ethosa

The fire wouldn't start. The rain pelted us at an angle as if it knew what we were doing. It was my late grandfather's birthday and we were at his grave, lighting up fake gold and silver bars made of paper. Food was arranged around his grave marker, placed on the plastic plates we had taken from my mom's cabinet after she died. Take from one dead person to help serve another. I found some kind of humor in it.

Fed up with our futile firestarting, my dad lifted the cauldron. "I'm throwing it out," he said. He took two steps toward the public water hose and the embers crackled into a flame. It was as if it knew its very existence would be denied, thrown into the garbage, if it did not prove itself.

We burned the folded paper bars and some fake money that was supposed to be the currency of the underworld. Each of us did our three bows and prayers--once again, my mind was empty as I did mine--and then cleaned up the gravesite.

Everyone was in a bad mood because of my grandmother's complaints and orders, except me. I was glad I couldn't understand her language, our mother tongue. My uncle and his wife left first, leaving behind one of their umbrellas. They didn't really help clean up. I could tell she was the one who wanted to go. Our world was different from hers.

Our miniature and meaningless family service complete, we said goodbye to my grandpa before piling into my other uncle's car and driving away.

author's note: my paternal grandfather passed away some years back. It was his birthday on the 7th. As per usual, we visited the cemetary and did some ceremony things at the behest of my grandmother.

word count: 1408

elydesia

"Toria!" Mum called from the bottom of the stairs. I rolled over in my sleep and remained silent. She called again and then came up the stairs. She stood at the door to my room and commented on the dishes, said it must be hereditary since my little sister does the same thing.

"She only does it 'cause I do it," I said.

"She's always been messy, though. I can get like that, too," she said and sat down in my computer chair. She almost missed the seat and laughed. "I smoked a doobie. Can you tell?"

I gave her a good look in the face. "No," I said. "But, you know, maybe Bethany and I are messy because we spent our childhood without a bedroom to ourselves?"

"Right, you shared a room with your dad..."

"And she was always with you."

"No, that was when she was really young. She's always had her own room since she was six. She's got no excuse, Toria," Mum said. "And you say I'm too nice to them."

"You are!" I said but didn't feel like going into detail. I grabbed my phone from my night table and checked my email. I pulled up the covers to my chin.

Mum picked up a Chapters giftcard from the floor and placed it next to me on the bed. "You still need this, or...?"

"Nope." I grabbed it with my index and middle fingers and flicked it back onto the floor. Mum laughed.

"That reminds me. Rico has the same giftcard, but only JJ likes to read..."

"I just bought two books from there the other day. They sell more than just books, you know?"

"Like what?" Mum asked.

"Like... stationary?" She gave me the mum-eye. "Electronics? Pass my chromebook."

"Where is it?"

"Right there in that pile of clothes." She handed me my chromebook and I searched up some stuff from the online store and showed her. She didn't seem interested. Her eyes wandered to the small stack of books I keep next to my pillow.

"Levathan ... Wakes?" she mumbled.

"Leviathan, mum."

"I don't see an I... oh, never mind. There it is."

I sat up. "Do you know what a leviathan is, mum?"

"No. What is it?"

"It's supposed to be a gigantic sea monster that God created."

"Really," she drawled.

"Yeah. The biggest creature in the sea. Huge. There were three others: Behemoth and Ziz. God was supposed to have made them, too."

"You know, I find it funny how you know all this stuff about religion but you're not actually religious yourself."

"Yeah?"

"Why is that?"

"I don't know. Let's not talk about it."

mood: tired

elydesia

MEN
Carlos wore a black knitted toque with gold embroidery on the brim and a faux fur coat in creams, browns, and blacks. His jeans were fitted snug against his thigh and his shoes were a pair of worn down, dark brown leather loafers. His nails were painted something different depending on the finger, and a large ring with a gold-plated disk sat on his left ring finger. A brown and black patterned purse sat on his lap, handles along either side as well as a long strap. A long jaw met at a thin chin, all covered in a layer of dark brown bristly facial hair. He had thick ring piercings all around his left ear, and listened to his white ipod with tiny white earbuds. His nose jutted forward with a small lump on the bridge. His skin was pale but had a slightly sallow tinge that made him look not quite completely healthy.

Adam had a defined but thin jaw, clean shaven without any shadow. Black square glasses framed his soft grey eyes. Dark brown hair with streaks of grey overflowed onto his forehead in gentle waves. He sat on the lower level of the bus, so one could see the spiral where his hair sprouted from, tightly knitted and with more expressions of grey. He wore a forest green tweed coat that almost reached his knees, and dark blue fitted jeans. On his feet were a pair of laced leather shoes that came to a slight point. A purple wool scarf wrapped around his neck in large loops, almost drooping down the front of his tightly buttoned up chest. He sat next to a coworker on the bus and spoke to him with a soft and paced voice. He smelled of citrus and black tea. Black polyester gloves covered his hands and in them a black laptop case was held.

It was a Monday morning, but the two men got off at the same stop, one following the other down the same block until they reached a hotel with a gleaming sign in front that read, "ASTORIA GLORIA." It was a dirty hotel with dirty carpets and dirty floors. The vacuum and mop in the custodian's closet were spared any use for a long time, no time or money to put into keeping the location clean. Carlos was first to the front desk and made a quick reservation. He was shown to his room, and was soon alone. But not for long. Not even a minute after taking off his oversized coat a knock rasped against the room door, and with a knowing all too well what was to come, he opened it. Adam entered the room and their lips locked.

elydesia

It was just about time.

"Hey, Dad, I'm heading out now, I'll be back in a couple hours or something." I leaned over the banister outside his room and waited for his reply.

"Where you going?" I saw him sit up from his bed.

"To the park."

"Which one?"

"The one behind the house." I started down the stairs.

"What for!" he called from the top of the staircase.

"To watch the Perseids! Remember, I watched them a few years ago, too. I'll be back later." I told my grandparents in the living room I'd be back later and made a getaway through the front door. At the base of the stairs outside I heard the door unlock again but didn't look back and kept walking forward.

I gazed up to the moon, thinking back on that article I read some weeks ago on the supermoon, and how it would obstruct one's view of the Perseids. And just as the article said, even though it was the night after the supermoon's appearance, it was quite bright. Clouds were gathered in the sky around the moon and I could see the small moonbow around it.

The night was not chilly. I wore a pair of black cotton leggings, an oversized strawberry patterned tanktop, a rainbow striped longsleeve, and the winter jacket Gran had bought me two years before. Tucked under my arm was a throw blanket with a teddybear pattern on it.

I had walked a few blocks and entered the alley leading up to the park when my phone went off.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" It was my dad.

"At Burrard view park."

"Where?"

I sighed. Please pay attention, Dad.

"Burrard view. The one behind our house. The one where, when I was little, we would visit and toss our shoes off from the swings?"

"Oh, that one?"

"Yeah, why? Are you coming?"

In the distance I heard a vehicle and saw him drive through the small alleyway on one side of the park. We both hung up and I watched him and his girlfriend make their way over to the blanket I had laid out. They each took a spot on the blanket and the three of us laid down on it with our eyes to the sky.

The night was bright with the waning supermoon still hover high above us. My fear of not seeing the Perseids was coming true. Dad brought out his iphone and started playing some music while playing a social game.

For a long time the three of us laid there looking at the sky. Dad looked up constellations with a special phone app. And then he suddenly jumped up and said, "Spider, spider! I just saw a giant one. Get up. We're leaving." I asked him about the spider but he gave only vague answers and couldn't even determine the size.

The three of us climbed into the two front seats of Dad's van and went for a cruise to a Tim Hortons in Burnaby. I got a French vanilla coffee and strawberry muffin while dad's girlfriend got a blueberry muffin.

A police car had pulled up and we loitered around the van until the cops went inside Timmies. We crammed inside the van again and headed for a 7-11 near our house for late night snacks.

Being almost 3am, Dad bargained the leftover food for a cheap price and we also got a deal on some chips and a coffee. By the time we made it home it was 3 30AM.

Author's Note
no proofing.
written in a few hours after described event, but finished just now.
the supermoon it describes was the "morning" of August 13th.
what happened here is true, though briefly described.
I just wanted to finish it and get it out here zzz

wordcount: 589

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it's written in the backyard

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