The first night spent in the apartment was comfortable too say the very least. The only exposed light bulb hanging out on the top right corner hung only a meter on top of the bed, it’s yellow light heat keeping the two warm throughout the post-summer night.
The two had kept their distance between each other, both were comfortable with sleeping on the same bed but had a mental line to divide each of their side. Judas had the side with the light bulb directly on his head, Cay imagined it falling on his head while sleeping. Its’ hot glass surface hitting his companion’s head with such heat that would probably immediately jolt him from whatever state of slumber he might have been in. Dreadfully funny.
They had frozen pizza that came out piping-hot from the mini-oven, which was shown to Cay how to operate with missing knobs by Julie (“Just use these to set the temperature and time you want.”, Julie pointed at the pair of small pliers beside the oven.). Before the meal, Cay had already showered and left his hair to dry, feeling the somewhat dry, cool air would save him from the effort of blow-drying. Judas has never been seen showering just after waking up since their trip began, he would usually splash his face with initial chilly water from the tap several times before dabbing it with a towel. They both have their ways of doing things with certain manner, but nevertheless their activities would not cross each other in any way that was unappreciated by both.
Cay reminded Judas, and to himself that they would be leaving a time for watching the sun set. It was not that the sun was different in each geologically different place. Human nature has always been embedded in the hosts called humans, perhaps some of it other animals had too--- The undying anticipation of seeing the last light fading away right in front of their own eyes, a common but remarkable phenomenon that was both exciting and helpless to the ones active in broad daylight. Judas nodded upon his request.
Both visibly eager to leave the comforts of the accommodation and venture to the unexplored sides of Lyon, they departure without much time wasted. Their time in synchronization with the busy schedule and got ready to a certain degree that seemed suitable a traveler’s frame of standards. They both were getting sued to the tight time frame set up by Cay, the latter knowing to pursue and accomplished the planned activities was crucial with consistency. He could not afford to idle around when they had only an interval between two to four days per city, once passed he was uncertain he would have had the chance of revisiting any one of them soon.
Thus, the fear of place of visitation becoming a memory that would diminish in vividness haunted Cay. They had to familiarise themselves as much as they could for a more solid memory once they departed from the local region. Judas quiet determination somehow a sign of encouragement for every action Cay took, he would not want to disappoint him in anyway. They had each other to look after, like pseudo-siblings, the only thing missing was their depth of history together. It would be compensated in the short foreseeable future.
For all they knew then was their next destination and with the help of their phones the elimination of wasteful time. Cay treated the state of alertness while traveling in foreign places in unfamiliar countries a test of his mental fortitude and capability, which had been strengthened with painful time. The second day of Lyon only added to the embarrassment of why they had not uncovered half of the places of the city, but physical bodies could only attain limited results, Cay wondered and answered himself.
*
He grabbed his jacket and made for the front door, parents yelling after him. His movement was as fluid as his frenzied determination, the sudden change of outcome surprised both the Marshals.
“Son? Son! Judas!”, his mother only managed to call out his name after processing what happened, before her son slammed the door behind her and her husband.
The natural light showing the characteristics of a post-summer evening, and the air filled with a light grassy smell. Inhaling the cool, still fresh air, Judas turned right and walk. He had only managed to put on his pair of worn-loafers that presumed to be his fathers and a brown hoodie enveloping his old T-shirt. The top part of his body barely managed to keep itself warm, while the uncovered parts of his feet took in the incoming wind from Juda’s opposite direction.
He regretted nothing of warm clothes and hot food if it meant getting away from his parents. He was a man with pride, he thought, which so happened to bear the misfortune of nightmares created by monsters. He had to vent the stress out somehow, the escape was just the start.
He was born and raised in the city of Southampton, yet his mind could not settle down on a destination, a street, nor a corner. It was under the influence by a strange power that he felt when he saw the dead child and mother, and when Alexandre finished her last sentence before being stormed out on. He did not welcome it, but did not seem to mind it at all as the sound of the pair of loafers shuffling on the tarmac road, making small echoes throughout the smooth, orange sky.
After the course of turns and shuffling, he came to a row of shops near the university’s Highfield campus, some of the signs littered with foreign languages he could not understand, not bothered to. He went into the second shop that contained a variety of pan-Asian dishes printed on the glass façade, with little information indicating a Korean origin expect for the words written on the hanging sign post above the swinging door.
He barely recognized the name of the dishes displayed on the laminated menu with its laminated pages, the typography almost amateurish and several scribbles had been made to add or reduce some of the ingredients and dishes. He could not care much as he skimmed pass the pages with hot pots and large dishes, his eyes resting in the content in the center of the menu.
A thin, slanted-eyed girl probably in her teenage years with dark hair tied in an orderly ponytail came out from the metal door with clanking of utensils and pans laid too hard on steel surfaces behind it.
“Hello, what would you like?”, her accent half typical British, the other half he could not pinpoint the origin.
“Evening, could I have…”
Nearly half an hour later, Judas came out from the takeaway with several bags full of food he had not heard before, less mentioned tried. He came to a one of the benches within the campus and sat on it. With the food still piping hot, he laid the takeaway plastic containers on the leftover surface space of the bench and began trying each of the content.
Feeling more and more courageous after each try, his tasting became from nibbling hot chunks of unidentified meat to gorging a piece at a time. Sweet and tangy in one box, spicy and crunchy in another. The overly-cooked vegetables sweet with added sugar and flavored with salt.
Eating like this had never occurred to a young man like Judas, he savored his new and profound activity. What else could he do to sate the sensation? He wondered.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
