Chapter 41
Someone stood near a bench in a park, repeatedly glancing at his wristwatch. It was later in the evening, and the sun had already set hours ago. After a few more seconds of waiting, a car approached the man and stopped directly behind him. It was Hakiten. He turned back toward the vehicle and moved closer, stopping directly in front of its window. Within a second, the window slowly moved down. Inside the car sat Genido. Hakiten glanced from one side to the other before asking why he had called him. Genido looked into his eyes and asked Hakiten to move toward the trunk. A soft smile remained on his face, perhaps a fake one. Hakiten said nothing and moved as instructed.
As Hakiten moved toward the back of the vehicle, Genido opened the car door. After a couple of seconds, he found himself standing near the trunk with Hakiten. Hakiten could ask anything now, but Genido simply opened the trunk. The door moved upward slowly, revealing something inside. There were two big boxes and a small one. The two larger boxes looked similar, while the smaller one appeared different. Strange. Hakiten stared at them for a while. From the outside, they appeared completely ordinary. He finally asked Genido what was inside them. Genido smiled immediately and told him they were a gift for him. Hakiten's eyes shifted from the boxes to Genido. "What should I do with the boxes?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
Genido exhaled sharply before asking Hakiten what he would do with a gift. Hakiten didn't say a word. Before he could say anything else, Genido told him to take the boxes to his house. Within a few minutes, Hakiten fitted the two large boxes onto his bike. A heavy-built bike stood beside the car, while Hakiten held the small box in his hands. Genido remained beside his vehicle, the two of them standing opposite each other while still separated by some distance. After a couple of seconds, Genido entered the car and, without waiting any longer, drove away. Before leaving, he told Hakiten to do what he had instructed. Hakiten didn't even move his bike. He simply waited there and watched Genido's car disappear into the distance.
After a few seconds, Hakiten finally moved his bike away. His speed remained constant as he travelled toward home. The two large boxes had been placed behind his back, while the small one rested in front of him on the petrol tank. Throughout the journey, Hakiten's eyes remained fixed on the road ahead. Then, after a few seconds, a voice entered his mind. Someone was calling him. "Hakiten... Hakiten..." The voice grew loud. It wasn't coming from behind him, yet after a blink of an eye, Hakiten was back in the hospital. Juson sat in front of him, looking directly at him. Juson asked him to say something. Hakiten heard the request but still didn't respond. A second later, Juson told him that he had to ask something before Hakiten told him about the incident.
Hakiten paused for a second. His eyes became sharp as he asked Juson what he wanted to tell him. Juson didn't answer directly. After waiting for a couple of seconds, he finally told Hakiten that he had visited the house after the incident. As soon as Juson said this, Hakiten responded that he had been with his family and asked why Juson had come back. Juson paused after hearing the question, but he still wanted to say more. After remaining silent for several seconds, he continued and told Hakiten that the doors were broken and the house was dusty. Hakiten said nothing. He simply listened to what he himself had not seen. Then Juson finally said that he had seen blue sand in his room, and that he thought it was called Zerre. His final words sounded more like a question than a fact.
Juson paused after finishing and waited for Hakiten's answer, but Hakiten seemed to be somewhere else entirely. He had frozen on his bed again. After several seconds, Hakiten finally spoke, but not with an answer. He asked another question. He wanted to know whether Juson had touched the blue sand or not. Juson didn't waste a second before admitting that he had touched it. The moment Hakiten heard this, his head turned away from Juson and his body gradually leaned back, as though he had suddenly realised something important. After a couple of seconds, Hakiten asked Juson if he could remember a person. "Genido." Hakiten remained leaned back while Juson forced his mind to recognise the name. Seeing his difficulty, Hakiten began helping him by describing Genido's appearance.
He described him as a heavy-built man with a short beard, then finally reminded Juson that Genido used to work with both of them. After a few seconds, a fragment of that day appeared in Juson's mind, when Genido had shown him a demonstration involving blue and red sand. Yet Juson's words were not about Genido. They were about Hakiten. Juson said that Hakiten had been late that day, and after that, someone had come to call them. Then Juson became silent. Something was still happening inside his head. Hakiten leaned forward and looked directly into Juson's eyes. He told him that whatever was happening with Juson had two outcomes at the same time. One was bad. The other was good. Juson didn't understand what he meant.
Hakiten told Juson not to think about anything and to simply let it go for now. Juson frowned and leaned back in the chair. The room became silent, but the silence couldn't last. Juson began speaking again, and this time something clicked inside his mind. A fragment of his memories surfaced. He said that the blue was unstable and the red was stable. The words sounded as though he already knew what he was talking about. Juson looked into Hakiten's eyes, but Hakiten seemed occupied with something else. After a couple of seconds, Hakiten spoke again. He told Juson that he owed him something. Juson realised that he shouldn't think about anything further. After several seconds of silence, Hakiten assured him that whatever he was thinking, or whatever had happened to him, was a good thing for Juson.
Hakiten assured Juson that he would explain everything. But he continued speaking, wanting to add something more. He began saying that before that, they had to do something, but then cut himself off. Juson didn't understand what Hakiten had said afterward, yet he didn't ask him to repeat it. After a second, Hakiten said that he had a big problem. Not only him, but Juson as well. It was a problem bigger than the incident at the house. Juson immediately asked what the problem was. The conversation seemed as though it would never end. As Juson quickly asked about the problem, Hakiten's face slowly became numb, as though the matter itself caused him too much pain. He remained silent for several seconds before saying that Juson's question was wrong.
Hakiten continued with the correction. "It is not what is the problem..." He paused. "...but who." The response somehow made Juson silent, and the room became silent with him. Yet the silence didn't remain for long. Not in Hakiten's hospital room, but somewhere else.