The Rebirth

EPISODE 4: The Confrontation

Tonelo ceased to think as anger transmuted to passion. It was exactly two hours since Agnes left and a sudden feeling of guit invaded his body. At this point nothing made sense to him, his forehead drenched in sweat and not even the cold air from his air conditioning helped the situation. Spirit and body argued for a while and then he finally concluded.

He dressed into a blue polo t-shirt which he had earlier tossed on the ground out of frustration. He stormed out of his room without even caring if he closed the door or not. He placed his left hand on the staircase railing of clear glass panels as he hurriedly descended down. He stopped at the foot of the stairs and gazed at his mother who was not aware of his presence. He sat on the single sitter couch beside her, gritting her monotously:

"Good evening mama". Mrs Lawson slightly nodded in reply while she read the newspaper. As angry as he was, he couldn’t lash out on his mother due to the fact he respected her, therefore he restrained his anger and tried to speak calmly:

"We need to talk mama", he said. Mrs Lawson merely looked at him as she replied.

"Talk about what?" she asked coldly without even looking at the man staying next to her.

"Why did you lie to Agnes?" He asked trying to control his temper. His question seemed to have captured her attention because she instantly raised her head and shifted the newspaper aside.

"Oh, I see you have finally met her. Did you see how beautiful and classy she had become?" She sounded cheerful.

"The least you could have done was to give me a heads-up so that I would not have ended up making a fool out of myself " He complained. Mrs Lawson seemed more interested about Agnes.

"What did you do to her?" She asked curiously.

He weakly answered. "When Agnes saw how unexpected I acted towards what she told me, she left angrily and I feel guilty about hurting her".

"Call her and apologize, tell her how much you love and want to see her. problem solved" She boldly suggested.

"I have told you before and I am telling you again that I do not feel anything more than friendship for Ags, I just feel bad for her because I care about her as a friend”, He protested. "Agnes is a very sweet and Lovable girl! Loosen up, take her out on a date or two, go on a vacation with her and have fun. I know you will eventually develop feelings for her other than friendship." She said softly, but it sounded more like an order. At those words his anger lit up and he could hardly restrain the rage that burned within. He yelled:

"Just this once let me make a decision about my life, this is my private life!"

Mrs Lawson panicked at seeing her son in a fit of rage. His sudden outburst was strange to her, the normal Tonelo would rather stick pins in his eyes than disrespect her up to that level. Her eyes lit up in shock as she peered at him.

"Just stay out of my private life!" Tonelo shouted, veins pumping and face reddening. Her surprise slowly wore off, replaced by a sudden anger.

"How dare you raise your voice at me, how dare you!" She angrily asked.

"You will not control my life anymore!" He answered firmly.

"I am your Mother and I have the right to control you whichever way I chose to!" she fired back. Tonelo let out a bitter chuckle and then replied bluntly.

"The same way you controlled young Buley into marrying that nut case of a wife? “ he asked sarcastically.

"At least Buley has made this family proud, unlike you who never ceases to drag this family's name into the mud!We sent you to the seminary and you got expelled, we sent you to the university and you could not even graduate your first year, you rather preferred to come back home with your pathetic 3rd class certificate. you are good for nothing!" She shouted.

Like a sharp knife, those words literally tore his heart bit by bit until he felt broken. As a man, he fought back the tears that threatened to pour out of his eyes and gathered himself.

"You of all people just called me a worthless man!" he said in between sobs. Mrs Lawson's mouth was wide open at the hearing of his words. How could she bottle up that much frustration for her son and lash out like that.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry son!" she begged, feeling remorse for the hurtful things she just said. Tonelo shook his head in disbelief.

"I am so disappointed in you mama..." He mumbled exhausted from arguing. Mr Lawson, who heard the fight from his bedroom, ran down stairs to see what was going on, but when he heard Tonelo tell his mother how disappointed he was in her, he became angry and just wanted nothing else than to defend his lovely wife.

"You will not talk to her like that, she is your mother!" He stated agrily.

"I am your son too!" Tonelo screamed. He raced to his room and slammed his door that literally pulled down the building. Juliet who initially noted the whole scene hurried to her brother but he slammed the door in her face. She still stubbornly barged into his room to talk to him but he flared up at her.

"What do you want, have you also come to mock me!?"

"Whoa...relax T! I am on your side and that is why I am here to support you" She stated, defensively raising her hands.

"Mama called me a failure, she called me a failure to my face". The man in himfelt weakened and broken, unable to control his emotions anymore, he sobbed uncontrollably.

Blood and blood connected as Juliet could also feel his pains and fustrations.

She instinctively hugged her brother warmly and at that moment she wished that all his troubles could disappear.

She whispered into his ears.

"You are my hero"