Chapter 21

Her last words kept repeating in his head as he walked away from the village. Over and over again as he made his way to the little town and waited for a taxi take him to the airport. As he boarded his plan the memory relented for only a moment, until he sat down.

In between every word the person sitting next to him on the plane spoke her voice was in his mind and her kind, dark golden eyes and copper colored hair flashed in his mind. Repeating over and over again, trying desperately to change them.

"Leon—"

"Stop calling me that!" He had interrupted. "I'm Jahanju!" He was angry with her when they woke up that morning after taking him to the cave.

She smiled as tears pooled in her eyes. "Yes. You are definitely still Jahanjuy, and your journey in this village is done. You've seen all we have, it's time for you to continue seeking the world."

He kept shaking his head as hot tears fell down his face. When she lifted his face by his chin he leaned in to kiss her and she pushed him enough to prevent the contact. "No. No more of that." She smiled warmly as the first tear fell.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you leaving me?!" He asks as he straightens his back.

Her words are genuine and her tone is kind. "I'm not leaving you Leon," he groaned at his given name again. "I'm just not the one who gets to continue on your journey."

He kept mumbling it when he was alone "Not the one who gets to continue on your journey..."

When he finally got to Leiden he stayed in a hotel for two days, by himself, pouring over all of the photos he'd taken in the village on the other side of the world. No one let him take their photo while he was there, no one but Valantia and he stared at her photo the longest.

Day two of solitary, self-imposed, confinement, he was staring at the photo of her again, but as he stared into the somber eyes he'd found so much comfort in he finally accepted her final words to him and folded the photo before slipping into his pant pocket and whispered to the empty hotel room. "Thank you."

When he arrived at the house that Fey was renting he hesitated at the large dark wood ornate door and hated himself for it, he would never forget forget everything that his hesitations had stolen from him. However, he hesitated at that door because once it was open he knew every fantasy he had about his mother would be shattered. Behind that door was the reality that was going to change him forever. He'd been imagining this reunion for over a decade, almost two actually.

In his imaginings she breaks down crying as she remembers the small little boy she left behind. She sobs her apology as they both cry, and he forgives her. In his most fanciful daydreams his forgiveness is all she needs to be healed from whatever is killing her now.

When the door opens he is greeted by a young maid and when he introduces himself she leads him to a small living room with brown wallpaper that has intricate flower designs along with butterflies and dragonflies depicted on it. The plush robin egg blue velvet couches and chairs brighten the room and balance against the dark wooden mantle above the fireplace.

"Leon!" Fey's angelic voice rings out as she runs into the room and grabs his hands. Out of habit he pulls her into a hug and kisses her cheeks the way they do in the village and as he pulls away and sees the shock and embarrassment rising in his cousin's pale face he quickly apologizes before explaining. "It's how I've been greeting people for over a year..."

She sighs as she settles down from the affectionate greeting. "Well, soon enough you'll be back to normal."

He was wondering if that was true. He was also wondering if the sanitized way people greet each other on this side of the world was in fact "normal."

"Where is she?" He gets right to the point.

"She's resting right now. Let's get you settled into the room shall we?" Her bright blue eyes are kind and full of some kind of joy or happiness that did little to settle his nerves. As he followed her to his room, watching how her long

wavy, black, hair swings side to side with every step, he wonders if that look was relief that he showed up.

"This is your room." She says as she pushes the dark wooden door open to reveal a cozy bedroom with a large bed with dark blue covers, a small desk and a fireplace on the wall that then leads to the bathroom. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll have Abigail bring you some tea and cookies. Your mother should be awake in about an hour or so and then we usually eat a small meal before taking a stroll at the park. Routine seems to help her, although it was also suggested that we remain flexible for her mind to be creative, make new memories, or possibly..." She stops herself from finishing, too afraid to get anyone's hopes up for recovered memories that may never return. "I'll come get you once she's settled into her meal. I think things will go smoothly. She seems to like to meet new people so…" She stops herself again as she sees the hurt look on her cousin's face.

Leon stood there in the middle of the room wondering what exactly he would be to his mother. A stranger? How can someone's child be a stranger? He walks to the window doors that open to a small patio that overlooks the house's garden. After a few more seconds of awkward, contemplative, silence he turns to his cousin with a soft expression and smile on his face. "Thank you Fey. For everything you've done for me and my parents."

She felt the sting of the beginning of tears trying to form at the corners of her eyes. "I'm happy to do it…" She swallowed and stopped her tears from forming anymore. "I'll leave you to settle." She closed the door behind her when she left.

The tea and cookies came, and he let the tray sit there on the desk, untouched, as he began to unpack his things and wondered how long he would stay in this place.

By the time he was finished unpacking Fey came to get him. Fey could tell by the way he fussed with the buttons of his cream colored shirt while they walked down the stairs and through the halls towards the back garden that he was nervous, and she couldn't blame him. When Fey had learned that she had a long lost cousin, she'd never felt more excited in her life. Growing up as an only child with very strict parents she yearned for the company of people her own age, especially those who might also feel somewhat beyond their age. She was too young to fit in with her parents and too mature to fit in with the other kids her age. When she learned of Leon she wondered if he would posses that same feeling of out of place or in between that she did and learned that he had felt that way too growing up. She obsessed over his articles while he was away on his adventures, and his letters to her directly, because she could see, she had record, of how he changed and how he came to find his place in the world. She read in awe for the last two and half years how he was beginning to accept himself, and she secretly envied him for it.

When they got to the door that leads from the kitchen to the garden she suggested he wait until she motion him in so they don't give his mother a scare. Leon stayed back, watching as his cousin prepared his mother to meet someone new. He thought to himself as he watched the back of his mothers head nodding as she listened. "I am someone new. She's never met me. Not the way I am now. she's new to me too. We are strangers. I just hope I get to fix that before it's too late... this is not the time to hesitate Jahanjuy. You have a mother to explore." He swallows his anxieties before pushing the door open to meet his mother, Georgiana Stephanotis.