The Love of An Invisible

[Iuri Stevens’ Vision]

I stretch out on my bed, feeling my body heavy. Once again, I went to sleep at four in the morning. When I finished the first season of Kimetsu no Yaiba, I went to watch the movie Infinity Train; I was so excited that I also went to read about ten chapters of the manga.

I get out from under the comforter and look at the clock stuck on the wall. It was eleven thirty in the morning. I stretch and slide out of bed. I walk a few steps until I get close to the solid wood door with a garapa color. Before I open it from the inside, my mother opens it from the outside, and I take two steps back.

“I thought you weren’t going to get out of bed anymore,” she says seriously. “Come and have some coffee soon.”

“Good morning to you too, Mom,” I say, and she stops walking down the hall.

“Good morning, my gracious son,” she manages to be even more sarcastic than I am when she wants to be.

Without saying anything else, I just follow Mrs. Carmen Stevens to the pantry of the house, quietly pull the chair from the table, and sit down. Mrs. Lueni also enters the pantry as soon as I sit down with several grocery bags in hand.

“Good morning, child,” she says and leaves the bags on the counter.

“Good morning, young lady,” I say, smiling.

“Oh, how I wish I could go back to my younger days,” she says and begins to take things out of the bags.

“Here, Iuri,” my mother places on the table a plate containing two French fathers stuffed with cheese and ham, and a glass of yellow juice. I imagine it’s mango juice; the yellow is too dark to be passion fruit juice.

“Thank you. I feel my mouth salivating at such a culinary delicacy made by the most skillful hands in the world,” I say with a huge smile, looking at my mother.

“I see you woke up in a good mood. You’re even complimenting me,” she says as she goes to the fridge and fills a glass with water, drinking it right away.

“Can’t I?” I question while I take the first bite of the bread, feeling the warm cheese melting in my mouth. A delight! A wonderful feeling.

The last time I ate yesterday was at eight o’clock at night. I got so excited about anime and its derivatives that I didn’t even remember the night snack, and as a consequence, I feel my insides devouring each other.

“I want you to tidy your room, and at dinner time, put on your best clothes,” she says and goes to meet Mrs. Luinie.

I stop eating the bread and quickly take a big gulp of the juice. I accepted it; it’s mango flavored anyway. After swallowing the piece of bread, I say:

“Why? You only tell me to clean the rooms when a relative comes, and the best only for special occasions.” She stops taking the food out of the bags.

“Today we will have an unusual visitor. I want you to take her to her room and have fun doing something. I feel that today will be a very special occasion.”

“Who is the mother person? I don’t like taking care of children,” I say and go back to eating the delicious stuffed bread.

“Rest assured, it’s not a child, but I won’t tell you who it is until that person arrives.”

“I’ll invite George, okay, Mom?”

“Next time, son. Today, I’m sorry to say he won’t be able to.”

“Why not?” I ask with narrowed eyes.

“Because of his presence perhaps…”

“Tonight is going to be an important night, Iuri. Everyone needs your attention.”

“I will pretend to believe it.” I stop participating in the conversation and concentrate on my coffee.

They begin to talk about recipes, drinks, cold cuts, practical and other things that only women understand. I don’t take long to finish my meal, I take the plate and the glass to the sink and rinse them with water.

“I want everything to be in order,” I hear my mother saying as I go up the stairs.

I walk down the hallway to the cleaning room, grab a broom and a dustpan. I don’t need to wash the floor; the daily rates came three days ago.

I leave the room and walk a few more steps until I reach my sanctuary (better known as the bedroom). I look around, and it’s not so messy; some dirty clothes on the floor, several manga mixed with the clothes, some packages out of the wastebasket, some clean and crumpled clothes on the bed. Yesterday I didn’t tidy the bed before going to sleep and ended up sleeping on the clothes I took from the closet. The computer desk is scattered with several pens and crumpled papers.

“Time to work,” I say to myself and start my cleaning.

[Vision of Aya Millenis]

I feel my head throbbing, the sound echoing through my stomach denounces the fact that I didn’t eat dinner yesterday and it’s already twelve o’clock. I could barely sleep; my mother’s words echo through my head. I wonder what she means. Does she want me to date the son of her bosses? I have never even seen him!

I take a deep breath and get out of bed. Thinking about dinner tonight makes me nauseous. I go to the bathroom and do my morning hygiene.

When I’m done, I leave the room and go to the kitchen. The table is already set; everyone is already eating.

“Good morning,” I say and sit down.

“Good afternoon, right?” Only my sister greets me back.

“I haven’t had lunch yet, so for me, it is still day.” I speak and smile.

“You woke up full of stupid jokes,” I hear my mother speaking softly, but not so soft that I don’t understand her speech.

For two weeks now, my parents have been ignoring me, claiming that I embarrass them. However, I’m used to it; I was never what they wanted me to be. After failing to achieve the minimum grades they assigned, my parents declared that they would cut off my access to anime, take away my cell phone, and remove the television from my room, leaving me isolated from any technology.

“I saved it for you,” Cristine hands me a plate. “Yesterday I tried to make lasagna, but since you didn’t come downstairs, I saved it for you to eat today.”

“Thank you,” I say and grab the fork and knife.

I take the first piece of pasta with cheese to my mouth and chew it.

“It’s delicious!” I say and continue eating with gusto.

“Cris, I want you to help Aya dress and put on proper makeup,” my mother says.

“I don’t like to wear makeup…” I try to protest, but my father cuts me off.

“You don’t have to like anything! You have to wear it, and that’s it. I’ve already spent too much on you; you better start showing me that it’s worth all my effort.”

“Okay, Dad,” I say and bow my head.

The lasagna that was so delicious now looks unsalted. I finish eating and go back to my room, lie down on the bed, and wrap myself in the comforter, feeling hot tears running down my cheeks.

[Iuri Stevens’ Vision]

“You look beautiful, my son,” says my mother with a silly smile on her face.

“Courage, son,” my father adds, and once again, I don’t understand why they are acting this way.

The whole day today has been about smiling on both sides, even from Mrs. Luinie. I am dressed in beige shorts; my mother wanted me to wear a suit, but my father helped me convince her that this was too much of a stretch. Finally, a Lacoste Graduate leather shoe in white with a green heel; a cream-colored polo shirt. I feel more comfortable now. My mother is wearing her aqua green dress, and my father is wearing brown shorts and a white shirt and the same shoes as mine.

“I want to understand why you are…”

I am cut off by the sound of the doorbell; it seems the guests have arrived, another wasted night… I could be watching my anime now!

“Good evening, welcome,” I hear my mother speaking, and I hold my breath at what my eyes see.

I feel my blood freeze, my fingers tremble, the air becomes heavy; it can’t be possible. I can’t believe it, is she really here?

“Good evening,” I hear her soft voice fill my ears.

“Go… good evening,” I manage to answer.