It was a cool and arid early summer morning. The streets bustled with cars during the morning commute. A sea of wild geese on their yearly migration painted the faint blue sky, with their honks toeing a balance between annoyance and relaxation. Jalen Nkanga rode his bicycle up Sunhill with a wide grin on his face. Today was his last day in High School. His last day of waking up so early for boring classes, group projects where he did most of the work; and above all, his last time seeing Professor Wilde. He was a few moments from skipping to school with how elated he felt.

At the peak of the hill, Sunhill High School sat—a mix of old brick buildings surrounding the main building that was an architectural marvel made of concrete and glass. He spotted a few students in grade 12 with equally cheerful moods matching him. While he was securing his bicycle on the bike racks, a heavy hand wrapped around his shoulder, jerking him away.

“What’s up, my man?” A deep voice spoke behind him.

He stood up and faced his best friend, Marco. “One of these days, dude, I’m gonna knee you in the balls.”

“All because of a quick hug?” Marco smirked, patting him on the shoulder. “How are you feeling about that party? You ain’t missing another one.”

Marco Toscani was taller than him, at about 6 feet 4 inches—with a build fit for the star linebacker at Sunhill High School. Partying and football were his favorite hobbies. On the other hand, he was African American, lean, and he detested partying.

They walked down the main walkway leading up to the glass building. Just as he was about to respond, he spotted a blue monkey with glowing eyes perched on the building’s roof, munching on an apple.

“Do you see that?” He asked Marco.

His tall and muscled friend looked in the direction he pointed at and squinted his eyes. “See what?”

“The monkey. On the roof.”

“You’ve been puffing on those fumes again, my man?” Marco glanced at him with a questioning look. “I don’t see shit.”

He stopped just before the monkey moved out of his sight. The monkey’s eyes, golden and glowing, stared down at him. Then it pointed at the building’s entrance, prodding him to move along. Marco wrapped his arm around him, nudging him into the building. Students filled the corridors, conversing and commuting, as the duo headed to the second floor where their lockers were.

“You sure you aren’t on them fumes?” Marco asked.

“No dude. Today is the last day of exams. Why would I do something as stupid as that?” He dropped the topic of the monkey. However, he was sure it was there because it seemed too real.

Maybe I’m getting superpowers, he thought. How the supposed powers functioned, he had no clue.

A girl in pitch-black jeans and a dark purple top walked towards him. She wore black lipstick and had multiple piercings dotting her face. Resting on her chest, in between her folded arms, was a stack of books.

“Hey Jalen,” she said. Her voice was so low it was almost a whisper.

“Hi Dawn,” he replied.

“Um, I have to show you something.” Dawn switched the weight of her books into one arm and fished her pockets with the other. Then, she pulled out three cards embossed with metallic finishings and handed them to him. Although they looked expensive and were undeniably beautiful, he remained oblivious to what she wanted him to see.

It was when he flipped the cards that he noticed something peculiar. The front of the cards featured three metallic paintings. On the first card, a white star shined bright amidst the vast loneliness of space. The second was of a legion of demons, all reaching for something he could not see. The last card depicted a scene illuminated by golden light. At the center stood Jalen and by his sides were indiscernible figures backlit by the light.

Dawn, seeing the perplexed look on his face, spoke to him. “I don’t want to come across as weird, but when I dreamed about you yesterday, three of my tarot cards changed.”

Marco inched behind him to take a peek at the cards, so he just handed them to his friend.

“Do your tarot cards normally change like this?” he asked.

“I know you won’t believe me.” The girl smiled for the first time since she came. “But sometimes when I dream of something, the cards change into visions relating to that thing.”

“So you are saying that these are visions of what will happen to me?” he asked, somewhat bewildered.

“Yeah, at least I think so.”

“I can’t believe you are eating this shit up, Jalen,” Marco exclaimed, done listening to any of this. “She clearly made this shit up. Sure, there are people with superpowers. So someone is bound to have some very weird abilities. But this? Come on, man! What’s a star got to do with you? Demons? Please… There is a higher chance of a fucking meteorite falling on my head than you encountering demons. Trust me, bro.”

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He was taken aback by Marco’s outburst. “Jesus, dude. She was just showing me some cards. No need to get all worked up.”

Collecting the cards from Marco, he handed them over to Dawn.

“Thanks for the warning or foresight,” he said. “Though I don’t know what I would do with it.”

“Stay safe,” Dawn said before going on her way.

Marco tapped his shoulder. “She likes you, man. That’s all there is to it. Don’t let Sarah catch you with the goth chick.”

“Fuck you.” He smiled as they parted ways, heading to their respective classrooms to begin their final exams.

The rest of the day went by like a breeze. His classmates were busy discussing what questions they answered right or wrong. For Jalen, he didn’t care. As long as he passed his exams, that was all that mattered. He was already sick of hearing questions like, what type of cell does not have membrane-bound organelles? The answer was Prokaryotic cells, by the way.

While moving his things from his locker to his backpack, a familiar person wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. The faint fruity fragrance he had come so accustomed to perceiving wafted through the air.

“Hey babe,” Sarah said. “How was your day?”

He grinned and hugged his girl back. “It was great. Other than that time, professor Wilde stood over my shoulder for like 20 minutes.”

Sarah whipped her head back and laughed. “Don’t worry. After today, you won’t see him again.”

Her outfit consisted of a cream sleeveless blouse and blue pants, accentuating her glistening brown skin. She had long, wavy black hair consistent with her Indian heritage. A heavy backpack was slung over one of her shoulders.

“Babe, so Kaitlyn, Marco, and I are heading over to the liquor store to get beer for the party,” she said. “You wanna come?”

“Na, I think I’ll just head home,” he replied. “To check up on my mom. She wasn’t feeling well today.”

“Okay babe.” She reached up and pecked him on the lips. “Tell her I said hi. But you aren’t missing the party. Promise.”

“Yeah, yeah. I promise,” he said lightheartedly.

He went back to the bike rack to retrieve his bicycle. While unlocking the padlock, he glanced at the spot the monkey had been in the morning. Birds were perched on the roof, but the monkey was absent. His phone started ringing in the tone designated for his sister, Ella.

“Hey E,” Jalen said. “What’s up?”

“Jalen,” she said, her voice weak and tired. “Please come to the hospital. Room 46.”

“Again? Did mom collapse again?”

“Um… yeah. Yeah, she did,” she replied.

“Ok, I’m on my way.”

He hopped on his bicycle and paddled down the lawn, giving the overcrowded walkway a wide berth. The hospital was situated down the hill, smack-dab in a residential area. It took him twenty minutes of weaving through narrow alleys and busy sidewalks to reach the hospital, while his mind raced with unhelpful thoughts.

The bicycle hadn’t come to a stop before he leaped off and ran into the hospital. Ascending a few flights of stairs and passing countless identical doors, he eventually arrived at room forty-six. Faint sobs emitting from the room made him pause at the door, his hand frozen on the doorknob. How many times had he been to this hospital by now? How many sleepless nights had been spent within these walls?

It had only been two weeks since his mother finished her chemotherapy. Yet, she passed out three times in the last week alone. He managed enough will to push the door open and entered the room. Ella held their mother’s hand tightly while burying her head in the bed to muffle her cries.

He dropped his bag and made his way over to his sister.

“Hey, E. It’s okay,” he said. “Where is the doctor?”

She was full-on wailing now. Her face was unrecognizable, swollen, and wet. “Sh… Sh… She’s… Dead.”

His eyes widened and heart stopped as he turned his attention from Ella to his mother, Genevieve. She lay in the bed, still, her eyes open. Her skin was deathly pale and ashy. He reached for her hand and found it stiff. Tears welled in his eyes. He called for his mother over and over, yet she did not answer.

Genevieve Nkanga was their only parent left. Their father had exited their life when Ella was 15 and he was 10. According to their mom, he simply disappeared in the middle of the night with no trace. Genevieve was a good person and a loving mother, undeserving of the pain brought forth by her disease. She was funny and witty, but stern; with the propensity to beat Ella and him with a stick when they misbehaved. But that was what you got with African mothers.

Now she lay still as a puppet. The beeps from the medical machines and Ella’s crying were the only sounds permeating the room. Drips flowed from the bag into her arm. An oxygen mask was fixed on her face. Still, the most daunting image of all came from her tired, shriveled face. She was a woman just entering her fifties, although she looked decades older.

He pulled a chair to sit by her side. The two siblings just sat, gazing at the lifeless body of their mother. His sister was weeping while he sat in silence, thinking of what the future held for them. In the beginning, he felt deep sorrow and anguish at the passing of his mother. Now, he felt relief. Relief not for him and the pain coursing through his veins, but because their mother’s decade-long struggle with pancreatic cancer was finally over.

He didn’t remember how long they stayed like this. However, when his sister’s sobbing died down, he turned to her and asked her the key question, bogging his mind. “How much is the debt? For mom’s medical bill.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Jalen?!” she shouted. “Now’s not the time.”

“Now is precisely the time. We have to start thinking about the future.”

Ella stood up from her chair and started pacing back and forth across the room.

“How much is it, Ella?” he asked again.

“Fine! 350,000 dollars.”

Immediately, an ironic smile spread across his face. It was like somebody was out to fuck with them. 350 grand? How would Ella and he even begin to make those payments? The yearly interest alone would bankrupt them.

“You got to love the American health sector,” he said, giggling to himself.

“What the fuck is funny?” she asked.

“The debt. The way things are headed, our great-grandchildren will be stuck paying that bill.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

The sound of his phone ringing reminded him he should probably let Sarah, Marco, and his other friends know he won’t be making it to the party. He thought about telling them about his mother, but he decided against that. It could wait. Right now, he wanted to head home and drown in his sorrows alone.

“Hello?” He said.

“Hello. Is this Jalen?” The voice asked.

“Yeah, who is this?”

“It’s Rika. Marco’s girlfriend.”

“Oh yeah! So what’s up?”

“I’m fine. No, I’m not,” Rika replied in that rapid-fire way she talks. “You should come down to the Walmart parking lot.”

He furrowed his brows. “I’m kind of busy right now. What’s going on?”

“It’s Sarah. She is cheating on you right now.”