Chapter 42

Still, he probably hadn’t shown up just to take questions. Assuming that he could see at least a little bit and that he was losing his eyesight, Eila opened her mouth.

“There are a lot of beautiful things in the world. I don’t know where you happened to see me and fell for me to come look for me… but I’ll recommend something truly beautiful.”

Eila was pretty, too, but not pretty enough to invest failing eyesight into. There was something truly beautiful elsewhere. Just the thought of sharing something beautiful made her breath race and escape roughly.

At that moment, the boy snapped his head around to look at her. The focus of his pupils was unclear, but he seemed to know Eila was happy just from the sound of her short, ragged breaths.

Eila suddenly felt a wave of fear. With other kids, it was enough to maintain a blank expression even if she was angry or embarrassed, but that clearly wouldn’t work with the boy…

Afraid he might even notice her unflattering emotions, she took a step back. He asked, as if to catch the fleeing girl.

“Is that so? What are you going to recommend?”

Stunned for a moment, Eila steadied her breath. Then, realizing it was pointless, she answered honestly.

“Rose flowers, a rainbow, Ms. Whitney.”

“Ms. Whitney?”

“She’s my visiting tutor, and she’s a genuinely feminine beauty. She’s so beautiful that you wouldn’t even think of me just seeing her silhouette, so I thought it might be better for you to go see Ms. Whitney instead of me.”

She wanted the boy to see the most beautiful thing possible, if he could. Whether he understood that thought or not, the boy replied without any interest in anything else.

“I just came because I was curious about you.”

It wouldn’t be common for a boy to come every week to see an adopted child living in Rayburn. The moment Eila felt curiosity toward the boy as well, the wind rolled the plastic cup tumbling across the ground.

Eila went into the sand pit and picked up the cup. Right after, she sat down in front of the swing as if to play together and began packing the dirt.

The boy looked like he wanted to follow Eila into the sand pit. But worried that his shoes might get dirty, he alternated his gaze between his shoes and the sand.

Eila, glancing sideways at him, said softly.

“It’s not a garbage dump. Even if it looks like this…”

He was unfamiliar, but she didn’t want him to run away. After all, the boy was the only person who had praised Eila’s voice for being pretty and had come to see her every week.

Judging by the atmosphere around them, it looked like he would be leaving soon. Men in black suits looked troubled as they talked on the phone with someone. An old man in a tuxedo was looking at the boy with pitying eyes.

Could that old man be his dad? The question lingered for just a moment. Taking a deep breath as if making a huge resolution, the boy stepped into the sand pit.

Unable to let go of the toe caps of his shiny black walking shoes, no sooner had he stood a step in front of her than he wiped the toe caps with a handkerchief and asked.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“A secret?”

“Yeah, a secret.”

“I can keep it.”

Guarding against the men behind his back, the boy said quietly.

“We’re siblings. I came because I was curious about how you’re doing and worried about you.”

“Siblings?”

It was an unbelievable story. A white person and an Asian person. How could two people with not even a single resemblance become siblings?

“Lies.”

“You don’t have to believe me, but you mustn’t talk about us being siblings anywhere else.”

“I’ll keep the secret. But can white people and Asians become siblings, too?”

“Of course.”

“There’s no way that’s possible.”

When she returned home after regular classes at school, she was homeschooled by her mother. According to genetics, which her mother said was only taught to special children, white people and Asian people could never be biological siblings.

Since this boy also looked special, should she ask her mother to teach her genetics? To do that, she would have to explain her relationship with this boy.

“What’s your name? I’m Eila.”

Whether he found Eila’s voice pleasant to hear, the boy chewed on it for a long time before answering.

“I’m Rayburn.”

Rayburn was the name of this town, though? Was he a person from this town? Blinking in puzzlement, Eila asked.

“Where do you live?”

“London.”

That’s right, her mom used to say guests came from London… So it seemed the boy’s family had lived in Rayburn for generations before moving to London.

Nodding a few times, she asked.

“Wanna be friends?”

Eila had no interest in TV shows, fashion, or going out, so she had no peers as friends. She was waiting for a friend who loved reading or listening to music, but she figured a mature friend like Rayburn might be nice too.

To Eila, who had been looking forward to the start of friendship, Rayburn drew a clear line.

“We aren’t friends, we’re siblings.”

She thought that if she got the chance, she should teach Rayburn some genetics, too.

“Alright, then let’s pretend we’re siblings. Are you the older brother?”

“Yeah, since I’m twelve.”

“Twelve? Eighth grade?”

She couldn’t hide her astonishment. The eighth graders she had accidentally crossed paths with until now had looked so grown-up…

Eila stared at him with suspicious eyes. Reading that gaze, he looked down at his skeletal, thin fingers and replied.

“It’s because I don’t eat well.”

“Why don’t you eat?”

“They might put poison in the food to kill me.”

“Who?”

“Ellie.”

“Who’s Ellie?”

Rayburn replied while wiping his shoes with a morbid fixation.

“Mother.”

A mother poisoning her food to kill her son? If that were true, she figured she ought to ask adults for help, but Rayburn continued.

“This is a secret, too.”

If she didn’t keep the secret, she couldn’t be family with Rayburn, nor could she be friends. So she would inevitably have to keep her mouth shut. Eila suggested an alternative to him.

“How about making and eating your own food? It’d be great if you eat a lot and get strong. That way, you can put the bad kids in their place as much as you want, too.”

“Bad kids?”

There were no Asians in the rural village of Rayburn. Because of that, Eila had often been reduced to the status of a rare animal and teased.

“The kids who bully Eila… Mom tells me to understand the kids who bully me. But I wish someone would thoroughly beat up all those guys.”

Hearing her reply, the boy stared straight at Eila. However, it wasn’t clear where on her face he was looking. He looked like he was confused as to why he was having a conversation like this with a seven-year-old girl.

“Don’t expect too much from someone who’s going to go blind soon.”

Rayburn’s reply, bordering on resignation, echoed into empty space. Eila didn’t clearly understand why he wore such a gloomy face.

“On TV, there are lots of heroes who sense enemies with their sense of smell or sound.”

“I can’t be a hero.”

“You might be able to if you practice.”

“No, even now I can only see the shapes and colors of objects. I could regain my sight through surgery, but I postponed it because the failure rate is high.”

Only then did she realize the reason why he had given up. His eye condition was bad enough that small comforts couldn’t give him hope. Feeling equally gloomy, Eila dropped her head and asked.

“Then wouldn’t it be better to at least wear glasses?”

Searching for the reason why the position of Eila’s head had changed, he replied.

“The lenses would end up extremely thick. I don’t want to make my face look ridiculous just to see a world that isn’t all that pretty.”

True, thick glasses were practically an advertisement for bad eyesight. How miserable would one feel if they desperately wanted the world, only to lose their sight from a failed surgery?

Eila scooped up the innocent sand in frustration. Then, she suddenly looked at him.

According to his story, Eila and he were siblings. She thought the probability of his words being true was very low, but if they really were siblings, she wanted her older brother to look at her face.

“I’m not as much as Ms. Whitney, but I’m pretty, too. If you look at me and still don’t feel like the world is beautiful, you don’t have to wear glasses.”

“……”

“But that mom Rayburn mentioned earlier… Is your mom Asian? Doesn’t your mom want to see Eila? Does your mom really try to kill Rayburn? Why?”

With the floodgates of conversation opened, Eila asked Rayburn this and that. However, Rayburn didn’t reply, perhaps too preoccupied with his thoughts about glasses.

As they exchanged stories, it was already time for dinner. Eila dusted the sand off her hands and asked.

“Mom hates it when I miss dinner time. I have to get going now, but can you come back next week?”

Rayburn nodded. At that moment, the men who had just been watching from behind led Rayburn away.

It wasn’t until she had waited a full month after that that she was able to meet him with improved complexion. According to her mom, he had started eating his meals regularly after meeting Eila.

He said it took time to get permission from his parents to come here. Fortunately, at his words that he could now come every week, Eila promised to meet him at the rose graveyard every Sunday at one o’clock.

She no longer buried dead roses in the sand. After all, the sand needed to be clean so Rayburn could step inside.

When they met again, he was wearing glasses with extremely thick lenses. While Eila thought the glasses obscured his delicate face, she was still grateful for them.

The glasses were a tool that allowed him to see Eila. Furthermore, they were a tool that connected him to the world.

Eila spent a year building memories with him playing in the sand pit, exploring downtown, or at the library. Some days he brought a music box to let her hear its beautiful sounds, and other days he gifted her cookies as delicious as those from heaven.

As the time they spent together piled up, her reliance on Rayburn grew. Fortunately, Rayburn was glad to cherish her like a pretty younger sister.

If that incident hadn’t happened, they probably could have kept living like that for a long time…