The World We Live In

Ch 2: We reach Cowie

I let myself be drawn into the nostalgia. At this very moment, one thing that filled my heart was only gratitude. I was grateful for my Charlonzi family and the helpers, the orphanage, also Lance and the boys. I couldn't put this feeling aside just because Mawar had treated me so poorly. Just think of it as she wasn't mature enough to understand the world. I did feel the urge to escape sometimes, but that was what I did now. I didn't care where I lived; I didn't care if I needed to be alienated for some time, as long as I got the peace I was looking for.

I could only see the sea. On the right and the left, nothing much and nothing different. Fortunately, the wind felt so nice; I let the wind wave my hair as I sat on the railings. Smelt like sea and salt, of course as I expected. The weather was so nice, the sun was shining really brightly and I had a feeling that my hair turned into salt because of the shine. Oh well, I could just bathe when I reached Cowie later. But would they have a bath? Anyway, I rarely experienced the sea. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

The boat we were in wasn't that huge. It probably was enough to fill 15 people at max as there was a small room inside to rest. It was also clean, and I could see some part of the boat was used as fish storage. Judging from any side, it was just another small fishing boat that we could easily find elsewhere.

Thanks to the memory, I could shorten the time –which I knew I was no magician. The fisherman, or should I call him the sailor—said that they needed 8 hours to reach Cowie by boat in clear weather. The time on my watch showed that I had been daydreaming for 5 hours. No one had this urgency to wake me up from my daydream –because everyone was daydreaming, including Lance. The only one here who didn't daydream was the sailor.

It wasn't like we had other passengers.

I stood from the railings, with my hands still on the railings –and tried to fix my knees. Some blood streams had stopped because I sat on the railings for that much time so now, I needed to kick some senses on the streams. My legs were tingling as I struggled to stand. Lance stood from his spot and tried to help me, but I stopped him with my hands – as it was nothing serious.

As I regained my composure, I approached the sailor – an old man in his 50-ish, with a big belly and warm smile. I learnt that he was Tiho and refused to be called Mr. Tiho. He asked me to call him Uncle Tiho instead. He told me things about Cowie, like how wonderful the island was, and how he would never leave the island.

"Didn't you feel lonely, Uncle?" I curiously asked.

He laughed with a shaking belly before answering.

"The last time I felt lonely was when my wife left me," Uncle Tiho answered without a bit of sadness in his eyes as if he had overcome the pain.

"Did you ever consider leaving?" I asked again.

"You meant on leaving Cowie?" he repeated my question

I nodded while looking at his face enthusiastically. Uncle Tiho was a pretty skilled sailor –he could feel the direction of the wind and the waves of the sea while having a delightful conversation with me.

"No, child. I never think of it even once," answered Uncle Tiho warmly.

"Why?"

"Well..." Uncle Tiho stopped for a second. "You will never leave a home."

'You will never leave a home'.

His words were engraved in my mind pretty deep. I had moved to many housings –only three: the orphanage, the Charlonzi, and now Cowie, but not once I considered one of them as home. House indeed was different from home. That had to be one thing that I'd been seeking for my whole life. The place I called home and where I could gain peace.