.jpeg)
Episode 1
The day when Letty's mother left her was unusually windy. The sound of the wind shaking the wooden window bars made Letty hunch her small shoulders.
“Letty, just wait here for ten nights. Mommy will be back soon.”
Letty's mother bent down toward the uneasy child in someone else’s arms.
"Where are you going…?"
Letty cautiously asked, meeting her mother’s eyes. Her sharp ears drooped as her mother softly patted her small forehead and kissed her.
"My good, sweet Letty."
She felt sorry for her daughter.
Her heart ached for such an obedient child who didn’t even cry or throw a tantrum like other children, begging her not to go. But the mother bit her lips, determined not to show her sorrow.
"To live happily with Letty, there’s something Mommy absolutely has to find."
She had to complete her task. To protect her precious daughter—so dear that even seeing her in pain hurt like nothing else—she was willing to do anything.
“My beautiful daughter, you can wait for Mommy, right?”
Her lips trembled as she asked. The corners of her mouth quivered, as if she were about to cry at any moment. Looking at her mother’s teary face, Letty nodded her small head.
“Don’t cry.”
Soon, her tiny fingers reached her mother’s tear-filled eyes.
“I’ll wait right here for you, Mommy. So, don’t cry, okay?”
The child frowned deeply, worried that her mother might shed even a single tear.
You told me not to cry, so why is my sweet daughter the one tearing up?
Letty's mother reached out her hand to wipe Letty's tear-soaked cheeks, but then hesitated and withdrew it. She feared that if she touched her daughter's soft, warm cheeks— the warmest in the world—she would never be able to leave.
As she hesitated and turned away, the snowstorm hungrily devoured her footprints.
Letty's mother left like that.
Even after ten nights, twenty nights, her mother didn’t return. Letty stared endlessly at the figure of her mother disappearing into the distance.
✦ ✦ ✦
300 francs. That was the amount Letty's mother left with Feyrin, the village neighbor, when she entrusted her daughter to her care.
It was a large sum of money—enough to sustain a family of three for six months without working. However, Letty had no choice but to believe Feyrin when she said she received nothing from Letty's mother.
‘Because of me, life became hard for Aunt Feyrin. That’s why she hates me.’
Otherwise, there was no way to explain Feyrin's sudden change in attitude.
When Letty lived with her mother, Feyrin was a relatively kind neighbor. Feyrin's daughters often came to Letty's house to play with her.
Back then, they would sometimes eat Letty's share of snacks or secretly take her toys. But they didn’t bully her relentlessly, like now.
[You’re nothing but a parasite, just a pest eating away at our family’s food!]
Remembering Feyrin's cold, bitter mutterings whenever she moved even a little too slowly, Letty hunched her neck and held her rumbling stomach.
‘I just have to eat less.’
Eating less wasn’t difficult. Fortunately, Feyrin's backyard was full of grass that snake beasts couldn’t eat. On days Feyrin refused to feed her, Letty could survive by eating weeds.
‘I just have to stay good and wait a little longer. Then Mommy will come back.’
For Letty, enduring loneliness was the hardest part. Many nights, she soaked her pillow with tears, longing for her mother.
Feyrin's daughters, Lingling and Panpan, insisted that Letty's mother had abandoned her, but Letty didn’t believe them.
‘Mommy loves me.’
On the nights when Letty was fussy, her mother would gently stroke her soft forehead until she fell asleep.
Even though she came home tired after working all day, her mother never left Letty alone until she was asleep.
[Letty, my beautiful daughter.]
My everything.
Letty knew how much her mother loved her. Just as her mother was her whole world, she knew she was her mother’s entire world too.
‘That’s why I have to wait patiently.’
If Feyrin grew tired of her and kicked her out of the house, it would be disastrous. Her mother would be heartbroken if Letty wasn’t there when she returned.
“Are you sick? Why are your hands so slow?”
Letty, who was scrubbing the kitchen floor with her small, frail hands, flinched and looked up.
Feyrin, with glaring eyes, stomped over to Letty and grabbed her thin shoulders roughly.
“I asked if you’re sick!”
“Ack!”
Startled, Letty fell backward, trembling.
Thud.
From under her skirt, a piece of bread she had hidden rolled out onto the floor.
Feyrin pointed at the moldy bread with the tip of her foot, her eyes sharp and menacing.
“You! Where did this bread come from? Don’t tell me you stole it?!”
Letty's small shoulders shook at Feyrin's loud scolding. Seeing the bread at her feet, Letty nervously licked her dry lips.
“N-no… Sister gave it to me.”
It was a piece of bread Lingling had deliberately given her after letting it sit in the attic to torment Letty. The moldy, hardened bread was too tough for her teeth to bite into, but it was her only food source.
“Don’t lie! Why would my daughter give bread to you?!”
Even though her voice became shrill, Feyrin was the one lying.
Despite the cold weather, which made even grazing on grass difficult, Feyrin's daughters still enjoyed three full meals a day, plus snacks.
“Give it here! I’d rather throw it to the pigs than let you have it.”
Tears welled in Letty's eyes as Feyrin snatched away the bread she had been saving for desperate hunger.
“Children with sticky fingers deserve to be beaten, but… Oh, my poor, soft heart. Have you finished scrubbing the kitchen floor?”
Sighing dramatically, as though she was lamenting her supposed kindness, Feyrin clicked her tongue at Letty's frail, dry brown hair.
“Y-yes, I have.”
“The sun’s already high in the sky, and you’re still not done? How can you be so slow?”
Since waking up early that morning, Letty had spent the entire day sweeping and scrubbing the house. Yet Feyrin glared at her ferociously, hurrying her along.
“Eating only makes you sluggish. Go hungry and work today.”
“Yes…”
Although hunger made her vision blur, working alone was better than staying under Feyrin's constant watch. Letty quickly slipped behind the kitchen cabinet.
“My angels, are you hungry? How about some snacks?”
Feyrin's voice suddenly turned sweet, as though she were an entirely different person.
From her crouched spot behind the cabinet, Letty peeked out, watching Feyrin and her daughters with vacant eyes.
“Huh? Of course, you should have snacks in the afternoon. Eating well helps you grow up strong and healthy, my princesses.”
“I don’t want it. You’re going to give us oatmeal cookies again!”
“Me neither, Mom. I’m sick of oatmeal cookies!”
Feyrin's daughters whined, shaking their chubby cheeks in dissatisfaction.
“Mom, we want sable cookies. The buttery ones like the ones Mei gave us last time!”
When Lingling mentioned the soft butter cookies that only rich kids could afford, Feyrin's expression darkened.
“We don’t have anything like that at home, Lingling. I’m so sorry, what should I do?”
“Then just buy some!”
“Yeah! We’re hungry!”
Feyrin's eyes glistened, as if lamenting her inability to get the snacks her daughters craved.
‘My mom always made sure to buy me what I wanted to eat….’
Every Wednesday, a market was held in Letty's village.
Letty loved the sweet donuts sold at the market, and her mother never forgot to bring some home on market days.
“My angels, I understand. Mommy will definitely get those cookies for you.”
Feyrin embraced Lingling and Panpan tightly.
Her daughters, leaning into her arms with a look of disinterest, simultaneously turned their heads away.
Thud.
The moment Letty made eye contact with them, she instinctively flinched and stepped back, but Panpan was quicker to react.
“Mom! She’s staring at us. It’s creepy.”
Hearing this, Feyrin stormed over to Letty and grabbed her skinny arm.
“I told you to clean the kitchen! Why are you just sitting there staring at my kids?”
“S-sorry!”
Afraid Feyrin might actually hit her this time, Letty quickly apologized. She hadn’t meant to stare—it just happened naturally.
‘I wish someone would hug me too….’
She couldn’t help but envy the children in Feyrin's arms.
Her envy grew so painful that it felt like her chest was being torn apart. She had no choice but to watch the scene in a trance.
“If you weren’t such a useless freeloader eating our food, my children wouldn’t have to miss out on what they want to eat!”
In reality, Letty wasn’t eating much at all; she was more like a helpful worker who took care of the house chores. But Feyrin couldn’t contain her misplaced anger and breathed heavily, trying to hold it in.
“Ugh, you little nuisance.”
Thwack!
Feyrin irritably pushed Letty's arm away. The small body was flung backward, hitting the wall before tumbling to the floor.
“Ahhh! M-Mom! Blood! She’s bleeding!”
Letty felt warmth at the top of her head. For the first time in a long while, she felt heat coursing through her body, and a faint smile formed on her lips.
‘It’s warm… I miss Mommy.’
It hurt. Her whole body felt like it was breaking apart. Glancing through the slightly open door, she caught sight of the bright red mailbox outside.
‘That’s right. I have to post my letter.’
The pigeon man had said so. If you wrote down what you wanted to say and put it in the mailbox, he would make sure it reached the intended person.
‘I have to tell Mommy that Letty is waiting patiently….’
Slowly.
Her eyelids, which had been blinking faintly, closed fully.
The world around her turned dark.
Comments
Post a Comment