Fate Chapter 4

~~ We Continue ~~

 (For those who don’t know Lue is Romanian currency, 50 Lue = 11.11 USD, 50 Lue also = 126,854.44 Uzbekistani Som

“I remembered it for this long, now I can’t anymore, that was the last piece of the memory!” Lupe was crying, devastated. 

“What? You lost what?” Asked Tumura. 

“It’s nothing. you wouldn’t get it anyway!” Lupe shot back.

“But, we might, please just tell us, so we can help you find it.” Sana said softly, looking down at Lupe defeated, they wanted to help them so badly. 

“You know what my bag looks like, just find it.” Lupe responded bitterly.

“Okay,” Everyone responded at once, checking all the seats any of them were in, trying to see if it had been left somewhere else. 

The flight had almost been fully empty when a flight attendant approached them, they stood out like a sore thumb, searching the entire cabin for the bag at this point. 

“Ce mai faci în zbor?” Which Sana translated to, “What are you still doing on the flight?” 

Sana stumbled over words, even for living in Romania, they still didn’t speak the language very well, since they were never correctly taught, they could only read and listen to it. 

Toinette answered for the group, “Ne lipsește ceva” or, “We’re missing something.” 

The response from the attendant was something that translates roughly to, “I see, we’ll help you look.” Before everyone was looking for the missing bag. 

Nobody was able to find it, Lupe was out of their mind with worry, but storms outside were picking up, the grounded plane was no longer safe to be on, and the group was assured off without Lupe’s bag. 

“Lupe, it’s going to be alright,” Kinoshita said, being very careful with her friend, “I’m sure it’s here somewhere. We’ll find it.” 

“No. We won’t. It’s obviously gone, and it’s all my fault. I didn’t pay attention to it.” Lupe said distractedly as the group stood off to the side at the now closed gate of the plane. The storm was raging outside and nobody wanted to leave the terminal. 

In the moment, Kinoshita put her hand in her pocket, feeling the thing Myeong had given them before she passed. 

“Niru.” She whispered, pulling out the item, looking at it carefully, she decided what it was, she didn’t really know, it was small, brittle, seeming easy to break, but had made it this far in the journey, a little necklace, gold and glass, colorful, but mostly brown. A locket. A circle one streaked with mud, it had an engraving on it. An engraving of family on the outside. 

The group looked at Kinoshita, absorbed in the small thing she held, which nobody else could see, Lupe had turned away from the conversation before she had even taken it out, so they didn’t bother to care. 

Picking themself up, still not looking back, Lupe snapped slightly at the group, ready to move on, “Come on, let’s pool our money, we need food.” 

Kinoshita, putting away the locket, nodded, “Yes, let’s go.”

Everyone took out everything in their pockets, except for Kinoshita, who left the locket and only grabbed out what else she had. 

Together they had around 50 Leu, which they used to buy two loaves of bread, 5 apples, and three 1.5 liter bottles of water, using up 24.10 Lue. Almost half their money. They all suspected they were ripped off, since they currency in Uzbekistan was different than Romania, but none had a better alternative, and they stuck to those prices, walking away with 25.90 Lue, and enough food to last they off for a little while, on top of what they already had. Which included a variety of fruits, and Kinoshita’s favorite dish, Curry rice, which although, wasn’t the best reheated or cold, it was still better than most of what they had. It was getting old though so it was the first thing they ate, and finished up before finding something to do. 

The group was at a loss on what to do for a long time, siting and looking at each other seemed like the best answer, because nobody could seem to effectively break the silence. 

“We’ve spent half our money, and we still don’t know what to do, our plane is grounded, we have barely any money, we’re in the middle of nowhere, and Lupe’s missing something important.” Massimo said annoyed, they were all tired out of their minds, or at the very least Sana was, they could barely keep themself awake. 

“How about we all just have a good nap, it’s very late, and by now, it’s saturday morning instead of Friday night like before.” Toinette said while looking at Sana, about to fall asleep, and invited them to come lay down on her. Sana quietly slid over and leaned their head against Toinette, ready to fall asleep for the night, stroking their hair Toinette looked around the group, and hugged Sana, with a whisper of “Goodnight.” They were all asleep. 

…

“What time is it?” Massimo groaned, sitting up from sleeping. Looking around he saw Tocito sleeping sitting up beside him, Sana and Toinette cuddled together on a row of chairs, Kinoshita and Tumura sharing a blanket they had brought, and Lupe sitting off to the side of everyone, awake. 

“6am.” The responded, not looking back. 

Massimo softened at the look of Lupe so broken, he had never seen them quite defenseless, even around the group they were reserved, usually had their head in books, they joked, and was very serious about anytime someone insulted them, giving Niru many much needed smacks after his mildly racist comments. He never meant them, but it still hurt them sometimes. That’s the only things Massimo really knew about Lupe, even for being together for so long. 

“Are you alright?” He asked, the distance between the two seeming impossibly far. 

Only sparing a second to look back, they whispered “Fine.” Even in a second of seeing them, it was impossible to miss the red taint to their eyes and the water streaming down their face.

“Lupe..” Massimo said, worried about his friend. “Please tell the truth.” 

“What do you want me to tell you!? Oh life’s perfect! We’re getting kicked out of our home!”

Massimo sat glancing at Lupe, he really didn’t know what to say, and fell to silence as they both knew how stranded they were in that airport. “I’m sorry..” He whispered, “I’m sorry we couldn’t find your bag.” 

“It’s fine.” Lupe said bitterly, “Now go to bed. Goodnight”

Massimo sighed, “Yea, goodnight.” 

~~ End part 4 ~~