Words I Was Afraid To Hear

It was nighttime at City T .

"Mommy look!" Manta came into the sitting room holding a piece of paper .

Midori was sipping tea when he came running . She smiled on seeing his drawing . For a first grader, he had good drawing and coloring skills .

"Is that you and me?" Midori eyed the drawing of a woman carrying a child .

"No! This is the baby and you!" He pouted .

She looked closer . "You"re sure the baby will be a boy?" She giggled .

"Uncle Dan promised me a playmate . How can I play with a girl?"

Midori laughed . "What about the girl in school who kissed you?" She could vividly remember a pigtailed girl who gave her nephew a peck on the cheek before happily waving goodbye .

"Wh-!" He frowned . "You were spying on me?!"

She giggled . "I was fetching you . Did she kiss you goodbye?"

The boy blushed up to his ears . He was fidgeting, thinking of an excuse .

"Uhm . . . Mommy, can we listen to the baby again?"

Midori smiled while gently shaking her head .

She took the handheld doppler and some jelly . She squeezed out some jelly onto her abdomen and positioned the doppler probe . She is in her second trimester and her abdomen had grown into an obvious, but not too large b.u.mp .

Manta gaped in awe as he heard the fast heartbeat . "Woah . . . baby . . . " He extended his arm to feel the baby in the abdomen .

The sounds raced as the boy felt movement with his hand . Manta"s smile seemed to be fixed .

"Mommy, will the baby look like you or Uncle Dan?"

______________________

Masaichi Xiu could not sleep that night . He kept thinking about the words uttered at the restaurant .

It would not make sense for Madam Ming to fabricate such lie . At the very least, there was some truth in it . He thought back on that day .

.

His personal phone rang as he was reviewing doc.u.ments in the office that afternoon .

"Hey!" He was surprised by the call coming from his wife .

"Hi, Honey! Are you busy?"

She could hear the flipping of pages from the other end as he continued to browse through the doc.u.ments .

"Uhm . . . not really . " he lied . "What"s up?"

"Otou-saaan!" Manta"s small voice came from the other end .

"Oh, h.e.l.lo, Mantkun . Are you doing well in school?"

"Hai, Otousan . Today, I got 4 stars!"

"Good, good . Can you give the phone back to Okaasan?"

"Hai, Otousan . Demo . . . "

Sensing the hesitation the boy"s voice, Masaichi probed, "Something the matter, Mantkun?"

"Tousan, I will send Okaasan to you today for a . . . "

The last word was m.u.f.fled by the sound of the ringing office phone .

"Sorry . I"ll call you back . "

.

The current Masaichi Xiu furrowed his brows as he could not recall the rest of the conversation . He was certain that it was some sort of clue on whether or not his wife was really pregnant at that time .

It came to him to ask his son, but he dropped the phone on the bed as he dismissed the idea .

He will not force his son to recall the last day he saw his mother just because some crazy old lady uttered some nonsense .

But were they really all lies?

He thought it through multiple times as he squirmed on his large bed until dawn arrived .

Sleepless, he went into the bathroom and took a cold shower to clear his thoughts .

As he was drying his hair, he had an idea .

Secretary Ta could hear her heartbeat ringing in her ears as she saw the caller on her ringing phone .

"Yes, CEO?"

"Book the earliest flight to City T today . Two tickets . " He made his order clear .

However, she was unsure whether her boss has a companion or he will bring her along . In the end, she could not ask him .

"Yes, CEO . "