A Bad Welcome Day
Maliah
After the lovely meal with my family. I knew it was time to speak with my brother and see how he was holding up.
“Hey Junior,” I knocked on the door of his room, resting my weight on it, and staring at him sweetly. He was so engrossed with his PlayStation that it took him a minute to identify that I was there.
“Enjoying your PlayStation?” I walked in and asked, the instant I knew I had his attention, he smiled at me with a light nod in response.
“Come here, I want to talk to you about something. Mom and I,” I said and immediately Mom came out of the hidden spot revealing herself to him.
“I heard you saw Dad on the front porch yesterday, and it made you cry. I wanted to know how you felt about that, and if you’re okay?” I looked at him, and the whole happy expression on his face had suddenly dried up at my question. But I needed to know this.
“I was scared. Mom pushed me inside so I wouldn’t see a thing, but when she called you and started to cry, I felt sad and cried too,” he explained.
I know he isn’t a kid anymore, and is grown as a 12-year-old boy. But to me, Junior remains my baby brother, always.
“Did I do anything wrong? Did something happen to Dad?” He was a bit terrified.
“No, of course not. You did nothing wrong. And Dad is perfectly fine, just receiving treatment,” I calmly explained to him.
“Is it true that Dad is gambling?” He asked looking up at Mom, and she turned her face around immediately and walked away.
“No, it’s not..,” I paused, confused about what to say, whilst wondering where he heard that.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked him, pushing a tight smile on my lips.
“I heard a few teachers talking about it, and looking at me with pity,” he explained, and immediately I engulfed him in a tight hug, trying to hide my tears and fears.
“Hey, they weren’t talking about Dad okay? So get back to your games, baby,” I whispered to him and started to tickle him, causing him to erupt in laughter…
“Stop it,” he barely could voice out, still laughing, I took my hands off him and raised them in the air in surrender, chuckling at him.
“I love you Maliah,” he jumped on me, and I hugged him tightly too brushing his hair in the process..
**A few days later**
“I couldn’t bring myself to go visit my father in the hospital, my mom was held with that responsibility and didn’t bother to say anything about it, ’cause she knew. I incorporated my time with spending and having so many good memories here with Junior, whilst trying to get up to date with work.
But today was different, Dad was coming back home today. Mom had left a few hours after I dropped Junior at school to go bring him home. She tasked me with cooking his meal, with a slice that I should have leftovers for Junior which kind of worked because I made the meals.
“We’re home, please fix your anger a bit,” she texted me, and I chuckled, staring at the text.
“We’re home,” she announced the moment they walked in while aiding him to walk to the sofa. He looked over at me and a smile spread across his face, while I stood against the door staring at me.
” I didn’t know you were back, baby?” He said and coughed, while I walked back to the kitchen, got him a glass of water, and handed it over to him, leaving the sitting room almost immediately.
“Maliah, I’m sorry,” he said.
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, angry that he got to use that word.
“No, you’re not. You don’t get to use that word with me. You don’t get to apologize and expect things to just fix itself. You don’t get to break this family and expect us to take the shit you throw at our faces and just smile and be back to being one happy family again.” I broke down in tears, now fully turned around and staring at him, in anger.
“You don’t get to screw us over and over again and just expect us to be fine with “I’m sorry”. It doesn’t work that way, you can’t ruin my life and manipulate your way back in, Father” I cleaned the tears that rolled down my cheeks, lashing out at him, ignoring the guilty look he had on.
“I mean it this time, it won’t happen again,” he said, making me even angrier.
“Oh yeah. Now spill the beans, How much do you own?” I questioned looking at him in anger.
“Nothing,” he fidgeted, and my mom grabbed me, holding me tight, pulling me away from his sight, when I screamed “Liar”.
“Let me be, if you won’t scream at him then I will. How does he always walk away from troubles and let us deal with it all the time,” I pulled away, and walked in front of him.
“Speak now,” I repeated
“A hundred grams,” he slowly responded, and I fell flat on the floor, shocked and confused.
“What?” And immediately I said that our door was pushed open when three men in black walked in…
“Please, don’t hurt my family,” Dad started to plead, his knees already on the ground, and tears filled in his eyes. I knew about this move. It was the bad guys the people Dad seemed to always own.
While that was still happening, someone else walked in, and you could feel how the atmosphere changed. We were flat on the ground while they pointed their guns at us. I looked over at Mom, who was shivering badly and looked so scared, and it was the same for me and Dad.
I tried to take a peep at the person who sat on one of the sofas, but he had this kind of hat from the 80s on and had worn a mask to close half his face.
“You had three days and your time was up, Hector. Where’s the body,” one of them kicked Dad asking him, while Mom screamed.
I didn’t feel guilt or worry for myself, but only for my mom. But while that was going on, I felt the eyes of the one who seemed to be the boss with his demeanor staring at me, making me feel awkward.
” I don’t have it yet, I just got dismissed from the hospital. I’ll pay as soon as I have it?” He responded.
“Well, you know the drill, Hector. We gave you three days and seeing you couldn’t pay up, we doubled it,” one of the three men had said while stepping on Dad, and causing him to shriek in pain.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
“Please let him go, we’ll get you your money. Give us more days, please,” Mom had begun to wail, and suddenly they stopped and retreated. I exhaled in relief glad that mom cried and had touched them, when the next thing I heard made my body shake in fear.
“Bring her, the girl,” the supposed leader said in a cold tone, and stood up to leave. And immediately at that moment, I felt them pick me off the floor, dragging me along with them while ignoring my cries…
“No please,” I begged, crying even harder now, as it sucked into my reality. My dad had successfully dragged me to his mess.
“Noo,” I cried, but instead I felt my nose covered with a handkerchief, and almost immediately I felt myself losing consciousness…