Nepenthe - Chapter 1
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
[ Credits ]
Cream Cafe was a little less busy than usual, with only a few customers left talking and chatting about their days. Dee was hunched over her homework, trying to figure out what the hell all the numbers on her sheet were supposed to do. Math had never been her strong suit, and Peter was at work.
It was a typical spot for her. After school, she would grab her backpack and notebooks and walk to the cafe. Jack would usually make her a hot cocoa and point her towards a table in the back where she could work in peace—well, work in math hell.
… She looked up at the counter, where Jack was cleaning a mug and talking to a customer about a complaint. He looked tired. He usually was like that nowadays. It worried Peter, and a part of Dee wondered if it was why she didn’t get to stay with Jack too much anymore.
They made eye contact, and Jack signaled with his hand for her to wait and be patient. The customer went back to complaining that her coffee was too bitter, and he slowly reached over the counter and grabbed some sugar packets and cream. That seemed to placate the Karen, and she stormed off with a haughty sigh.
He moved around the counter, petting the fuzzy robot on the counter, Lumi. The store mascot. He then leaned against Dee’s table. “Hey.”
Dee looked up at him. “Yeah, I nee-“
“I need you out of here in ten minutes.” He interrupted her, snappy. “My boss is going to yell at me if you don’t get out. I know you’re family, but he’s a bitch about people loitering.”
The words didn’t exactly match the real meaning. Jack didn’t want Dee around at the moment. That was usually how it went.
“… I’ll just make it easier on you.” She just gathered her things. “Just gonna leave now.”
He took a breath, rubbing between his eyes in frustration. “Come on, Dee, you know I’m not trying to be mean–”
“I get it. I do. You don’t want to risk your job and all that.” Dee slung her bag over her shoulder. She didn’t wait for an answer or an explanation. She just walked out through the front door, putting some spare change in the tip jar as she left.
Jack was like this more often than not nowadays. He pushed people he cared about away to focus on work… she worried for him. Was her being there in the cafe bothering him? Maybe she was overthinking things. That’s usually what happened. She had to remember that Jack had his own problems, and those problems didn’t always relate to her.
She went across the street to the auto shop, “Miller’s Gears and Shifts”. The man who owned it, Dave, usually gave her jobs and stuff so she could make some money and help out around the place. It paid decently well, he probably overpaid her, to be fair, but it still was nice to be able to do something that she was enjoying.
When she got in, she saw him hunched over the open hood of a car, focused and mumbling to himself. “Uh… Dave?” Dee called out, setting down her bag on a clean table.
“Yo, Dee.” He pointed to a stopwatch on a rolling cart. “Grab that and start it when I say so.”
“Why?” She still grabbed the black cord and her thumb hovered over the button.
“I’ll tell ya. Now go.”
Beep!
Dave got to work, suddenly ducking down and scrambling under the car, as his hands started working quickly, doing some stuff and making a really bad smell come from the car. Probably motor oil. “COME ON YOU BABY!”
He slid out from under when he was done, and Dee stopped the stopwatch. “Are you going to answer what that was for, or…?”
“I was goin’ for a world record on th’ fastest oil change. What was my time?”
She looked down at the screen. “Two minutes and six seconds?”
“FUUUCK!” He threw his wrench on the ground. “THAT’S 34 SECONDS OFF DUDE.” He finally looked at her. “Oh, shit, ya have schoolwork today? Uh, head to my office, less dirty ova there. I also got somethin’ for ya to help with.”
“... why do you want to set the world record for an oil change, anyway?” She set down the stopwatch and grabbed her backpack again, heading towards the office. She set down her stuff on the desk and went up to him.
“I wanna be able to like, say that I have the fastest oil changes around. And actually have the proof. Ya know?” He had gotten a power washer from the corner of the shop and put it in her hands. “There’s sum graffiti outside in the alley, some punk ass kids deciding to be emo and shit. I kinda need ya to wash it off. Careful with the chems, okay? Wear gloves?”
She nodded, grabbing the washer from him. She then headed out to the back alley and just went to work. As she sprayed over the wall, she couldn’t help but look over the weird design. Some sort of cross like thing with a snake curled around it. Maybe a gang symbol…
It took a bit, but eventually, it was clean again. Dee went back inside, washing her hands, and Dave walked up and put $150 in her hand, which she pocketed. “Thanks, helps a lot with the business. No one wanna see that shit outside my place, ya know?”
“Yeah… thanks, Dave. Uh… are you any good at geometry?”
“I can try, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve done that shit.”
The two of them went into the office, Dee taking out the notebook and her folder, taking out her pencil and leaning over the paper. “So… it’s trying to find an inner angle of a triangle…”
“Oh, that shit’s easy, did your teacher tell ya bout the 180 thing?”
“The what?” She looked up at him.
“Yea, 180 thing, where, ya know, all angles total 180?” He started rambling and explaining the math… which, well, Dee zoned out in the middle of it. “... ya ain’t listenin, are ya.”
“Um… no. Sorry.” She rubbed the back of her hand with her pencil. “This just goes way over my head.”
“This is why yer called Dee, for gettin’ Ds.” He grinned, a bit playful. His good eye crinkled as he poked her shoulder. “Who names their kid Dee, anyway?”
“Ah, uh, my first name is actually Delilah, everyone just calls me Dee. Something about it being cute and stuff.”
“Reeeally? Huh. I think I like Dee better either way. Suits ya.”
She smiled a bit, and then Dave walked her through the worksheet. After a while, Dave had a thought.
“I wanted to tell ya somethin. Yer a good kid, and I know ya can keep yerself safe… but I have sum advice.” He leaned back, but put a hand on her shoulder. “Ya need ta trust yer gut. If somethin’ feels wrong? You run the fuck away. You live again.”
Dee looked up at him.
Silence.
Then, she broke it.
“What does that have to do with math?”