Series Wednesday:Family Game night Page 35

 It has been a few days since my mother announced that she is going to execute our possible big brother. My parents are letting Enrique stick around. He has been sleeping in my room, not sure if they know that. We sent off the note to get Percy back and now it feels like a waiting game. I lay there in Enrique’s arms. He likes to scoop me up in the night and hold me, I know I probably shouldn’t let him, but it is nice to be held. “Are you scared?” He asks me. “Yeah, I am scared I might never get to see Percy again or Hope.” Enrique pulls me in tighter. “We will fight to find them and kill if we have to.” He kisses me on the head. I don’t think he knows that I won’t kill. I can’t kill anyone. I like to make my mother think that I would kill her if she pushed me, but I can’t. It is not in me to take someone’s life. I don’t think I could live with it. I am not sure why he is so okay with the thought of killing someone, maybe he has no idea what it will really takes. “We should get some sleep” I tell him not sure what else to say. “Okay.” He says, and he loosens his grip on me for me to have some room to sleep. There is so much going through my mind. First thing is what if we do get Percy and Hope back, what will my parents do with Enrique? Will they kill him? I know they won’t let him just walk out the house knowing their secret. Will I let them kill him is the real question I guess. That is a problem for tomorrow I suppose.
                “Cahira wake up.” Grace says. “What time is it?” I ask her. “It’s 6AM he sent something.” Grace says. I jump out of bed and look back to see Enrique is still fast asleep. I put my hands up for Grace to be quiet so we don’t wake him. We slowly head out of my room trying not to make a sound. After we get out of my door we run down the stairs. As I head down the stairs that’s when I see a giant pumpkin. “A pumpkin?”  I say very confused. “Yeah we are just as confused as you.” Grace says as we meet with our parents. I walk around the pumpkin to see that the top has been cut open. “Did a note come with it?” I ask my parents. “We think that the note might be inside.” I pull the tops off and there is a string with a note at the end. I pull the note off and open it. “Cheater cheater pumpkin eater. You were not supposed to have outside help with your secret. The fact that you let Enrique in on a family matter makes me not trust you anymore. So, to ensure this stays in the family I am going to send you on a scavenger hunt and since you excluded your parents when you got help from Enrique. I have decided to do the same. It is sibling time and if you decide not to listen, we will turn from four siblings to 3. I hope you’re ready to hunt for tomorrow the game begins. Love your big brother.”  I look at Grace. “What if this was always the plan?” Grace says. I look at her. “I don’t follow. His plan is to make us go on a scavenger hunt?” I ask her. “No, to get rid of Percy so he could be our only brother.”  I look at Grace. “We can’t think like that. He might not want to get rid of Percy he might want to be our big brother. Someone for us to all look up to. I mean look at what he has done so far all on his own, It’s a little impressive.” I don’t mean a word of it, but he can hear us and anyone who has done all of this clearly wants attention. So, let’s give it to him. Grace catches on to what I am doing. “You’re probably right. That is why I don’t want mom to kill him. We could learn a lot from him.” Grace says we look back at our parents who look completely confused. “We will play by his rules. I just want my baby boy home.” My mother says as she walks away.
                I go back up to my room to get a few more hours of sleep. Enrique is awake sitting at the edge of my bed. “So a scavenger hunt huh!” He smiles at me. “It is not nice to easy drop” I tell him as I push him to the side and crawl back into bed. He crawls up next to me and wraps his arms around me. “I’ll do anything you ask of me.” He whispers in my ears.  I can’t help but feel safe when I am with him. I just want to close my eyes for a little bit. “Cahira open your eyes.” I hear gently. I open my eyes and see Chance. “What are you doing here?” I ask him as I start to get up. “Don’t wake up Enrique.” Chance says I nod yes. I slowly get up and Chance leads me into the bathroom. “So why is Enrique even here?” He asks me. “It’s a super long story.” I peek out my bathroom door to make sure I didn’t wake up Enrique. He is still laying there asleep. “There are a lot of long stories you need to catch me up on but that’s not why I am here. I got this in the mail today for you.” It’s a birthday card. “You know it’s not my birthday” I tell chance. “It’s a gift for the scavenger hunt.” He tells me. “What?” I grab the card out of Chances hand. “He said it’s time for the game to begin. My note said he was sending someone you trusted first, it took me a minute to figure out he meant me.  Plus it said he wanted to be sure your parents weren’t prepared to follow you.” I just look at Chance. I look down at the birthday card. “Okay” I say as I begin to open it. “Cahira what the hell is going on?” He asks me. “I really can’t say if I want to get Percy back. Did you read the birthday card?” I ask him. “No my note was pretty clear I had no choice not to. There was a threat to out me in my note. So how about you read it and tell me what it says.” Chance looks at the card in my hand. “Yeah I’ll read it.” I open the card but I am 100% sure I am not ready for what’s inside.

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“Why wouldn’t he have just showed up at our front door?” My mother asks. “He was scared he thought you would kill him. He just kept asking for me to bring him to dad.” I look at my mother. “We don’t know for sure if he is who he says he is.” My mother says as she looks over at my dad. “Or who he thinks he is. He might just think he is dad’s son. He might not really be him.” Grace says. My dad cannot take his eyes off the TV which is paused on his face. “He is mine.” My dad says without a doubt. “So now that we know who he is we just have to send a note back and we get Percy right?” Grace asks. “Why would he do all this now??” I ask wonder why he waited so many years after my coma. “Do we really think he is just going to give us Percy just like that? He planned this for a long time. I think there is more to this.” Grace says. “I think that you need to figure out his name” Enrique says. We all look at him; it is like we all just forgot he was here. “Why do we let him live again???”  My mother says to my dad. “Because he got us this footage and he is the one with the idea to find out his name. Honestly why do we let you live?” I say to her as I stand in front of Enrique. My mother looks at me. “How much do you know about us?” My dad asks Enrique. “Nothing besides the kidnapping” I say. “I know everything. I have since I was a kid” Enrique says. I hit him on the shoulder. “Why haven’t you ever told anyone or turned us in?” My dad asks him. “Why would I?” Enrique askes back. “You’re not scared of what we do?” My dad asks. “No, I think it’s interesting and the fact that you do it as a family so no one feels left out.” My dad seems to be eating up what Enrique is spitting out. “You’re willing to do anything to help us find Percy????” Enrique moves me to the side and shakes my dad’s hand. “Anything.”
                My mother stands over me as I write my note to our long-lost brother. I still can’t help but wonder why now. What made him take Percy now? He knew where we were all these years why not just show up. I didn’t remember him, so he wouldn’t have had to worry about me telling about him causing my coma. Something about all of this just isn’t sitting right with me.  “I am still not convinced that he is yours.” Grace says to my dad. “She is right sweetheart the likely hood of us ending up in the same state as him let alone the same city is highly unlikely.” My mother says to my dad. “Wait what do you mean?” I ask my mother. “Well you know me and your dad are not from here. That’s why grandma has to take a plane to visit us.” My mother is so condescending. “Actually, it wouldn’t be that unlikely.” My dad says as he finally breaks eye contact with the TV. “I mean dad really the statistics.” Grace says to my dad. “I moved us here because I found out he was adopted here. But that was all I could find out since it was a closed adoption” my dad says. My mother looks like she is going to kill him. “You moved us here for him?? You never once said anything about him.”  I can tell my mother is angry. “I wasn’t sure if I would ever even find him. So, I thought it was best not to it bring up.” My dad says. “First you do this without telling me and then you send Hope away. All for what??? For your blood children! He took Percy and is holding him and Hope hostage. Since you have been making all the decision without me it’s time for me to make one. When we find him he gets executed!”  My mother is serious we can all tell. She is going to kill him weather my dad likes it or not. “He hasn’t done anything to hurt Percy and he is our older brother. I don’t think we should kill him.” Grace says. “He has done things to hurt Hope. So I am with mother on this one.” I can’t believe I am agreeing with my mother but I am. “Hope is your blood only. I don’t think it’s fair to deny all of us our right to know him.” Grace says to me. “Excuse you Hope is my mom. He is some messed up guy who thinks he is our brother, like you said he might not be. Plus he took Percy we don’t know he has done nothing to hurt him.” I say back to her. “I am just saying if he is our brother I would like a chance to get to know him.” Grace says. “I say we kill him.” I say back. “This is not up for a vote he is getting executed.” My mother says. “Your right it’s not up for a vote because no one is killing my son. If we find out he is not my son, then fair game.” My dad says to all of us. I look at my mother knowing this isn’t going to end well. My parents almost never disagree on anything. “Even if he is your son he needs to pay for what he did. So you can say whatever you like but he is going to be executed by my hand. So you need to make a choice on who is more important to you. Your whole family or a long-lost son of yours!” My mother says as she leaves the room.

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We need to get all of the boxes together. He has clearly been in our lives for a long time. We need to figure out how.” I tell my family. I push Grace away from my mother and walk her over towards the sofa. “Where is your box?” I ask her. “It’s in my room.” I look at her. “It is going to take you a while to walk up there, go get it” I tell her. I know it is mean to make her get it with her injuries. I however need some time with my parents alone. She slowly heads up the stairs. My mother and father bring their boxes into the living room. “Go easy on her. You don’t have to be so hostile with her.” I tell my mother. “If she would have done something you might still be you.” I can’t believe her. “I am me. Nothing she could have done that day would have changed anything. The moment you realize it that is the moment you will finally get to see your daughter for who she is.” My mother just looks at me. “The only way I think you can even begin to understand this is for me to put it this way. You were like a great artist who could create amazing things and he broke your hands. You can still write but never really create again.”  Of course, that is how she looks at it. Why would she ever look at it any other way?  “Your right I lost my ability to destroy lives without a second thought. I might not be what you wanted me to be but at least I have a soul.” I tell her as I walk over to look at all the stuff from the boxes.  I start to line everything up in order of which it came. Just looking at all the pictures, letters and things he has sent us in order of which it came makes no sense.

                After hours of pouring over every detail we are all exhausted. “We need sleep” my mother says as she looks over at Grace who is already asleep on the floor. “I agree” My dad says. “I could use some sleep.” I tell my parents. I shake Grace awake. “Go to your room” I tell her. She slowly gets up and we all head to our rooms. I just crash into my bed and pass out. “Cahira” I hear as I roll over. Enrique has something in his hand. “How did you get in?” I ask him. “You didn’t lock the window.” He points back at the window. “You need to wake up I got the footage. It wasn’t easy, and I broke a few laws, actually more than a few but I got it.” He sounds so excited. I start to get up. “Footage of what??” I look at Enrique. “I got his face.” I jump out of bed. “Grace’s laptop is in the living room.” I wave for him to follow me as I run out the door down the stairs to get it. I turn it on and connect it to the TV. Enrique gives me the microchip that the video is on.  I start to watch it and at first it is just me standing there when a guy approaches me. I just look at him with no emotions. He turns and looks up and I can see his face. It hits me, I remember him. I know who he is and why he took Percy.

                I wake up my parents and Grace. “What is he doing here?” my mother asks. “He got us this footage.” I tell them as I play it for them. “That’s my imaginary friend” Grace says. My mother puts her hand over her mouth. “It’s the boy with the lion.” I turn and look at my mother. “My lion?” I ask. “Yes, oh my….. he was in your room when you were in a coma. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said he heard that you got hit by a car and brought you a lion, he said he was a candy stripper and was moved by your will to survive. There was just something about him, he was so charming.” Well now I know how I got my lion. “The hospital is where I met him to” Grace says. I look at my dad. “Well have you ever met him before?” My dad just stands there looking at the TV. “No I have not but he looks so familiar.” I can tell my dad can’t put his finger on why he looks familiar. “Really dad? What about him looks familiar to you?” My dad looks back at me with a puzzled look on his face. “It’s his eyes. They look like someone I knew a long time ago.” I go and stand right next to my dad. “Whose eyes does he have?” I ask my dad. “His eyes look like my high school sweetheart. If he has her eyes that means……..Wait is he?” My dad ask me. “Yes he is. Dad you’re looking at your son.” My dad just turns and looks at me. “That is what seeing his face reminded me of. He kept saying he was my brother. He just wanted to be with his family that would understand why.  He said he couldn’t control it like we could and that he had killed a few people. He saw me at a fair and just knew I was like him. He said he followed me home. He said he just wanted to be with his family.” I look at my dad. “So this is my son.”

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                My mother brings me the laptop. I plug in the thumb drive and open the file on it. It is a video of Percy. “Hi Cahira, I miss you. So, he wants me to tell you that you can’t remember him but for my sake you have to. Here is a little insight to where you met.” Percy cuts off. It is playing a video of me walking down the street as a kid. A guy with a hoodie is grabbing me. He seems to be talking to me. It looks like he is trying to get a good hold on me. I seem to be laughing; I keep looking back at the street where the cars are passing by. I seem to be counting how long until the next car. The hooded man keeps trying to talk to me. He is shaking me and I seem to keep laughing at him. He is trying to lift me off the ground and I am fighting him. I look back again at the cars. I give him the middle finger and push myself back from him and get hit by a car. This must have been the accident that put me into the coma. I look back at my parents. “Did you know?” I ask them. “No we didn’t know how you got hit by the car.” My mother says as she stares at the screen. “Here is your real test.” Percy is back on the screen. “You have to remember your first conversation that you had with him and you will get me back. It is all on you Cahira. I love…” the video cuts off.  “Do you remember anything about that day?” My dad asks me. “No, I wish I did.” Grace holds my hand. I look at Grace and realize she wasn’t with me. Why was I walking by myself??? I never use to walk home alone. “Where were you at?” I ask Grace. “I was with you that day, but I walked into the store to get candy. When I saw the guy with the hoodie you gave me a hide look. The same look you gave me when mom got mad at us and was going to get us. So I hid but I could hear some of what he told you. Just a little bit nothing really.”  Grace puts her head down. “Why didn’t you ever tell us what happened?” My dad asks Grace. “I was scared, and I felt horrible. The only person I ever told was my not so imaginary friend.”

                Both of my parents are furious with Grace. I just want to know what little she heard. “Grace don’t worry about them just tell me what you heard.”  Grace looks at our parents and then looks back at me. “He just kept saying that you needed to take him home. That he needed to meet the rest of us. You laughed and said over your dead body. You just kept laughing at him. You always called him the tramp which I didn’t understand. I never saw his face I just heard his voice when he was yelling at you. I just knew that if I told mom and dad what happened they would get mad at me for not trying to protect you. For letting you jump in front of the car to protect me.” Grace won’t even look up at me. “Grace you are the most important person to me. I would have done anything to protect you.”  I can’t remember anything about that day or any days before it. This is like a puzzle I have to figure out. I look at the stairs to see Enrique sitting at the top. I am shocked that my parents haven’t seen him yet. He waves to me, for me to go up there. I nod yes so, he will go back to my room. I can’t believe he is still here. “I am going to use the bathroom real fast.” I get up off the sofa to walk up the stair. “Cahira….” My dad says as I start to walk up the stairs.  I stop to look back at him. “We will figure out who this man is and we will get revenge for what he did to you.” My dad says. I look back at him and just smile as I continue to walk up the stairs to my room. I walk into my room to see Enrique packing her back pack. “I can get you the rest of the footage.” I don’t understand. “Wait what? What footage?” I ask him. “The rest of it, that video that you’re watching is only one side. I know that road and where all the store cameras are. I can get you the rest.” I never thought about the fact that we could find a different angle. “This was years ago. How do you know the stores will still have it?” I ask him. “I don’t but I can try. I want you to get your brother back. I’ll do whatever I can to help you” Enrique says. He walks up and kisses me before heading out the window. “Thank you….” I say under my breath as he is already gone. He moves fast. I need to get back to my family.  I start to head back down the stairs and I hear my mother. “You should have told us what happened. You care so little about your sister!” Grace starts screaming at my mother. “She isn’t even your daughter I am! She jumped in front of that car to protect me! I was just a little kid I was scared but not of him of you! Of what you would do to me for not protecting her. I thought you would throw me out with the trash. You made me feel like that my whole life!” I can hear Grace’s anger. I don’t want her to piss off my mother. I start to run to Grace’s side. My mother slaps her across the face before I can get there. “You do not raise your voice to me child. You are my daughter my blood. So, I can take your life. Don’t think for a spilt second that I won’t.” I run in-between them. “Enough mother” I shot as I push Grace back. My dad rushes to my side. “Let’s not lose sight of Percy we are so close to getting him back.” My dad wraps his arms around my mother and moves her back.