It'll Come Naturally

"Okay. I know. Huey is teasing you. It's just a joke. Don't take it to heart, okay?" Annie said to console her daughter when she saw that the little one became quite sad.

"It's not a joke," Huey said flatly. Boys were boys, they always tended to make fun of their sisters at home. However, if anyone outside dared to bully their sisters, they would spare no effort to defend them. Such was the strange but precious phenomenon of sibling love. "Huey!" Annie snapped with a straight face. It was only when Annie showed anger that her son knew that he should be nice to his sister.

"Okay. I know. Mommy always favors Joyce over me. Hmph!" As soon as he finished his words, Huey instantly turned around and rushed upstairs, the sound of his running feet hitting the hardwood quite heavily. He was indeed hurt by his mother's scolding tone. "Mommy, is Huey crying?" Joyce asked with concern as droplets of tears started to pool and wet her long lashes.

"Don't worry. He's alright. He is a boy, and boys don't easily cry." Despite saying so, Annie was still a little worried. After she had calmed Joyce down, she walked upstairs.

Annie turned to his bedroom door and turned the knob gently. She poked her head inside and saw her son sitting on the windowsill, his eyes turned up to the sky as he watched the clouds quietly. Annie knew that when he acted like this, he really was very upset. "Huey, what are you looking at?" It seemed that living with a single mom made the poor boy get easily sentimental.

"Mommy, do you remember? You said that Daddy will come back in winter. But it is the second winter since you said that. Why isn't Daddy back yet?" During the day when he was at nursery school, his classmates once again told stories and boasted about how wonderful their dads were. However, dad was only a name to Huey, and the concept of having a father was actually quite distant to him.

"Daddy is at a place that is very far from us. He will come back but it takes more time because it's too far away." Since the kids were two years old, they had been asking about their dad. When Annie was faced with these questions she really didn't know how to explain the situation to two very young children who had yet to understand complicated things, except for telling them that their father took a trip to a very far place.

"You are lying. You said exactly the same thing last year." Huey turned his head to Annie and replied back, sadness evident on his face.

"Huey, do you really wish that your dad could come back soon?" Annie felt her heart bleed in excess to see her son so depressed. However, their father had his own family and child now, and she didn't want to disturb his life.

"Doesn't mommy also hope so?" Huey cocked his head to one side and looked at her curiously.

"I..." Annie lowered her eyes and bit her lip at the question. This was not a matter that could be solved simply by wishing it would be.

"Mommy, tell me the truth, Is it because dad has abandoned us? Don't worry, if that's the case, I will not be sad." Huey was such a considerate and understanding boy, a quality that was beyond his age.

"No, your daddy will never abandon you." In Annie's eyes, if Rain knew the existence of the kids, he would never turn a blind eye to them. He was not that ruthless. From the beginning to the end, the only person he didn't want might be her, not the kids.

"But why doesn't he ever come back? Why aren't there even any calls from him?" Huey didn't notice that Annie actually said 'you', not 'us' in her reply. That meant she didn't consider herself as someone important to the kids' father. Still, Huey was only a little boy, but he tried his best to come around the situation.

"Can we talk about it some other day? Mommy is a little tired today." For the moment, Annie really didn't know how to answer Huey's questions, so she made an excuse to evade her son's pressing curiosity about his father.

"Okay, mommy. You may go to have a good shower." Huey wiped the tears on his face with the sleeve of his shirt, and went back to gazing at the window. He focused his big eyes on the starry sky in the night, as if something there interested him a lot. The little glittering dots stared back at him.

"Okay. Be good, my little boy!" Annie leaned down and gently kissed his forehead. She walked out of the room and shut the door to go to her own bedroom.

Pieces of memories flashed briefly in Annie's mind as she opened the door to her room. The sight of Rain looking dejected before she boarded the plane wrenched at her heart. She told herself over and over again not to think about him, and to get rid of him from her world. However, she couldn't make it. As long as there was something connected to Rain, she couldn't help but pay attention to and brood over it.

When she reached her bathroom, Annie turned on the tap and filled the tub with warm water. She then added a packet of Epsom salt and a bath bomb to help her relax. When she deemed it enough, she removed her clothes and submerged her body into the water. The warmth of the bath made her feel relieved from all the troubling things that day as she enjoyed it in a comfortable silence.

A whole lifetime was too much of a stretch, and she didn't know how long she could hold on and how long she could hide all this from her children. It stressed her out so she just decided to go ahead with the flow and deal with whatever that would happen along the way. She had no other choice now anyway.

The sky in S City was filled with thick, greyish cumulus clouds that made the atmosphere quite cold this year. It was probably due to the weather, or it simply varied from person to person. However for Rain, it had never been too cold for his liking.00