“Lena, Lena,” said Celina, tugging the older girl’s sleeve. “The man looks like he wants to say something,” she said with concern.

“You mustn’t trust everything he says...He might be a lunatic,” added Just.

“Why don’t we just ask daddy?” asked Aldona, rubbing her forearms.

“I’ll go!” cried Cee, striking the pose a sprinter takes before they set off.

“Wait!” Lena shouted.

The little girl stopped and looked at her dumbfoundedly, as did the rest of the squad. “Eh?” she said. Then her mouth formed into an ‘O’ shape, indicating that a thought had struck her suddenly. “He might be an assassin!”

“What?” said Lena in a fluster.

“Yeah,” said Cee in an elongated exhale, nodding her head slowly. She narrowed her eyes and drew a line across her neck with her hand, continuing to nod dramatically and with childish demeanor. “Yeah,” she repeated hoarsely.

Aldona put a finger to her lip in thought, and said, “It is a possibility that this man was sent to harm daddy.”

“Put him on the ground and lock him up and see what he reveals. Don’t you remember what daddy showed us?” said Cee, punching the air and hopping on her feet, with her face contorted into a gargoyle expression of pleasure.

“But he looks absolutely harmless,” Just said. “I take back what I said about my mate’s BF fucking him up: little Cee could knock him out no problem.”

“No cap,” added the little boxer with a devilish grin.

“I do not want to get my hands dirty if I can help it, and neither should any of you,” said Aldona from the back, who stood with her arms crossed.

“You won’t get any better if you keep backing out from fights,” said Just with a smug grin. “So as long as you keep hiding your wimpyness with ‘passivism’ you’ll always stay weak. You’ve been training since you were a child, as all of us have, and yet can’t even succeed past blue belt. If you can’t even take this fatass down then can you really call yourself my sister?” Then Just turned back to Rod with a sneer before looking at the rest of the girls, “Come on Cee, knock him the fuck out.”

The little girl was riled up and she threw several explosive jabs toward Rod, only missing intentionally by a few hair lengths. “Oh,” she said as she frothed at the mouth, “this gonna be good.”

Rod, overwhelmed by the exchange that had just taken place, and tired beyond recognition, finally made the effort to respond to these teenage girls. He put his hands up to wade off any more attempts upon his life and forced a smile to appease them. But then Lena stepped even closer to him and placed her hand on his chest, which startled Rod incredibly. Before he could react and step away, he saw in his peripheral vision Cee with her phone, tapping fervently away at the screen with an expression of glee.

“Why, you!” he snarled, immediately swiping at her phone in a panic.

The little girl gave out a cry of alarm, and she dropped her phone to the floor. Rod dived upon it, his heart beating at lightning speed, and clutched it into his breast before rolling several times away uncontrollably from the direction of the teenage girls. He was quickly out of breath, sweating and exhausted. He heard several more profanities launched at him as he struggled to regain control of his trembling limbs.

“You fucking weirdo,” said Just angrily.

Rod hissed but held his tongue. “I am not surprised that you are Aleku’s daughters,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his sweat-stained hand as he struggled back to his feet. “But I must make you aware of my thoughts, now,” he said with a sense of finality to his voice, “I will answer your question first, Lena, about who you remind me of. You remind me of all the girls in highschool who, along with the boys, took turns picking on me for my odd and eccentric behaviour. This included your father, as well, of course. I’m just sick of it,” he turned to the little girl who tried to snap a shot of him in a compromising position, and said, his face twisted and hateful, “And you! What do you think that you are doing? Who taught you to be this vindictive?” And the man clutched his breast and hissed.

None of the girls talked, but all of them seemed on the verge of tears, save for Lena, who stood staring at him with her fierce, cold eyes, which only seemed like a rippling pond at his cruel words. The angry man turned back to her, with an intensity in his eyes that could have scorched one not acquainted with abuse, and did not pause to think about whether what he was saying was appropriate or not; no, what he was thinking, was these girls were the amalgamation of all that he hated, of all that he resented about himself, about the past. For it was the past that haunted him truly. Suddenly, his anger abated, and he stared at the frightened children in horror, his face a pale complexion like a white sheet as it dawned on him what he had done, and to whom he had done it to.

Stolen story; please report.

“I am...” Rod began, huffing and puffing, his chest rising higher and higher, and then falling dramatically as he contemplated his predicament and next moves.

“You are what?” inquired one of the girls.

“I am sorry...”

“Sorry about what?” asked Lena with a raised eyebrow.

“I apologise,” he answered after bowing his head in shame.

Lena cracked a smile, and the rest of the girls burst out laughing. Some spat at him with curses and profanities, for they did not understand why he was so different to their expectations of what a boy should be like, while others laughed at the absurdity of his response and the situation, trembling and shaking with slight rapid movements that they looked like they were dancing for what felt like forever. Cee, being only twelve years, was still at the age where one could forget and forgive easily.

“And I bet you apologise a lot,” blurted out Lena, brushing back her hair from her face.

“It feels like all I ever do is apologise,” he muttered with his eyes on the floor, “and I am quite sick of it because I keep doing the same thing over and over again.”

“Then don’t do it?” interrupted Just from the corner with a sneer.

“I tell them what I am about to do, but not even that is enough though they know what is coming. I am starting to wonder what is the point of telling people about myself at all. No, rather, what is the point of doing anything at all. I am afraid of doing things wrongly,” he remarked.

“And you want relationships without revealing your true self?” asked Lena, blinking in astonishment, her thick black eyelashes flittering like butterfly wings. “Do you even know what you want?”

He looked at her with wonderment.

“Yes, of course, I want emotional connection,” he answered with determination after a moment of thought, his eyebrows knitted at the perplexity the direction of the conversation was heading.

“Don’t be so desperate, it is quite off-putting! Should we forget all about this event and what has transpired and attempt again a good first impression, or shall we speak of this to our dad?”

“I doubt I could not talk my way out it with your father, or at least appease him with my charm.”

Lena cracked a small smile again, whereby only her two upper front teeth and half of the bottom two were exposed, expunging a short pop of air, which only made Rod wonder more.

“Oh, I forgot!” she gasped suddenly, flexing her smooth index finger like the shooting of a sprout, “Daddy is probably busy in one of his seminars.” And she turned to her sisters, who were standing with bored expressions behind her, and said, “he probably won’t know that we are gone; he won’t hear one of the cars leaving over the sound of his own voice.”

“He’s streaming this late? Who stays up at this hour?” asked little Cee with an innocent, northern drawl.

“There’s a thing called ‘timezones’ you simpleton,” rebuked Just with her arms folded.

“There’s no need to be so harsh; you were young once too,” scolded Aldona, book in hand.

Rod placed his hands on his chin and pondered seriously for a moment. “Yes, that’s right, he’s a streamer. So, is he just in a room by himself talking to a camera?” he asked cheekily.

“He has several of his subscribers there with him,” replied Cee cheerfully.

“Yes, but in regards to your plan, what about security? I am sure this house is swarmed with cameras and guards,” he mused, sweating profusely with anxiety as it dawned on him that he might be able to get away with what he came to do. He forced down his smile, and even covered it with his hands in a characteristically, but unintentional, boyish manner which made the girls blush, but which made him self-conscious and blush himself.

“We have one of those cloaks that make you invisible,” said Cee excitedly, jumping up and down on the spot, gurgling.

Rod looked at her dumbfounded, blinking several times. “Uh-huh,” he grunted with displeasure.

“It’s true,” said Lena with a wide smile, holding back her laughter.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion and folded his arms. “Who do you think that I am?” he said sternly, “I’m no fool.”

“Oh, girls, don’t forget that he’s one of the poor ones,” said Aldona with the seriousness of one believing that they are taking a stand against wrongdoing.

“Will you take us shopping if we show it you?” asked Lena, batting her eyelashes.

“Then bring it here and show me for goodness sake, bring it here and show me this invisible cloak,” cried Rod greatly annoyed and yet excited - “for goodness sake.”

Two minutes later, after little Cee sprinted down the steps into the lower floor through the white arch which faced them all, opposite the front door, and returned with a lengthy plastic sheet draped over her forearm like a towel.

“Hey,” cried Aldona, “I’m still working on that!”

“Sorry Aldy,” replied the little girl with her charming, toothy smile. “I want to go shopping badly!”

The young man turned pale as he took the plastic sheet, which had a large round hole in its centre and an adjoining piece attached to it, from the child; he could see right through it like glass, and yet to his rough, long fingers it felt like one of those disposable raincoats – a poncho! He had never worn one, or maybe he had some time ago as a child - a time, though, that he must have wanted to forget. Holding it, as silly as it was, reminded him of too much and thus evoked within him too much as well, like the puncturing of a lung. He hated how vivid his imagination could be sometimes.

“Please, for goodness sake,” he cried, curling his trembling, cold fingers around the coat, “this is just a poncho! What is this? A cruel joke? Tell me honestly, truly, do you take me as a fool? This is some kind of trick.”

“Look,” replied Cee, frothing at the mouth, and shot a finger at the hole, “you can see right through it!”

“Are you blind?” said Just with a raised eyebrow.

“With this we can avoid the cameras installed outside and get out of the house,” added Lena.

“Yes, but...what?” spluttered Rod with a look of bewilderment. “This is outrageous,” he cried.

“What’s so crazy about it?” inquired Lena.