The Book Of Letters 7 Kurai And The Café Cabare

Every single morning at the house I boarded in, there is always bickering between my housemates, Benjamin and Piper. I thought I would have grown accustomed to it already, but on this particular day, which was our off-day, rather than hearing those two fighting, I heard a ukulele strumming aggressively and two singing voices trying to top it. I put on my spectacles and shuffled my slippers across the floor to see what was going on at the hallway. Benjamin was singing outside his room whilst playing his ukulele, glaring back at Piper as she sang loudly. Both of them were actually talented, but because of their rivalry, the duo sang the most horrible duet mashup song I've ever heard.

"What is all the ruckus?" I asked, interfering their singing.

"There is a cabaret at Suncash Café later in the afternoon," said Benjamin. "Some of the townspeople are performing, including us."

"I thought cabarets aren't compet.i.tion," I said.

"That is what I said," Piper glanced at Benjamin. "Until Benjamin sang louder to disrupt my practice."

Then Benjamin played his ukulele loudly. "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER MY AWESOME UKELELE SKILLS!"

Piper kicked him on the shin hard that Benjamin fell on the floor. I watched her marching down the hallway and the staircase. On the other hand, Benjamin was being overdramatic as he held his leg close to him, crying in pain. I ignored and went to the bathroom. It actually took him a couple of minutes to continue practicing. Through the walls of the bathroom, I listened to his original song, 'She and I'. I've heard stories about Benjamin's ex-girlfriends, which all of them broke up because of his narcissism plus they found better jobs outside Gloxinia Town, but this particular song was different. It wasn't a song about breakups or anything depressing, but it was an upbeat song about unrequited love. Without realizing, I stayed in the bathtub until he finished practicing and started knocking on the bathroom door. Even my fingers got wrinkly when I went out.

It had been quite a while since I wore ordinary clothes in the morning. I was hoping to spend my free time at Litmus' place to read books or stroll around the town. As I joined Piper at the dining table, she looked at me with her head resting on her clasped hands.

"Since you're free today, I need your help," she said. There went my plans.

"If it has something to do with the cabaret, then I can't help you," I told her beforehand. She slammed her fist onto the table, stood up, walked to me and looked at me in the eyes.

"You can play any instruments, can't you?" she asked. Obviously she ignored what I just said. I sighed and told her that I never played any musical instruments before.

"Why not ask Benjamin to play his ukulele?" I suggested. "After all, he-"

"I don't want to," she crossed her arms. "Every time I hear him playing his ukulele, it stops me from doing anything and I would start humming his 'She and I' song. Can't believe I memorized the whole lyrics."

I figured that was the reason why she was trying to sing loudly. Benjamin seemed to be planning to play his original song for the cabaret. It was a catchy song after all.

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked her. "It's not that I'm much help to you. Please give me a break for once."

"It's not like you're going to do something productive today," she retorted. I began to notice that this flow of conversation was going to be the same as her every day conversation with Benjamin, which never went well. I had to figure out a way to stop this meaningless fight.

"Look, I bet there are other people in this town that can play instruments, and you probably know them more than me," I said, hopefully that would stop her from bugging me.

"Great idea!" she said, clapping her hands together. "You haven't met everyone in this town, so you're coming with me!"

I knew that she wanted me to accompany her for the whole day by saying it in the most roundabout way. Knowing her persistent nature, I had to give up. Benjamin joined us thirty minutes later, which is faster than usual. He told us that he wanted to practice straight after breakfast.

"Good," he said after Piper told him that she decided to find a musician, although I could sense a hint of disappointment in his words. "At least I could have peace and quiet around here."

"Is your singing not good enough that you need the whole day to practice?" Piper sneered.

Benjamin glared at her. "At least I know how to play instruments."

Piper kicked Benjamin's shin under the table, to which Benjamin reacted and accidentally hit his knees against the table and fell on the floor. She finished up her drink as she ignored his cry in pain. I helped him get back on the chair before Piper called me, wearing her jacket and holding her broomstick. I grabbed mine and rushed to follow her out of the door.

"I can't believe that guy," said Piper as I closed the door. "He thinks he is better than me. I'll show him tonight that I'm a better singer than him."

"How did you two first met?" I asked all of the sudden. "I know you two are friends since childhood, but I thought you would be used to it already."

She turned to me and sighed. "Of course we are, but Benjamin wasn't always like that."

"What do mean?" I asked as we walked down the street.

"I first met Benjamin when we were young," Piper replied. "He was a visitor from Rose City, and his father, a n.o.bleman and contributor to the town's orphanage. Benjamin was shy at first, but he got along with the town's children. Then one summer, he changed. Every time he looked in the mirror, he would act very weird and tried to apologize to his reflection. All the other children got weirded out by it and left him. I thought Benjamin thought that he looked ugly or got bullied or something that I told to stop apologizing himself and love himself more. Looking back, I was probably the one who made him narcissistic."

"Despite his current personality you're still there for him," I commented.

"That's because I sympathized him," Piper clarified. "Benjamin never went back to Rose City since, and he stayed at his grandparent's house, which is where we're living in. He always avoid topics about family and home, which you probably figure out by now that something happened to his family."

Piper was in no position to question his personal life, and so was I. I can only speculate that as a n.o.bleman, his father think about his own reputation and disowned Benjamin for some reason, or a traumatic event has happened to the family. Piper was only one of the few who cared about him and watched out his well-being.

We were on our way to Benjamin's friend, Percy Daryl. Percy Daryl is an alchemist with short messy brown hair and blue eyes. He helped Piper's invention whenever he can, usually on weekends since he works at Rose City. Occasionally, he plays the guitar though there are times he couldn't get the chords right. Nevertheless, Piper decided to give it a try.

We saw Percy picking up the newspaper out of the front door, and noticed his fingers were bandaged.

"What happened to you?" I asked him.

He laughed a little. "Funny story. You could say cooking went wrong. Have you ever tasted 'burnt soup'? I would not recommend that."

Piper giggled. That was the first time I heard Piper laughed. Not only that, she just laughed to a lame joke!

"So what bring you guys here?" Percy asked.

"Piper is looking for a musician to perform with," I told him. "We thought you could help us but..."

"Bad time to get your hands burned," he sighed.

"What about you make me a potion to be good at playing instruments?" she asked.

Percy laughed. "As if I could whip up a potion with these fingers plus such potion doesn't exist, or does it? I'm putting that in my to-do list."

Piper didn't look disappointed when we left Percy's place. Her lips twitched a little, and I could tell that she was trying to hide her grin, and whenever she did that I knew she was up to something, always no good.

"What are you planning?" I asked nervously.

She nudged me on the elbow hard. "Just follow me and you will see."

Piper shook the canister of the end of her broomstick and got onto it. I followed her into the rest, using the familiar trail to Litmus's house. We saw him cooking scrambled eggs over a campfire.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as we got off the broomsticks.

"There are too many books in my kitchen that there is no place for cooking," he replied as he prodded the fire.

"Yeah... it doesn't look like you can live inside your house anymore," Piper commented. "Where's your pet, Boron?"

"Probably lost inside," Litmus teared up. "I haven't seen him since yesterday. Hopefully he is still alive."

Funny thing about Litmus is that he was creative in thinking up couplet spells, but not in organizing. "Why can't you just make your books disappear?"

Litmus gasped as if he saw something horrifying. "Make my books disappear? Each and every one of them is precious to me! I cannot simply do it!"

I sighed. "Then why don't you make them smaller? I know it's a temporary spell, but it's better than letting your pet suffocate, and whenever you need to use the kitchen."

"Great idea! Why didn't I think of that before?" he agreed as he took out his wand out of his jacket and faced his house. He chanted a couplet spell and books flew out of his windows and spiraled in the air, following the movement of the wand, shrunk into a size no bigger than an adult's thumb. I picked up the box Litmus sat and the tiny books filled in the box completely. Boron finally ran out of the house and Litmus hugged him.

"Look how thin you are!" said Litmus. "Come and eat breakfast with me. You two want some?"

"We already had one," said Piper. "Anyway, we're here to ask a favour."

"Don't include me," I whispered.

She ignored me. "Can you come up a couplet spell that can make me play an instrument? Preferably the strings kind."

I looked at her with disbelief. I know I said that cabaret aren't compet.i.tions to begin with, but she made it sound as if she was trying to cheat.

"I never used magic on people before, so it is kind of risky if I messed up," said Litmus, making Piper sighed before he continued. "But I remember enchanting my grandfather's old mandolin because I don't know how to play it when I was a kid."

Litmus ran into the house, stopped at the door to yell out how s.p.a.cious his house was before he continued running in and brought a dusty mandolin. Litmus dusted it off and handed it to Piper.

"Just think of a song and your fingers start playing it," said Litmus.

"Why did you stop playing it?" I asked.

He looked up to the sky, trying to remember his childhood. "Something happened I guess. I forgot."

Piper closed her eyes and her fingers began to move. She started to play a familiar upbeat song. It didn't sound like it was the song Piper was planning to sing for the cabaret; it sounded like Benjamin's original song.

Then the song came to an abrupt stop. Piper cursed and tried to remember her song. She tried again, playing her song this time.

"Sounds good so far," Litmus commented. Then Boron ran towards Piper and climbed onto her shoulder. It was a rare sight to see Boron climbing onto someone else other than Litmus.

When she started to sing, the trees rustled though there was no wind. Birds came out and chirped as they flew close to Piper. Little animals ran from the forest and gathered around. As more big animals coming towards us, the more I grew worried about the situation.

"I remember now!" Litmus exclaimed. "My grandpa made me stop playing, though I don't know what happened to me, but I saw animals running back into the forest, including this enormous-"

The ground shook. I almost lost my balance but Piper didn't budge at all. Tremor was getting stronger and stronger as I sensed something was getting closer to us. I could hear the trees breaking and a growl. Emerging from the forest was a creature larger than an elephant. It had grey fur, four long legs that the front part looked much like a hairy spider's, and it showed razor sharp teeth as it grinned.

"What the heck is that?!" I yelled.

"A magical creature called Spimole," Litmus replied. "I read that they are blind and dig deep into the caves, away from the outside noise since they have very sensitive hearing. They are more attracted to music from enchanted instruments."

"Then we should make Piper stop!" I demanded.

"Hold it!" Litmus stopped me. "You do know that once you stop her, you're exposing it to the outside noise. It'll go rampant!"

I couldn't believe Litmus was being calm in this situation. I never faced any creature bigger than Kuki before in my whole life. I thought of the solution.

"Get your broom, Litmus," I told him. As he ran inside, I picked up mine and whilst Piper in a trance, I mumbled a spell that could make her levitate and sit down on my broom. When Litmus came out of the house, I signaled him to follow me. The smaller animals couldn't catch up to our speed into the forest, but the Spimole did. The long trail of broken trees led us to an enormous cave.

I turned to Litmus. "Now Litmus, I want you to cast a spell on that mandolin so it keeps on playing."

Litmus took out his wand and cleared his voice. "Into the cave you go, and play the sweet song you know."

The mandolin changed the song and flew off Piper's hands, snapping her out of the trance. The Spimole ran into the cave, and following the mandolin until we couldn't hear the song anymore.

"What happened?" she asked as the both of us flew out of the cave. After I told her everything, she looked disappointed.

"I guessed I have nothing to play for the cabaret," she sighed.

"I think your singing is already enough," I rea.s.sured her. "If you sing confidently, there won't be any need for musical instrument."

"Thanks," she smiled. I returned with the smile, then I was startled by the sound of my voice whispering sinisterly among the trees. Litmus and Piper couldn't hear it, but I could.

「If you have gone deeper, you would have found me.」

Gooseb.u.mps rose as I heard it clearly. I never thought I would be hearing that voice again. The voice that is mine, yet did not belong to me at all. The voice was a warning that it was drawing near.

"Earth to Kurai!" Piper snapped her fingers in front of me. "I can't believe you can keep the broom stable even when you're s.p.a.cing out."

"I'm certified," I said. I avoided Litmus's question about what was going on in my head by announcing that we have arrived at his home. Piper picked up her broomstick that was lying next to the fire and sighed. She still looked dejected.

"You should really ask Benjamin," I suggested. "I know how much you hate him, but I don't think you have enough time to find another musician and practice. Not only that, if you memorized his song, then I'm sure he remembered yours as well. So please, put your feelings aside for one night, and then the next day you can kick him in the legs all you want."

Piper exhaled. "Alright, I'll listen to you this time, and just because I don't have enough time."

We said goodbye to Litmus and flew back to town. When we reached in front of the doorsteps, we couldn't hear Benjamin at all. It was almost time for cabaret. Piper knocked on the door and Benjamin opened. He didn't say anything but he pointed at his neck, trying to tell us that he had lost his voice.

"But you can still play the ukulele," I said to him. His exaggerated hand gestured tried to tell me that he had been waiting for so long for this and badly wanting to sing his song. Piper seemed to understand that as well.

"Then why don't I sing your song?" she asked. Benjamin and I were astonished by her decision. "Look, I know it's unlikely for me to cooperate with Benjamin, but it is not like we have enough time. I know your song by heart Benjamin, so bear with me for today."

Benjamin looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. "It's a rare opportunity, Benjamin. I would accept that offer if I were you."

He thought for a while, then nodded his head. I felt something was off about Benjamin, but I couldn't figure out what.

As soon as we went into Suncash Café, the cabaret had already started. We sat and watched old man presented limericks about his unfortunate day, making the audience laughed. Then it was followed by a teenage boy playing his flute. Evangeline was there, doing a series of spells, starting with a darkness spell followed by a starry sky couplet spell. I was proud of her that she was conquering her fear of standing in front of the crowd, even though her voice was shaking.

When it was Benjamin's turn, he and Piper stood up. The room gasped when they walked up to the stage. I guessed everybody knew about their relationship dynamic.

Benjamin nodded his head to signal Piper he was ready. Piper cleared her throat and Benjamin started to play the ukulele. She sang at the right time and they both synchronized. Listening to it one more time, I realized this song was dedicated to someone. When they reached the last chorus, Benjamin opened his mouth, and started to sing along.

"Oh we don't get along,

But we still sing this song,

'Cause you're my other half,

And you're the only friend I have

Left..."

The crowd gave them a standing ovation, but Piper was stunned. She immediately ran out of the café from the back door and Benjamin and I chased her.

"Wait Piper!" Benjamin managed to grab her wrist but she shook it off.

"You lied to me!" she turned around. Her face was red. "How could you lie to me?! I shouldn't have made that offer."

Benjamin pressed his lips together and looked down. "This song, I wrote it about us. I know we sort of hate each other, but you never abandon me. I tried to date so many girls just to get this feeling off my chest, but even when they all left me, you're still there by my side. This is the first time I wrote a song to someone special to me."

He looked at her with serious eyes. I have never seen him make such expression before. He took a deep breath and said to her. "Will you go out with me?"

❤︎

「But Piper didn't say anything. She turned around and ran off. This time, Benjamin didn't chase her. He knew that Piper wasn't ready to give an answer.

Piper has been avoiding us after that. We left her dinner outside her bedroom door, and thankfully, when I checked the halls in the middle of the night, the plate was empty. As for Benjamin, he remained quiet throughout the night, even when he was washing the dishes. The atmosphere felt too awkward for me, but I hoped that everything would be alright soon.

Love,

Kurai」