Chapter 192 - My Babies? (2/2)
While Clara was setting up the table, she suddenly realized that there was a person missing around her. ”Xiu, where is that no good daughter of mine.”
Xiu wasn't surprised at how Clara called Nora as a 'no good daughter' but rather she was surprised at the consistency of these insults. ”She's taking a shower.”
”For this long?” asked Clara and shook her head in disappointment saying, ”This girl is really giving me a lot of stress these days.”
”I don't give you stress, you love taking the stress all on your own,” came Nora's voice who stood at the entrance of the kitchen with an unamused look. ”Besides, I'm old enough to take care of myself. Why do you worry for no reason?”
Clara pulled Nora's ear and said, ”I'm your mother. If I won't worry about your future who else will? Would the neighbors come to worry about it?”
”They might,” replied Nora but ended up screaming in pain when her ear was pulled with even more force. ”Mom, stop it. It hurts.”
Clara let go and sat down at the dining table with Xiu. Nora also silently took a seat while rubbing her ear which had been assaulted by her own mother. While the conversation over the breakfast was really simple and light, Clara suddenly said, ”I recently read in a study that people who take long and hot showers are actually lonely inside and they try to add warmth in life with hot showers.”
Nora looked down at her skin which was still red from her long hot shower and said, ”Okay mother. I wasn't expecting to be attacked on a personal level.”
”When did I attack you? I was just sharing my knowledge with you since you'd never pick up a book to read on your own.” There it was another attack on Nora making her want to shrink or vanish from mother's sight.
”Mom, what really brought you to our humble abode so early on a Saturday morning?” Nora tried to stir away from the topic of conversation to avoid further verbal attacks from her mother.
”Early? Darling, it's 10 o'clock in the morning. How is that early?” asked Clara strangely.
”Mom, that's not the point here,” Nora said or more like whined.
Clara got up from her seat as she said, ”I was cleaning your old room which you both used to share back in high school and found some stuff. I thought I should bring it to you.”
Now that got both Xiu and Nora's attention as they looked at Clara expectantly. With a paper bag in hand when Clara came back towards them, she pulled out a vintage wooden box that had 'Destiny' carved on the lid. She passed the wooden box to Xiu and said, ”That's the only thing of yours that I found. And since you always kept this box close, I thought it might be important.”
Xiu eyed the box strangely before taking it from her and looking it up and down. Then Clara passed the paper bag to Nora saying, ”That's your collection of comic books, I really wanted to burn it but your father got in the way.”
Nora hugged the paper bag like a baby and said, ”Mom, how can you even say that? These are my babies.”
Clara slapped her head saying, ”Idiot! This is your age to think about your real babies!”
While the mother and daughter were busy with another argument, Xiu's whole concentration was on the box in her hand. It felt weird holding it in her hand.