48 Trip 2 (1/2)

Sofony thanked the woman for her kind words, then led the crying girl out of the municipal hall. Steffy took quite a while to calm herself down. The weird stares from the passerby helped out a little.

As they stood in the jeep terminal, Sofony sighed. She recalled the last thing she learned from the information clerk.

”Steffy, that kind Miss told us that the mayor built a memorial for every victim of the landslide. Would you like to visit it?”

The girl bit her lips then began thinking. To Sofony, it looked like some sort of emotional and mental war was ongoing within her sister's mind.

Sofony didn't wait long. In the end, Steffy couldn't fight back against the voice in her head which truly wished to at least pray at the memorial. The voice was probably from the real Steffy. It was urging the new owner of its memories to at least pray for its deceased family.

The two sisters joined the flock of jeepney passengers intending to go to Leaflike Village. It only took them more or less fifteen minutes to get there since the said place was still quite near to the center of the town.

”The kind-hearted lady said, the memorial should be located near the entrance. It's something built to commemorate many villagers that had passed away so it should be quite eye-catching enough. I think it is probably close to the sole chapel of Leaflike.”

Sofony nodded to Steffy's words as her eyes roamed around. The jeepney driver dropped them off near the village entrance. The place was very peaceful and the only color people would see, aside from the sky blue above, was the lush green of the trees and ornamental plants in the surrounding. Without advancing deep into the village, it would be hard to imagine that a landslide claimed the lives of most of the villagers. Sofony sighed as she mulled about this. Then when Steffy mentioned 'chapel', her eyes caught one in the distance.

”Should be that, right?”

Her younger sister replied. ”Yeah. It's that one.”

She looked around that chapel as they walked near it. They found next to the bell tower was the tall memorial monument they were looking for. Steffy sped up by herself to immediately reach it. Then she joined the few people standing in front of the marble surfaced memorial.

When Sofony caught up and stood next to her sister, she saw that Steffy was already tearing up. It was her third for this day. Sofony sadly shook her head and pulled her sister's body closer to her. The other girl didn't protest though, but her gaze never strayed away from the monument.

The other visitors gave them a few glances before resuming their prayers. Sofony saw it and felt like since they were there honoring the real Steffy's memories of her loved ones, praying was also a must thing to do. A few well-wishings for the dead would not hurt. Considering this, Sofony patted Steffy's head and gently whispered.

”Let's offer our relatives... and your other neighbors some prayers. Let's hope they are doing well in heaven. Also pray for them to look out for us from up above.”

Steffy's trembling shoulders stopped for a moment. She raised her tear-stained face and dumbfoundedly met her older sister's beautiful and expressive black eyes. The mentioned of the word 'heaven' struck something in her mind.

Heaven. For the souls. For the deceased.

Steffy once again lowered her face as she resumed her sobbing, her visage really looked very pitiful. Still, she didn't forget to nod. In her heart, she still hoped that her relatives were okay. When she prayed, she did for a very long while, and most of the content of her prayer was her pious begging to let her still unfound relatives and family members to survive. More than a week already went by, but she still hoped for them to have a chance of survival.

Sofony joined her in praying, both of them kneeling by the feet of the memorial. Flowers and some potted ornamental plants lined up on the sides. Their eyes closed and their hands clasped in front, they began murmuring soft prayers. But unlike Steffy, she did not pray anything related to survival. The system already informed her that nobody from the group of the still-missing-people was alive. It was no use to mention that in her prayer.

Instead, she asked for forgiveness. From all spirits related to Steffy Jimenez.

After uttering the words she wanted to pray, she stood up. Her eyes went to Steffy. The girl's eyes were still closed, tears still streaming down. For a moment, it was like the person next to her was the original one - as if the girl known as Steffany Jimenez really possessed the body of Steffany Mendez.

A wave of unease and guilt flooded over her heart. And Sofony closed her eyes again to once again pray for forgiveness, this time, from the soul of the real Steffy.

.........

The sisters arrived at the only KFC branch in the town for lunch. Thankfully, there were still a few tables vacant even though it was already past twelve noon. Sofony couldn't help but think that maybe the heavens decided to bless them with some luck today since they just finished honoring the dead.

”Just sit here, don't let our table be taken away by others.”

”Steffy, don't treat me like someone who's never eaten at a fast-food chain.”

The girl whose eyes were still scarily red chucked. ”Can't help it. You said you're a cafe owner so I assumed you're rich.”

”No!” Sofony laughingly denied.

”Whatever. I'll go now. I know more here since I grew up in this town. I'm more knowledgeable of this branch's layout. Just wait here, okay? I'll line up now to order.”

Sofony nodded. The other girl then turned around and was already heading towards the counter, when Sofony suddenly remembered something and she grabbed her sister's arm.

”Hey, wait. Do you even know what I want to order?”

”Oops.” Steffy looked back to her with an 'I forgot' look followed by an awkward laugh.

The older one shook her head. She reached out to her sister's hand and stuffed her walled into it. ”Order whatever you like, anything will do for me. Just don't forget my mushroom soup, chocolate sundae, and fries, okay?”

”Got it!” Steffy smiled. Before walking away, she inspected the cutely fashioned wallet, her eyes not lingering on the kiddie dolphin keychain, but on the wad of cash inside. A few giggles escaped from her lips as she glanced red-eyed at the menu slideshow on the huge rectangular screen above.

'I'm glad she looks somehow okay now.'

A small smile rose from Sofony's perfectly shaped lips. The slight smear of red lipstick she applied before leaving the house enhanced the beauty on it. As she followed the figure of her sister who was now lining up to the counter, not few eyes were also following Sofony's every movement, both men and women encapsulated by her high charm.

...........

After eating, Steffy and Sofony left the restaurant. Their luck continued outside as they managed to chance upon a taxi on its way back to St. Mary City.

They returned to the terminal in the city and got into a bus there back to the capital. Steffy returned to her cheerful state and didn't stop bombarding Sofony with so many stories about her whole life that she didn't know how Steffy managed to remember all.

<System: Hehe, don't deny that you're feeling miserable within. So nice! That's your retribution. Hahahaha.>

For a very long time, she pretended listening to Steffy's stories. Initially, she was actually listening -attentively at that. It's just that after a little more than two hours that she couldn't speak to interfere from her sister's one-sided talk, her lips started twitching and her mind could no longer focus on everything the other girl was saying. She felt like four walls of text suddenly appeared to surround her and squeeze her in. The headache spread, and now, she was only nodding off from time to time whenever Steffy paused to observe if she was still listening. The girl would happily continue once she detected Sofony still seemingly all ears on her. But in reality, no more content was reaching her brain.

That was when she heard the unruly laughter of the devil inside her brain.

With a hidden sigh, she replied. 'I should have not let her talk.'

<System: Hahaha, she's a nice girl. She knows how to render you helpless.>

Another sigh came out from her. In her right side, Steffy was now beginning to describe how her most hated Auntie from Leaflife Village poisoned the dog Steffy raised just because the dog bit and chased away some of the chicken the auntie was raising. A while ago, her story was about a suspected hexer living deep in the mini-forest of their village.

Sofony pursed her lips in helplessness. Even though she badly wanted to chime in or make her sister take a break, she couldn't. The girl was very engrossed in her one-sided discussion. Steffy couldn't even care less about the irritated glares from the other passengers distracted by her endless talking. She probably didn't even hear when one grumpy elder woman sarcastically commented that Steffy was way more talkative than any radio DJ the elderly woman had ever listened to.

Surely, even her own chastising wouldn't make much difference, right? Put that aside, Steffy must be distracting herself from sad thoughts through this.

The older girl shook her head as she stared at the younger one. She was like that for a long time, when she suddenly remembered her talk with the system this morning.

'System, now that I recalled. You mentioned that Steffy's innocence is one of the future problems, correct?'

<System: Yeah. I did. So?>

Her eyes darted to the ceiling of the bus while thinking. Sofony already recognized that the problem was how Steffy knew, based on her memories, that she had no experience in physical love. But that would be rectified once Steffy marries and learns that she was no longer virgin. It's good if the man she'd love would not inquire about it. Unfortunately, Steffy would surely ask herself why was that. And if ever the man inquires about it, how would she answer if she, herself, was clueless?