“Brian, I’ll be late tonight.
Take this money for your lunch and dinner.”
That was Mum. She was always
busy with her job. What kind of job? I never knew. Fortunately Dad was
different. He cared about us, me and Johnny, my younger brother. He was such a
lovely man. Unluckily, fate was not by my side as Dad died of lung cancer three
years ago and the loss really hit me awfully. Luckily, we had Grandpa. Grandpa
was the only man that we could depend on. Pity us! Once again, we lost somebody
we loved. Grandpa left us because of heart attack and Mum had become the famous
heiress of Grandpa’s wealth. I guessed God had planned everything so well as
Mum tied the knot with Edward, a not-so-popular actor 3 months after Grandpa’s
death. My buddies would think I was lucky because I got everything from Mum but
that was meaningless as I was actually craving for love. Love of a mother.
That midnight, the bright
flashes of lightning lit up the dark sky and this was immediately followed by
deafening blasts of thunder. As usual, Johnny and I stayed up late to watch a
new released movie that we had been waiting for, The Avengers. Mum was upstairs
resting and Edward was nowhere to be seen. Out of the blue, while I was
glancing at the window wondering about my future, I noticed a shadow when the
lightning flashed outside. I was stunned for a while and I hugged my
strawberry-like pillow tightly. I did not tell Johnny about it. Perhaps, it was
just my illusion. I continued watching the movie and I stuffed a lot of popcorn
in my mouth to calm down my nervousness.
“Prang.” I was shaken by the
sound from the kitchen. Johnny looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders.
Johnny held my right hand firmly and urged me to go to the kitchen. I got up
dragging my feet to the kitchen carefully. Johnny was right behind me following
me closely. We hid behind the wall and observed the kitchen carefully. All I
could see was just my lovely Vietnamese vase gifted by Dad broken into pieces.
I continued studying the kitchen and I was relieved as no stranger was seen to
be there. I entered the kitchen cautiously and slowly, I picked up the pieces
of vase scattered on the floor. Johnny got a broom behind the kitchen door and
swept the remaining bits of the vase.
After we had cleaned everything,
we went out from the kitchen and headed to the living room to continue watching
the movie. My focus was not to the movie. I was marvelling the strange thing
happened in the kitchen. How could the vase fall on the floor? Was it the wind?
It was ridiculous as the vase was quite heavy. Out of sudden, I could hear Mum’s
voice shrieking in fear. Johnny and I dashed upstairs to the master bedroom. We
turned the knob but to no avail as the burgundy teak door was locked from
inside. We kicked and pushed the door with all our might but still the door did
not move a bit.
“The spare key!” I sprinted to
the store to get the key. When I returned to Mum’s room, Johnny was still
trying hard to open the door. I placed the key inside the keyhole and voila!
The door could be unlocked. I yelled for Mum but I could not see her in the
room. I searched for her at every inch of the room and finally, I found her. I
found her lifeless body next to the safety box. She was stabbed to death. I
could not describe my feeling that time. Should I lament her death? Should I
call the ambulance? I was in dilemma. Shockingly, the safety box’s door was
wide open and it was totally empty. The documents, Mum’s jewellery and cash
were nowhere to be seen.
“Brian!” Johnny’s scream made me
turn to him out of sudden. He was standing at the balcony, stupefied. I
approached him and I was extremely shocked when I saw Edward was lying motionlessly
on the grass with blood splattered from his mouth. All I could see next to him
were the documents, Mum’s jewellery and money. I did not know whether to cry or
smile as Edward had received his punishment for stealing our property.
After the tragedy, Johnny and I were
the richest brothers in Arizona as we inherited Mum’s wealth. Mum was safely
cremated and I did not know what happened to Edward after the police brought
him to the hospital. For us, every cloud has a silver lining.
Khadijah,
505
