Me Without You (15 page)

And Jane never failed to take some of
her delicious goodies and cookies in her room, which was an added
attraction.

"What's wrong, Jonah?" Jane
asked.

Jonah trembled involuntarily as she
told Jane the truth, "I'm scared of your mother!"

With Jonah's room adjacent to Rebecca's
bedroom, she felt like her mother was watching every move she made.
Although it could only be part of her imagination, she had been
hearing voices whispering in her ear, calling her name."Besides the
boomerang child is in my room," she added.

"Jervais?" Jane asked following Jonah.
She took her pillow and fluffed it up to its bulk.

"She said she might stay here for a
while until she finds work again," Jonah confided.

"She lost her job again?" Jonah's older
sister asked in amazement as she climbed behind the covers as
well.

"She quit her job again," Jonah
corrected. "Jervais has always made the distinction."

Jane lifted her head with one
supporting elbow and looked at Jonah for a moment. She found a tiny
insect bite on Jonah's arm and started scratching it. Jane knew
Jonah loved it. When Jonah was a little child, scratching whatever
itch she had was the only thing which made her sleep early. Then,
Jane asked, "Why are you scared of your mother? Your mother loved
you. You are her menopausal baby."

Jonah almost laughed out loud. "I don't
know if being a menopausal baby is something to be proud of, Jane.
And please, your mother didn't know how to love. She couldn't care
less," she answered. "Is it true that Aunt Judith gave us our
names?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Except for
Bricius, ours start in J. If there's even any connection." Jane
replied thoughtfully.

"As usual, Aunt Judith—the helicopter
parent," Jonah said. The image of her Aunt Judith brewing a
concoction for Rebecca was still lingering in her mind. She
couldn't easily get rid of the suspicion that her Aunt Judith had
somehow been involved in Rebecca's death.

"Jane, have you noticed Aunt Judith
lately—how she has been acting strangely ever since your mother
died?" Jonah whispered.

"I haven't noticed," Jane said, getting
into the furtiveness of the mood. Then, she laughed out loud. "This
is crazy! Since when have you become such a snoop?"

"Jane, Aunt Judith brewed the
concoction that your mother took to supposedly heal her? The
coroner thinks your mother has been poisoned."

"If Aunt Judith poisoned her, it will
be so easy to point back to her. She's not that stupid, Jonah! And
your mother ain't that foolish as well not to know, being powerful
and all," the older sibling reasoned.

"I don't know how she can get away with
it, Jane!" Jonah said matter-of-factly."I just get the feeling that
she knows more than she's letting us on."

"I would suspect your ex-boyfriend's
aunt more than I would suspect Aunt Judith," Jane said and turned
her back on Jonah.

"Whose Aunt?" Jonah inquired

"Why? X's Aunt Gilda—I found her with
your mother dead," Jane said.

"Oh," Jonah simply said, pretending not
to know she had seen Gilda Byrne.

Jonah recalled the strange visitor the
Blood matriarch had before she died. She couldn't believe that
Xavier was somehow connected to the woman. Could Xavier be the
reason why his Gilda wanted Rebecca dead? Perhaps, Gilda Byrne was
even in cahoots with Aunt Judith.

So, X is already well! Even
Hugh said so. That's why he has the nerve to talk to me again. But
he doesn't look alright! Well, he looked alright after I — He can
only be pretending to be sick to throw out suspicion away from his
Aunt…
Jonah's mind went crazy as one wild
idea came after another
.
She closed her eyes as if it was the only way to
shut her thoughts off.

However, it went even wilder as she
clearly saw Rebecca reaching out to her, saying, "I've come to get
back what is mine."

Jonah immediately opened her eyes. She
turned on her side. With her back to Jane, she moved closer to her
sister. She whispered nervously, "Jane, why don't we bury your
mother even without her brain?"

"That's a crazy thought, Jonah!" Jane
answered sleepily. Both Jane and Jonah turned to face each other.
Jane eyed her younger sister and began, "Speaking of that
boy—"

"Please, Jane, I don't want to discuss
him now!" Jonah said. An idea came to her mind, "Is there ever a
man for you?" she asked Jane. She had never seen her sister with
any man before while she was growing up.

"There was," Jane confided, blushing to
the roots of her hair. "But the typical story of your mother not
approving of him. I just had to let him go. That's why I sometimes
envy Jemmah— for her guts. But look how she ended up? Your mother
knew best."

"Your mother's gone now, Jane. It is
not too late to fall in love," Jonah said.

"No, it is not, is it?" Jane chuckled
and turned on her back once again. "My sisters have become my
family, Jonah."

"A man can give you what we can't,"
Jonah replied.

"Yes, of course! Perhaps, I should go
out on dates," Jane said sounding amused. "After your mother has
been settled. Maybe you're right after all. Let's just bury her
even without her brain."

Jonah felt cold air creeping at her
back. She turned and had her back on Jane again. Her attention went
to her hand. She was half-expecting it would itch. In all the
stress and excitement over the few days, Jonah had noticed that the
itch on her fingers was almost ignorable. She had been accustomed
to wrapping her fingers every night with a bandage just in case her
attacks started again but has forgotten to do it that
night.

Without getting up from her side of the
bed, Jonah stretched her arm and rummaged blindly through the top
drawer of Jane's bedside table for the bandage. Her fingertip
touched what seemed like a cold, hard object. In a few moments, she
saw what looked like small bits of glowing paper in various colors
coming out of the drawer.

"It's beautiful!" Jonah
whispered.

Then, Jonah heard her own
voice in her head saying, "
The breath of
happiness and its opposite create what has been
uncreated
."

What does it mean?
Jonah reflected
.
She wasn't thinking about happiness at all. It was
so queer that the subject occupied her thoughts.
Perhaps, it has something to do with how I am
feeling about seeing Xavier again.

Jonah sat straight up on the bed.
Looking closer, the glowing colors were not made of paper at all.
They were light in different shades and they where fading fast. She
peered through the drawer where the little confetti-like things
were coming from and saw what her fingertip touched. It was ancient
little trinkets tied to a chain.

The habak
… Jonah gasped.
Rebecca's missing
habak
.

"What are you doing now?" Jane asked
without looking back, stifling a yawn.

"Huh?" Jonah said sounding
confused. "I forgot about my hands." She looked closer. And indeed,
it was the
habak
her mother had always worn around her waist.

"Did you find it?" Jane asked. She sat
upright.

Jonah and Jane caught each
other's eyes. An understanding passed between the two of them about
the missing
habak.

"You found the
habak
Aunt Judith was
talking about," It was Jonah who first broke the silent
interval.

"Yeah," Jane answered nonchalantly and
went to lie back in bed. "I was cleaning and found it under your
mother's bed. I don't know how Aunt Judith could have missed
it."

"Why didn't you tell her you have it?"
Jonah inquired.

"Jonah, can't you see it?
It's broken," Jane quipped. She stood up from the bed and walked to
the table. She scooped up the
habak
and showed it to Jonah. Almost half a meter long,
there were only a few little trinkets dangling from the chain."Aunt
Judith will make a big fuss out of it. And I won't hear the end of
it if I told her I found the
habak
but it's broken. If you like, you can do the
honors of giving it back to her."

"No way!" Jonah exclaimed a little bit
too loudly.

"So, what shall we do about it then?"
Jane uttered.

"We can give it back if the new healer
or if the other half of it has been found," Jonah suggested. "Then,
it won't matter anymore if it's broken or not."

"It's our little secret, then!" Jane
said and both of them shook on their little pinky.

Just then, there was a knock on the
door and it opened even without Jane inviting whoever was outside
of it. And Jervais' head suddenly projected on the open
doorway.

"I heard the ruckus from my room,"
Jervais said and entered the room. "What are you two up to
here?"

"Ruckus?" Jane demanded. She
hastily stashed the
habak
back inside the drawer and closed it firmly behind
her before she jumped back on her bed."What are you talking
about?"

"You didn't hear it? It sounded like a
party of some sort. Music. People's voices chattering away."
Jervais told them and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Must be the neighbors!" Jonah
offered.

"Jonah, neighbors?" Jervais jeered.
"Our neighbors are miles away. We are practically in the middle of
nowhere. I know what I heard. And I heard what seemed like a
festivity coming from this room."

"Oh, come on, Jervais," Jonah argued.
"You were probably just dreaming. If there was loud music and
people talking and partying, don't you think Aunt Judith won't be
the first one up here to demand that they get out?"

"Well, I won't be surprised if she's up
and about on her way up here!" Jervais declared, rubbing her eyes.
"Besides, I wasn't asleep yet. I couldn't sleep. I was feeling so
restless. It felt like someone was watching me or
something."

"I feel the same way when I am in that
room," Jonah divulged. "Your mother's room is next to it after
all,"

"Don't tell me, the two of you will be
flocking here?" Jane said, laughing out loud.

"Oh, come on, Jane—" Jervais said.
"Jonah's the baby not me. Besides, I don't believe in such
nonsense, you know."

There was another series of knocking on
the door and the three of them leaped instantly. This time, the
pounding was louder, harder and more urgent.

It was Aunt Judith. She looked like she
had carelessly put on her night robe in haste as the fastenings
seemed a little lopsided and the buttons were not tucked in
place.

Jane, Jervais and Jonah had bolted up
on their feet and unconsciously lined up. Aunt Judith scrutinized
each of the three girls' faces without speaking. Her eyes also
swept through the room as if expecting to find something else of
importance there. Then, her eyes fixed on Jane, who was evidently
squirming.

Without lifting her eyes away from the
oldest sister, Aunt Judith asked, "What is going on
here?"

Jervais shared her I-told-you-so look
on her two other sisters before answering, "We were just chatting,
Aunt Judith. But we're off to bed now!"

Brunch

Jonah woke up with a start.
The first thing she did was open the drawer of the bedside table to
see if the
habak
was still there. After Aunt Judith paid them an unexpected
visit and Jervais returned to her room, Jonah and Jane were not
able to talk anymore about the
habak
or where to hide it. Jonah had been anxious that
her Aunt Judith will order a general cleaning to find the
habak
first thing in the
morning.

Peering inside the drawer,
Jonah heaved a deep and long sigh of relief to find that the
habak
was still
there.
Her hand quickly reached out for it,
but she stopped in mid-air. Her pulse was drumming so hard in her
ear, her body almost shook in synched with the beats.

Jonah figured Jervais had really heard
something when she touched the jewelry. And so did their Aunt
Judith—for this reason she visited them in Jane's room at such a
late hour.

"We can't let Aunt Judith
running here again for a visit, can we?" Jonah spoke to
herself.
But why didn't she or Jane hear
it? Was it possible that Jervais could hear it because she was the
new healer?
Jonah shook her head as if her
actions would somehow delete the crazy ideas that were running
inside her.
There's no way Jervais could
have killed their mother
…
Jonah assured herself.
But
the habak still needs to be kept hidden and safe
.

Jonah considered telling
Jane they deposit the
habak
in a safe to hide it. With that, she hurriedly
went to her own room to shower and get dressed.