thought it was
just his cold messing up again, so I went to the cabinet to fetch him some
medicine,” she paused for a moment and tried to collect herself.
“It’s okay Momma,” Sammy comforted.
“He was gagging, and blue! And I knew then that this was not
just some cough.”
“What’s wrong with his heart?”
“Just heart failure. He’s eating too much fried foods, getting
old, and not exercising,” she stated with a defeated shrug.
“Well, what have you been feeding him? He only eats your
food!” I pointed out.
“Apparently, he’s been eating over at his sister’s house
because I have been cooking too clean for him! That’s what he decided to
tell me before he passed back out,” she said choking up towards the end.
“Oh Daddy! Why did you have to be so stubborn?”
“Can we address the elephant in the room?” Lucas asked
suddenly.
It just dawned on me that I had not come alone. This was the
moment that I’d feared. Damn! I should’ve had a better game plan than this. I
was so worried about my father that I completely forgot about the introduction.
“Family, this is Axel; he brought me here from Italy.”
“Italy?! What the hell were you doing in Italy?” Samuel
asked.
“With a man other than your fiancé!” Lucas added.
“Oh my God! The wedding was called off!” I argued.
“And for a reason none of us know!” Lucas snapped.
“And can I ask what this man means to you? He better be the
pilot!” Samuel added.
“Excuse me!” my voice echoed throughout the room.
“There’s no excuse for you!” Samuel interrupted.
“Stop yelling! Maybe you all have forgotten that your father
is in the hospital, but I have not! If you want to continue to yell, you can do
it elsewhere.”
“Ok fine, let’s use our inside voices,” Luke said
sarcastically.
“And you can start, Jaida, by telling us who this man is to
you.”
“My name is Axel, and I am Jaida’s boss,” he said speaking
for the first time. His voice caused the air in the room to stand still. It was
so deep and authoritative; it put my mind at ease.
“I thought your boss was female?” Mom pointed out.
“She was, until I started working for Axel.”
“And you met him on your honeymoon?” Samuel pointed out
judgmentally.
“On my vacation ; Ethan and I broke up remember?” I
said.
“Still, I mean you break off your relationship, you leave to
Puerto Rico on a whim, and then you hook up with him?” Lucas said in all
seriousness. “Don’t think we don’t know what you meant by being my little
sister’s new boss, you nasty son of a-“
“You better stop that cussing! I don’t tolerate that!” My
mom said while she popped Samuel in the mouth like he was five.
“Momma!” Sammy complained.
“Don’t talk to him that way; he’s been very good to me since
Ethan,” I defended while walking over to stand next to him.
“He’s the rebound guy, he could be pimping you out on the
streets and you’d have googly eyes.”
“Samuel Jackson Peterson!” Mom chided.
“Yeah, calm down,” I spat.
“That’s enough out of all of you! We will talk about this
later, in the meantime, I would like for you all to get me something to
eat, and you will get along!”
Some task my mom set us all on. My brothers didn't start any
arguments, but they didn’t speak either. Every now and then, I would catch them
looking over at Axel, just for a moment before looking away. Axel on the other
hand was totally complacent.
He didn’t seem at all bothered by the immature behavior that
my brothers were exhibiting. He actually seemed quite amused. At certain
points, I could tell that he felt that it was actually sort of funny. In a way
it was; these men were in their thirties and were acting like they are in high
school.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, Jaida, are you hungry?” Luke asked stepping closer in
a goofy sort of manner.
“Luke, don’t make me drop you in this food court,” I warned
with a pointed
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
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Brenda Sinclair
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