Stew

I looked at the framed photographs on the wall, searching for something. Then I found it, a small part of it got caught in the background of one of Leon’s photos. I like that particular shot since it’s a candid photo of him. He’s still talking non-stop about the town’s history when I snapped a photo. The look on his face is so funny for the both of us that we have to frame it.

And there it is, the archway. Where the body’s found.

A new place…and a fresh start.

But now it got tainted with this kind of case, which feels like a bad omen for me. I turned my attention towards him again.

“I always tell them to have people patrolling that location, it should be automatic already right? It’s the town’s main entrance and the exitway! How could you leave it unmanned like that? Who knows who’s going in and out of the town with a bad intention without us having any idea.” He complained in between bites. I just keep on agreeing with him, more focused on enjoying the meal and our talk.

“The surrounding areas have overgrown bushes and fields of grass. Also, it gets really dark at night, so there are a lot of places to hide a body there. And now, they’re surprised to find one. I wonderrrr how it happened.” He’s now hitting the bottom of his bowl indignantly. I can see where I got my sarcastic way of talking.

“I was still here at home when they found it, trying to enjoy a quiet morning. The guys on an earlier shift responded to a call from a passing couple who found it.”

It must have been while I was sleeping.

“I couldn’t even believe it when the Chief said it on the phone earlier.” He recalled, mimicking holding a phone to his ears. “I was like, a body? A real body?! Wait, let me finish what I am cooking. You’re not just pulling a joke on me just to get me there early, right?”

“Can you imagine how embarrassing that was?!?! The side eye that I got from him when I arrived at the station.” He roared, blushing on the memory of the mistake that he made. A couple of wild flowers blew out of him and landed on his soup. “And yes, I use the word side eye. I got that from the guys at the station too.” He said in amusement, and he took another slurp, flowers and all.

He and Yvonne should meet , I noted. They can tirelessly chat for hours.

“Yup, I saw that in the news earlier. That’s the hot topic of the customers the whole day .” I emphasized on the last words, while rolling my eyes.

He laughed, adding more of the stew from the pot into my bowl. He always does that unconsciously while talking. “I can imagine. Even at the grocery store tonight, the store keeper and the woman waiting behind me were asking me about it. Mr. Keynes, you know him right? He came out of the store room just to listen and to ask how the case was going. I was just about to go home, just a couple of minutes away, and still got caught in the middle of gossip.”

“I suddenly became popular. No, we all became popular. Gio at the station kept on complaining about it the whole day. But I can see how he’s loving the attention.” He laughed even more while slightly shaking his head.

“But aside from that, the news didn’t say anything else. Is it someone from the town? Someone I should be worried about?” I asked, trying to subtly (well, in my mind) fish out other information from him. He quickly (too quickly) returned his gaze back at me, the laughter and smile on his face were all gone in an instant.

His face turned serious and stony cold, which made me feel afraid. His icy blue eyes are gazing at me intently. Across the table, I could feel the sharpness of his stare that feels like a dagger boring right into my soul. Gripping the edge of my seat tightly, I swallowed everything that’s in my mouth in one huge gulp.

“Leandra, don’t speak about this to anyone. Even at your workplace. To nobody. Understood?” His voice is lower and deeper than usual.

It feels like a warning if I wanted to proceed rather than a question. I nodded a couple of times; completely caught by surprise at the sudden change in his mood.

This case seems graver than I thought it would be.

I know that the moment my brother starts to tell me to keep something a secret, it means that it is of utmost importance. Something that I cannot take lightly. Leon is usually a gentle, easy-going person, but he has this demeanor when he’s deadly serious; there is no room for jokes and banter. Far from the smiley, delicate man wearing a bright yellow apron. I almost forgot about this side of him.

Until now… It’s like flipping a switch.

“You know me.” I looked him directly in the eye to tell him that I understood it well. Besides, I would never break a promise that I made with my brother, ever.

His face softens a bit and the sharpness from his eyes feels less cutting now, though I could see the caution from the way he looks at me. He’s gauging the situation.

“Okay then. It’s not someone from our town.” He finally said, hesitating a bit.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. I knew some of the people here, aside from the staff at the restaurant, and thinking that something bad happened to one of them feels unbearable. Aside from that, I just safely got out of the lion’s den today.

“It’s also not someone from outside.” He added.

“Huh? Then who–” I asked, clearly confused about it.

“I told you about the call that they received earlier from the couple, right? Well, what the news didn’t say is what exactly they have found on the side of the road.”

“The reason why they have stopped instead of driving past it, and decided to check on it instead, is that they found a leg. Only. a. leg. ” He repeated, louder, looking at me. My eyes widened at the realization of what he’s going to say next. I placed both of my hands on my mouth.

“Don’t tell me…”

He nodded slowly, knowing exactly what I was about to ask. “They enclosed the surrounding area, looked in the vicinity, called the forensics, and asked everyone at the station to help. You know, the protocol.”

“How about the rest ?” It feels like something out of a movie, more than a case from our town.

“We found a couple of pieces, but we cannot identify anything from what we have now. Not yet.”

“So, about what you’re asking. We don’t know who he… or she was.” He stared down into his food, and started stirring the contents mindlessly, playing with it using his spoon. His thoughts are far from wanting to eat.

Now I understand his hesitation earlier. This is not just a simple crime. Far from it.

“We cannot let the townspeople know about this, until we find more details. So Lira, don’t tell anybody about this.”

“Not a word about these will come out of my mouth.” I have to say something to comfort him. I should be the least of his worries for now. He tried to smile at me, but he couldn't. Now that it’s out and we both know what happened, it seems like the will to make things lighter was drained out of him.

“That’s why they ended my shift earlier since we’ll be having different schedules at the scene. Looking for the rest, you know. To make him at least identifiable.”

He sighed, and leaned back on his chair. I can see now the tiredness seeping out of his face.

How could I have missed it earlier?

The wildflowers that’s surrounding him are slowly wilting and dropping on the floor. A is gently patting his head with his furry paws that’s triple the size of my hand. He’s trying to make Leon feel better, but to no avail; no one is even aware of A ’s existence aside from me. My brother, and everyone else, cannot feel or see him.

“How do we start looking for something that we don’t have any idea about?” He asked, mostly to himself, with his head resting on his hands, looking at the ceiling.

“I know, I get you.” I agreed, completely understanding his sentiments. We sat there for a couple of minutes, silently comforting each other with our presence, our thoughts going in places that the other person had no idea about.

After a while, I returned my attention to the food in front of me. With nothing else to do, I stirred it casually and took a spoonful.

It got cold, but it’s still delici–

“Aww!–” Something hard got stuck in my mouth, grinding hard in between my teeth. The pain went away immediately just like how it suddenly came. I pulled it out of my mouth.

It’s a tiny piece of bone.