Something wasn’t completely right about her walk home.

Zadia clutched the strap of her satchel tighter as her curious gaze took in the passerbys flitting past. She recognized the group as scattered members of her neighbors family; a gaggle of individuals she’d seen in passing over the years but never in one lump group. Some were murmuring among themselves, but when she passed by Mr. Evir’s wife she knew something must have happened to him.

Mr. and Mrs. Evir were a younger couple that shared the apartment next door. She’d place them at just a few years shy of Maritza with two small girls and a baby on the way. Mrs. Evir stayed home with the children while Mr. Evir worked as a journalist. He worked long hours but made sure to spend as much time with his family as he could. Zadia didn’t think she’d ever seen him without a smile plastered on his face no matter how utterly exhausted he must have been. He always walked with her to the city square in the morning and she always suspected it as a courtesy to his father. An older way of thinking, something traditional and a little sexist, but somehow he never made it seem that way. He was just a kind man; one who passed far too soon.

As she carefully picked her way up the steps Zadia passed several people on their way down. Over the course of her walk up she was able to put together what had happened to Mr. Evir. Apparently over the past week he’d been feeling off. Usually when he came home he would eat a meal with the family, play with his daughters, and then head off to bed. This week, however, he’d gone straight to sleep every night. He’d also apparently complained of a chest ache that Mrs. Evir had begged him to at least talk to Uquin about, but he’d been stubborn. He never wanted to bother anyone with his problems and now he never would.

Standing at the top of the landing and looking down at the fading figures of Mr. Evir’s life felt surreal. How could someone so young pass that quickly? One moment he’d been here, excitedly chasing his daughter’s down the street and the next….gone. As she passed by his door Zadia briefly wondered if they’d already removed the body or if he was still in there, covered by a thin sheet awaiting his services. They did things differently in Belrea. Somehow their funeral services were more clinical and practiced, almost as if it were another one of their contraptions. With so many people piled into the cities she supposed it really was and without the presence of Gods to weigh them down what was the point in prayers for their souls? Still Zadia stopped by the door and closed her eyes. She murmured a little prayer, just something she’d picked up in Tale, and hoped that his death had been as quick as it sounded. The thought of him lying in that bed, unable to at least tell his partner he was suffering, until he passed worried her. What if the same thing happened to her mother? She’d always worried about her father passing, how could she not?, but now….now she had to worry about them all.

Knowing that her father was older had forced Zadia to appreciate every day she had with him, even when he annoyed her the most. Some days she could forget that there was a time gap between her parents and others, when his bones ached, she couldn’t help wondering. Would this be her family one day? Would she come home one day and find her parents, sprawled out in the floor or trapped in their beds? All at once she was fearful of even opening the door to her own apartment. She couldn’t live in fear of ‘what if’s but still…she didn’t want her parents to go as quickly as Mr. Evir.

For as much as she liked to pretend that she was grown in many ways Zadia was no different than Mr. Evir’s daughters. She still had so much to learn and the security that came with having her parents there to guide her made it all the easier. Their relationship was complicated, but she was glad to have had them for as long as she did. After all, she very well could have lost either one of them as a child and knowing them now Zadia didn’t want to think about it.

[756]