Chapter 436: Communication
Charles sat with furrowed brows while staring at the diary on the table. It had been thirty minutes since he sat down and stared at the book.
Hoot! Hoot! Hoooot!
A mechanical bird popped out of the grandfather clock, interrupting Charles' train of thought.
Charles gnashed his teeth and flipped the diary until he found Sparkle's sketch that Anna had left behind for him long ago.
"Sparkle? Sparkle?" Charles said, tapping on the sketch with his finger.
Wriggling tentacles riddled with green eyes squirmed out of the sketch; they soon converged, transforming into a little girl about a meter tall in front of Charles.
Charles crouched to meet Sparkle's eye level and patted her head gently before asking softly, "Sparkle, what is Mommy doing over there?"
"She's eating; she seemed hungry, and she ate a lotlike a lot," Sparkle replied truthfully.
"Oh" Charles nodded in understanding. After a brief moment of contemplation, Charles said, "Can you go back and tell her that Daddy wants to have a good chat with her? Can you tell her to come over here?"
Sparkle blinked, but she soon disappeared with a flash of light.
A few seconds later, Sparkle reappeared in front of Charles and said, "Mommy said that she doesn't want to come here."
Charles sighed and said, "Then, can you tell her that Daddy is sorry? Daddy acknowledges his mistake. Daddy shouldn't have argued with her in the first place, and Daddy knows what to do now, and we should have a talk about it."
Sparkle disappeared once more, but it didn't even take her a few seconds to return.
"Mommy said that she doesn't want to talk to you right now."
Charles sighed. Anna was truly angry at him.
Now that he thought about it, this was their first major fight. However, the realization made Charles feel even worse; it seemed that Anna had been quietly compromising for him. Perhaps she had always felt aggrieved and had simply been bottling it up until now.
The despondent Charles sat back on the chair, recalling his argument with Anna not too long ago. Anna's words kept replaying in his head, and he couldn't help but feel a bit irritated.
To be honest, Charles was willing to compromise if it were other matters.
However, they had argued over the one and only matter he couldn't afford to compromise on. After all, giving up his quest for the surface world would mean throwing away his efforts over the last thirteen years.
Charles had already signed a contract with the Pope as well, and there was also the Pope's promise to resurrect Lily.
He had written that contract to put a shackle on the Pope, but it was also a shackle on him. If he were to stop his quest for the surface world, the black marker would kill him.
Charles wanted to explain that to Anna, but she didn't want to see him in the meantime.
While Charles was immersed in his own thoughts, he noticed that Sparkle hadn't left and was staring at him with wide eyes.
Charles was instantly reminded of Sparkle's words from that audio recording; he crouched and stared into Sparkle's green eyes, saying, "Sparkle, I'm sorry, but my quest will soon be over. Regardless of the result, I'm not going to kick up a fuss; I'll stay here with you guys once my quest is over."
Sparkle seemed hesitant at first, but she eventually stretched her tiny arms and wrapped them around Charles' neck. "Can Daddy stop going out to sea? Nene's daddy went out to sea one day, and he never came back."
Charles felt suffocated just then as if someone had swung a hammer toward his chest. He had many excuses to say, but he couldn't say any of them in the face of Sparkle's persuasion.
Charles lifted Sparkle by her armpits and stared at her intently. Sparkle's eyes quivered, seemingly nervous under Charles' scrutinizing gaze.
Charles could still remember how his father had done the same thing he had been doing to Sparkle. However, Charles was even worse, as he had never truly spent time with Sparkle.
"I guess I'm a bad husband and father," Charles said, criticizing himself.
"Mmhm. Nene also said that you're a bad daddy." Sparkle nodded in agreement.
Charles chuckled in spite of himself upon seeing Sparkle nod at him repeatedly. He smiled wryly and said, "Sparkle, why don't we go out and play today? Just the two of us."
"Mmhm!" Sparkle's eyes lit up the moment she heard the word "play."
Charles lifted Sparkle onto his shoulders and carried Sparkle outside the Governor's Mansion. To ensure that no one would recognize him so easily, Charles had put on ordinary attire.
Charles looked no different from the fathers strolling around with their children in tow as he walked down the streets of Hope Island with Sparkle on his shoulder.
"Here, take this," Charles said, handing over the cup in his hand to Sparkle above him. "That's a sweet drink made from bananas. It's called banana wine, but it's not actually alcohol. It's a beverage that children like you can drink."
Sparkle accepted the cup and licked the liquid inside with her tiny tongue.
Charles had zero experience with childrearing. However, it wasn't like he couldn't learn how to raise a child with his father as a role model.
"Is it tasty?" Charles asked with a smile.
"I don't know. I can't taste it," Sparkle answered.
Charles looked up in surprise. "What? You can't taste it?"
"Mmhm. I can't taste the things that everyone eats."
Charles put down the crab leg in his hand. He had never thought that Sparkle wouldn't have a sense of taste. "You can't taste anything?"
Sparkle tilted her head at the question. "No, I can taste what Mommy eats, but they taste very bitter, so I don't like them."
"Oh, I see," Charles muttered. Standing in the middle of the street, Charles pondered briefly before turning right. "Let's go somewhere else to have fun, then."
Charles relied on his memory to find his way in front of a small shop. The shop was a small puppet theater, and tiny palm-sized puppets clad in many different outfits danced on a stage, performing a play.
Charles had been here before with Lily, and he brought Sparkle here, believing that children would love puppets.
The table-sized stage was decorated to resemble the vast sea, and the story was about a group of pirates searching for treasure. The play was fast-paced and full of excitement; the puppets moved quickly, and they could even grab props and release them, just like real people.
The children sat in a circle around the stage, completely enthralled by the puppets.
Sparkle was unwittingly transfixed on the play as well, and the sight made Charles sigh in relief. It was great that she seemed to like the play.
A middle-aged man holding his son's hand chuckled and said, "How come I've never seen you around here, man? Have you just arrived on the island with your daughter?"
Charles had no intentions of chatting with other people, so he replied perfunctorily. However, he didn't expect that the middle-aged man would be kind enough to advise them.
"Adventure stories like this are tailored for boys. You should come back here tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, the show is going to be The Tale of Princess Sissi. It's quite popular with the girls."
Sparkle raised her hand just then and pointed at the tiny stage. "Daddy, I want that tiny moving person."
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