When The Waves Kissed The Shore

4

KAIROS

Classes finished early, so I headed home quickly. I needed to check on my younger sibling.

Mom:

Ven, how are you? Please take care of your sibling for me. I still have work to finish.

To Mom:

Okay, Mom, I'm on my way home.

Mom:

Take care.

Sometimes I worry that even when tired, Mom keeps working, never seeming to rest. She's all I have left since Dad's in prison, caught using drugs. We weren't sad because he never really came home; he was always at his mistress's house.

Mom was so sad when Dad left. I understand why Dad left, but my younger siblings don't, they always ask where Dad is or when he's coming home. There are three of us; I'm the eldest, the second is 9 years old, and the youngest is 6.

When I'm not home, our neighbor looks after my siblings. Thankfully, Mom has friends who help ease her burden.

The apartment was quiet when I entered. We couldn't afford a house, so we rented an apartment that was neither big nor small but had enough space for us. My younger brother, Karl, was playing with a toy car on the living room floor, his eyes lighting up when he saw me.

"Ven! Look, I built a race track!" he exclaimed, his face beaming with excitement.

I smiled at him, "That's awesome, Karl. Make sure you finish your homework, okay?"

He nodded, and I went to check on Kaely, our youngest, who was napping in her room.

I went to the kitchen to prepare our dinner. As I started cooking, my mind wandered to Mom. How did she manage to hold everything together? Despite the challenges, she never let her exhaustion show, always putting on a brave face for us.

"What are you cooking?" Karl's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"I'm going to cook your toy cars," I replied with a playful smile.

"Will they be crunchy?" he asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

"Yes, if we deep-fry them," I chuckled.

Then, out of the blue, Karl asked, "Is Dad okay?"

I paused, uncertain how to respond. "I don't know, Karl," I finally said.

"I hope he's happy," he said, his voice tinged with innocence.

I hoped he wasn't. After all he did to Mom, after all the pain he caused, he didn't deserve happiness.

I hoped he wasn't happy. Dad had caused so much pain, he didn't deserve to be happy. Mom had loved Dad so much once. She used to tell us stories about their love for each other, how Dad swept her off her feet with his charm and promises. But those stories suddenly stopped, replaced by silence and unanswered phone calls. Dad's absence left a hole in our lives, one that Mom tried hard to fill with love.

As the smell of cooking filled our small kitchen, I looked over at Karl. They deserved to grow up in a home where love filled the air, not in a place haunted by broken promises.

After finishing up dinner, I gently woke up Kaely from her nap. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and yawned, but as soon as she smelled the food, her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Is it time for dinner?" she asked, her voice still heavy with sleep.

"Dinner's ready, princess," I said with a smile, ruffling her hair.

Kaely sat next to Karl at the small table in our cozy kitchen, his feet dangling from the chair. I dished out the food onto our plates a simple meal. A pot of steaming rice, a savory stew simmering on the stove. It wasn't much, but it was enough for us. As we ate, the silence was filled with the clinking of forks against plates and the slurp from Karl.

"How was school today?" I asked.

Karl grinned, sauce smeared across his cheek. "It was fun! I played with my friends during recess."

I chuckled. "That's great to hear, buddy."

"How about you, Kaely?"

She looked at me with a sad expression. "Why would she do that? She was my friend."

"What happened?" I asked, concerned.

"She pushed me on the stairs," she explained, her voice tinged with hurt. "She was laughing while I was crying on the floor."

Karl, always ready to defend, chimed in. "Want me to knock her out?" he offered, demonstrating a mock punch.

"Did you get hurt? Do you have any bruises?" I asked, turning back to her.

"No, I'm okay," she assured me. "I know she hates me, she said she hates someone who can't offer her anything. But that's not what friends are, right?"

"That b***h," Karl interjected, his protective instincts flaring.

"Karl," I warned him with a glance before returning my attention to Kaely. "Of course not. Friends are supposed to accept you no matter where you come from," I said, Kaely smiled and nodded.

As we finished our meal, I washed the dishes while Kaely played with Karl's toy cars on the living room floor. While Karl is busy answering his homework.

As the evening drew to a close, I tucked Karl and Kaely into bed. Before turning off the light, I glanced at the photo on the nightstand—a picture of Mom, Dad, Karl, Kaely when she was still a baby and me, taken when things were simpler and happier.

"Goodnight," I said, as I walked to the door.

As I lay in the dim light of the living room, I thought about Mom's love for Dad, how she had believed in their future together despite the cracks that had begun to form. Dad, with his easy smile and charismatic charm, had once been the center of our universe. Now, his absence was a void we all tried to fill with our own versions of strength.

Closing my eyes, I felt the weight of unanswered questions. How did our family fall apart so fast? I wished for the days in those old photos, where we were all genuinely happy.

As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered about tomorrow. But tonight, I lay awake, trying to make sense of a life that no longer looked like the perfect scenes in our old pictures, but I can't deny it, I miss that feeling of being complete.