Chapter 25: Not-So-Light Reading

I was about to finish reading Jacob's journal but what Rose said earlier did linger in my mind for a while. I look at the sun and let the heat settle, feeling it that it does become hotter by the days. It is insanely hot when it's summer, so it makes sense why the rainy season would hit hard.

I'm not sure why, but it sort of reminded me of Malinda and I's story.

Malinda has been stuck in that cave for centuries and god knows how lonely and scared she has been feeling all this time. It's especially been hard because the last time someone came inside, it's been a hundred years. And it just had to be my ancestor, for damn's sake. They had a good relationship, but her own doubts just pushed it all away. That's why I've been reluctant of telling her that I'm related with him. Because she might push me away, too.

I don't want her to push me away.

So, I've been trying to make it that way. We're friends now, after multiple stealing-Rhys's-sketchpad operations. She's been smiling again and having fun with someone else after a long-ass time. Sure, it took a while and a lot of bickering and stupid misunderstandings and also me stealing her stuffs. But what happened today was good and even if she's hiding it a little, I know she felt the same. I know she feels a little bit better, at least.

It's like I'm the sun amidst the storm that she's under right now. And I'm trying my best to shine through her pain and help her out.

I smile at the hopeful thought until my head snapped out of it. This whole adventure did start from her, but I have to settle my own things first. I want to know what really happened with Jacob and his own story. Then, I can continue with mine.

-

The stares from the playground were starting to bother me, and I could tell I'm a bother to all of the strangers, too. Partially because I am a Harrison after all which I almost forgot. Hence, I'm here now at Yuki's home again. I didn't want to bother him, but it didn't seem like he was doing much now that he's retired. Except, he's busy experimenting with his food recipes and is having a kitchen craze right now.

"So, what are you making, exactly, Yuki?"

Yuki was wearing a white apron, which was all dirty now, and is sprinkling a variety of spices on a pan filled with noodles. He responds, "I don't know! But it tastes great. Do you want to try?"

"No, thanks."

"Okay, maybe later. You can rest on my tearoom and read the book. Ask me or Karen if you need anything, alright?"

"Sure, thanks for letting me stay here."

Another reason why I wanted to come here is because of how comfortable this house is. I appreciate the Japanese interior design a lot and I also appreciate the fresh change of environment. For some reason, it's just calming in a unique way. If my house looked like this, I'd almost be reluctant to leave this town. After being astounded by the decorations once again, I get to work.

I already finished the journal and it had nothing important. So, now, I'm finally reading The Cave's Voice Phenomenon. Almost all the pages are information about the cave: types of caves, parts of the cave etc. Even though it sounds all boring, I try to read most of the lines, so I don't miss out on any information. It's not like I have anything else to do.

There are also some other notes about psychological illnesses, memory loss and hypnosis. It seems they also interviewed a bunch of professionals like doctors and university professors too. They really went all out for this. It's just kinda sad that not only did they interview doctors, they also wrote like them because I couldn't understand anything.

There were a bunch of illustrations which at least gave me an idea of what the pages were about. They also visited the cave quite a few times and wrote about practically anything. It's only strange that there was nothing about a girl inside. Did Malinda become invisible or something? All the artifacts and books were also hidden, but I already know how that happened.

I didn't know how long I was reading but ever since I've started, there's no real significant information anywhere. More of the entries became such a stretch and just had to be relevant to caves or memory loss. They wrote about the Greek Mythology like Mnemosyne who was the Goddess of memory. It said that she had 9 daughters and Malinda could be one of them somehow. That's dumb.

And then there was the Allegory of the Cave which was an analogy that had something to do between the effects of education and the absence of it in nature. It said that Malinda was stripped out of her rights from learning anything and the outside world which I guess kind of makes sense. Additionally, I guess that's why she's always complaining about our current education system. But it's still dumb.

Now, I'm currently reading about the top strangest and weirdest caves from all around the world. But these entries were weird itself because most of these are not even near Winterville or even in our country. So, this is practically dumb too.

Hold on. I didn't need to read any of this crap. I sigh and scratch my head. I fold the corner of the page as a mark and close it as I groan. This is starting to get so useless and dumb. I'm stuck.

As I continue reading, Karen entered the tearoom with a tray, "Mr. Hatsu wanted for you to have some Jasmine Tea." Finally, something to distract me for a bit.

"Ooh, thanks."

After she laid the cup to the table, she leans forward and says, "Listen, Harrison. Just because you're Yuki's favorite visitor now, doesn't mean you should get too comfortable around him. He's ill. Remember that."

She just stares at me, making sure I'm listening. I nod fast and she leaves. I guess she doesn't necessarily hate me, he just cares for Yuki. I drink to another accomplishment. Tea isn't my forte, but this is pretty tight. This one's different from yesterday but it's still green so it's still technically green tea, I guess.

As I devour the drink in my hand trying to avoid doing my homework, I have a staring match with a journal once again. I have no idea what else could be useful, but I know I have to finish it today. The faster I read it, the faster I can get out of here. I didn't want to keep pestering Mr. Yuki obviously. Then I remember what Karen told me about me being Yuki's favourite visitor. Hooray?

I open the book to where I left off and forcibly skim through the rest until I found my main objective I've been pondering since earlier.

"After five years of searching, I had finally discovered 3 men who had similar encounters of going inside the cave."

There we go. It took me a while, but I finally found what I've been searching for this for a while. I can't believe I wasted my time reading most of the pages of this book thinking they were going to be useful when they most likely won't be. Ohhh… so that's why Malinda's pissed at the education system.

I sit straight as I get more interested.