Day 6

Nancy stood in front of the bedroom door, thinking of how she’ll break the news of their father’s disappearance to her 17-years-old younger brothers.  Philip will never speak to me again if he figures out the real reason why I came back. And Nancy knew all too well Philip had been the smarter one of the 3…Nancy the sexy and Will the gangster.

Nancy sighed and lifted her hand to knock on the door, her knockers stop short about one-third of an inch from the wooden door, Nancy felt as if her heart was sweating and couldn’t believe that 20 minutes ago – while giving an ecstatic 7-years-old Abby her new hamster – she had cleverly devised a calm way to break the news…. But now Nancy could barely remember how to breathe!!!

“Okay Nancy” she told herself “You can do this” Then she rasped the door 3 times, between each knock it felt that an eternity past before the next nock.

“Whoever it is, go away and come back later” Will’s voice said.

“It me” Nancy said.

“Me who?” She heard.

“Me Nancy, you dunderhead…s

“Ow, well in that case” Will poke out his head from between the door crack “Come back next Christmas” he grinned and began to shut the door when Nancy put her right feet on the way to stop it.

She slid into the room and caught Will in a head lock.  “Is that anyway to treat your older, wiser, funny and sexy big sister?” She grinned.

“I wouldn’t know, I never had one of those” he caught her upper arms “only you, and this is how to treat you” he flipped her over and body slammed her onto the ground.

“It’s all fun and games till someone loses a bone!” Philip said from the top of their bunk bed.

“Hey” Will said, getting up and leaving Nancy “Get down from there”

“Why? You don’t own the bed” Philip said.

“Yeh, but I’ve been sleeping on it for the past 14 years, so it might as well be mine” Will is the last person who’d follow the saying ‘Patience is a virtue’ so he flipped and throw skinning Philip from the top bunk in the same way he did to Nancy, but the only difference was that Philip had a longer way to fall….

Will and Nancy barely heard Philip’s thud as he hit the floor, because it was only bones that hit the ground not meat. Will climbed up in Philips place, looked at Nancy and asked,

“So what brings you to ma crib?”

“Crib?” Nancy asked sceptically, looking around she saw a red and dark brown T-shirts on the floor, a half-eaten burger on the worktable only Philip used, beside the wooden bunk bed on the far left corner of the room.  “You’re a 17-years-old wanna-be gangster who still eats smiley face pancakes, shampoos his hair and lives with his mama….this is hardly what you’d call a crib”.

“Hey! I don’t lives with my mother my mother lives with me” A defensive Will say.

“Says the boy who went crying to his mother when he fell off his skateboard” Philip said, he sat cross-leg on the floor with a black physics textbook on his lap.

“That was in the past”

“It was two days ago, approximately 6 hours before Nancy came back” Philip said.

Nancy did a quick calculation in her head “That’s 1 in the morning!” she half expected Phil not to answer, then he gave her a sideways glance.

“He went to a party mom didn’t want him to go to and wiped out on his way back, trying to sneak back into the house.”

”Okay, can we forget the past! Nancy,” he addressed her “You came into this room for a reason, what was it?”

“Ow yeah” Nancy actually forget the horrible new she had to retaliate. “Well… I don’t know how to put it mildly, but it about dad. He’s....”

“Back!!” Philip asked excitedly, he’s head snapped up from the book.

“No, but-”

“Then why are you here” Philip, stated more than asked, impatiently.

“Would you let me FINISH!!!” She looked around and till she became positive that there’ll be no more interruptions, she continued “Dad’s missing, okay? He’s not on a business trip, he may well not be back or found for a long time” The room fell silent for a long time. The Boyz looked at each other from their different position in the room, and then looked at Nancy.

“Explain” they said in unison.

After what felt like an eternity of explaining, Nancy finally reach the end of just suspecting no. 1, not forgetting to mention Phebie fiancé…which the boyz already new about, a sad Philip told her. He always had a crush on Phebs Nancy smile inwardly, looking at Philip memorize an equation.

Then there suspect number 2….a Miss Izabell, I think” Nancy was cut off short by Will saying.

“Dad’s mistress?”

Nancy stopped so abruptly it looked like someone had pressed a remote control ordering every cell in her body to stop. It felt like a bucket of ice cold water just splashed in her face and her heart fell through a trap door…

“HIS WHAT!!!” Nancy just realized she had shrieked or screeched…..she didn’t know which.  Rebecca had been right not to follow Nancy to the boyz room, Rebecca’s reason for not coming was due to the fact that she chicken.

Nancy dreaded seeing the look and reaction of her mother if she heard this news. “You guys are lying, you must be lying, father would never do that to mama….he…he wouldn’t” tears began to cloud her vision.

“Ow right, mama didn’t want Nancy to know” Nancy snapped her head up at Will’s voice “She was afraid Nancy would react like this.”

“Mama knows!!” Nancy felt her sanity was slipping away “Am I the only one who doesn’t know!!”

“Seems like it” Philip said from the ground, not looking up once.

“Nancy, I’m so sorry that you don’t know that Dad had a mistress” Will said.

“Had?” Nancy asked.

“Remember when ‘bout 3 month before you left, Mom and Dad re-enacted World War two ‘coz dad’s business trips.”

It suddenly clicked that probably half-if not even all-dad’s business trips most have been to visit Izabell… “Yeah, I remember” Nancy barely answered.

“Yeah, Mom finally cracked and confronted Dad about it. She knew even before then, but just decided to keep quiet, but when he’s ‘trips’ became to frequent she lost it” Will explained. A few seconds ticked by before Nancy asked;

“How did you guys find out?”

“Unlike you” Philip began “We care about our parent and went to the bottom of things”

Nancy made a smacking sound with her mouth, making sure her angry-meter was below boiling point she said “In other words, you ducked under the window and eavesdropped on their conversation” she force a smile.

“You betcha” Will said from the top bunk

“I can’t believe this!” Philip slammed the big text book shut. The sound made Nancy jump and Will clasped his eyes shut as if knowing what would happen. “Papa is dead and you’re acting calmly!!”

“Dead!! No one said…..dad’s dead” Nancy barely forced the word out her lips.

“Who’s saying his alive either?! So now what” Philip shot up from the ground and looked his sister square in the eye “Mom won’t call the police because she has you on the case? Ha, dad’s a goner”

“Phill! Quit it!” Will said.

“Quit what!?” Philip shot back.  He looked his brother in the face, anger all but sparking out of his head.

“We’re supposed to trust our beloved father’s life to the hands of our wanna-be sister?” Nancy felt an electricity sting in her chest. ”She barely has time to visit her family, do you think her father being missing would make much of a difference....to her?!”

“That’s enough!!” Nancy didn’t even know if there was a word to describe how loudly and angrily she said that. Her anger was well past boiling point, she felt it had entered the evaporation zone and Nancy- for a second- actually thought steam was coming out her ears!

“I’ve had it up to here with you!” She raised her left hand well past her head, thought she heard something snap (must be my temper) and faintly smelled blood.  “I have tried my best to make peace with you, but I can see now that your nothing but a thin blob of hatred….and FYI, I never came back because of you or this family! I came back because Mama called me two weeks ago telling me to come back because of a disaster that just so happens to be papa’s disappearance! If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have been back for another 10 – 15 years!!! So didn’t give a rat’s ass about any of your so called feelings!”

Nancy took a deep breath to calm herself, the room fell quiet except for Nancy’s subsiding breath. Philip just stood stunned, while Will crocked his head one side, trying to pretend he didn’t hear what Nancy had said at the top of her lungs.

“Out of my way you cretin” Philip said, and brushed past her and left the room….but not before Will muttered a “well on the bright side she’s back”.

“Did he just call me stupid?” Nancy asked looking at Will as the side of her mouth kicked up. “Well you’re Nugatory!!” Nancy yelled after him.

“Man, I really need to own a dictionary” Will say, smiling at her, trying to at least make someone smile today. And Nancy couldn’t help stifle the small laugh that went up her throat and burst out her lips.