Dai-Tai stared tearfully out the car's window. The wind stung her eyes while her throat broke into crying spasms. The warm tears fell onto her cold empty hands. She stared at her palms as they collected the pools of water. She was now a murderer, and the avengement didn't make her feel any better. Nothing could replace her mother.
"Ma…" she barely whispered. "Ma..." The hairs of her skin rose as she recalled her mother's bloody body on the couch. The girl trembled violently, and a louder sob escaped her mouth. Itzal meanwhile didn't interfere with the girl's mourning. He stayed silent while he drove the car. He had attempted to comfort Dai-Tai with soft words, but the girl had pushed him away.
"Dai…" he finally spoke calmly.
His voice made the girl flinch. She buried herself deeper in the bangs of her short hair that clung damply on her forehead. She didn't answer him, but he continued to speak.
"I was around your age when my ba and ma were killed," he said. Tears stopped midway in Dai-Tai's eyes before they fell. She forced herself to look at Itzal whom was not looking at her as he drove. "Before I migrated to the United States from China, I lived in a poor city with my parents. There were always stealing... and people dying from poverty. My ba was involved with a gang and had an argument with one of the members. He got shot and my ma got killed next. But they spared my life."
Dai-Tai wiped her tears away. "Why?" her voice croaked.
"Because they pitied me."
The girl's swollen eyes widened in confusion. Itzal fell silent throughout the ride, and she didn't question him any further about it. It comforted her a little that she was not the only one who lost her mother. Although her father wasn't probably dead, Dai-Tai had a feeling that he was never coming back.
"Why… why did he kill ma?" she finally asked. The tears in her eyes started to build again, and she bit her lower lip to stop it from trembling.
Itzal hesitated for several seconds. "I do not know, but he was probably one of those bad people."
"Bad people?"
"There are some bad people out there that enjoy killing the innocent for fun. Your ma happened to be his victim."
Bad people. The words haunted the girl's mind. As the car entered a dark tunnel, the howling sound of dry wind tossed her hair around. Since she killed someone, did that make her a bad person? In movies, she had seen murderers caught by the police and thrown into jail. They were always caught. Was she going to get arrested? Dai-Tai swallowed hard.
"Are… are the police going to take me away?" she stammered anxiously.
Itzal almost laughed at her question. "No, they are going to assume you died in the fire."
Her dead? Dai-Tai didn't know how she felt. Her mother was dead, and she killed someone for the first time. All she could feel was an empty void growing inside of herself. She was too exhausted from crying that she didn't care if they thought she was dead.
The light was becoming visible at the end of the tunnel. As the car edged near the exit, Itzal said, "It's never wrong to kill the person that killed a family member."
Dai-Tai's hair stopped flying in the air. The light escaped into the car, and she glared against the brightness. Itzal pushed his sunglasses back on.
"We're going to live in New Jersey for now on. I'll be teaching you other things beside parkour."
Dai-Tai didn't respond to him. She knew she should be happier being with Itzal, but it frightened her to think about the life she was leaving behind. But there was nowhere else for her to go. As she closed her eyes, she hoped everything was just a dream.
~~~
After an hour and a half, Itzal pulled the car off the highway into a small road. More trees and shrubs filled the landscape. The vehicle hit a bump which jolted Dai-Tai awake. Rubbing her eyes, she wondered where she was. Itzal's voice startled her.
"You're finally awake," he said. "We'll be there in another fifteen minutes."
Used to the noisy urban city she had lived in, the girl was intrigued by her new surroundings. The air was cleaner and didn't reek of sewage water. Besides the sound of the car's engines, the woodland was quiet that the song of birds could be heard echoes away in the canopies. "Where are the buildings and cars?" she asked curiously.
Itzal laughed lightly. "That's because we're in the countryside of Monmouth County, New Jersey."
Dai-Tai's eyes widened. "Are we going to live in a farm?" The countryside as she learned in school reminded her of cows and chickens.
Her question made the man laugh harder. "No, you'll see."
Dai-Tai contained her curiosity while she observed out the window. A small pond secluded by invasive plants passed by. If it wasn't for the water's shimmer from the sunlight, she would had never noticed it. The woodland soon became more populated with wider and taller trees; trees that had probably thrived for more than a century. The car started to slow down when it reached a small clearing ahead.
A smooth trail led straight to a cozy-looking cabin. The brick chimney stood out from the wooden exterior, and the home's height couldn't compare to the towering hickory tree that stood behind the cabin. There were a few shrubs that grew by the front porch on the low level grass.
Dai-Tai was more fascinated by the home while Itzal parked the car beside it. Unlike Vicky's house, the cabin was much different. It was smaller and there were more windows, especially the windows that were crammed together into a line on the upper level by the roof.
The car stopped moving, and Itzal removed his seatbelt. He took off his sunglasses and face Dai-Tai whom was still looking outside. "How do you like it so far?" he asked. He was quite amused by the enthusiasm on her face. Her swollen eyelids she had gained from crying had reduced in size.
Turning to face him, Dai-Tai cracked her lips into a smile. "It's really pretty."
After the two got out of the car, Dai-Tai followed Itzal to the front porch. She could feel her sneakers treading on the soft grass. As she reached the porch and took light steps, the wooden stairs started to creak. Dai-Tai stopped for a few seconds to adjust herself to the new territory.
A jingle of keys grounded the girl back to reality. Itzal unlocked the door and walked in expecting her to follow after him. As Dai-Tai entered the cabin, her nose was taken over by a musty smell that overlapped with a deep, woodsy oak. She literally held her breath while she gazed inside the cabin.
The lounge was mostly vacant beside the furniture. An oval table stood several feet away from the brick fireplace and was surrounded by a beige microfiber couch and two armchairs adjacent to the fireplace. The soft earthy color was well matched with the wooden walls and polished floorboards. A window stood on the sides of each fireplace, and a small television on a table was placed in the right of it. Behind the couch was the staircase that led upstairs.
Without taking off his boots, Itzal headed straight toward a doorless entrance across the lounge that connected to another part of the cabin. Dai-Tai hesitated whether to take off her sneakers or keep them on. She usually took her shoes off when she was at home and in other houses.
I'll just take them off, she thought. She didn't want to appear rude. Shoving her feet out of her sneakers, she followed where Itzal had disappeared into.
Itzal was in the kitchen bending down by a white, rectangular-shaped machine that was by the backdoor. After he turned it on, Dai-Tai asked, "What is that?"
"It's a dehumidifier," Itzal replied turning around. He took off his camouflage cap revealing his tired face from the long drive and placed it on top of the kitchen counter. "It'll make the room smell better."
"Oh, okay." De-humid—what? she wondered. It was such a long name.
Itzal paused suddenly and scratched his blond goatee. "Ah… I just forgot to bring the bread from the car. I'll be right back." After he left the room, Dai-Tai decided it was her chance to explore the home. Her first stop would be upstairs.
Will I sleep up here? Dai-Tai wondered as she stepped up the creaky wooden stairs. Will I get my own room? A flashback of her mother's face made her stop in the middle of the staircase. Then she realized that she would never see her mother again. Tears tumbled from her eyes, and she lowered herself on the step. "Ma really is gone…" she whispered. Wiping her eyes, Dai-Tai didn't know why this suddenly it hit her like a brick. It felt like she had just finally woken up from a dream.
"Crying again?"
Dai-Tai dried her eyes and glanced at Itzal whom was by the bottom of the stairs. She didn't hear him walk inside the cabin.
"I know it's hard to move on, but you have to understand that death is death," Itzal replied calmly. His dark eyes held a tint of sympathy yet they remained cool and detached. Dai-Tai's eyesight blurred, and all she could see was the faded outline of the man. She sniffed and wiped her running nose. "I'm not trying to be mean," he continued with a sigh. "I got through it, and I'm sure you can get through it too. Someday you will be accustomed to it."
"I-I know you're not trying to be mean," Dai-Tai stammered. After she wiped all of her tears away, she managed to look straight at Itzal. "It's just that… I feel happy and sad at the same time." Happy because I'm here with you, she thought, and sad because I'll never see ma again.
Itzal smiled for the first time which broke his apathetic expression. He approached Dai-Tai and patted her shoulder lightly with approval. "I was right that you have potential," he said out loud mostly to himself. He placed a brown paper bag beside Dai-Tai on the steps. "I'll be going upstairs now. I won't be down until sunset. You can eat now or sleep since you must be tired. Your room is the last door in the hallway." With that, he headed upstairs leaving Dai-Tai alone.
As she opened the brown bag, the aroma of strawberry mousse floated out. She sat silently on the steps for a while with the bag on her lap.
~~~
That night Dai-Tai tried to fall asleep in the small bedroom. It wasn't just the darkness that frightened her, but the nightmare she just woke up from minutes ago. She dreamed of her mother crying out to her for help as the man stabbed her with his knife. Then the scene switched to the girl shooting the man, and when she turned to see his dead body, everything turned red. When she looked away, the red color disappeared, and the murderer resurrected. Dai-Tai ran outside as he chased her. Killer! Killer….
Dai-Tai shivered remembering his last words. He called her a killer, but he was also one himself. Throwing the light blanket over her head, the girl tried to drain his voice away. "Leave me alone," she whispered. "Leave me alone."
It's never wrong to kill the person that killed a family member… Itzal's voice echoed in her mind. Dai-Tai relaxed her eyes she was squeezing. She felt a sort of comfort that justified her actions. I killed him for a reason, she thought tiredly. For a good reason….
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