A Sip of Infinity

Drunken Fury

“Mr. Bane!” shouted Ms. Jones, glaring at me with a mixture of disgust and resentment on her face, as I jerked my head up from the desk, still battling the effects of a hangover from last night's drinks. “This is about the zillionth time you have slept off in my class. Principal's office now,” she ordered, pointing at the classroom door, at which I forced myself up with a substantial effort and left.

“Jared Bane...I have seen you in office long enough to notice that the color of your eyes is light green,” claimed Mr. Joseph, the principal, with his fingers closed tightly and glued to his desk. “Despite the fact that my previous warnings and the innumerable detentions have had the effect of an atom's size, I am most reluctantly willing to provide you with another chance to alter your attitude towards your education and behavior in school. You should consider yourself fortunate that you weren’t thrown out of George High when you failed thrice, but that was all the result of the tears that your mom had shed. Another incident similar to this would result in your expulsion from school.” He warned, as I nodded curtly and left.

At the end of school, I met with my g**g which consisted of Josh, Draco, and Franco at Drake's Club, where they were having shots of tequila, as I joined them, using the money nicked from mom's purse. “My buddy, how's your day going, any luck with Emily yet?” asked Josh, with a teasing grin, pointing at Emily, the prettiest girl in our class who was dancing with her girl-friends at the other end of the bar. Emily glanced at me and turned away immediately with a frown of annoyance. She disliked my g**g and me in particular, referring to us as the thugs of school, which we unfortunately were.

“Not yet bro,” I replied, in a disappointing tone, “but the time's not very far when she'll be in my arms,” I added with confidence, the g**g cheered and with a toast, we had several rounds of shots.

My head ached atrociously as I reached home barely conscious. As mom had already left for the restaurant where she worked as a full-time waitress, I was left alone as usual to drown in my hangover. The absence of a father had substantially affected my life as well as my mom's, who barely could make ends meet with her meager salary. According to her, my father had abandoned us both shortly after my birth and that's all I ever knew about him, moreover, my mother didn't even possess a picture of him.

Later that night, mom returned in an extreme state of anxiety and exhaustion, her face fully haggard and her eyes puffy and reddish like never before.

“Mom, what on earth happened?” I inquired anxiously as she fell on the couch in our studio apartment.

“Oh it’s nothing darling, just a rough day at work, and too many customers to serve” she assured me, in a quiver, very unlike her. However, I insisted on knowing the reality but she was adamant in her vague answer.

At midnight, her phone rang and I picked it up hurriedly as she was deeply asleep. The deep voice of a man sounded. “Had a marvelous time today cake-face, keep me satisfied and you’ll be transformed into a queen," exclaimed the man. I threw the phone onto the floor and checked his contact on her phone. It was Ben Joe, my mother's employer, and the restaurant's owner.

The following morning at about six, an uncontrollable fury conquered me, the fact was unable to be digested by me that my mother was forced to stoop down to this extent to feed us. I drank an entire bottle of vodka which I had bought by stealing cash from mom's purse and concealed it from mom's eyes. Losing complete control of my senses and engulfed in a fit of drunken rage, I marched down to the restaurant which was a few blocks away from our tiny apartment.

The place was vacant and the devil was seated right there on the front table in a sweat-shirt and denim.

“Hey Bane boy!” he greeted me enthusiastically, totally unaware of the incoming reply from me. “How may I be of assistance to you?” he asked, gazing at me with his thick brown mustache twitching. He was a plump man with beefy arms who wore a gold watch.

“Assist this,” I clamored and bashed the empty vodka bottle against his head. He bled profusely and fell onto the ground nearly unconscious as one of the waiters witnessed the scene and made a call on the phone; he had probably called the cops. 

However, as I began to pace away from the scene, a few blocks away from the place, a jet black SUV stopped, and a g**g of men got down, apparently empty-handed but removed weapons from inside the car. Barely able to notice anything I attempted to fight them but they surrounded me like a pack of wolves and thrashed me with the chains and baseball bats that they were equipped with. They probably would have killed me if they hadn't heard the police siren echoing from a distance, as they got in the car and sped off, leaving me in a pool of blood. My ribs ached terribly and my head was spinning like a saucer as I made a substantial effort which nearly cost me my life and limped home.

Half an hour later I reached home, a journey which normally took me about ten minutes, bleeding from head to toe I grabbed a bottle of beer and poured it all over my head and body. It seemed to heal every inch of me that no medicine or treatment could ever. Just as I gathered full control over my senses, I received another agonizing blow, mom was missing.