Chapter 25
Ryan
Isit on the cracked cement floor of “The Kingdom,” the abandoned warehouse with a stupid name, with a cigarette in my hand and smoke in my lungs. Ishika has called me a dozen times but I haven’t picked up any of her calls.
I don’t want her to see me like this, chained up in my past.
Past
I came home from a late shift one evening and noticed Aunt Annie, Aunt Wendy, and her husband, Billy Bolton, sitting on the couch. I looked around our small living room and my eyes fell on Owen. He had a black eye and his lips were bleeding. His head was bandaged. He looked up at me guiltily.
“Who did this? How did this happen, Owen?” I asked, rushing over to him.
“He got into a fight with a few boys. He is suspended from school for a week.”
“They hit me first,” Owen said. “I hit them back this time. Like you taught me.”
I smiled at my little brother and raised my fist for a fist pump. “I’m proud of you. But how bad is this?” I asked.
Aunt Annie cleared her throat. “This is not what you teach your brother, Ryan. This fight is not the last one. He has started something that will only aggravate from here on.”
“Did you want me to teach him to take a beating and not raise a voice? This has been going on for years. He needs to learn to stand up.”
“He should have reported them. Taken the correct path and followed procedures. Do you see his bandaged head? It’s a concussion.
It could have been fatal. Today there were three boys, tomorrow there’ll be more,” Bolton added.
Somewhere I knew Billy was right but I still stood my ground. Bolton and I didn’t see eye to eye.
“Then they will have to fight me. Why are you all here? Where is Mom?” I said to get them off my back.
“Show some respect, and where are your manners? Owen’s principal called your mom this afternoon.
Because she is the legal guardian. She didn’t answer.
So he called me and I had to take him to the hospital for his concussion and to fill out an incident report.
I came back here to find your mom passed out on the kitchen floor,” Bolton growled angrily at me.
“I’ll handle it from here. I’ll talk to the school and explain.”
Bolton and I were never close. There was something about that man that didn’t sit right with me. My mother said she was always close to Aunt Wendy but since her marriage to Bolton, she distanced herself from Mom.
When Dad started looking for investors for his restaurant and Bolton had heard the news from somewhere, suddenly he was back in our lives.
He came through for Dad but I could always see he disliked me.
Maybe because I rebelled. Maybe because I didn’t follow his conventional rules.
Maybe because he knew how I saw through his bullshit. But Dad trusted him.
“This isn’t the first time that his principal called me.
This has happened three times this month.
So when I say I’m helping, I would like a little gratitude, understanding, and a shred of respect that I’m saving your ass, Ryan,” Bolton yelled loudly, making Aunt Annie flinch and Aunt Wendy stand up scared and tense.
“This has happened before?” I turned my attention to Owen, who looked guilty. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Because Ryan, you think you are now the head of the family; the truth is you are still a kid. You won’t accept help wholeheartedly.
And you won’t listen to advice,” Aunt Annie said.
“I’m being transferred to Seattle. I’m leaving next week.
You can’t do this alone, Ryan. You need to take your mom to rehab before she kills herself. ”
“I suggest that Owen change schools. Billy can use his contacts and get him admission into his school. It will do a world of good for Owen. New school, new friends, and he can live with us. We can keep a close eye on him. Think about what’s good for Owen.
It’s one of the best schools in town, he’ll be safe.
You can look after your mom,” Aunt Wendy said.
“And I’m canceling the lease on the restaurant,” Bolton said.
“There won’t be a business, why keep that place.
For once use your brains, Ryan. Think what is good for Owen and your mother.
Owen has a brilliant future; he is intelligent but he won’t get a scholarship if he continues to pick fights and break rules.
Do you want him to go to jail for killing someone, or worse, end up getting stabbed on a dark street because he couldn’t control his rage? ”
When I didn’t reply, Bolton stomped out of our house and Wendy ran after him to soothe his ego.
Aunt Annie stayed back and cooked us dinner.
“I’ll send you some money every month. You just need to take care of your mom in my absence.
It’s going to be hard but, Ryan, you have to save your mother,” Aunt Annie said as I sat down on the dining chair, feeling completely exhausted and lost once again.
“Let Wendy help. She’ll take good care of Owen.”
I knew she was right. I had to think this through properly. Owen in a private school where his own uncle was the principal looked like a safer option.
“I don’t want to go,” Owen said.
“Well, should have thought of it before getting beaten up,” I scolded.
“I hit them back, you just said you were proud of me.”
“O, I’m proud of you for many things. But I don’t want to encourage what happened today. As much as I hate Bolton, he is right. You need a fresh start.”
“Coward. You don’t want me. Say it to my face. I make things hard for you. I made you stay back when you wanted to leave us and you hate me for it,” Owen screamed.
“O, I can never hate you but I need to do what is right by you.”
“Stop the lies. You want your life back. I will go. I’ll go away and I’ll never come back, even if you call. You want to do what is right for yourself. I’m too much of a burden, I’m weak and you need to cut me off to move on and achieve your big goals. I get it.”
“Owen, stop talking shit.”
Owen was crying. Tears rolling down from his black eye and running down his bruised face.
I tried to hold him, give him a hug, because that’s what I did when he cried.
When he was sad and missed Dad, he would come over and ask for a bro-hug.
But for the first time he pushed me away and walked out of the door.
He stayed at Aunt Annie’s that night. I wanted to talk to him again in the morning.
I wanted him to see sense in what was right.
If he could just give me one year to finish my school, I could bring him home.
The truth was I was struggling to keep this family afloat and I didn’t want my brother to witness how I was failing.
I went to my early morning cleaning job at the factory without talking to Owen.
Once I finished my job, I went to school.
Owen wasn’t at school that day and by the time I got home, Owen had packed up his side of the room and left, like he wanted to erase his imprint from my life as fast as he could.
My relationship with Owen was strained after that. He didn’t want to talk to me and when he did, it didn’t end well. He left even more angry every time I tried to mend our differences.
Once I graduated, I was satisfied with my decision to go to community college. I wanted to stay back for Owen. I wanted to show him I was waiting for him to come back home. I had already reached out to Owen a few times but he refused to even talk to me.
By then Mom was out of rehab and doing well.
She had even started working at the local bakery five days a week.
It kept her busy and out of trouble. I found work at Morgan’s Auto Repair Shop and he took me under his wing.
Started training me as a mechanic. I enjoyed breaking cars down and building them back up.
As my skills improved, Morgan began giving me more responsibility.
I liked the job. Working hours were flexible and the pay was decent too.
One afternoon, I came home early to find Mom sitting on the floor staring at a photograph. She had her wedding photo album in her lap.
When she saw me at the door to her bedroom, she burst into tears. I walked up to her and held her in my arms, clearly alarmed at her state. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hands were shaking.
“I’m so sorry, Ryan. I couldn’t hold on to his watch, your father’s memory. I was so weak that I gave it away for those pills.”
“What are you talking about?” I said, alarmed. Was she using again?
“I was trying really hard but I made a mistake. I was missing Karl. I found his watch that had fallen behind the dresser when I was cleaning. You know how Owen loved to wear his dad’s watch, right? And then that evening Billy came home, he took the watch away.”
She wasn’t making sense; she was talking about my father’s watch.
The only time my father ever took it off his body was when he went to shower.
That watch was on his wrist at all times.
The cops had never found the watch on his body.
It had been missing evidence ever since.
It was one of the reasons why I suspected foul play.
“How did Dad’s watch end up behind the dresser? Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I don’t know. I was cleaning behind the dresser.
The watch was there at the bottom when I moved the drawer.
You weren’t home and I was missing Owen, so I went to meet him and told him that he can have Karl’s watch once he graduated school.
I told him I was keeping it safe for him.
Owen looked happy. Then we started talking about your father. ”
“What happened then?”