Elevation of Mana Chapter 180 Disappointment and Tears

Adia

I sighed as I looked around at all my friends, and our one open chair. Lunch was so long ago so where was he? Daddy always came to see me after lunch for tea, always. Well, I guess sometimes he missed it, but if he did he would tell me in the morning that he was going to, but he hadn't today I was sure, so where was here?

Mad? Sad? I didn't know, but I was unhappy, and no matter how hard I tried I still felt the frown pulling at my lips, pulling me down. There was even a tear trying to get out of my eye, but I wouldn't let it, I was big, I could handle being a little unhappy.

Just as I was pulling back a sniffle the door flew open and there he was, standing and looking almost hurt.

“I'm so sorry sweetie, I forgot to take my alarm with me,” he puffed out.

“You weren't here!” I accused.

“No, I am late, and I am sorry Adia,” he said as he came and knelt beside me so I could look in his eyes. “I made a mistake, everyone does sometimes, and while that's not a reason it will happen. I can't promise that I will always be right dear, but I will try. Can you forgive me?”

“You're supposed to be here for tea,” I pouted, crossing my arms.

“As I said, I made a mistake. We all make mistakes sometimes.” I saw him nod towards one of my toys, a stuffed doll and tried to look away.

He'd given me that doll some time ago, and almost the next day I'd tripped, ripping its arm off when I fell on it. It hurt, and I was so sad, crying and trying to make it right. He didn't see it though, nor did mommy and I'd hid it, not wanting them to see that I'd broken something brand new.

The next day at tea though he asked where it was, since he knew I liked it, and must have seen something, because he almost seemed to know something had happened. Daddy wasn't mad though, and when he saw me crying again and saying I was sorry he just smiled and patted my head. I could remember his words as he picked me up and carried me over to his chair. “It's okay, mistakes happen.” That night he took me down to one of the workshops and fixed it while letting me sit on his lap.

I thought and thought, chewing on my lip.

“Okay, but you're supposed to be where you are supposed to be,” I said after a time.

He leaned down kissed my head before going back to where he normally sat and looked over at me.

“So what is going on with you?” he asked as I poured some tea in his cup.

“Mommy is playing with rocks,” I told him seriously, because well, she had been.

“Playing with rocks?” he asked a bit confused.

“Yes, playing with rocks, normally only you play with rocks.”

He laughed for a moment. “Yes, I guess I do play with rocks a lot. Do you know why?” he asked.

“Because you are silly.”

That made him laugh more, but he really shouldn't be. He was after all silly, and his silly was starting to get into other people around. Uncle Chien was already too much like him, though also serious sometimes, and now he was getting to mommy too. That was no good, no good at all. How long until I too became full of nonsense, knocking holes in our house and playing with rocks. Actually rocks were kind of cool, but no, no we couldn't have that. Someone had to make sure things were right.

“I suppose I am, but I do have reasons for it,” he said after seeing my face.

“Mmm,” I said, disagreeing as I pretended to drink my tea.

“It's strong today,” he said after another sip.

“You're late.”

“True, well I'll have to ask your mother why she's off playing with rocks myself. Is there anything else going on?”

We talked for awhile, a good long while about this and that. I had so many things going on all day today, there was a bug that was playing on one of the windows, and one of the workers was doing something loud while trying to move some equipment, and all kinds of things. Eventually though he had to go.

That afternoon I went out into one of the courtyards. A couple of the people who worked here had kids too, and today we were going to go and play. There was Oa, who was older, almost an adult since she was like thirteen, and then there was Lio, who was about my age. Oa, mostly ignored us, instead playing other games by herself, only looking over every now and then to see what we were doing.

Lio and I played tag, a game dad had taught me, and it was fun running around. We went back and forth across the courtyard, trying to get Oa to join us, but she didn't want to, not even bothering to tag one of us when she was 'it' and instead telling us to go away.

As we were going Lio fell on a loose rock and smacked his head on the ground. Instantly he was crying and Oa was up and running towards us.

“What happened? Are you okay!?” she asked, looking at me even though I wasn't hurt. “If you're hurt mom will be so mad.”

“It's Lio!” I told her, pulling away and going back to him.

“I fell!” he bawled, sitting up, red flowing down his face.

“We need to get someone, that's a lot of blood. Adia, stay here, don't move.”

“It's gonna be okay Lio,” I told him, knowing that mommy could patch that up in a second even if nobody else could.

He had a big cut on his head and it was pouring out blood, making him scared and cry. It would be fine though, I knew it would be fine, and I wanted him to feel better, not to hurt.

“I didn't mean to,” he said through the tears.

“We all make mistakes,” I told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, just wishing his cut would go away.

The world seemed to pulse with a bright glow I'd never seen before, and I felt things moving. His head was hurt and it shouldn't be, it wasn't right that it was. No, it was right for it to be better, for it not to hurt, for it not to bleed, or anything like that. As I thought that, as I put my hand on his shoulder it felt like there was a light in my arm, a light that moved into him and right up to his head.

His big cut started to shift, to fill in with skin, to stop bleeding, and in a second it looked like it just went away, like it had never been there in the first place. I blinked at the weird sight, who had done that? Even in that moment I felt so tired, so sleepy.

“It'll be okay, it'll be okay, I'm gonna lay down now,” I said as I curled up on the ground, sleep taking me like I'd tried to stay up late.