Chapter 44 - All Matters Are Fleeting

I looked at my father incredulously. Is that really a concern right now?

Then I noticed the tiny smirk on his face. D*mn it! It's one of his 'jokes' again. If it wasn't for my familiarity with him, I wouldn't even know he was making a 'joke'.

"Alright, you win!"

I said while raising my hands in surrender, not wanting to entangle with him on this matter.

The tiny smirk turned into a full smirk this time and he said,

"Let's go outside, your uncle Zaid came along."

Uncle Zaid is Walid's father for those who don't remember. But, why did he come?

"Weren't you shopping alone? Why is he here with you?"

Father looked at me like an idiot again! Whatsup with that look, old man!

"His son accompanied by his friends had an encounter with gangsters, you think he wouldn't come here?"

Well, that makes sense. Could Walid idiocy be rubbing on me? I shiver at the thought of that.

Standing up, I accompanied my father outside the small building. In the empty space, other than my car and the fuel truck, is an extra water truck with a big tank. From visual inspection, the tank of the water truck has the same volume as the fuel truck.

Another truck on the side is loaded with one of those big containers. If I guessed right, this contains the grains and other food products my father bought. Looks like he had 'gone for broke' while buying to the point he needed a container of this size.

From afar I saw my friends and transferred the fuel to the water truck. Though it's dangerous to keep fuel in a tank not designed for it, there is no other way. We don't want the neighbors to know we had such an amount of fuel in our hands in case something happened.

Other than my friends, a middle-aged man with gray hair, black eyes, tanned skin, and a body shape almost the same as Walid was overlooking them as they work. If it wasn't for the gray hair and some wrinkles, they could pass as twins. D*mn what a strong gene they had.

In case you didn't get it until now, this man is uncle Zaid, Walid's father. Also one of my father's best friends.

"Haven't they finished yet?"

Coming beside him, my father asked, causing uncle Zaid to look over with a smile then say,

"Not yet, they are barely halfway there."

Then he looked at me specifically. Don't know if it's my imagination, I swear his eyes were shining! WTF? I almost hid behind my father before hearing him gush with excitement,

"I heard you got a superpower! Quick tell you uncle, what is your superpower? Are you a mutant or did you have some sort of evolution? Don't tell me you are in the 'sole superhuman in the world' kind of setting!"

I was taken aback by this excitement, almost thinking it was Walid asking me again. Although uncle Zaid has a cheerful personality on weekdays, he never showed such eagerness in front of us, the younger generation before! Even my friends working on the truck looked over in amazement.

"Ahem!"

My father gave a cough, to tell his friend to stop embarrassing himself in front of the youngsters.

Uncle Zaid came back to his senses and lowered his excitement, but still looked over with a smile, and an expression of 'I'm not moving until you tell me'.

… I guess what they say is true, inside every man is a teenage soul that never really grows up on certain matters.

Before I could answer, my father told him directly.

"He got something similar to appraisal skill in the RPG games."

Uncle Zaid's eyes widened in surprise, and I swear! There must be a light bulb in his eyes! He tried to keep his excitement down and asked with a 'calm' tone,

"Can you use an appraisal on me and tell me what you see?"

Unfroutanly, I had to disappoint him.

"I can't control it yet. It only gets activated by itself when really needed."

His smile reduced a bit along with the imaginary light in his eyes that went off. but, he quickly recovered and said,

"It's okay, you can try once you can control it freely."

I gave him a nod and promised,

"No problem!"

Uncle Zaid wanted to ask some other question but, before he could ask any more, my father interjected and said,

"It's already dark outside and we haven't had dinner yet. I will take Laith with me to buy something for us to eat."

Nice save old man!

Uncle Zaid looked at my father as if asking him, why did you stop me? However, my father ignored him and told me to take out my car keys.

I didn't have them on me, so the keys are most likely to be with the rest of my stuff in the waiting room.

"The keys are inside, I will be back in a minute."

I said then hurried to the waiting room, just as I arrived, something similar to what happened after the first time I woke up from the 'awakening' happened again.

Hunger! A b*tch a** hunger!

I fell on the nearest couch while clenching both hands over my stomach with gritted teeth.

Thankfully, I Was quite full this time, and the feeling was fleeting. It ended in 5 seconds, with no after effects other than my digestive system going on a momentary overdrive all of a sudden. It took another minute for my digestive system to go back to 'normal', followed by another agonizing trip to the bathroom, bringing back the s*it vampire to the scene.

I had to refuel on food and drinks again before going back outside with my backpack and the gun strapped in the hostler again.

Father looked at me with a questioning look, then he saw the 'shit vampire' look on my face and asked,

"What happened to you? Why are you so pale like that?"

I shrugged them shoulders helplessly and said,

"Nothing, all matters are fleeting, you can't hold what's dear forever, you have to let go of the old at some point and welcome the new."

Father and uncle Zaid looked at me in confusion, wondering what bullshit I'm spewing.

*thud* *thud*

"Why are you speaking nonsense right now?"

Uncle Zaid gave me two strong pats and my shoulder and asked.

"His digestive system is working faster than normal, like way faster. He probably had diarrhea again, and had to eat to replenish his body with enough food."

Salem sprung up from somewhere all of a sudden and explained.

Uncle Zaid looked at my father with some pity and said,

"You will have to feed such a child in the future! Pity you! You are going to be broke."

My father didn't say anything in response, he just nodded in agreement.

I looked at them speechless. Is that all of your concern right now? I got superpowers, what is an increase in some food expenses compared to superpowers!?

Then the two looked at me with a smirk and I knew they were just messing with me. Those old farts!