Son? Did Messy Sippy say that? It's not a big deal, though; I'm just curious why she would say that if she's not officially married to my dad. As far as I can remember, they just met a month ago at a bar.
My mother once told me that to love a girl is to know her inside out. From how she treats others to her deepest secrets, I decided not to enter into a relationship with a person I just met. It will only hurt me to love someone who will leave me in the end for some personal reasons. That shall be applied to my father as well, but it seems like all he wants are physical needs.
I walked out of my house and gave them an opportunity to continue what they were doing. I didn't care if they would kill each other since they were already dead for me a long time ago. I realized how true it is that there are just people who are alive, but they won't make us feel like they do exist.
I will focus on my studies instead. I don't want to stay with them forever. I told my friend that I wish to travel abroad, to go to Germany, and start a new life where no one knows me.
Kiko's mother, Mrs. McBald, is sitting on her wooden rocking chair on the front planked floor porch of their house, facing out to the dusty street. In contrast to Kiko's size, she looks thin as her bones are visible. Maybe it is an effect of being a hardworking mother, or maybe it is because her husband always hurts her? Their situation is woeful, but I don't want to step beyond that boundary.
"Good day, Mrs. McBald." I greeted her politely and asked, "Is Kiko still here?"
"Ezekiel, is that you?" She slowly pronounced every word as she gently rubbed her eyelids that she could barely open. She was trying to recognize my handsome face, but it seemed like she couldn't.
I don't really know how my friend could make those jokes, regardless of his family's situation. His mother has many health problems, though she is still young, as they were just the same age as my mother.
People come and go, so Kiko should spend more time with his mother instead of causing more troubles, or else he will regret it later. Based on her situation, I can say that Mrs. McBald won't last longer. If I can only do something, I'm just a mere lad who's trying to survive on his own.
"Yes, Mrs. McBald, I'm Ezekiel, your neighbor. I just want to ask if my friend Kiko is still here," I repeated.
"I'm sorry, Ezekiel, I can't recognize you easily. I'm having glaucoma. Just go inside the house. Kiko is still eating lunch," she replied.
I feel great sympathy for Mrs. McBald because she is gradually losing her sight. I don't know why they didn't consult a doctor. If I can only bring her to an optometrist, I have already done it. But I don't even have enough money for my school projects, so how can I help her?
I'm only relying on my mother's savings. Edward doesn't really care if I starve and die from hunger. He always prioritized his own vices and that woman. I can say that he's an irresponsible father.
How I wish my father wasn't him. How I wish I had a more carefree life and didn't have to work hard to survive. How I wish I was born into a wealthy family. I've been asking myself why life is so unfair.
Kiko's father, on the other hand, Mr. McBald, may be a grim man. It's woeful to see his wife in this condition, as if she caught all the punches from him. Those bruises are always present on her skinny body. But I can't judge things without evidence.
Immediately, I went inside Kiko's house. I saw many beautiful paintings hanging on the walls. I can say that his father loves to paint. Every time I visit here, I notice a new masterpiece. Kiko told me that his father studied fine arts, but he didn't manage to have a degree for some reasons that I don't know.
I haven't seen Mr. McBald. Perhaps he's gone to work. He's always been a hardworking father; as Kiko told me, he's doing everything to send him to school. I'm kind of jealous of him, though he never showed any appreciation for his father's hard work.
When I entered their dining room, I caught Kiko wanting to engulf the whole roasted chicken that was innocently nesting on the plate.
"Hey!" I exclaimed before he could perform that sinful act. "Be careful of your health!"
Kiko looked back and saw me walking towards him. His face grew red with embarrassment as he avoided looking at me. He just stood up and covered the undressed chicken with a bigger bowl. He then went to the sink and washed his hands.
"How did you get inside?" Kiko asked. He sounds like he didn't want me to get there, or maybe he's just annoyed that I stopped him from eating his chicken.
"We are friends. Don't you trust me? And there are too many questions to ask, but why are you asking me that?" I sat down on the chair beside the table, trying to behave myself.
"I was just trying to see what your reaction would be, and I found out that you're not even bothered. How about... what is the answer to our test later?" He changed the topic.
Kiko and I have been friends since we were young. We always play together and make trouble together. I almost know everything there is to know about him, and he also knows almost everything about me. He knows even the size of my hidden pleasure.
I remembered the time when Mrs. Saura's dog chased us. There was a fence that we had to struggle through. How I miss being a child again who doesn't care about anything as long as I can play.
"Don't worry, dude, I will give you the code for our test later, so that you won't get an Easter's Egg again." I chuckled, but he remained serious.
"That's inappropriate!" Kiko remarked. "You don't really have to do that, because it will cause big trouble if our teacher finds out. But if you insist, then I'm willing to accept it." He turned off the water tap and walked towards me.
"You're good at pretending that you don't want it, but you must know how to hide it so that our teacher won't punish us," I reminded him.
For me, cheating isn't allowed unless someone catches you. So if you want to cheat, you should do it professionally, or else you know the consequences. I'm not an honor student, so I don't know how it feels to be at the top. I'm always at the bottom.
"It's fine if our teacher caught us cheating, because you'll be involved." He chuckled like a demon. "But don't worry, dude, I'm your friend, and that won't happen."
We immediately went out of the dining room. Kiko asked permission from his mother, saying that we would be going back to school, but it seemed that his mother didn't hear him.
"Mama, I said we're going back to school now," Kiko repeated, but his mother was just sitting there on the porch while looking down at the rugged floor.
Without anything else, the boisterous friend of mine became serious upon seeing his mother, who looked flabby as if her soul had left her body.
Kiko raised Mrs. McBald's jaw and looked at her puckered face. Kiko became more emotional when he saw that his mother's eyes were both shut, though it was still early for dormancy.
Kiko stared at me with brooding eyes. Something slowly streamed down his cheeks when the thought turned into reality: his mother was at rest and at peace. Silence wanted to prevail. In the meantime, I could only hear the pounding of my heart.
"Mama!" Kiko suddenly screamed like a child.
It was the first time that I saw my friend crying like this because he was always exuberant and ebullient—the reason being that he caught my emotions too. I wiped my tears away with my index finger and approached my friend.
I tapped his shoulder. I told him to be strong, although he seemed to be a dog without a bone. It seemed like just yesterday when he was telling me to stay strong, and I didn't expect that I would say the same thing to him.
We were not the same as the shows on television because we tried to catch Kiko's mother just in time. Unfortunately, we haven't arrived at the hospital yet, but the doctor officially declared that Kiko lost his underwear—nay, I mean his mother.
The doctor told us that we should take Mrs. McBald to the funeral homes and not to the hospital because they are only taking care of breathing people and not corpses.
Quick was the ticktock of the clock. My friend lamented too much because of his mother's death. I also know the feeling of being left by a mother. It was a bit painful, like circumcision, especially if there was nobody who could serve as an anesthetist to make the wounds feel painless.
At the same time, I wanted to serve as anesthesia for my friend's wound because I owed him one when my mother died. I knew that after many days had elapsed, perhaps Kiko's deep wound would heal and only memories would be left.
I was the last person to see Mrs. McBald before she passed away. I knew she wouldn't last longer, but I still did nothing. I could have stopped that, right? Shall I blame myself for not doing the right thing?
It made me wonder if there was a curse on me because it was also me—the last person to see my mother before she died.
It was almost unbelievable, but Kiko and I both didn't know the exact reason for Mrs. McBald's death. Kiko told me that his father wasn't totally grim to his mother. The truth was the opposite of my expectations, because Mr. McBald never hurt her.
The thing that made me more curious was that Kiko told me that there was something they could not see. Something that gave them drastic trouble. Every day, something unpleasant happened to his mother. She got many bruises, though nobody was hurting her.
I know that Kiko's mother wanted to live longer because she told us that she wanted to witness our success someday. I find it impossible that she might be the one who killed herself. If I could only call detective Conan, I wasn't sure if he could solve this case.
Eventually, those conundrums compelled me to pay a visit to my grandmother. She was a notorious exorcist, a doer of paranormal activities, and also good at solving problems like this. Honestly, I didn't expect that I would visit her again after over ten years of not seeing her.
Mrs. McBald died for an unknown reason. It was a conundrum for me because it did not happen just once but twice. My mother also died for an unknown reason.
It was my beloved mother who was preventing me from visiting my grandmother because she believed that I would just put myself in danger. I felt sorry for my mother because I needed to disobey her in order to solve these problems.
My friend was still lamenting because of his mother's death. I have also experienced those things before, and I could understand my friend's desire to be alone.
It's tragic that I will be alone in this venture. I will be going to see my grandmother, hoping that someone will go with me. It's still early, and it's not impossible that my friend will change his mind.
I know that Kiko needs to have some fun so that he won't drown in his sorrow. My sky also turned cloudy because I'm not as funny as my friend, who can make laughable jokes regardless of being in the worst situations.
I was sitting on the front porch and looking at my neighbors' houses and lawns. The riotous people in the street disappear as a joke that there's a demon living in Kiko's family quickly spread.
Morning boredom was saying something in my ears, but not a word—it was all air. I stood up and went inside my house. My night was so bad because Messy Sippy slept here last night. I felt uncomfortable about the moaning sounds that they made.
"Son, your friend is just fine?" Edward asked.
He was looking for something in the cabinet, maybe his underwear. I was curious about what kind of neighbor and friend my father was if he didn't know what was happening around the house and to Mister McBald's family. I knew that they were also close friends when they were young.
Maybe my dad was just busy flirting with Messy Sippy all day. I didn't know if he was still going to work. I just hoped that he would be going out today so that I could also sneak out of this house and visit my grandmother.
Perhaps Edward realized that the thing should not be asked because Numb was the only one who didn't know that feeling of being left by any member of their family. He didn't say anything, and he let the silence reply to himself.
"Love!" Messy Sippy barked. "Your underwear is here!"
"Shhh. Can you please lower your voice?" I mumbled.
It wasn't funny, but I'm just curious about what kind of woman she was. Even though she was still inside their bedroom and the sun had just shone up, she was already shouting like a music box at high volume just because of some nonsense thing. She was not even ashamed of our neighbors.
Dad went out of the living room and continued walking towards their bedroom. I really wanted to see my grandmother and know if she was okay. She was already 70 years old when she lived alone in that haunted house.
I went inside the dining room to eat my breakfast. It seemed like a fish out of water, which is what I felt all night and until now. There was something whispering in my ear.
Something whispering in my ear? It was not so scary, but real. All air and not even a little voice. I had a hunch that there was someone watching me all night.
It appeared again. Was there someone who was following me? When I looked back, I saw nothing. Was there someone sitting beside me? Undoubtedly, I saw nothing, not even a little ant. Everything could be an illusion, feeling, or imagination of entities that could not be seen with ordinary human eyes.
I didn't mind them, though I was curious and a bit scared. I could not even turn off the lights inside my bedroom last night because of the thing. I also didn't want to go inside the toilet alone because I felt like there were eyes watching me.
I engulfed my bowl of oatmeal. I am lucky since we don't have class today. It isn't funny, but it is a common reason that my teacher's pants and bra were still wet, though it didn't rain yesterday.