Ten stands in front of the visitor’s door. He takes a deep breath, opens the door, and looks inside. There he sees his uncle’s face sitting across from a woman with her back to Ten. His uncle looks up as he does the customary check to see who just came in. Their eyes meet for a fraction of a second but then the uncle’s attention is back on the woman in front of him. But then suddenly his eyes open up wide as if he just had a startling revelation. He looks back at Ten and under his breath he says his name.

“Ten?”

The woman doesn’t move a muscle, but 21 gets up and walks towards Ten. Without any hesitation, he hugs Ten.

“I haven’t seen you in years. How you been?”

Ten doesn’t hug 21 back. He is allowing the hug as his grip on the bouquet tightens. After a few moments, 21 realizes that Ten isn’t hugging him back and lets him go.

“You ok?”

Ten looks at his uncle and nods.

“I’m ok.”

His uncle is a little befuddled as to why his nephew is acting so distant. But knows better than to pry because Ten has been through a lot.

“You finally came to visit your mother huh? She is going to be so happy.”

Ten looks down at the ground as his guilt for not visiting his mother hits him harder than the uncle intended. Recognizing that Ten is a little distraught over meeting his mother after all this time takes a step back and moves out of his way.

“I’m going to go get something to eat, give you guys some privacy.”

Ten looks at his uncle and nods with a forced smile.

“Thank you.”

21 walks out of the room, but before he closes the door behind him he takes on look back as he sees Ten standing in front of his mother. Ten looks down at her. Her eyes glazed over. Her stare was blank, her lips slightly open but not a promise of any words spoken. Her look and absence of mind are the exact same as he remembers. He sits down across from her. Her gaze is unchanged as her son who she hadn’t seen in years was in front of her again. Ten’s face distorts slightly as his mind can’t help but recollect memories he wished he had forgotten.

The one that stuck with him was a few weeks after the writing incident with his father. Unbeknownst to Ten his father was given a special assignment by his new company to fully analyze a new kind of material that was recently discovered. He was given strict directions to not use Higher Reasoning on the material to ensure its integrity.

Ten just finished school and completely forgot about the writing incident. He had just learned Higher Reasoning and was able to turn rocks into glass. He was one of the fastest learners in his class. He wanted to share his achievements with his parents so he rushed home to tell them.  

He opens the door to the apartment and rushes in with all the happiness he can muster.

“Mom, Dad, look I made this using H.R.”

His mother just happened to pass by as she was about to hang up some laundry. She smiled at Ten happy to see her son so happy. She put the laundry basket down and smiled like a proud mom.

“That’s amazing. How many tries did it take you?”

“Only 3, it took others like 8 tries.”

“Aren’t you just a little genius?”

Ten smiles from ear to ear as the praise and acknowledgment made him happy. His dad was in the middle of analyzing the rock and Ten’s sudden burst made him lose focus. But his wife asked him to please control his temper with Ten. Because he really scared her with the writing incident. So his father took a deep breath and pushed his anger down. He tried to hide the look of rage from his eyes as he forced a fake smile. He puts the rock down on the table and then looks at Ten and compliments him.

“That’s great Ten.”

Hearing his father compliment him made him a bit more excited. He walks up to his father to give him the news.

“Yeah and like I was super fast with turning the rock into glass. I’ll show you.”

Before Ten finishes his sentence he has turned around to face the rock on the table. It took his dad a few moments to realize what his son was about to do. Before his dad was able to properly react Ten’s hand touched the rock. His dad yelled.

“STOP!”

But it was already too late. Ten had already started the math chant and his focus was so deep he didn’t hear his father’s scream. In just a moment the rock started lighting up. But because it wasn’t a normal rock its structure and composition was different. Because of this difference, Ten wasn’t able to actually transform the rock into anything. As his attempt failed he took his hand off the rock and looked at it a bit confused.

“This rock is weird, why ain….”

Before Ten could finish his sentence he was hit across the face very hard. His tiny body flew across the room as his father just hit him the same way an adult in a fight would be hit. His mother saw the hit and froze. She didn’t say a word not move a muscle. She stood there frozen as he son was lying on the floor bleeding.

Ten barely conscious, holds his cheek as blood flows from his mouth. Crying and in complete confusion he looks at his father.

“Why?”

His father standing over the rock inspecting it. Then turns to his son with nothing but rage and disgust in his eyes.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU JUST RUINED EVERYTHING!”

Without saying another word, his father took the rock and rushed into a different room. And slammed the door behind him. Ten was still lying on the ground. He looked at his mother for help but she just stood there staring into nothingness. He decides to call for her because he needs her help.

“Mom?”

But there is no reply.

“MOOOOM!!!”

Still no response.

That is where his recollection ends, he looks up at the ceiling in front of his mother as if to stop the tears from flowing down.  A few seconds pass as he regains his composure. He looks back at his mother. He places the bouquet in her lap.

“These are for you.”

There is no response from his mother. But Ten expected that so he kept on talking.

“I went to that peak you love yesterday. The view has gotten even better than before, the forest is like a sea of green. It’s nice.”

His voice lowers as he speaks the last few words. Acting like everything is normal and good between them is a bit too much for him. He wants to scream at her and cuss her out. But this isn’t the time or place for that. Instead, he just looks at her for a few more moments in silence.

He then stands up with his head down. Without saying a word he walks past her toward the door and without looking back he walks out of the visitor’s room. Once he is outside he sees 21, he was waiting for him.

“Ten, let’s go grab something to eat.”

As the tears roll down Ten’s face he nods and with a broken voice he answers.

“Ok.”

Chapter 10 Fin