May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 14: Envies

The whole journey took three and a half days for them to arrive at their destination. As suggested to Aila, she slept throughout the whole drive until they reached the station where they solved their physiological needs and refilled their tank. It was a pleasant nap that she hadn't had in a long time without being plugged with horrors of her past life.

And for the rest of the journey, Aila used the time to adjust her mood and mindset. Her friends might have noticed her oddness at some point when she was more quiet than usual. They did their best to make her be engaged as much as possible. Much to Aila’s appreciation of their care for her.

Aila's parents were the ones who greeted them when they first arrived. After some deliberation, Aila decided that making them join the explanation was the best way for her to be honest with her parents. She is already guilty about the changes she has exhibited during these past few months, they must have been so worried about her well-being.

So before they set off, Aila proposes a vacation for the whole family. Justifying that they haven’t had one for a long time now. And because their family is just three, she also said that she would also invite her friends to accompany them. After all, everyone is so close to each other and there is no difference between a family and them.

Aila also invited her relatives to join them, but sadly, everyone expressed their schedule for the whole month. Some of her cousins were on the phone as they were so busy joining them. Promising that when they are free, they will arrange a reunion for everyone to enjoy themselves. What Aila knew for sure would not arrive as the apocalypse was just around the corner.

To appease them, she went along with their words. Noting to herself to at least give them some reminders and precautions in the next months that will instill them some habits for the apocalypse. What else can she do more currently? After all, most of their relatives are scattered all over the world. It was already pushing when she invited them to this sudden vacation.

Agreeing to her proposal, the couple went ahead and told Aila that they would be heading to the resthouse first. Saying that they will set off after their working hours are finished. According to their words, they wanted to prepare some feast for them to enjoy upon their arrival. Although they rarely lived in their resthouse, it is also their home and not treating their guests well does not sound good to them.

“Hello Auntie!” Liza said as she gave the woman a tight hug.

Aila’s mother let out a sound of surprise, but nevertheless giggled like a little girl in the presence of her favorite company. “Well, great to see you guys again. Last time we got together like this was three years ago, right?”

Jerome made a sound of agreement with her question and went on tattling about some past events. Events that we can say are part of everyone’s black history. Thus, resulting in the rest of the hyenas snapping at him and making him shut up.

“Still the loud bunch I see.” Aila’s father said as he gave a hearty laugh over the children’s antics.

“Hi uncle” The hyenas chorus in greeting. One by one, they fixed their appearance like they were not in riot a while ago. Though Jerome did his best to restore his former bearing, he cannot erase the traces of being hoarded in his face.

“Well come on inside.” Aila’s father invited them in. “Judith had made you a feast inside. Leave your luggage in the living room at the moment and eat first, the maids can take care of it for you. The food will lose its best taste if it gets any cooler.”

Following instructions, the hyenas went to the dining room to see the various dishes Aila’s mother had prepared for them. To be honest, they liked hanging out at Aila's house due to the food and the warm atmosphere they had. Their own family situation rarely or does not have such careful and thoughtful care of themselves.

Most of them are from good families. Families that lack no wealth and material goods. In fact, they can not work hard for the rest of their lives and still live well on the inheritance their old relatives have left to them. But with all that abundance, their families have exchanged their familial affections for everything material. Thus, letting them grow in spacious rooms with walls that are cool all year around.

It can be said when they were younger they were terribly envious of how Aila’s parents seemed to be with her at every step. At meetings, at least one of her parents will take time to drop by for her. On birthdays, her parties were not very grand but everyone gathered around with no intrigues as they only wanted the child to be happy. And most importantly, her parents never force her to do anything she does not like.

Such a thing is not their situation. Due to their excessive wealth, everyone at their respective homes is on guard against everyone. Even their own parents are wary of them being close to them at all. A simple dinner together in their house is often more suffocating than a pleasant family bonding.

It does not help that some of their parents do not really treat them as children. Rather, they see themselves as chips for future transactions, which was painfully true to Bella’s situation. As young as five, she already knew that she would be married to the highest bidder. Falling in love with someone of her choice was doomed before she even knew what that meant.

Perhaps, after Aila, it was Jerome who had such happy homes. Although, most of the time, his parents have no time to interact with him and his siblings, they at least try to make up with them whenever they can. But even with that, Jerome still envies Aila for her luck in having such good parents.

“I think I have prepared everything you guys want to eat.” Aila’s mother said as she began reciting their favorite foods while especially placing those dishes in accordance to their liking. Never did they think that after all this time someone not related to them would even bother to observe and take note of their likes and dislikes.

“Thank you very much, auntie,” Bella said as she hid the envy in her voice. “I really missed your cooking.”

Aila’s mother smiled as she heard them urging them to eat well. Though at some point in the meal they started to babble about topics, everything was peaceful and warm. Aila, who had lived for so long without this, was feeling emotional inside of her.

She used to dream of returning to those days when she was in that hellish place. Day and night back when she recently lost them, she cried in the hidden corners they stood in. She knew more or less that her friends were also deeply affected by their loss back then. Bella, who was especially close to her mother, had a breakdown while the rest were restless and grieving as she was.

Returning in time made Aila greedy. Everyone who survived in those dark times is greedy for something. This is the reason why people wanted to be stronger in the apocalypse. So that they can get what they want as long as it exists in the world; let this be women, resources or people.

It was also the same for Aila. Her greed was her people. She does not care about wealth or abundance of resources, having too much of this only brings troubles that she actively doesn't care about. All she wanted was to have enough and that her people were safe and well.

But living for three lifetimes has taught her that to protect others means one has to have the ability to do so. Although she does not want to be a powerhouse at the end of time, she has to at least have a deterrent power or influence to make others hesitate to provoke and do bad to them.

Every night before she goes to bed, she considers her choices and her next actions will be. She does not want them to be so eye-catching nor does she want them to be so low. Being low in influence and fame will result in people bullying them to satisfy their own darker sides. While being so eye-catching will let both bees and butterflies annoy them to death. She is sure none of them will have a peaceful day if that happens.

Thinking more of the things ahead has made her head hurt several times. Therefore, after she tells them about her worries, she will definitely let her friends burn their brain cells alongside her. This involves everyone’s safety! Although she knew many things in advance, it did not mean that she had to carry everything on her own shoulders!

After they ate and got stuffed, everyone went to their respective rooms. The hyenas had already been here several times already, so they knew which rooms they would be staying in. So there was no need for Aila to guide them to every nook and cranny of the resthouse.

Even if the whole house is called a townhouse to them, this place is in fact a villa under Aila’s name when she turned eighteen. A heritage left to her by her grandparents before they passed away when she was only ten and thirteen years old respectively. It was renovated and strengthened as years passed, but it still has some traces of its former glory.

Her friends were overwhelmed when they first got there. They really did not expect Aila and her family to be rich enough to have this big place. After all, in normal days, the family of three lived so simply in that small house they lived in back in the city.

The Justine Family was once great and powerful in the old times. At least each child of this family has inherited one of this kind of property since the founding of the family. Aila was a little surprised when she learned about it, but later on did not find it strange.

Many great families of olden days went low-key when merchants became so important in the world. They did not have much in cash back in the days, but they did have many properties under them. And with the changes in how things worked, it was no surprise that most of them became businessmen or shareholders of many businesses to protect themselves.

Aila’s cousins were descended from those who went to the business side, while her parents were those who became investors or dependent on their yearly dividends to cover the taxes on their various properties and existing wealth. Working purely to find purpose in life and to live a life devoid of the grand schemes of the greedy.

Aila’s parents had first hand seen how things turned from bad to worse because of jealousy and greed of both outsiders and insiders. The older generation is said to have a chaotic lifestyle and they see this ugliness that they opt to be laid-back and low-key when the time comes. Therefore, after years of being under the radar, no one can really associate them as people with great fortunes. It does not help that, most of the time, they really have no consciousness as a rich person that no one has suspected them of being wealthy.