What's the best thing in life? Finding out that dad has a problem with work?

Chapter 8: Hope or the best of nothing?

A few months have passed, and it’s the best season ever. What a great deal, the mid-term holiday! I got myself a new hair and remade my whole look, now it’s a fresh start! It appears that I have been suffering from many events that were stacked in the wrong scene before. Soon began the next day, 27^th of May. The best holiday ever, it has a lifespan of 90 days. What a great time to relax, no homework and without the voice of the teachers.

The next morning, I woke up happily and sat down the chair beside my bed and took out a piece of paper. I examined the whole “holiday” and decided to get myself some new items for the sake of school. The immediate thing that ran into my brain was about money, “No money, no items!”

“Looks like I need money!” reflected in my mind.

Suddenly, I heard a scream coming from downstairs.

“It sounds like mum, hold on let me check it out” whispers in my brain with full of questions.

As soon as I went down, I found out that mum was screaming because she was afraid of rats. Damn you rats, we need someone to clear them up.

“I will exterminate them,” I told mum.

“I’ll pay you if you can, I don’t want give my fortune to a rat exterminator!” replied mum.

“Don’t put high expectations on me, I might come in handy. However, I will try my best.” I responded.

“We’ll discuss about the pay later, now get rid of all these irritating rodents! Quick!” shouted mum with a desperate expression.

It seems that I have found an unexpected weakness of mum, what makes her hate rats? I wonder… That nostalgic feeling started replaying in my mind.

“Where is dad? He never came back since March… His last word was that he needed to work for 2 months, but until now I still don’t see a sign of him… Where has he gone?” I deeply wondered.

I had to seize the day and help out mum so I came out of my subconscious and took out a broom and grasped it tightly. I swung the broom with full of intensity and crushed those little creatures; finally a few of them were killed while some others escaped. They crawled swiftly, beneath the chair and slides under the carpet to the bottom of the door and finally a sweet escape.

“Phew, they’re all cleared up… Where’s the pay?” I questioned.

“Ha-ha, you expect a pay from me?” said mum with an evil smile.

“What… so you were fooling me?” I responded.

“Of course, looks like you made a wrong move, forfeit?” replied mum.

“Ah… never mind, wasn’t expecting anything anyway…” I answered.

I was not aware of mum’s trick, guess she was trying to use me as a tool to get rid of her fear.

“This is the only way left!” that voice ran into my conscience.

I turned around with evil-looking white eyes and told mum,

“Fear me!” I shouted.

“Stop fooling around!” she said nervously as she has never seen such an expression on my face.

I was about to use a secret technique, “the rat”. I swayed my hands holding a little rat inside my closing fist and showed mum my five shaggy fingers. Mum held a little shock in her face.

“What are you trying to do?” said mum nervously.

As the clock ticks life away, I paused for the few little moment and said with a pair of confident eyes.

“It’s called… the rat.” I replied.

“Like I said, stop fooling around!” came a swift of light from mum.

A little rat popped out of my fist and dropped down on the floor. Then, I questioned,

“Where is my salary, my sweetest mum?” I said with a pleasant, unusual smile.

“Kill it! Now! I’ll pay you the money after you kill it! I promise!” said mum with some drops coming from her eyes controlled by gravity.

“Oh… really? Are you only fooling me? I presume that you’ll escape before I even ask.” I questioned with full of doubt.

I knew that mum had this fear plus her hot-tempered attitude; she would never be so courteous. Who says that life is simple? It is never temperate!

“Should I give her a second chance?” this question crumbled in my mind.

“Okay! Okay! I surrender!” cried mum with tears rolling down her wrinkly cheek.

Mum’s watery eyes captured my sympathy. So, I smashed the rat into a flatten insect. Looks like mum developed a new weakness towards rats… Why was she so afraid anyway? We should never be afraid of nature; some times it might sting us with its prickly sting. Soon, mum stopped crying and I started cleaning the floor. Mum gave me fifteen-bucks with a dim expression. I was so excited, now, I guess I can save up and grab that shiniest star in the dark upper air with the pale moon beside it. I received the pile of rough paper and ran upstairs to keep them. All the hard work was worth the shot! Looks like I have to get a job for myself, I went back into my room and kept the fifteen-bucks into my “piggy bank”. I referred back to that piece of paper that was on my table and took out a bundle of pencils and chose the sharpest and longest among all of them and trashed the remaining ones as they were too blunt and short. I planned the whole scheme with my intuition. Everything is set, now, all I have to do is fill in what work should I be doing. Seems like fate has a strange way of working, I ran toward the door as soon as I heard the bell ring. It was dad!

“Dad! Welcome…“ I paused with handful of uncertainty.

However, he seemed strange. An unpredictable expression pasted on his face, intolerable. Was he angry?

“I need more pocket money though…” came creeping into my mind.

It was unreasonable that he could feel that, I could barely smell contentment in him. How could such thing get into him? What overtook or possessed him? Questions swirled inside my mind as I walked back into my room. Seems like there will be the occurrence of thunder and storm… a havoc! Something opposing is bothering me!

“I see grief in his eyes!”

Seems like things are refusing to turn otherwise! I could not do anything and stood up my chair. I rounded my whole room for a few moments wondering what dad was up to.

“Looks like I have to find out what is going on!” ignited the flames in me, fiercely.

There is an order in this planet that brings the rat to the cheese. Looks like it is way harder than it seems, I do not know what dad did in his disappearance. One instance paused as I stopped looping. I walked down and went to dad’s room, I peeked into the door and saw dad being depressive. He held his rock solid fist and smashed the table, crying. It seemed like there was no remedy that could cure this sickness. Dad did something wrong! I did not go into the room as I was too afraid to approach dad for his current mood. I decided to ask mum for answers. Thus, I went to the dining room where mum was sitting down folding the clothes that she took in this morning. The day turned shiny and I started to question mum,

“Why is dad so? Is he sad or something? He lost his job?” I asked.

“He’s lost, I don’t know what to do with him!” said mum with a down expression.

“What happened? What happened to him while he was working?” I questioned.

“Don’t you think that kids should not question adult much?” she responded.

“What do you think?” I said.

“He’s been like this, his disability totally blows him away!” mum replied.

“Have you ever thought of the factors that are making him so?” I asked.

“Nope, I don’t even think that it will go otherwise!” said mum.

“What makes you think so? Temptation?” I asked.

“Maybe not… pressure or is the task too discouraging?” replied mum.

“Motivation perhaps? Or was my prediction wrong? Devastating indeed!” I shouted and replied.

“This will go no further… we’ll have to move with the pace!” said mum.

As soon as the door opened, we stopped talking. Dad came in and sat down and I left. I went back upstairs and sat down on my chair. I flipped the paper and grasped my pencil tightly, sweat dripped onto the paper and rippled.

“I’ve found the answer! This is it! This is just simply… fascinating!” I thought bursting with flames.

“One bird cannot fight a thousand wings!” I came out with a conclusion.

To be continued…