The Tribids Queen

●●●THEA ●●● Death...one word that changed my life forever,one minute I was preparing a welcome party for my parents who were returning from their 26th anniversary holiday in Huwaii ,the next I was an opharn, a 20 year old girl who just lost both of her parents in a plane crash,how sad does it get after that... I'll tell you it doesn't get any sadder than that. You know that scene we always see in movies, where there's a knock at the door and they open to a police officer... Well that how the scene played in my home too, only at home there was no cut cut cut, it a wrap and people clap cause they did great with their scene they are all happy... in my home it was all real, as real as it can get. Just as am taking out the chicken from the oven, excited Mom and dad will get home any minute now cause they landed like 2 hours ago so they were meant to be here only they not cause somehow they... not. okay back here am finishing up and there's a knock at the door. "I'll get it " runs James to get the door and I try to be quick here in the kitchen, cleaning up cause I don't want mom and Dad to walk in on this mess. "Good afternoon.. " well that sounds nothing like my parents voice ,it grabbed my attention...I walk closer to the door. "Can I speak to an adult you have here? " " That would be me " " I am " both Liam and I say in unison... as I come face to face with a police woman followed by a her male colleague. " is there anyone older then both of you that we can talk to? " asks the policeman as he looks at his colleague like they are both having a mental conversation somehow that we are left out on. "Well no, our parents are meant to return any minute now ,so unless you plan on waiting for them then that okay but till then you have might as well take it " says Liam as he gets pissed off that he's not being regarded as an adult, he sure as hell think he is an adult, which I find funny cause am the oldest out of the two of us. " so there's no one older then you two in front of us" asks the lady " am sorry Mam but we the oldest you can find in this house at the moment ,like my brother has explained already " they both look at each other again and somehow they both seem to agree on something cause they nod and look at us. "Okay ,so who am I to talk to between you two, who's the oldest?" she asks "Both of us it okay, we twins anyway " I say before Liam claims he's the oldest again. "Well I came to talk to you about your parents " she says "Are they arrested? " asks Jake. "Can we talk without the kids here" I look at the little ones and am suddenly scared to have them here . "Jake please take them upstairs,I'll call you down once we all done either way " I say and they leave slowly and go up "You can come in "I say and they come in,go sit down in the couch and I make tea for them fast and get back to them...I look at Liam and I can tell he already knows and by the looks of it, it not something good and if it not good then it horrible and am more scared to know what it is now. "What happened? " I ask "So the plan crashed..." that all I heard,literally all I heard,it was like they were just muted by a remote or something and I stopped hearing them. I had thanked Liam for being there cause if he wasn't I wouldn't have known either way...after the police left then the task of telling the kids was left to one of us and I was sure Liam would tell them but he left 10 minutes after the Police left saying he was going out...which meant I had to pull my big girl pants and tell the Children that mom and Dad are never coming home cause somehow they died on their way home to us. I started the heavy journey to James room cause I know that where they'll be in his room like I told them, I stand in front of the door and breath for 10 seconds as I count down and wipe the tears and then I walk in and it was like they were waiting for someone to walk in they stood up and came to stand in front of me. " where are they? " asks Julia anxious " let all sit down" I say and they all pull one another and they take a seat and I pull on a chair that James uses to study on his small table and I seat on it looking at my four little siblings wondering in my mind how am I gonna tell them,like how do you even begin to tell a 5 year old that your parents are not coming home cause somehow they are dead...Kiara just moved from the bed and came to seat onto me and I breath again. "So... mom and Dad... uhmm... they... " I struggle to find words. " they dead " says Jake like it the easiest thing to say and he looks me dead in the eye waiting for me to say no maybe they still alive somewhere. "Yeah " I say "They dead , that what the police guys were explaining to us " I say as I watch Julia just seat there and silently cry looking at me like am lying to her somehow. " so now we orphans " "Basically" says James "What dead, Thea?" Asks Kiara in her baby voice and I look at her and I envy her right now,she has no clue what going on here,all of us grownups are aware of what going on and she doesn't even know what dead means. "Well Kiara dead means mom and dad are no longer with us now,they are with God" I explain "Like angels " she asks "Yeas Baby like angels" I say " mama said one day she's gonna be my Angel, is she my Angel now? " she asks and I smile "Yeah, she's your angel now" she jumps down and jumps up and down "Now I have an Angel,now I have an angel" she sings and I smile at her " but you have no mother " says James and Kiara stops. "JAMES !!! " Jake and I say in unison "What... it the truth, she has an angel but no mother, to take care of her " Kiara just cries and comes to me for a hug "James that mean,you can't say those things to Kiara, we all hurting and we all trying to find a way to cope but you don't see me taking it out on anyone do you? " I say and he just looks at me " Now what gonna happen to us, will they take us " asks Julia " I don't know Julia but I don't think they will, as long as I can find a way to provide for all of us " I say " where's Liam? " asks Jake " he went out for some air, he's heart broken,you know he had plans to go study in Texas with his basketball scholarship, so now he might have to quit " I say and we all stay silent for a while as we look at each other and then Julia just comes to hug me,Jake follows followed by James and we do a group hug. After 5 minutes we all separate " we can do this, right? " asks Julia but it feels more like she's telling. "Yeas" says Jake " we can do this nothing is beyond us and nothing is too hard, we have each other, there's six of us , we can atleast try to do this, we can atleast try to make our parents proud they raised us " she says and I smile as I look at the little girl that gonna grow up to be an amazing, smart young lady one day if she carries on like this. " let go eat then guys, am sure you all hungry " I said we went downstairs and we dished up and ate in silence as we all tried to act as normal as we could with everything...minutes ticked and went by slowly and Liam still hadn't returned, the Children went to bed after bathing and I stayed up and waited for my brother whom I was not even sure where he was cause he wasn't talking any of my calls at the moment...a close to midnight just as I was about to fall asleep when he walks in drunk couldn't even see where he was going... he has his friends on both sides trying to keep him balanced "hey sis" he says "Liam... what did you do? " I say as I rushed to get him before they all fall down while he laughs and talks gibberish " he had a little too much to drink" says his friend " thank you for bringing him home,just lay him on the sofa please " they walked to the sofa and laid him down and stood and looked at me with pity and I knew what they wanted to say before they even said it. "It okay guys we are okay, atleast am surviving for all of them" I say with a half smile "If you need us, to help we here" says Cole "Thanx Cole, I think I'll need you to watch him for me when he's not around here" I say and we all smile "We will " they say as they walked to the door and I went to seat down in front of my drunk asleep brother as I wonder since when did he even start to drink,as far as I knew he hated alcohol,with every fibre of gis being and now here he is drunk out of his mind. I stood up covered him and went to my room to get some sleep atleast just to have to say atleast I had some, I went by to check on all the kids first checked all the doors if they are locked along with the Windows if they are all closed and then went straight to my bedroom for my sleep and the moment my head hits the pillow I couldn't stop the tears that just came non stop without a warning and without even knowing how to handle them. The next morning I woke up on my usual time 6am to go down and male break fast for everyone and as I walked past Liams room I saw him in his bed still fully clothed but still in his bed which means he woke up and threw himself there... "atleast he still knows his bed. " I huffed as I made my way to the bathroom to do a little hygiene process and then go down to make everyone breakfast,the day went on fast for a first sad day,it was a little tricky with Kiara being curious , James turning into a pain in the butt for no reason in particular, Jake being a little mature even though I could see he was struggling he was just holding it in for my sake and to off load so that not everyone is crying and I have to deal with all of then at once... and then there's Julia who looks like a walking dead barbie some how...and then lastly we have Liam,who seems to think hes the only one who feels pain,didn't even have break fast woke up and left to get drunk again,I so hope not cause I'd hate to kill him with our parents dead as it is. A week passed and nothing has changed,everyone was still the same apart from Kiara who has stopped asking questions... James is still a jerk going for being master jerk,it like he's the only one who's an orphan out of all of us in this house,it like he is the only one without parents we all still have our parents... Jake is still my pillar,he helps out and tries to act all tough but I can see he's also broken,he plainly refuses to cry no matter how much I tell him it okay,he only cried once and I haven't heard him ever since,Julia is better, am not sure how I can be sure she's better cause she barely speaks to us, she didn't speak much before but we all saw in the way her face lit up, it not lighting up now, even when she jokes with Kiara she doesn't light up at all...and Liam still drinks non stop I know I said I'll kill him but I haven't,I need him, I know he's grieving but I really need him at least am sure of that. I must say am grateful to all the neighbors for coming around and giving us food ,am not sure who said that when a family member dies people want food but who ever did was smart enough cause with everything going funeral preparation I run around like a headless chicken on most days cause I had to sign things and come back home for the little ones to make sure everything and everyone was okay... the funeral day arrived and I felt numb, there was no pain ,nothing I felt ,it was like I couldn't feel anymore, a part of me was grateful cause that gave me a reason to stay on strong for everyone who wasn't strong enough, it gave me the strength to be able to allow the Children to lean on me cause only I was left either way, Liam came to the funeral but left just as fast without a word and smelling like he used a bottle of alcohol this morning to bath. After the amazing ceremony in the church everyone left and we went to the cemetery, they sang and a prayer was said and then it was time for the family to throw on sand and a single rose in the deep hole that was my parents final laying place for their bodies to rot,Julia was first,as a crying mess as she was ,she wanted to be here and I couldn't say no, James followed,and Jake and me,I took the little sand and picked the flower from the little table that it was in ,the flower went in first then the sand followed, somehow everything was in slow motion, and very loud cause I swore I head the rose when it the coffin somehow... After everything was said and done we all went back inside my home,Kiara was with one of my mom's friend , she volunteered to carry her for me and not go to the cemetery, cause somehow ,Kiara was too little to see her parents be buried, and for her also I was thankful,everyone who could help us was very helpful and am sure my mom looks down and is proud of all the friends she made and the impact she left in this little community cause it was her kind heart that managed to get me here with all these nice people who are willing to just lend a helping hand even though am sure they don't have to, some of them have been here helping out the past 48 hours babysitting, cooking and bringing us food ,enough to feed us for a month, the fridge has no space to put any more food they give us and as much as I'd hate to decline I'll have to decline cause we can't keep taking it and throwing it out. As soon as we got home everyone was sitting and sipping a cup of tea as they all talked about my parents and laugh like they were not dead, that helped cause I saw even Julia pitch in on the talk and they were all laughing and having fun I had to get in on it too and reminisce about my dearest parents too. Several hours later, everyone was gone it was just me and the little ones again.. Liam still was nowhere to be seen ,I had stopped asking three days after he kept pulling this crazy act of his and decided I'll worry if it was Jake ,James, Julia or Kiara who went out and didn't come home till midnight... not a grown man who seems to know what he wants and doesn't want just has a hard time accepting reality. Next morning I was making break fast when Liam wakes up and walks right to the kitchen and takes water from the fridge and drink... I just look at him and say nothing after he is done he comes to seat in front of me with his hands still in his head. "You could stop staring at me like that,you making it worse" he says "Am making it worse ?,you the one that chooses to be difficult and go around clubbing only to return in the middle of the night smelling like a whole club. " he says "So now my mom has returned from the dead and took over your body or something" he says looking at me "Look I have a lot to deal with and am dealing with it as I choose " he says and I smile at him " don't you think we all have a lot,the kids always ask about you, what do you expect me to say to Kiara, when she asks me when you coming home " " tell her the truth ,you don't know,Am tired and am going to sleep you making too much noise for my poor headache" he stands up and just as he is about to walk out. " you can go to Texas" he stops "I know that what stresses you out mostly, the kids and I will survive without you... once I get a job we'll be okay, you don't have to stay here and drink yourself to death for us, the kids have me and I don't need you being a dead weight here " I said and carried on with making food,couple of minutes later he was gone... and I let out a breath and made break fast for my little siblings knowing that from now on this was going to be our life,we were going to be like this... till the end of time.