CHAPTER 15: HELLO MR. MAYOR, MY FAMILY HATES YOU

Thank goodness my parents didn't walk in to wake us. I'm pretty sure my dad would've marked Ash for murder and my mom would've simply murdered Ash right on the spot.

When I woke up, Ash was still snoring. My hand was still around his arm. I gently rose from the bed and moved to get dressed. When I was done, Ash had awoken and yawned.

"TGIF," he said. "Volunteer day."

He was right. Every Friday we had no school so we could partake in life-experiences. For middle school kids that meant volunteering.

"Since this is my first Friday at the school," Ash said. "I'm not sure where I should volunteer at. Any chance you can show me the place you work at?"

I nodded and opened the door to the bathroom. "But first you need to shower."

"Why?" He asked as he went to smell himself. "I smell..." His body musk hit him like a punch from Mike Tyson. "Yeah I could use a good scrub."

He made his way to the bathroom. "But I don't have any change of clothing."

"I'll find some, you just wash off that smell I had to inhale all night."

Ash was suddenly quiet, no doubt embarrassed. He surprised me when he said, "Thanks for that."

I rolled my eyes, but of course he couldn't see that. "Whatever, just get in the shower."

He chuckled. "I'm already in my boxers."

I never thought I'd be thankful to have my eyes covered with my hair than I did at that moment. While he went to shower, I walked one door over to a room that had been vacated for three years now. I avoided coming into the room often because the memories were just too painful. But the blindfold prevented me from seeing the Dark Knight posters, the Chicago Cubs bed sheets, the Michael Jordan cutout, and Mike Ditka quote: You're never a loser until you quit trying.

I reached into a drawer; his clothes were still neatly folded as if he would someday return to this family from the land of the dead. I pulled out a shirt, some jeans, and socks, probably mixed up in various colors since I couldn't see. They might fit a bit baggy on Ash, but he was nearly close in size. Then a thought crossed my head. Why should I be giving Ash my dead brother's clothing? Was I disgracing the memory of Noa by doing this?

I thought about what Noa would say. The way he treated guests at the house was almost servant-like. His excuse, in Ancient Greece, guests had to be treated with the utmost respect, because you'd never know if they were one of the gods in disguise.

He was a nerd like that sometimes.

With the clothes in my hand, I closed the drawer and the door to the room, but not before whispering, "Thank-you."

***

My parents had left the house early for business matters. I was stuck with Lay and the house chefs who brought out the food. This morning, it was French Toast with a sunny side up egg and hash browns. We sat down and although the plate was already made for us, I struggled to work my way around the plate. I tried pouring syrup on the French Toast and ended up drenching my egg in it. I tried putting some ketchup on the hash browns but failed and hit the French Toast. It was a disaster.

Lay was snorting in disgust saying I was being unladylike and a complete slob like Ka.

Ash was too busy laughing, but stopped himself long enough to say, "Here let me help you."

I heard him fiddling with the food on my plate and then he said. "Open wide."

"No," I said trying to shoo him away. "I'm not a baby."

"Come on Zay," he taunted me. "A strong girl like you needs to eat her breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day."

"I hate you," I said as I opened my mouth. But I couldn't resist eating the French Toast. Chef Fami made the most delicious French Toast. If he didn't portion my meals so well, I would've stuffed my mouth with eleven slices a minute.

Lay was no doubt watching Ash feed me and cooed like a bird. "Aww, how sweet. You two make a lovely couple."

I took the ketchup body and sprayed and prayed towards the sound of her voice. By the sound of her reaction, and the chair legs scraping the floor in a hurry, I had hit the target. "Zay you idiot. Look at what you did to my dress."

I wish I could, but the blindfold... "I only made you look more beautiful."

Lay cursed me out and stomped off to wash the stain. And anyone who has spilled ketchup on a shirt before knows that stain won't come off easily.

Ash continued feeding me as he chuckled. "Zay, you're crazy you know that?"

"Be careful," I said while chewing. "You might be next."

***

Xavier, my personal driver to school, drove us to the volunteer site. It was located just south of us, outside the ultra-wealthy neighborhood we lived in and inside the slightly rich neighborhood. The place was carved in the back of a supermarket warehouse. Stairs led down towards a basement where dining room tables were set up. Hundreds of elderly people were there, sitting down and chatting with one another.

When they noticed me walk in, many of them stopped to greet me.

"Zaslay dear, so good to see you. But what's with this hair around your face?"

"And who's this handsome fella over here? Reminds me of my dead husband Francisco."

"Hands off Jackie, he's mine."

While the old people argued amongst themselves over access to claim Ash as a living resemblance of a past relative, I used that time to slip us into the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," I said to Ash. "Many of these ladies live alone or in nursing homes."

"I never understood why families put their grandparents in nursing homes," Ash sighed. "If my grandparents were around, I'd want them close to me, not shoved in some daycare center."

"Some of these folks need more care and attention than a family can give," I said.

Ash gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Such a bad family that they can't even afford to care for the people that supported them."

On that note, I did agree. Many of these people here were abandoned by families simply because they found their presence in the house annoying or outdated.

"Zay!" I heard a man with a Jamaican accent call to me. "What's up my little zucchini?"

"Winston," I went and hugged him.

"Little zucchini?" Ash repeated.

"And who is this badda you bring into mi kitchen."

Ash introduced himself, no doubt staring at the length of Winston's dreadlocks that reached so low he could sit on them.

"Zay, looks like you brought me some meat to spice up the food eh," he said while possibly rubbing Ash's shoulders.

"Not today," I laughed. "He's here to help."

"To help, eh?" He paused for a second. "He can help by taking off your eye scarf there."

"No can do...a bet," I said.

Winston hummed as his thought to himself. "Hmmm, I think he'll be doing the cutting then. You'll do the labels. The rest will handle the crowd outside."

Winston left to get some ingredients from the kitchen and Ash turned to me. "You work at a food kitchen?"

"It's a Meals on Wheels program," I told him. "We normally work to package the food and sometimes we either clean up or deliver the food to home-bound seniors who can't leave their apartments."

Ash clapped his hands together. "Sounds fun."

It honestly was. Since I had nearly zero conversations at school and no conversations at home that didn't deal with death and murder, it was nice to get out and about to chat with the elderly folks of northern Chicago. The stories they told were fascinating, even if some of them were probably made up like this one guy who said he saw a dragon in a cave once and this other lady who said there was a secret school full of super-powered children hidden outside Denver. Besides that, they were good listeners too.

Winston came back with a crate of potatoes, carrots, and chicken. "Alright mi baddas, time for work."

***

Ash sucked at cutting potatoes with his eyes open. I think he sliced his fingers a couple of times and we had to toss away the potatoes he ruined with his blood. Winston had him instead deliver the meals like a waiter to the elderly folks in the dining area, where he was fought over by grannies and some gramps as reminding them of their dead husbands, and in one old man's case, his dead wife. Whenever I asked Ash to tell me more about the last one, he got quiet and said he didn't want to talk about it.

I'm not too sure what they saw in him. I mean, yeah, he was a bit well built with a basketball player's frame and was pretty charming at times. He had amazing glossy hair that kind of made me jealous at times. But his skin was the Sahara Desert on a cloudy day. Holding his arm last night was like touching sandpaper. Maybe the old people like that kind of skin.

Anyway, after lunch we were done for the day and Ash suggested he keep his promise and show me to his father's office. I pointed out to him that I was temporarily blind. After a couple of minutes of cursing the dilemma, he promised to describe everything.

Xavier drove us to city hall, and I quickly learned that Ash sucked at describing things.

After getting us through security and getting me a guest pass, with many questions raised about my blindfold, Ash was able to finally get me up to his father's office.

As the ring of the elevator signaled our destination, I walked forward, and Ash went to work describing the place like a five-year old would describe a dream. "There is my father's big desk. He does important work there. Over here is a table with a couch where he sometimes speaks with people. I take naps here sometimes if I visit him after school. Over there is a window with a view of Chicago. You could see the Willis Tower from here."

"Where can you not see the Willis Tower?" I muttered.

Ash didn't seem to hear what I said, or he paid it no mind. "Over here is a bookshelf. My father loves to read. He's a big thriller-crime book kind of guy. I guess it makes sense since he used to be a cop."

That shouldn't be news to me. Although people knew about the mayor's background, the media rarely covered it. The mayor rarely talked about his time as a cop. He only mentioned that he joined the police department to stop evil but realized that it wasn't enough when corruption loomed in higher circles. So he ran for the city's top position. Thus far, in a couple of months, he fired the police commissioner, raised city taxes on the wealthy, increased education spending, and was in the process of granting free doctor visits at one of the city's many health clinics.

But what my father hated the most about the mayor was his crackdown on gang violence. The new police commissioner was an ex-criminal prosecutor and was big on laying down the law. I've overhead my father losing many guys to prison and that the expenses for lawyers had skyrocketed since Mayor Dayton's rise to power. Add on top of that an increase in taxes for the wealthy and my father was watching money fly out the window. Of course, he had a whole lot more where that came from, but there isn't a rich and powerful person out there who just hands out money without a lot of ire or strings attached.

While Ash was pointing out a few other things in the apartment, he was interrupted when we heard the ding of the elevator. I heard the doors open up and Ash breezed by me as he ran to greet the visitor.

"Dad, you're back."

"Ash," I heard the familiar voice from the TV. It sounded suave, like a calming wave lapping against the shore. "A surprise to see you here, and it seems you bought over a friend."

I bowed in the direction of the voice, since sticking my hand out could end in a disaster if I end up shaking his crotch by mistake. "Mr. Mayor."

Beads of sweat covered my face. Did he know I was a member of the Reaper Core? Did Ash tell him? Will he toss me in jail like he did with the rest of the Reaper members he had been rounding up?

"Please," he said as he walked past me. "Call me Mr. Dayton. I see you're curious about joining my organization."

At first, I was confused. Was this codename for heading to jail? Oh gosh, he knew. And I left all my weapons at home. I normally didn't carry them on volunteer day, especially if I was expecting to visit the Mayor's office.

But maybe I should have.

"So this is the girl you and your Auntie have been telling me about?"

I'm done for.

"Yeah, we're best friends."

There he goes again with the upgrades we hadn't discussed.

"Best friends huh?" His voice was closer to my level, as if he sat down behind me. "Please, take a seat, Miss Mata. I'm curious to get to know more about you and your family."

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