A cool summer breeze caressed Jared’s face and upper body, causing the newly forming frown to vanish from his face, coupled with the chill that helped to numb one of his frequent bouts of pain, albeit momentarily. Jared was shaken out of his reminiscence and slowly returned his attention to the picturesque visage of his adoptive mother, who was silently scanning his condition with a poorly concealed expression of worry on her face.

A soft, sad smile graced Jared’s face as he remembered the initial wariness that he showed this proverbial saint when he first met his mother’s younger sister a few weeks before his parents’ funeral. Honestly, who could blame him? Certain unsavoury characters from his parents’ past had set him in their sights, exaggerating the closeness of their relationships with his parents to nibble portions off his inheritance in the form of ‘small loans’. Oddly enough, Jared discovered that he had been gifted a rather keen sense of intuition concerning other people’s true characters, which had helped him massively in avoiding making any commitments and keeping these individuals at arm’s length. Thus, Jared had to forcefully push his growing desire for companionship and empathy behind a wall protecting his parents’ assets, further withdrawing himself from others and the desire to survive.

Imagine his surprise when he laid eyes upon a beautiful older woman, looking no older than 30, walking into his hospital room, introduced to him by the resident doctor as his mother’s younger sister! Initially, he was angered by the audacity this lady showed to claim that she was someone he had never even heard of, but he was completely taken aback by the intense combination of sadness, guilt and love that he saw in the teary eyes of this stranger as she met his wide-eyed gaze. The growing cynic within him warned him to be wary of ill intentions, citing how he had met his fair share of actors over the past few weeks. However, as he listened to the soft voice introducing its owner as his aunt Alicia, sharing precious memories of his mother’s childhood that he had never heard but sounded impossible to forge, noticed the tremors in her voice as she expounded the tale of their estrangement, and saw how she bawled her eyes out as she apologised to both him and his parents for never being there for them, that night, the wall of grief and guilt that had kept him from opening up to others was crushed under the weight of their collective tears.

From that day, he fought for his survival harder than ever before. He woke up each morning excited to hear one more story about his mother’s childhood, how his parents met (a heart-warming tale of a middle-class ojou-sama falling for a hard-working orphan), what his dad was like as a teenager and even what his grandparents were like. He found the concept of having grandparents so alien to him, much like the thought of his mother having a younger sister back when they first met, but after a while, that feeling of alienation was transformed into warmth in his chest, the same type of warmth he felt when Alicia told him he had his mother’s cheeky grin, or his father’s piercing stare (the latter would quickly morph into the former whenever this happened).

It stung his heart to hear how his parents were forced to elope due to his grandparents’ disapproval of their relationship. Apparently, his maternal grandparents disregarded their relationship as merely a childish foray, yet when Martin proposed the idea of marriage to Gina’s father, he was viciously shot down and undermined despite his educational success. Gina’s father even went as far as to claim that he had a shortlist of worthy suitors ready for his daughter, mainly the eligible children of his business partners. Martin and Gina, both horrified by the fact that her parents would commodify their daughter, and assured in their relationship with each other, took a leap of faith and travelled halfway across the country to control their own destiny. There they got married, and two became three, establishing a stable livelihood for themselves. Gina would even contact Alicia under the guise of an old school friend that had moved away for college. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, albeit, in this case, a premature one.

Frankly, Jared was disgusted by the elitist attitude of his grandparents, and judging by the apologetic smile on Alicia’s face, it had not mellowed with time or experience. He was happy that Alicia had found herself a man of good character and strong family background during her studies, which her parents begrudgingly accepted. You would think they would be over the moon for their daughter, but it seems they had more interest in raising puppets than in raising children, unfortunately. Jared decided that if they were in attendance for his parents’ funeral, for better or worse, he would treat them as strangers, passers-by on his journey of life that has more than enough drama for two. A lesson he learnt during his many days of being bedridden was that he did not have enough energy to spare from his battle with sickness to spend on people who bring negativity or indifference into his life, and he would much rather spend it on those who bring joy and meaning to keep on fighting. This was a tough lesson he learnt during the early stages of his sickness, as the ‘friends’ he played football and hung out with stopped dropping by after a few visits, a lesson further reaffirmed after his parents’ passing, for obvious reasons. Until Alicia, there weren’t many places that Jared could look for motivation.

*

Preparations for Martin and Gina’s funeral were flawlessly executed by Alicia’s husband Alex, while Alicia kept Jared company, and helped relay the latter’s wishes for the ceremony to the former. Jared had met the handsome, broad-chested man of 6’3” with midnight black hair for the first time a week before the funeral, and they had immediately hit it off over their love for football. Whenever Jared observed the care and adoration in Alex’s hazelnut eyes as he looked at Alicia, Jared would often feel bittersweet. He was happy that Alicia found genuine love after the loveless marriage she witnessed, but he felt dejected by the fact that it would never be his parents embarrassing him with their PDA ever again.

The event of Martin and Gina’s funeral was naturally a sombre affair. Jared took solace in the idea that the heavens would deign to join him in sorrow, as the clouds wept for his loss. Upon entrance, he briefly acknowledged an older couple that shared facial features with his aunt and his mother, but he quickly fixed his attention on the reason for the days gathering. Jared disregarded all the stares of pity and the undercurrents of pain racking his body as he stared forlornly at the two matching coffins, ready to take their two passengers to their final resting place. He solemnly placed both hands on each coffin, sending a silent prayer in the hope of a wonderful afterlife for the couple. Silent sobs were mercifully drowned out by the pitter-patter of raindrops, as tears skilfully mixed with rainwater above the coffin’s waterproof surface. Jared was slowly pulled from his grieving by a warm hug over the back of his wheelchair, as he heard soft sobs coming from behind a curtain of auburn hair. He returned the hug as tightly as he could manage, as he and Alicia stayed in silence contemplating the loss of those they loved.