Judas followed suit soon after Julie left them on their own device. The whole apartment was theirs.Their host of the Lyon accommodation introduced herself as Julie, by her looks they assumed she was no older than them but no younger than a responsible workwoman Hence, they only called her by her first name, she preferred it anyway.
Judas was fast asleep when he had his dirty clothes on the wooden surface of the ceiling floor, it only consisted of a mattress without the bed stand and several small cabinets for storage. The space was very limited but gave off a homely feeling that both appreciated.
They woke up and noticed straight away how smelly themselves were and grabbed their toiletries from their backpacks. Again, Judas was willing enough to let Cay do the honors of showering first. It would have been embarrassing to shower had Julie been present, the toilet and shower room was a cubicle with cement walls on all four sides and no cover above; Their entire sounds emitted from the cubicle would have been heard clearly had the host been present and close enough.
Cay went upstairs again to unpack his belongings while Judas went off to buy groceries for the next few meals (“Just go out and turn straight and you will find the supermercato.”, said Julie as she waved goodbye and closed the door a few hours ago.). It was not hard to spot the aforementioned-grocery store as it was red and occupied most of the premise after Judas made a left turn and headed straight.
Judas made a quick note of what was cheap and necessary. Although he did not cook much, his time spent back in England picking groceries had been down within considerably quick timing, it was only magnified when they travelled with only limited budget. Most of the contents in the hand-held basket were from the freezer section: frozen pizza, frozen vegetable-cutlets ready for microwaving, frozen meat, and frozen oriental-style fried rice. The rest were dried pasta or refrigerated food that needed to be consumed within days.
While halfway through setting his clothes on the floor, Cay absent-mindedly went rummaging through the small cabinets for anything interesting. He found a neatly arranged wrappings of condoms held inside of a small, rectangular rattan box. Amusing, he thought, and at the fact of the extent of their hostess consideration towards her clients were. Perhaps she just did not want the sheets to be dirtied with pungent human traces. He placed it back and closed the tiny door, thinking of he should help Judas unpack just before the latter turned the knob of the entrance door.
“Want me to help you unpack?”, he called out as Judas placed the grocery bags on the kitchen counter.
“That’s alright, I’ll do it later.”, Judas said while taking out what seemed to be a frozen box of pizza.
“Well, you’re cooking now, aren’t you? I might as well take your clothes out first while you stay busy.”
Judas hesitated for a moment and looked up, seeing only the top of Cay’s head. Cay noticed his stare because his companion stopped rummaging through the bags long enough to feel awkward.
“It’s called a fair division of labour. It applies to what we’re doing as well.”, he added.
Seemingly satisfied by his answer, Judas went back to unpacking the ingredients and frozen food, leaving only the ones that would be cooked no later than an hour.
He heated the fried rice that looked like an ice-block and boiled several hard and large potato dumplings, all the while Cay laid on the bed, finishing his abruptly closed book. He did not inform Judas earlier about his unfinished chapter because he felt that he was waiting for him to finish it. Courtesy of an Englishman knew no boundaries, he had to take precautions to notice Judas’s hidden impatience.624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwudcZV59o6
*
Religion was part of a big deal for Cay in his younger years, mostly because it helped built his confidence, and acted as a place to recruit friends.
It started off as an encouragement made by his mother, Su. He arrived at a youth talent show held by the local church, fully dressed in training outfit and memories of routine-wised moves. He performed normally, if not lacking, in front of church member that he considered as strangers at that time. It was hard to please the crowed as their clasps of gratitude was a mirror to his mother’s words of encouragement. Somewhat comforting.
Because of the previous event, he started attending church sermons on Sundays and youth activities on Fridays. He started actual praying after a month or so and sat on the front right corner, among the rest of the playful youths. His religious activity increased as well as Su’s contentment, albeit Chong’s growing resentment towards the religion itself. He was the man family of the house and anything that he did not like he would openly protest, but it was his precious eldest son that saw through then joy of believing in the belief.
“Our belief is not a religion, it’s a way of life that is supposed to be lived, orchestrated by the heavenly father.”, Pastor Xie once told him. It was his first hearing of such wisdom and would not have been his last, had he not done anything that portrayed sinfulness.
The pastor was a hardworking man and hardworking he was at looking after the young members of the church. The elderly looked up to him, Cay saw him as a devoted disciple that had mastered a higher tier of the belief, hence the given tittle given to a missionary. He respected him.
Although church life had a huge influence on him, his love for his family never decreased. He showed this by waking up early on Saturdays to join breakfast with the entire family, but did not hide his yawns with e very chance he had.
“Why do you attend church every Sunday morning?”, Chong asked.
“Why, because it’s sabbatical.”, Cay’s answer was always the same.
His father had never continued after his reply. Perhaps he could not get around why his son suddenly developed a significant interest in the church. He felt like he was losing his son to an unseen divinity. Cay did not blame his father for not understanding, he was a man of no religion at heart, hence the mild rejection of any belief related to anything resembled abstraction.
But it was not an abstract! Thought Cay as he at times had attempted to pass on some of his feelings about Methodist-Christianity to his father, however embarrassing to him it might have been. Growing anxious of the splitting gap between father and son, his futility of changing Chong’s mind only brought in more frustration; his limited knowledge of the real world fueled his anger towards his youthfulness, his father’s ignorance a plight to his concept of a perfect family under god’s blessing.
Some nights he could hear his parents’ arguments (“Why are you letting our sons to church? Can’t you just keep your Jesus to yourself!?”, Chong exclaimed, probably pointblank in his wife’s face.), while his younger brother slept on, soundlessly and peacefully. He wished he had sleep attributes like his, Cay envied, at least he would be shunned away from his father’s brutal acquisitions made to shame his mother.
Torn between a life of religious belief and family wholeness, young Cay grew up panicking.
