"Turn the page."
Ryan's voice sounded, and every few minutes, the Earthbinder would say this. Then the banshee Alice would put down the old diary of Silbera Hayate and turn a page for the Earthbinder.
The two of them were not reading the same book.
Alice watched it from ten years ago, while Ryan watched it from the past three years. Sibella's letter was placed beside the bed and had been opened. There was no content in the letter, only one sentence, 'My son, read my diary, you will understand. '
In fact, Ryan didn't understand. Before he became the Earthbinder, this box had never been a secret. Even if he read the diary before, he didn't understand it. He didn't understand why his brother Ravenci left home; he didn't understand why his parents agreed to adopt Alice. Later, he kicked her out; as for now, it was even more impossible for him to understand why his parents had never had contact with him in three years, and even now, they left Barton directly.
Alice had already turned a few pages. The banshee realized that Ryan hadn't told her to turn the pages for a while. She raised her head and looked at Ryan floating in the air.
Ryan raised his head, not knowing what he was thinking.
"Aren't you going to turn the page?" Alice asked.
"It's useless to look at it anymore." Ryan's drifting body drew an afterimage in the air.
Alice put down the diary and asked, "Have you read all these old diaries?"
"I've seen it," Connor replied.
Alice pointed to a line of words: "'Winter has entered. I am very satisfied with the new yarn I bought. I want to be able to knit new sweaters for everyone before Thanksgiving. Last year's sweater seems to have little use... '"
"Why are you reading these!" Ryan glared at Alice dissatisfied. He had already seen these when he was a boy, and they were all trivial things. It's much more boring than the notes in the box recording the spell's potion formula.
Ryan's mother, Sibella's diary style has not changed at all, even in the past three years.
Alice ignored Ryan's complaints and continued reading: "'Last year's sweaters seem to be of little use, especially Ryan's. He grew up very fast, and last year's sweaters are already worn out. I'm going to put them all away tomorrow." What a shame to lose it and miss the church fundraiser.'"
"Ha! She never donates anything to the church! Missed it!" Ryan snorted.
Alice glanced at Ryan and continued to read back in the diary, reading, "'A very sad thing happened today. When I was discarding old things on Ogier Street, I lost my wallet. There were more than four hundred dollars in it. That's enough for one person to live for a month. Forget it, it's almost Thanksgiving, I hope the person who picked up my wallet will be grateful.'"
"Huh! She's always been like this, neglectful..."
Ryan's words were interrupted by Alice.
"I remember that winter. Your mother was wrong. I lived the whole winter on those four hundred dollars." Alice looked at Ryan like this. The Banshee has never been so peaceful.
The edge of Ryan's transparent body in the air was beating, and he didn't see him turn around. It was as if the smoke dispersed and gathered again, and Ryan's frown kept flashing.
"Of course, there are those sweaters. I remember that I liked the one with the red stripes the best because it fit the best." Alice thought for a while, stood up from her bed and walked to her closet, "You want Do you want to see it?" Alice opened the closet, pulled out a cardboard box from the bottom, opened it, and pushed it in front of Ryan.
"This is what I used to have." Alice dug out pieces of clothing. "Although all I can wear are boys' styles, I sleep on the street and don't have much choice. I can find these in the trash can. I'm very lucky, especially to find a wallet."
Alice was silent for a while, then repackaged the box, pushed it back to its original position, walked to the diary that Ryan had read before, and turned a few pages.
"'Spring is here, and at this time of year, Ryan would always be very excited because the Barton High School League was about to start. I always told him that being emotionally unstable is not a good thing, and it's easy to lose yourself, but he is. I'm just a teenager, and I don't always listen to what I say.'"
Ryan's body began to flicker, and the transparent body boundaries were merging with the air. As Sibella said, being emotional was not a good thing.
"'I should remind this child, well, let me think about it, what should I bring to see him? How about the flowers of the soul-inducing plant? I remember that before he left us, he seemed to be very interested in the soul-inducing plant. , it’s really a headache-inducing interest. Hey, that’s it, it’s decided. Fortunately, I planted a large number of soul-inducing grasses last year, otherwise there would seem to be some shortages this spring.'”
"That's enough!" Ryan yelled, "I don't want to hear it! Put this away! I don't want to see this!"
Alice looked at Ryan, whose body edges had completely merged with the air, and stopped reading. She put away the letter and the diary Ryan was reading, leaving the one she was reading, and continued reading.
Time passed with the sound of turning books, and another girl appeared at the door of Alice's room, "Alice! What are you looking at?" Laura jumped onto Alice's bed very familiarly, leaning against her. Her attention was still on the shoulder of her friend who was reading an old book, "Indian characters? Alice, you can actually understand Indian characters!"
Alice tilted her head, looked at her friend, and smiled helplessly, "I am an Indian!"
"But you were adopted here..." As soon as Laura finished speaking, she realized that she had used very sensitive words, and her voice immediately dropped, "I didn't mean that."
"I know." Alice patted Laura's hand, indicating that she didn't care.
Laura breathed a sigh of relief and curiously looked at the densely written notes, "What is this?"
"Diary, the diary of the family I once fostered, the owner." Alice said honestly.
Laura blinked, grabbed the diary, closed it, and threw it aside, "What are you looking at it for?! You told me that you used to live in Da..." Laura reacted quickly and avoided the sensitive part, " They are not good people!"
Alice smiled and took the diary, "I used to think so too, but in fact they are not that bad. At least they taught me Indian writing."
Laura frowned. She felt that her friend was too kind. Seeing Alice open the diary again, she asked: "What was written?"
"'Today I met the two people from before again. They looked at me and I looked at them. This scene is really ridiculous. I don't know whether it is more ridiculous that two people like that stand together, or that I actually look at them calmly. It’s even more ridiculous. But I have nothing to worry about. I wore a new shawl today. It’s a little heavy and it makes a soft knocking sound when I walk, causing passers-by to look at me.'"
"What's written here?" Laura asked doubtfully.
Alice ignored her friend's question. She was about to read the end and continued reading, "'It's a pity that there is no other way. I need to throw away the garbage I'm holding. Ryan (name, Alice did not translate it in federal language) has not been able to do it." Asthma, I don’t know why I buy so many asthma medicines. I can never believe the buy-one-get-one-free scam again.'"
"I heard Benjamin, you also had severe asthma before!" Laura seemed to remember something.
Alice smiled, "'I threw away the trash and looked at the two people behind me. This situation has to stop. I don't want to go out wearing such a heavy shawl every day. I made a gesture to them to stay here, and they seemed You see, they were still there until I turned the corner. Well, today is a strange day, and I’d better not come to Ogier Street again.'"
Alice closed her diary, and she no longer needed to read what happened next.
Laura looked at Alice's face with a smile, blinked her eyes, thought for a while, and still insisted on her position, "Still, they are not good people! They shouldn't have..." Laura found that the words were too sensitive. Too many to avoid. Moreover, this is a very private matter, and Laura should not have interfered in the first place. There was a look of frustration on the girl's face.
Alice didn't answer. She had already watched the first part in the morning, so Laura couldn't hear it. Alice just smiled and put the diary in the drawer, "Let's go find Benjamin."
Laura's frustration changed to another target, "He's not here, Matthew and Zach went out."
Alice said oh, not knowing what entertainment activities to prepare for her friends. Casa Grande is not an interesting place.
"Matthew is here?" Alice noticed the person Laura was talking about. At noon, when everyone was eating, Matthew's mother anxiously ran to the Grand House to inform Matthew that his father was injured, and then Benjamin gave him a holiday, and now he's here again.
"Well, he's down there, people waiting for Telecom, do you want to install a new phone?" Laura regained her frustration and asked.
"Yes, Zach needs to separate work and personal phone calls." Alice was not lying. She suddenly had an idea: "Let's go to the kitchen and make food for Matthew's father."
"Oh." Laura nodded, but still asked doubtfully, "What happened to his father?"
"I was injured during the church service. I originally gave him a day off, but he still came." Alice explained as she walked.
"Huh? You were also injured in the week?" Laura seemed surprised.
"Huh?" Alice looked at Laura, "What's wrong?"
"Someone in our West End area was also injured during church service. It was when my grandmother came back. Fortunately, I didn't follow her."
"Is Mrs. Barton okay?" Alice asked worriedly.
"Well, she's fine, but her friend was slightly injured." Laura thought for a while, "There's someone you should know, Mrs. Quinn."
Alice's steps faltered, "What's wrong with Mrs. Quinn?"
"Don't worry." Laura saw Alice's sudden excitement and comforted her, "Mrs. Quinn was only injured, but her caretaker doesn't seem to be in good condition."
Laura said in a loud voice, "Grandma, while praying, the priest's lectern suddenly fell down and hit the front row. She happened to be standing next to it and pulled Mrs. Quinn over, and she was pinned down."