The Mother Mystery

"Please tell me." I said.

"Do you really want to hear such stuff?" my aunt asked. "You've been in his house, within his reach for an entire night. Do you really want to have an idea about who you might have been with?"

"I beg you, please tell me what you heard about him!"

My aunt sighed.

"Alright, but after we get home." she said.

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

When we arrived at the apartment, I locked my bicycle and got inside. I changed my clothes and switched to a more comfortable outfit. I threw my old clothes on the 'dirty clothes chair' near the bathroom, where they would await the next washing cycle.

"Aren't you going attend to your lectures today?" my aunt asked me as she walked by.

"Aren't you going to tell me more about that 'weirdo'?" I asked in return.

She gave me a deadly stare.

"Ah, fine; you know I don't have lessons on saturdays." I had to answer her directly.

"It is saturday already?" she said. "Time surely flies..."

As she was trying to walk away, I stopped her.

"Come on. I won't give you a rest until you tell me more about Mr. Idris." I said.

"Fine, fine..." she said. "Let's sit down somewhere."

We went to the living room. She sat across me.

"During your stay there, did you notice something odd?" she asked me.

"Like... what? It is hard to answer such a general question." I said.

"Something... missing? A 'void' sort of feeling?"

"What are you trying to get me to say?" I asked.

"A family of father and daughter." my aunt said. "There is one person missing here. I mean... at least one."

"The mother." I said. "But what? She could just be away for a while."

"How many years will count as 'a while'?" my aunt asked.

"What do you mean?"

"She has been missing for more than five years now." my aunt explained. "That was the last time we had seen her. Then, suddenly, she disappeared."

"Did no one ask Mr. Idris about that?"

"Of course we tried." she said. "He wouldn't tell. He, as he put it with his own words, simply couldn't. Some time later, he just started spending time in isolation; not talking to anyone, not accepting any guests."

"Maybe his wife died, and he was mourning?"

"That's what some people tend to think. But there was no funeral, no grave. Nothing." she said.

"That's odd. I wish I asked him about this while I was still there, but I didn't know about his wife's disappearance." I said. "I just thought that she wasn't home for that day or something."

"Maybe it is better that you didn't ask." my aunt said. "Maybe it is a secret that he wants to protect."

"Huh?"

"It is almost as if he is trying to hide something. It is almost as if... he did something to her."

"What in the world are you saying!?" I said.

"That's a rumor. No one knows who came up with this allegation, but the rumor spread in a short time. This idea was partially backed by the disturbing fact that... that Mr. Idris and his wife had started fighting quite a lot before her disappearance. People thought that he was abusing her. And the last time I had seen her in public... She was wounded. She had cuts and bruises on her skin. She would say that those were accidents, but it would take quite an unusual amount of accidents for someone to get that beaten up."

I couldn't decide what I wanted to say. However, my aunt could understand my thoughts a little.

"Yes..." my aunt continued. "It is a small town where everyone knows a lot about each other. This is especially true for the local people. Now, that man and his cursed book store is hated by the locals, but, on the other hand, university students and passer-bys still visit his store often."

"I can't belive it, though." I said. "People saw her situation, and no one interfered!?"

"No one had time to." my aunt said. "I'm telling you, the moment we had a clear evidence was the very last time we have seen her!"

"What about the police?" I asked.

"The police is complicated. Long story short, it doesn't work." my aunt said. "If she died, there is no corpse. If she is still alive, no one has a clue where she could be. The part that hurts me the most is that her wife used to protect him telling that she loved him, even though they were clearly fighting."

"It is tragic." I said. "But is it right to act based on rumors of murder?"

"Either case, he is a creepy man." my aunt said. "Even his daughter is scary."

"What did her daughter do!?" I asked. "You can't hate her because of his father!"

"She is the most anti-social and judging life form I have ever seen." my aunt said. "She sucks in all my will to live in mere seconds."

"You are overreacting." I said. "They were both very nice to me."

My aunt paused for a long while.

"I hope their fake attitude makes up for at least some of their sins." she said and sighed. "Look, that's enough for you. That's more than what you need to know about him. Just... stay away from that store, okay?"

"I... will try." I said.

I got a deadly stare again.

"Okay, I will!"

"Good." she said and stood up. "I'm going to go drink something."

After she left the room, I was left alone with my thoughts. I really couldn't believe the rumors about the man that willingly invited me into his house to protect me from the rain and save me from the dangers of the 'Night of Terror'. He was looking like such a nice person, who considered me a friend...

A friend of mine.

That was the key. I was going to visit him again, and ask him about his wife.