On Bated Breath We Wait

Chapter2

The party for Nikos’ father last night distracted me from my own problems, thankfully. While my problems are my own, without my best friend, life is going to get a little bit harder. I don’t know what he is going to do now that the elders have taken him off cleaning duties. But I can always ask him, it wasn’t something we talked about, the future, that is. I wanted to bring it up yesterday but the day got away from us. I wanted to see what he thinks I should do as I only have a week myself before I have to make that decision. Maybe I can talk with mom or dad about it. Some days it seems that they know me better than I know myself.

It took a bit of timing, but I was able to catch them both before we had to start our daily chores and jobs. Bringing up the subject with both of them at the same time was a bit tricky, with my mother, a now retired envoy member, who was born mute, but due to her upbringing outside the Temple she knew of a language that only used her hands. While my mom could hear perfectly fine, I was always taught to sign when having a conversation with her; to only speak to her made it a one-sided conversation. Growing up and having to both talk with my hands while speaking with my dad was always a bit problematic. However, they always understood when I was talking about something important, call it a parental instinct.

As soon as I entered our living room, I stated, “Mom, dad. I need to talk with you.”

My mother quickly signed with her hands, “Are you okay? You seem worried.”

As I explained the situation and how I felt about the whole thing. My mother waited patiently for me to finish, while my father let her handle the conversation. As I finished, I could already see her hands were ready to respond.

She explained, “Duran, you are almost an adult in the eyes of the Temple. But if you lived in the world outside the Temple, you would have become one a year ago. Some people already have children at your age. Life here at the Temple moves more slowly because of the peace we have here. People are more fulfilled and live longer. Well, the easiest place to start is with this: do you want to do what I do, or what your father does?”

Stunned by that question, I froze, and the dumbest words came out of my mouth, “I know what you do currently, dad and I know what you did in the past, mom; but knowing and understanding is completely different.”

My father chimed in, “Wait, you don’t know what I do? How?” He waited for my response.

Awkwardly, I replied, "Well... I know that you are a botanist and mom was once an envoy, but that's about it." His eyes widened as he started to explain every detail about his job and the various plants he had been taking care of that lasted about ten minutes. He followed up by offering an invitation to shadow him today and to see what the job was really like. I hesitated until he mentioned that he would talk with my boss, so I wouldn't get in trouble for skipping my cleaning duties.

With that my plans for today changed, he said before we left to talk with my boss, "Remember to talk with your mother about her past when we get back." And then we were off, it took a moment to find my boss and as my father started negotiating with him about today, he turned to me and said, "Duran, son. You are going to need a good pair of gloves, the hallway behind you. Go down it, until you get to the first hallway to the left and take that hallway, then knock on the second door on the right. If I'm correct, old man Nathan lives there and see if he has any of the gloves he used to make in your size." Confused, I nodded and started off.

Trying to remember my father's sudden instructions, I found my way to old man Nathan's door and knocked. I heard a faint noise of someone asking for a moment, and within a bit an elderly man with a cane answered the door. Without hesitation, I introduced myself and explained that my father, Will Kelt, had asked me to come here and ask about a pair of gloves.

The old man's face lit up as he said, "Will Kelt, I haven't seen or heard from him in weeks. Tell him I'm running low on my tea, and I'll take it as payment for your gloves. Now let me see those hands." He reached out, grabbed my hands and inspected every inch. As he let go, he said to wait here and that he might have a pair of gloves that fit. Sounds of multiple drawers opening and closing filled the next few minutes, accompanied by the sounds of old man Nathan saying no in multiple ways. Just as I started to wonder how long this might take, old man Nathan spoke up with a pair of gloves in his hands, saying, "If you treat these right they will last a lifetime. Ask your father, he still has his first pair from me." He slapped the pair of gloves directly in my hands, and said, "Now, let's see how they fit." I slipped on the gloves, and instantly was in awe. It was as if they were made for me, each finger perfectly fit and leather so pliable it was like I wasn't wearing them at all. He nodded, smiled and reminded me about the tea before sending me back to my father. As I returned, I caught the end of my father's conversation and to my surprise, it was my father promising tea to my boss. A subject I would have to ask him about later.

My father led me down a series of hallways, each with a view of the outside. He explained various plants around the Temple and what type of care he had to do for them. Occasionally he would stop and point at one certain plant, and start ranting about the time it almost died or how it saved someone's life due to its medicinal uses. I had never seen this side of my father. He still had his normal demeanor but this excitement just to talk about plants was new. When I brought it up, he simply responded that everyone should have a side like this, not everyone wants to hear you rant about everything and that only my mother seemed to smile at him as he ranted about plants. In one of the back hallways he stopped and said, "This is where I truly can show you my work." He reached over to the nearby door and opened it, revealing that it looked to be outside.

Confused and speechless, I stood there; my father laughed as he said to take it all in and that this was the lifetime of his work in front of me. Question after question piled into my head, how, why, how again... this room didn't make sense. Until one word left my lips, ”What.”

My father burst into laughter and struggled to say, "That's all you got?" Through laughter, he explained that this room was in fact his life's work, countless years of fulfilling favors was he able to pull this room off. Only with the help of nearly every different working group in the Temple did this room exist, and every one of those groups benefited from it too. He explained that in this room, his greenhouse, he is able to supply everyone with nearly any plant one could request. The following hours were spent as he showed me around the greenhouse and on occasion instructed me to harvest from a plant in a very detailed manner. The hours seemed to fly by, and soon the sun was beginning to set, as the greenhouse fell into darkness, and we made our way back home.

The moment we were a foot in the door, Mom surprised both of us. From head to toe she was covered in various pieces of armor, belts, weapons and the like. While I had never seen her in clothing from her days as an envoy. My father, on the other hand, turned pale white, and instantly started to make sure the door was locked and all the windows were blocked off. Primal fear was the only thing driving him, and we waited for him to finish. Exasperated and gasping for breath, he said, “Hunny. Are you crazy? You know what people would say if they saw you in that outfit again.” My father's fear wasn’t unwarranted, my mother was once one of, if not, the most talented envoy.

She pursed her lips together and signed, “It’s time, get the thing.” My father started to pull out various things out of the cabinets, all various tools for making medicine. I had seen my father do this quite often when we or someone else got sick, but as per the reason for this time, I did not know. When he was done, all that remained of all that work was a green, slimy liquid. He poured it into a glass and mixed it with water before handing it over to mom. She drank it, every mouthful was a struggle. As she finished drinking she spoke, her voice was like an angel, soft and calming, “Son, this is the first and maybe only time you will get to hear my voice. Take it all in and remember it. Your father has been working on this medicine for years, and we do not know how long it will last.” She started to cough violently. My father nearly began to panic before she waved him off. She continued, “Son, I am from the world outside the Temple and many from that outside world see me as an abomination. I was given up by my parents due to being mute. It was not my position in the envoy that did that, I was born that way. The people I call my parents had been at war with my birth parents for decades, and I was raised to be a tool to end the war. I rejected that role and ran away. If you do become an envoy it is best you understand my history.” She stopped as she started to cough uncontrollably. My father handed her a glass of water. As she drank her cough became manageable. She persisted in telling me everything, “Before you can become an envoy, you will need to prove yourself, not only to me but to your father; we do not want to send you out into that world without knowing you can survive on your own.” Now coughing almost between every word she managed to say, “I love you.” Before it spiraled into a coughing fit she managed to cover her mouth with her hands, she looked up at dad before turning one of her hands to show that she had coughed up blood. My father instantly started making something else, and my mother returned to signing, “Son, it looks like that was all the time that medicine gave us. If you want to see if you can make it as an envoy we would have to start teaching you tomorrow. We maybe have about nine months, maybe a year, before the envoy will be leaving next. So that your body has time to rest from training with me you will work with your father every other day.” She stopped and seemed to be waiting for my response. It was a lot to take in, and I didn’t know what they wanted to teach me, but the only thought I had was that this would be how I learn who I am.

I said determined, “I want to be an envoy. I want to learn everything I can from both of you. Let me make you proud.”

My mom’s face grew flush and a single tear left one of her eyes, saying “We start tomorrow. You might want to get ready for bed now. I plan on waking you up early. As per your cleaning duties, don’t worry, I have a many of favors to call in. Even the elders cannot refuse, that many people owe me them.” I nodded, not understanding what I had just agreed to, and began getting ready for bed. It was only once I was finished getting ready that I noticed it was now late into the night, maybe around ten or so. As I laid in bed, the thoughts that had troubled me this morning were gone. I felt as if I had a purpose.