying “Boom.”

He was right. Must’ve been terrifying for her, he thought. She looked even more vulnerable that moment. Yet strong-willed to stand there, trying to understand each other instead of losing her mind.

“What happened after that?”

She just shrugged but of course, Rehan couldn’t be sure why. Still, this was better than nothing.

He picked the pen to ask something through paper but his sister appeared and took Eda away. He still continued.

Again, how would someone explain the concept of numbers? He made little stars on the paper in groups and wrote the number associated with each one. It was how he and his father had taught Felisa to write: through pictures. They might as well use this method for vocabulary and simple concepts. And after Eda gets the basics, she might learn the rest simply by conversing often. 

Just then, he realized he was quite enthusiastic about this. For the first time in a while, he was willing to work on something, feeling excited about the outcome. 

Almost done, Rehan heard someone scream, his sister to be precise. He hurried towards the noise to find their guest unconscious, his sister switching between apologizing and cursing, and his mother scolding her. Felisa had a bunch of sparks around her, indicating she did show her favorite trick to their probably traumatized-deep-down guest.

“Damn, Felisa what did you do!”