Chapter Three:
I spent my working hours busy arranging bouquets one by one, as if God had sent me clients to keep me busy all day long. My work is done and I closed the shop. I went to buy some food because the fridge has been empty for two days. I'm hungry enough. I think I should eat so I don't faint. I entered the shop and immediately greeted him, saying, "Hello, Uncle George, how are you today?" He replied to me smiling as usual, even though his big white mustache hid half of it. "Hello, dear Julie. I'm fine. How are you?" Should I tell him I'm broken and devastated? Should I tell him that I feel so lonely that it kills me? I am just a body walking without awareness, and waking up in the morning is a heavy burden on me. Should I tell him about how my day went while I struggle with myself not to think? And now all that concerns me is who came to my door yesterday and to whom did that man give the bouquet of flowers? I answered him with a fake smile, "I'm fine, uncle. Thanks for asking." He gave me what I wanted in a bag and handed it to me while he was resisting the trembling of his hands. I took it, thanked him, and left. I went back home but this time it wasn't empty. There were a lot of people who had gone out to watch the sunset at the lake. The sunset is always magical there and can't be missed. I arrived home exhausted, put the things in the kitchen and went to take a shower. The water was cold at first and gave me goosebumps, then it started to get warm little by little. I wrapped my body in my bathrobe, but the cold still reached me, even though the weather wasn't that cold. I put on my pajamas and dried my hair well with a hairdryer. I couldn't bear to catch a cold now. I had so many things I had to deal with. I went to the kitchen to prepare dinner because I was very hungry. I started cutting the onions and tomatoes and put them with some pieces of meat in a pot. I will add the potatoes later. I heard a knock on the door. I almost cut my hand for a moment. I quickly went to open the door, fully believing that it was him from there, but my expectations were not correct. I found Stella standing with excessive joy on her face, her dimples almost piercing her cheeks, and she was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. As always, her long black hair was styled impressively, as she works in a hair salon. She rushed towards the house leaving me holding the door in disappointment. I closed it and followed her as if she was the owner of the house and I was the guest. She was running in random circles inside the living room, repeating loudly, "He's here, Julie, he's here." Of course I didn't understand what happened to her. She was like a crazy person who had lost her mind. I asked her to calm down and sit down so we could talk. She came quickly to grab my hand and we sat on the couch while she was still pressing them tightly. She said to me as her breath was about to stop: "Jake has finally come to the village. I thought he would never come."
I think I've heard that name before. He was Steve's friend in the past. Stella told me about him, but he didn't tell me about him. I asked her to make sure it was the same person. "You mean Jake, who you told me about once, who was a friend of Steve's and your brother?" She said, trying to swallow her saliva with difficulty, "Yes, it's him." Then I continued, "We haven't heard any news of him for three years. It's as if he disappeared from the earth like a ghost." Yes, he definitely seems like a ghost because he disappeared for all this time without leaving any news behind, and I remember asking Steve about him once, but he told me not to talk about him again. "But Steve, I don't think he considered him a friend after he left," I said. She answered me while looking for an excuse for him, "He was always a friend of your brother's, Julie. Even my brother Mike used to get jealous sometimes and say he loved him more than him. He definitely has a reason for disappearing for so long." She herself didn't know where he was, but she hoped he had a good reason, while I didn't care much about this Jake. As long as he didn't even come to my brother's funeral, he was definitely not a loyal friend. Then I remembered the young man who came to my door yesterday. He might be the same Jake that Stella was talking about. I told her, "A young man came late last night. He was asking about Steve and asked me to call him to come out to him." She interrupted me curiously, "Did you say he was looking for Steve?" I said, "Yes, and when I told him that he died a year ago he burst into tears and offered me his condolences and left." She clapped her hands together and said to me, "It's definitely Jake." Is it possible that he did not know that Steve died? But where was he and why didn't he try to contact them before? I can't find any logical explanation for this. She grabbed my arm and looked at me and said, "You weren't here before Jake left, so you can't judge him." Of course I don't know him. I only moved in with Steve here three years ago, exactly the year Jake left. That's why I don't know what their relationship was like except from Stella who told me about him once. I told her, "If I saw this Jake again, I would slap him in the face." I saw signs of shock registered on Stella's face and she said, "What!? Are you crazy? You can't hit a man you don't know, Julie. I didn't know you were mentally disturbed." I gave her a light tap on the shoulder and said, "Who are you calling mentally disturbed, huh?!" She gave a silly laugh and said, "Even if you wanted to do that, I wouldn't let you; you'd find me standing in your way." I looked at her in surprise and said, "You'll stand in my way, you sprite? Do you prefer that lunatic Jake over me?" She looked at me with her brown eyes and said, "You are my friend whom I love, and he is my friend too. I cannot distinguish between you. I love you both." I didn't sense sincerity in her words, as Jake has been her friend for a long time, while I only met her three years ago, and I think that if there was a competition between us, she would choose him. Then I said to her, "Hmm, I can't believe you. I know he is closer to your heart than I am, you little rascal." I saw her smile a strange smile and she said, "Oh Julie, you always exaggerate. Now I have to go."
She got up quickly and told me that she had to go now because it was late and that her mother would worry about her if she stayed any longer. I tried to make her stay for dinner with me, but she insisted on going home. I said goodbye to her and went to put my phone on the charger as its battery had died since yesterday. I went to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. I ate my dinner alone as usual in my kitchen while listening to Steve's footsteps on the wooden floor. Maybe now he knows where Jake was and why he didn't show up all these years. I cannot ask him about this mystery, as he refuses to appear before me, even though I poured his dinner into his plate and placed it on the table. I look at his empty chair and imagine him sitting there, looking at me with his green eyes and holding his long hair with a hair tie he steals from my room. I was always trying to threaten him with cutting his hair if he did that again, as he never left me any ties to use. Every time we sat at the dinner table, he would ask me in his arrogant tone, "What do you think of the food, Julie? Tell me how the flavors explode in your mouth and harmonize, come on, tell me!" I was always trying to find a flaw in his cooking to provoke him, but I never succeeded, as his food was among the most delicious food I had ever eaten. Steve, whose happiness always felt incomplete because of Jake's absence, I always saw him standing by the door looking into the distance. I knew he missed him, but he refused to talk about him. It was as if talking about him made him miss him more and more. His only solution was silence, but silence was never able to remove the longing.