But in an instant, Neha shed tears.

Tulisen went away from the front door and faced the couch. His scowl, his expression all together, had yet to fade.

“Are you crying? For goodness sake! You don’t want to look like this at the end of the week, when you are going to visit your mother the second time!”

Neha gurgled her saliva and pinched her cheeks.

“U-Usheniko, mommy, and daddy... I want them all back. Please dove of salvation, bring them to my side... I want Sachen back too, I cannot let her be sad anymore...” She wailed, snot came out of her nose. No matter how hard she tried to hold back her sorrows, the recall of such people that were dear to her heart throbbed her. She continued to beg for the dove to save them, but it seemed that it wouldn’t come anytime soon.

Neha cleaned her face with a napkin from her tote bag. From the blurring of her eyes, she couldn’t see anything at first. Rubbing them with her palms, she came to make out the figure of Tulisen. She hushed her lips. Tulisen colored himself red, and his eyes sharpened and he frowned from ear to ear. He folded his arms and tapped his feet, glaring at the girl. Neha was lost on what to say further. She could right now, run to her parent’s bedroom and hide under the blanket, for she felt that she could be safe there. But from Tulisen’s face, she was certain that he might do something out of the blue.

Still holding the gloom within his eyes, Tulisen shook his fists against his hips. He burst to the table. A stomp from both his feet rattled the dishware on the rack.

“Your father, your father, that’s who you’re still concerned about? Well what do you know, little one? Nothing at all. It’s better if he does not come back.”

“Why is that?” Neha curled her body, and she knocked her head against the edge of the couch.

Tulisen chuckled. From his pocket, he took the object out and threw it to the table. The thud jerked Neha away from the couch. Her heart still in clamors, Neha glanced at the object itself. Her jaw dropped.

“A locket?”

“Yes, yes! Now open the darn thing!” Tulisen sat down and clicked his tongue.

“Okay.” Neha’s fingers twiddled. From first impression, the locket was in bad shape. Around it, there were grooves and bumps, each of them having a sharp edge. She wrapped her hands along the exterior, and the texture pricked her hands. At the right side of the object, blood coated and corroded the gold, and a small button was there. It gave off an iron smell—Neha almost hurled. Not wanting to irritate the guardian, Neha pressed the button, and the locket unveiled itself. The content inside then captivated her attention.

A picture of her father unfolded; among the yellowness of the small parchment, he held dashing eyes with silky hair that accommodated the spotless nature of his uniform. His lips parted, and his eyebrows and cheeks were relaxed. He seemed to be staring right into Neha’s heart. The girl considered her father to be quite handsome, and looking at this sketch affirmed more of her compliment. But it soon resulted in more pain for Neha, and at once did she resume crying her eyes out.

“Daddy! Daddy is in this locket! Wah! Tulisen, how did you get this?”

Just as she readied herself for his answer, Tulisen smashed his fist on the table. He opened his mouth and labored his breaths. Putting his head down, he uttered gibberish, he exhausted himself more and more.

It was then he looked at his watch again.

“Goddammit, I am going to be late. But I knew it will come to this. She wants to know the truth huh?” He got up, gritted his teeth, and headed to the door. Nothing but the harshness of his words drove himself into more frustration, and for the first time, Neha witnessed Tulisen acting like this. Giving him the locket and forgetting about all this would have made things a little bit better for the two. But by this time, Neha got herself in a bind.

Tulisen composed himself. He swished his hair and peeled dead skin from his lips. He stomped again. Extending his arms to take hold of the wind, he felt nothing but a liberation of his burden; but in turn, his eyes turned lifeless.

“Your father, Yesun, is dead for a long time. He was charged with aiding a runaway. That runaway is nobody other than Usheniko Ganshipe. She escaped from her spiritual mission that the tyrant Ozughen had assigned her to. Upon her meeting with Yesun, she told everything about the forbidden cave. The things she was not supposed to expose, it came to his ears.”

Neha left her mouth agape. Those words he uttered, she must have thought that he was speaking gibberish. Neha became pale, and her stomach contorted in knots, discomforting her.

“What...”

Tulisen grumbled. “With fake documents, Usheniko returned to the village with little suspicion, setting up her little shop and corrupting the citizens with her deeds. At the time, Yesun told me that he intended to deliver the secrets of the cave to the entire village in order to end the antiqued tradition of spiritual missions. As a close friend, I stayed quiet, not willing to stab him in the back. I didn’t want to hurt his reputation, for it would have left a void in the ranks among officers. However, Yesun was caught by an informant; the Holy Army stripped his rank, discharged him from service, and put him on trial. Yebuka and the others sentenced him to execution, and that’s where they sent him to the desert. At first, he was ordered to fight the barbarians with a few hundred men, for the sake of protecting the village.” Tulisen loosened his collar. He coughed from the dryness of the air. “But in a few weeks, he was killed by his own men. His body was discarded... there, is that all you need Neha? Now you know, and now you must suffer with the fact.”

His explanations passed through her ears with little consideration. Neha stared blankly at the walls. She assumed at once that Tulisen was perhaps making a joke in order to ease her discomfort. She had a compulsion to laugh and rub it off her shoulders as nothing more than the cruelty of his jokes and such. She could have acted that way, then the day would have passed without any trouble. But no sooner than later, the words of the officer crossed through Neha’s head. Something overwhelmed her mind. Now she realized he was serious about it, that nothing from his mouth could be dismissed as lies.

Once she thought about it again, Neha screamed.

“No, no, no! Why?! It can’t be like this! You were his friend, so why didn’t you help him?!” She rustled her hair, and her heart shattered. Much to the fragility of her mind could she barely comprehend the truth behind her father’s demise. She always thought of him as somebody who would survive and toughen himself regardless of circumstances, somebody who had resilience. To her, it was impossible for him to get into trouble and face justice as a defendant. But the truth finally revealed itself before her—what she had not known before, it would stick to her forever. She folded her ears and thrashed her body. She poured her tears on the couch, those tears that she wished her father and mother could see. A child like her had to face the facts, no matter how much he or she tried to renounce them.

“Tulisen, you’re not lying, right?! I know you’re not!”

The guardian raised his eyebrows. “No, it is the truth. The truth hurts doesn’t it?”

“I refuse to believe this, and I don’t want to hear it anymore!” Neha whipped her hands in the air. “Go away!”

“I see.” Going to the doorsteps, Tulisen slowly closed the door. As the gap between the door and the wall closed, he stuck his face inside. His gloom intensified, and he drooped his eyes. “I am terribly sorry Neha, for hurting you with this information. But as a daughter, you need to know this somehow, and this day is possibly the worst to reveal such things. However, your father deserved his punishment—he would have created a lot of instability just with his efforts.”

Tulisen left. The wails and laments of the little girl lasted for the whole day, and not once did she attempt to calm herself. Bearing the truth anguished her more than anything else, and all hopes and aspirations of Neha being with both her parents withered. The pain gnawed everything within her.