Shiguma rushed both of his feet into school's pavement, breathing heavily.
At the same moment, a group of students were slowly walking past and glancing at him with curiosity.
But he didn't even noticed them
In his eyes, they are nothing more than a mere background.
As he reached the end of the path. The roof, which covered pavement along the way, also ended here.
Shiguma Quicky rose both of hands as the shield against scorching sunlight.
He couldn't afford to collapse from the heat now.
. . . . . . . . . .
Shiguma jumped off the bike as soon as the front tire touched the road's curb.
He pushed down the kickstand, but the bike still moved forward, and crashed into the hedge.
Shiguma take a look at it for a moment, but did not care to pick it up.
Instead, he rushed toward the flat building without looking at anything surrounding him but the sign written boldly on the entrance as " Ramaya, The Hospital of the Village."
He pushed though the door and passed through bright hallway filled by hundreds of different faces.
Shiguma squeezed himself through these crowd one by one. Until he reached the registration, where he finally found a familiar face.
"Is Mr. Somsit here?"
Shiguma instantly asked the nurse with a rushing voice.
his mind want to know the answer to the point that he did not even heard any complained on why he skipped the queue.
"Yes, he recently entered the hospital after fainting in the morning," the nurse speaks out with clear voice. "Don't worry, his condition is already stable."
As soon as the nurse confirmed, Shiguma breathed out all the heaviness inside his chest.
For a brief moment, his entire body got lighter, and shiguma slowly heard the world around him spoke again.
" where is him "
Shiguma asked, he need to get to his Uncle quick. despite knowing His Uncle is already ok.
because His uncle isn't fully saves,
The nurse said he was stable.
Stable wasn't cured.
For nearly a year, his uncle had been faint without warning.
The faint ate his conscious for an hour before he finally waking up.
it could happen at any time.
The doctors found no infection.
No damaged organs.
Nothing that explained why he kept fainting.
Every answer only led to more questions.
That was why Shiguma had to joined the chess tournament.
he could earn enough money for a transfer to a hospital in Bangkok.
he did it.
And now-
"NO NO NO!" Shiguma's uncle screamed loudly behind a hospital curtain, loud enough to make several patients sit upright on their beds.
"Mr. Somsit, please calm down and listen to me first," the doctor said with both his palms open. "We don't know the cause of your disease yet...that's why we have to send you to a better hospital."
"I am not going there!!!" An old man tightens his grip on the pillow.
" We aren't the one who making that decision " the doctor sighed loudly. " It's your nephew."
As soon as the names cross Shiguma's uncle's ears, his grip over the pillow gradually loosens.
Bodies that used to be twitching around also came to a halt.
before Shiguma's Uncle started to raise his eyebrows.
"Shiguma, huh?...He would never—"
Before those sentences were finished, the curtain that was walling around his bed instanly rolled open.
a familiar face in white school uniform and the same old black shoes.
Shiguma.
He stood beside the nurse with a blank face.
yet, it filled with disappointment inward.
"Shiguma?"
Shiguma looked at his uncle without responding to the call. Then he stepped forward, ignoring the doctor and nurse as if they were nothing more than decorations.
Even though he could clearly sense their thoughts and feelings, just like everyone else's.
But when looking at His uncle, it was different.
There was only silence.
Shiguma had always hoped that one day he would finally hear his uncle's thoughts and feel what he felt.
But that day might never come.
"I am doing this for your health... Uncle," Shiguma sat down beside his Uncle and spoke out within restrained voice. "Why did you insist on not getting transferred...?"
His Uncle turned away from Shiguma, avoiding his nepthew eye to staring up to the celing.
he swallow hard, and let the silence answered for him
" uncle? "
But Shiguma insisted, forcing him to answered.
"I have my reasons, Shiguma." He leaned his body forward before tapping lightly on Shiguma's shoulder. "I know that you care about me... But I can't stay away from this village."
Shiguma frozed.
With Such a gentle, yet strong, statement from his uncle makes Shiguma's feet tremble on their own.
He lowered his gaze, expecting to see what had happened to those feet.
Instead, all he saw were the black shoes covering them.
an unpleasant,
That's what he feels in this moment.
Shiguma rose to his feet again and looked at the doctor, as he came up with a final decision
"I cancel the plan for transferring."
Suddenly, everything fell silent. An assistant pushing a wheelchair abruptly stopped. even a patients whom intened to go to the toilet
Everybody in the room slowly turned their heads toward Shiguma.
especially the doctor and the nurse, which neither of them expected those words.
Shiguma had spent weeks talking about the transfer. He had promised that he would send his uncle to a better hospital the moment he had enough money.
And now he was canceling it.
That decision hurt them.
But not as much as it hurt Shiguma.
. . . . . . . . . .
Shiguma walks his bike along the narrow concrete path, the only road that leads them to their home.
He looked at his uncle, who stood in front, and noticed his hair was already fully gray.
Shiguma never really counted his Uncle ages, it's probaly 76-77 this year,
despite the age, his strength are as strong as a young man's; shiguma saw him carry 2 stacks of rice bags on his shoulder with ease and saw him ride an angry buffalo and clam it down.
Shiguma so sure that His uncle could've easily beaten everybody in the same age to death
Only if he never caught those strange sickness.
Just hope he gets better.
Shiguma turned away from his Uncle, and looked on the side way
The rice fields surrounding both sides of the roads. when look furthur it was a hill that stood in between the sun which slowly fell down on the horizons. taking away the last light of the day.
Everything looked just like every single day. beautiful home in countryside
But stillness...? This thing was extraordinary.
Especially when the sun starts to go down, he should feel a gentle wind blow through.
But now not even a slight coldness of wind touch shiguma skin.
"Oh..."
Shiguma's uncle abruptly stopped at the forest entrance.
At this hour, the forest was already swallowed by darkness. and could barely see beyond the first line of trees.
excepted the Big sign written "DO NOT ENTER" , hangging from one of the trees.
Despited the sized, Shiguma uncle didn't seem to paid attention to it at all.
He just standing there patiently. Waiting for something to came.
"I think that cat will not come, Uncle." Shiguma walked behind his Uncle, and wispering quietly.
Once Uncle heard those words, he immedealy turned and smile warmly.
But then that smiles quickly faded, replaced by quiet sadness.
"Maybe you're right...he probably found a better place."
Shiguma nods to comfort his uncle, Even though he did not believe that the cat could actually survive.
Because this place is the "forbidden forest."
His uncle should know better than him. Because he was the one who told those tales.
A tales which passed from generation to generation..
A long time ago, this forest was the home to Shaman. No one dares to come; no one dares to cross.
The Shaman?
They are a group of people who wield the powers, twisting the nature and causing devastating to anything without a touch.
They called it Arkhom.
It's the force that allowed them to control the natural or burn entire kingdom with just a chant.
He never seen one. Since all of them have disappeared from this place long time ago.
Maybe they vanished in rebellious against one another.
Maybe got genocided by a swarm of malevolent spirits.
Or even were wiped out by an ancient civilization that was thriving and eventually replaced.
What's really happened to them, remained uncertain.
But his Uncle told, This forest was forbidden, when the shaman cursed this forest to consume everyone that dared to enter.
Shiguma never believed in it until he was nine years old.
While He played hide-and-seek with a childhood friend.
One of them entered the forest.
And never returned.
when an adult found his friend's body in front of the forest.
There were no visible wounds anywhere on the bodies.
But a frightened face that shows what his friend had seen before the last breath.
At least that's what Shiguma remembered.
After being lost in thought, Shiguma's eyes automatically turned to the small wooden house, placed at the entrance of the forest.
That's the place where They founded his friend bodies.
some of the villager believed they abandoned the spirit who rest inside this wooden house. combine with the boy forbidden crossed into the forest make The spirit become angry and killed the boy.
They scared that the spirit would curse them if they did nothing.
To prevent furthur bad omen, they decieded to put up a fence around the entrance of the forest
and also started worshipping.
passerby started to place anything in front of small house until There are several old bottles, like Coke...red soda, strewn around.
While everybody believed it had the spirit inside, Shiguma doesn't feel like it.
Normally, In the spirit house there should be at least one Guardian spirit statue placed inside.
But here there is only the emptyness.
empty enough for one small cat to fit inside.
Shiguma remembered it well that His uncle's cat would usually sleep in there and come out whenever food arrived.
Right now there's nothing inside.
And When he looked around
above on the sky, on the rice fields at left and right of the road. The cricket screams, bird echoes, or even usual voices of frogs can't be heard.
All of them dissapeared the same as his Uncle cat
An uneasy feeling started to creep into Shiguma chest.
Something was wrong.
"Where are all the animals?"
Shiguma asked the question almost without thinking. But it coming directly from his gut
For a moment, his uncle slowly turned toward him.
And Shiguma froze.
His uncle's eyes were unnaturally wide, the skin around them pale and tense.
Shiguma flinched backward from shock.
Then, as if nothing had happened, His uncle expression vanished. and returned to the same familiar kindness.
"You are probably thinking too much."
His uncle told shiguma with the same voice he had heard his entire life.
Without another word, his uncle turned and continued walking toward home.
Shiguma quietly let out a breath.
Maybe it really was just stress from everything that had happened today.
Maybe he had imagined it.
Maybe just his imagination.....
. . . . . . . . . .