ONE WEEK CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Where is my son? What did you do to my son?”, Francis’ mother screams while vigorously shaking Andrew. Andrew was unable to say a single word as tears pours down his eyes.
Wait a minute, what is she talking about? We all thought Francis was in school. So how was he reintroduced into the story at this time again? We should probably learn all that has happened that led to this current situation by going a bit back in time, the morning of that same day.
A phone was ringing in the background and a feminine hand stretches forth to pick it up. The call was quickly answered as if the person was anxious that she would miss the call.
“Good morning, Mum”, a voice says from the other side of the phone. “Good morning, son. How are you doing? Hope there is no problem. You know you can tell me anything, right?”, the woman replies with a barrage of questions. But from the tone, one could sense warmth and care. This was a call between Francis who was in school and his mother, back at home.
“Nothing much Mum. Nothing to worry yourself about”, Francis replies. “Are you sure?”, his mother asks still not convinced. Although his son has changed, he has not still changed his habit of not calling home when he was in school. If he needed something it was through a text. Seeing his call this time around, got his mother feeling anxious that maybe something had happened to her son.
“Yes, Mum. I just called to say I would be home today, due to the short break given to us. I plan to stay a bit before school resumes, to spend a little time with you all. And that you should send Uncle Joe down later in the afternoon to pick me up”, he says. “You would be....”, his mother was about to scream for joy, but Francis quickly interrupted, “Calm down, Mum. I want it to be a surprise for Andrew. I don’t want him knowing this early-down”. Although a bit sulky about how her son seems to favor Andrew more than her, she still calms down and acknowledges what he said.
“Prepare something nice for me. I want to eat your handmade meal”, Francis says. His mother’s heart immediately becomes gladdened, it felt like her son was returning from war and into the warmth of her hands. She decides to spoil him rotten until he plans to go back to school.
“I would prepare your favorite”, the woman replies with a smile. She likes this version of her son more, and although she wasn’t the reason behind his change, she still felt good.
“Aunt, I would be going now”, a voice sounds out which disrupts her thinking, it came from Andrew. She wasn’t angry though as she just stared at this boy whom has stayed with them for a little while but had warmed their home. Apart from the fact that Francis was close to him and had told his parents to always treat him right, she has slowly begun to grow fond of this boy.
“Okay then, stay safe”, she replies after a bit of silence. “Hmm”, Andrew just nods slightly then runs out.
While running out, Andrew stumbles and was about to fall, but manages to balance himself at the last minute. The woman seeing such a thing about to happen stretches out her hand in a bid to hold him and her heart tightens a bit, but seeing him balance himself, she felt relieved. After watching Andrew go out, she wonders what just happened. Such a scenario has also played out when Francis was younger, seems she has started taking this boy as her son.
“It would be best for him to go to school soon though. I would have to talk it through with my husband later today”, the woman says while moving out to dress up to get some things from the supermarket in order to prepare a sumptuous meal for her son, she has promised after all.
Time fast-forwards a bit into the evening, just about two hours before the situation with Andrew. The gate of the compound opens and a car was driven in. Francis’ mother was inside making the finishing touch to the meal but the moment she notices the arrival of her son, she rushed outside abandoning the meal she was preparing.
On seeing her son, she couldn’t help beaming with a smile. Although she knew that her son hasn’t gone to some dangerous place, she was still anxious about his well-being. Francis comes down from the vehicle, then rushes forward to hug his mother. This action greatly warms her heart.
“You came this late. What happened?”, she asks with a worried face. Maybe he went through the same thing he did when Andrew happened to save him. “It was a friend of mine who delayed me in school. I was supposed to drop something with him, but he didn’t come early”, Francis explains with a smile. Sometimes he wonders why he was even that way with his parents, after all, they show him all the love in the world, not wanting anything in return except for his well-being and happiness. He wants to make up for all the time he has failed to acknowledge their love and care.
“Come inside then. The journey must have been stressful. The food is not yet ready, you should take your bath and relax a bit before I serve you your meal”, his mother says while pulling him into the house. “Not really”, Francis says while allowing himself to be dragged like a little child.
After settling himself in, his mother quickly finishes up with the food and made sure he had his bath before eating. His mother just stares at him while he was eating with her face full of smiles. Francis on the other hand was eating happily without a single word all through his eating session.
“The food was delicious, thanks”, he says after being through with his meal. Not a single thing was remaining on his plate. His mother was all smiles hearing such a compliment from her son.
She was about to get up to clear the place but Francis says, “Don’t worry. I would take care of it. But before then, I have something to talk to you about”. Hearing the first set of words, his mother was about to retort, but the second set of words keeps her rooted to her spot.
Her child has never taken it upon himself to bring up a topic for discussion and if something was even brought up to be discussed, he always feigned ignorance.
“What is it about?”, she hurriedly sits back down to listen to her child with a worried expression on her face. Francis takes a deep breath but still didn’t start to say anything as if wondering about how to put the next set of words in order.
This causes his mother to become more worried as she says, “You know you can talk to me about anything. If there is anything you don’t like I would quickly get rid of it. If there is something you want I would get it for you. Or is it that the food wasn’t good enough?”. “No, it isn’t about all that”, Francis replies to stop his mother from going into another different thing from what he had in mind.
“Then what is it about?”, his mother asks. Taking a deep breath once again, Francis replies, “It’s about Andrew”. Hearing that it was about Andrew, his mother first calmed down again but almost overreacted since a lot of thoughts were passing through her head about this boy who has been staying with them for a while now.
“Before you say anything. You know he has a brother right?”, Francis asks. “Hmm, you told me about it before”, his mother replies still wondering where this topic was leading to. “Andrew has served in this house for a while now. I can understand that it’s not enough to consider him your son or anything of that sort. But I would love it if you could permit his brother to live with us also. It isn’t good that two brothers are this far apart, and not able to communicate for a long while. That’s what I wanted to ask you about”, Francis says nervously not for once looking at his mother during his entire speech.
Noticing that even after he has finished his speech, his mother still failed to reply got him feeling more nervous and he couldn’t help to add more, “I would take the blame if anything was to happen due to their misbehavior. I have already started growing fond of Andrew and I wouldn’t want it if he was to suddenly leave the house due to the fact that he can’t be with his brother”.
His mother was still quiet even after his addition, he couldn’t take it this time around and raise his head to stare at his mother and a smile was currently present on her face while staring at him.
He couldn’t help but feel mocked at this moment. This was the first time that he was genuinely asking for something from his mother but seeing that smile across his mother's face just destroyed every bit of hope he has about bringing Andrew’s brother into the house. At this moment, he has decided that he would find a way to make money quickly and rent an apartment on his own so as to bring in Andrew’s brother. He thinks that making money is so easy which is very cute of him though. He hurriedly gets up from his seat with the dishes in his hands and was about to leave the dining room, but that was when his mother hurriedly holds his hands and the dishes fall flat on the floor, and they get broken.
“What more do you want?”, Francis shouts. This action shocks the mother, and she almost lets go of his hands. He was about to move away, but his mother quickly drags and hugs him tightly. Although a bit shorter than her son, the hug was just perfect. Francis was about to first resist, but feeling the warmth of the hug, he gradually calmed down. He also starts using his head that maybe it wasn’t as he thought of it that his mother meant it.
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“You have a good heart. I always believed you did”, his mother said in a choked voice. “Although you try to behave nonchalantly, you have always been caring and loving since you were a kid. People usually say you were prideful and don’t like involving yourself with others, but I knew deep down that my boy wasn’t that way. Now you are proving once again that my feelings were true”, his mother continues.
“Come on, sit down. You shouldn’t get yourself injured”, she says while holding Francis back to his seat. The maid in the house has already come to clean up the mess which has been made from the broken plate.
“Your father and I have already discussed this, and we plan on sending Andrew to a school to finish his studies”, his mother starts after sitting down beside her son. “So the moment the next session begins, he would stop going to the shop, and focus on his academics. We can see that he is bright”, she continues.
Hearing such words shocks Francis as he hadn’t expected such a situation. He didn’t think his parents has thought this far ahead. He had thought of bringing up the situation the moment Andrew’s brother has been brought into the house, he didn’t want to rush things and lose focus on the long-term benefits.
“He hasn’t just made an impact in your life, but in ours also. He has become part of the family in just this short while he has been with us. He seems to just fit into the house and if not for his presence, everything would seem dull in a way. You do know that he was the one who had suggested going to the shop, we hadn’t planned that initially. But even then, he seems to be doing exceedingly well”, his mother says more stuff. “If it’s about bringing his brother in. No problem. We have enough room for them after all. Seeing how good the elder brother is, the younger one would be better”, she finishes her statement.
“Thank you, Mom”, Francis says while jumping into her arms. “You don’t need to thank me. I have a heart too”, she replies while gently patting him.
“I have to go let him know”, Francis suddenly says while jumping from his mother’s embrace. “Let who know?”, his mother did not quite understand his statement. Francis has already walked a fair bit of distance before he answered, “Andrew of course”. “But he would be getting home soon. There is no need for you to go through all that stress”, his mother commented in a bid to stop him. “Don’t worry I would be back home with him shortly”, Francis replies while dashing out of the house. “But, I sent the driver on an errand”, the mother tries her last card to prevent him from leaving the house. She doesn’t know why she is currently feeling unsettled about this whole thing and wanted to stop him from going out, guess it was a mother’s instinct. She has rarely felt this way before, this was all new to her.
She ran outside the house only to see Francis in one of the available cars, driving out of the compound. She seems to have forgotten that he had taken driving lessons, and was capable of driving on his own, probably because he was an introvert and rarely went out on his own.
She just smiles as she watches her son go out, she shakes off that feeling that she had earlier taking it for granted.
“Well, I should go prepare something for Andrew. That child has the stomach of a hungry beast”, she says while walking into the house. But it was also at that moment that a car comes driving into the compound at full speed like someone who was being chased around and managed to escape his pursuers.
She first thought it was Francis who has come back and couldn’t help wondering what could have happened, but she immediately recognized that it wasn’t the car that her son just drove out.
She sees Joe who quickly highlighted from the vehicle in a hurry while getting the gates closed.
“What is wrong? Why are you that way? Who is chasing you?”, she asks after Joe was through with all of his activities with an angry expression.
“There... there... there...”, Joe starts in a hurried breath, but she interrupts him by asking, “There what? Can’t you speak up”. “There were a large group of armed men parading the area. There were fighting and killing each other and even the innocent weren’t spared”, Joe was able to say after calming down.
This revelation hits the woman differently as her only child has just gone out of the house. “What did you say?”, she grabs Joe by the shirt and asks. Being held this way caught Joe off guard but he repeats his words timidly, which seems awkward for a man of his stature and age.
Being told the same thing causes her heart to tighten. “No, no, no. It can’t be. It can’t be. Francis just went out. He won’t be safe”, she says with red eyes while moving, planning to go out of the gates. She probably forgot that she has a car that she could drive due to the many things going through her head at this moment.
“Where are you going ma’am? Ma’am, where are you going to? I just explained the situation to you”, Joe says while moving forward to intercept her. “And so what? Who will save my son?”, she asks with an annoyed expression. Seems like it just registered in Joe’s head that his madam was talking about Francis the same young man whom he drove to the house earlier today he becomes shocked about all that has happened as he repeats, “Francis is out there?”.
The woman immediately moves past Joe about to continue her movement, but Joe still comes in front of her to stop her, “You should be patient then. You would just be endangering your life if you go after him at this moment”. He seems to have forgotten that she was his employer as he forcefully drags her into the house.
We now go to Francis who was happily driving out of the house. But while driving, he notices that the road was deserted in a way and no cars were forthcoming, this was rare. Then he starts seeing dead bodies of able-bodied men on the floor, their innards splat on the floor while driving by, he was shocked and almost involves himself in an accident, but he quickly recovers and steadies his driving. ‘What is happening?’, he thought.
Thinking about such a situation, his mind goes forth to Andrew who should be closing from the shop anytime soon, his heart rate couldn’t help to quicken due to being worried. He suddenly increases the speed at which he was driving.
While moving forward, he meets a group of people who were fighting and killing each other. It seemed like an all-blown-out war was occurring looking at the way they were fighting without regard for their lives or probably seeing their comrades dying ignites their passion to fight more, but regardless, it was gruesome.
Francis didn’t decrease his speed though, he just drives while trying to avoid them and unfortunately, some of the fighting men got in the way and were hit by the car. Seems like he was not experienced enough to avoid all of them. The car hits an obstruction and the front of the vehicle gets fully compressed and seems like the state of Francis in the vehicle was unknown.
Being distracted from the fight, the group of men who were affected quickly surrounds the car to see the person who had the guts to hit one of their men. One of the thugs did not wait and quickly moves in and quickly inserts his dagger into the chest of Francis, he repeats it another time but was quickly held up by one of his members. He was annoyed by such an act since he was angry, as one of the people who was hit by the car was his brother. “Why are you holding me? Let me be”, the guy says in annoyance, but the person still did not let him go as he says, “Hold off, this face seems familiar”.
“I don’t mind if it’s familiar or not. He must die for what he did. I don’t mind the consequences”, the man says. He was about to rush forth, but he still stares at the face of the perpetrator, and his dagger quickly falls off his hand and his anger fades away in a flash. This person seems way too familiar to be mistaken for.
“It can’t be”, the guy says. “It is the boss’ son”, another different guy says while staring at Francis who was currently coughing out profusely due to the stab wounds.
“I didn’t mean to. Please help me out”, the guy who was bragging formerly cries out to his members, but all of them shift back, none willing to take the blame for such an action.
Their fighting spirit has been drastically reduced. It was also at this same moment that a voice asks in the background, “What is going on over here?”. The view is being shifted to the person who asked the question and it happens to be Andrew who has cleaned up, and if not for the blood stains on his clothes, it wasn’t possible to know that he has been involved in a deadly fight.