The morning was still young. The skies were as gray as they had been before. A procession of herons paraded the heavens as dry leaves on the ground did their cyclonic dance with the help of the winds. Liam got off the room's windowsill and sat on the carpeted floor. He put off his bag, then crossed his legs. He soughed and shut his eyes close.
He wondered how his father was doing at the house. He hoped he was fine. He just had disrespected him and was sure he did not like that at all. His father would never let him go back to his place, not even a dip of his toes in the front yard. He still did not get him almost all of the time. Lesley was also in the accident — a car crash — but he was blaming him for it. Liam did not do anything wrong. He had never done anything wrong. After his mother and sister's burial, that was when his father's life became astray. The once responsible father turned into an aimless person. He had this uncontrollable craving for alcohol and Liam hated it. He always asked for money just for him to buy his personal needs. Liam was hurt for a long time. He loved his father, but he had to take care of himself as well, his mental health in particular.
He bent his knees and let his head fall onto them. He heard the door creak, so he lifted his head. Lukas, with a worried look, crouched beside him.
"You good?" he asked.
Liam nodded in agreement.
"Let's go downstairs," Lukas added. "Lunch is ready."
Liam pulled his sleeve as he tried to stand up. "Wait."
"What?"
"I'd join lunch if you promise to drop me off back at the house."
"You sure about this, Liam? If I were you, I'd never go back to that horror house."
"Yes, because I don't want to be a burden to your parents." Liam rose and sat on the bed. "And besides, they don't know me well enough, really."
"Hey, you." Lukas crossed his arms. "It's Mom and Dad. They'd love to help you out."
"I know and I like your parents for that, but I just can't . . . leave Dad alone."
"That's— I feel like I shouldn't just let you."
"I love him. He wasn't like this before. I can feel he still can change. Please?" Liam held onto his friend's wrist.
"Fine," Lukas answered. "But this is what I'm telling you for the hundredth time, Liam. He's risky for you."
Liam just nodded with his lips pursed. They left the room and descended the stairs. They approached the dining table where the De Torreses were now sitting around. The table was filled with a typical rainy season lunch. Liam settled down a chair, the one across Lukas', and gave the De Toresses small smiles and nods. They started eating, so Liam dug right into his food as well. The main dish warmed up his whole frozen system and the chocolate drink was as hot as he wanted them to be.
He was midway through his food when Kara spoke to him, "You, Liam, where would you go to in college?"
"I haven't really," Liam wiped his mouth with some tissue, "thought about that, ma'am."
"Oh, because our son right here," she eyed Lukas, "will be entering the Army instead of—"
Lukas lowered his brows. "Mom."
"Stop it, Kara." David sipped a spoonful of soup. "Let him be patriotic. He loves your father."
"I still can't comprehend his decision." Kara rolled her eyes, then looked back at me. "Do your wounds still hurt, honey?"
"Lukas," David cut in. "What the heck would you do that to Liam's face if it was a little misunderstanding as you two had said it? He looks like a potato mashed with the mighty Mjölnir."
"It was just . . ."
"It was an accident, really," Liam continued Lukas' words. "I fell over a high, um, railed staircase."
"You two act weirdly, you know," David brought out, his eyes half closed. "Is there something I should be concerned about? Something we should know? Is it a boys' stuff?"
"Not really, sir." Liam gave them a grin of assurance. "Everything is fine."
David jounced his head, then went back to his plate. After the half an hour-long lunch, Liam tried to help Kara with the soiled dishes, but she did not let him, so all he did was wander around Lukas' room during his shower. Lukas dressed up in front of Liam, so Liam turned his back.
"I don't mind you watching me though," Lukas let out a joke.
Liam faced him and spoke while wearing his backpack, "Let's go."
"You really thought this through?"
"I did, I have. I also have a job to attend, so please."
"Fine, fine."
"Thanks, Lukas."
They left the De Torres residence in no time and were now out in the winding streets. They reached Liam's subdivision after some minutes of traveling. Liam got off the bike and gave his friend a reassuring smile.
Lukas messed his hair, then patted his shoulder. "Call me if something happens."
"I will," he responded.
Lukas nodded, then his bike screeched away until he was out of sight. Liam turned ninety degrees and took a deep breath in. He walked across the front yard at a slow pace until he set foot onto the unroofed porch of the house. He was about to knock on the door when it opened by itself. He hopped over the threshold and shut the door.
He turned the lights on and his father was nowhere to be seen. He wandered around the ground floor yet did not see even his shadow. He then ascended the stairs just to witness his father leaning on the wooden rails in front of his room. Lesley just stared at him — his eyes.
"Dad," he broke the distressing silence.
"Why did you get back, huh?" he said with an almost inaudible voice. "I don't want to see your face anymore. Please leave me alone."
"Dad."
"Leave me too. I deserve it."
Liam knelt in front of his father, his heart beating fast. "Dad, we can do this, right? Please hang on in there."
Lesley shed a tear all of a sudden. "Liam?"
"Yes, Liam here."
"Liam, where have you gone? I was looking for you. Why did you leave?" Lesley let out while reaching for him
Liam embraced him. "No, I just— I'll never leave your side, Dad. I . . . I love you, okay?"
"Where's your mother? Your sister? Have they gone home yet?".
"Um . . ."
"They have, right? Where are they?"
"Yeah, they have. They'll be home soon."
Liam spent some time burying his face under the crook of Lesley's neck until he heard him snore. He threw his father's arm over his shoulder and supported his frame upward. He opened the door of his room and laid him on his bed, pulling the thick blanket over his body.
He stared at his face for a moment. He was intoxicated, but the way he asked for his wife and daughter was heart-wrenching enough for Liam not to shed tears. Liam wiped his tears away and sat by the snoring man. His father was hurt, he said in his mind. Lesley was in great sorrow. Liam could not imagine how excruciating it was to lose a wife and a daughter.
He caressed his father's cold cheeks, then took his shirt off his body. He put a thick shirt and a jacket on him and buried him back under the blanket. He then got out of his room and closed the door in silence.
He went downstairs and took a warm bath. After grooming himself, he wore the employee uniform of the café he worked in — a plain white shirt and khaki pants of a darker shade. He also put on his shoes before leaving the house, locking the inside part of the doorknob before shutting the door in silence.
He went across the front yard and looked at his wristwatch — one thirty in the afternoon. He wondered if his bicycle was fixed anew. He had gotten into an accident last Wednesday, so he did not have a choice but to ride on buses to go to school. He ran on the sidewalk, dodging people, and got out of the subdivision.
He got to Mike's shop. Mike was a well-known mechanic in the suburbs and an uncle-in-law to Ken. Cyclists flooded the racks of accessories, so Liam went through them, avoiding their sweaty bodies.
He saw Mike and greeted him with a salute, "Hey, Uncle Mike."
"Oh, Liam." Mike smiled, wiping his oily temple. "You're here for your cycle?"
"Yes, sir. Is it already fixed?"
"It is. It's in the front railings."
"Oh, sure." Liam stepped back as a woman cut in the line. "I'll pay up later."
Mike just nodded. Liam went past the busy, noisy customers.
His body hair rose as a powerful gust of wind passed the surroundings. He went to the front railing-enclosed space and got his bicycle out. He pulled his still-wet hair back, then started pedaling.
He arrived at the café in no time and parked his cycle in the bicycle shed. He entered the rear entrance of the workplace and greeted everyone with a smile.
The manager of the café looked at him from head to toe. "Why weren't you here in the morning, Liam?"
"I just, um, fixed some stuff in the house," he replied while wearing an apron.
"What happened to your face?"
"Nothing, they're just scratches."
"Well, those are some serious scratches. Anyway, let's move. Customers' arrival is on the run."
"Yes, ma'am."
He got out of the staff room and passed by the service area. The café was filled with customers in thick clothes. He took the remaining small pad of paper and pen off the ordering area and walked along the crowded tables, then went down the steps that led to the lower floor.
"Hey, mister!"
He turned to the left and went to the people sitting around the long table. He wrote down their orders amid the environment filled with laughter and chitchat. He took the orders to the baristas and after some minutes, went back to serve the drinks to the customers.
After some time, the busyness of the place grew less. Liam sat at the unoccupied table just to stand up again to approach the arriving guests — his friends. They were wearing stoic expressions and all sulky.
"Hey," Liam greeted them.
They just sat around the table and checked out the menu. Liam shrugged and pulled his hair back. He scratched out their orders on the paper as they continued talking about team project stuff. He placed the drinks on their table in silence and sat on the vacant chair.
"What happened, guys?" he said.
"Nothing really happened to us, Liam. Just same morning shits." Ron leaned on the backrest. "But you? There's been something happening to you and we didn't have any clues about it existing, really."
Liam looked at Lukas who was bowing. "What the hell, Lukas? I thought you'd kee——"
"They were badly needing an answer, Liam." Lukas crossed his arms. "What was I supposed to do, lie?"
"Why didn't you tell us those wounds are given by your father?" Cedric let out. "How long has this been going on?"
"I always knew you were lying since," Tahir shrugged, "you know, you're not that brawly like Ron."
Ron just rolled his eyes.
"Liam, where are you staying now?"
"Liam, don't you trust us?"
"Have you gone to the clinic yet?"
"Should we call the authority to help you out?"
"You finished, guys?" Liam stood up. "Because I'm fine from head to toe. You all need to stop worrying. It's not that I'm extremely tortured or what."
He loved his friends. Although they showed it in different ways, they were all thoughtful and caring. For Liam's entire high school life, he had not felt alone. They were always by his side, ready to talk him out of dullness. He rejoiced in their presence and appreciated their brotherliness, but this current problem of his was pretty personal. He did not mind them lending a hand, but only with his emotional state. He never wanted anyone to talk about the law against his father. It somewhat hurt him. He disliked it and had never approved it.
"Thank you all for the concern, but I'm fine," he let out again.
"You look moth-eaten, yes. You're totally fine, as you call it," Cedric said.
They all looked at each other for some seconds until a yell from outside the café killed the awkward silence. They, including the other people, witnessed a ten-wheeler truck crash through the fruit stalls on the other side of the street. Liam pocketed his hands and got out of the café. The operator of the truck jumped out of the vehicle only to fall to the ground.
"Oh, my God."
"Call emergency, guys."
"Did anyone see the suspect?"
"Clear the road, people!"
Liam ran along with the townsmen to the scene and saw the bloody end of the driver. There was a thing that resembled a mattock pierced in the center of his back. Not a single second was wasted when the ambulance screeched to a stop by the body and the medics cleared the people off the area. People stepped back to the sidewalk and whispered to each other. Liam fixed his eyes on the medic checking the driver's pulse, her head shaking in slow motion — the man was dead on the spot.
He sensed his friends around him through his peripheral vision. Lukas pulled the back of his shirt, causing him to look at the back.
"Did you see who stabbed him?" Lukas queried.
Liam just shook his head.
"That's a huge pick in his back," Ken said with a low voice.
"Who the hell would kill in broad daylight?" Tahir bumped into Liam's side. "That's diabolical."
The medics got away from the body as two police mobiles arrived. They put stands of crime scene barricade tape over a huge area around the body and interviewed the fruit vendors. Liam looked up in the sky and saw forming thunderheads amid the blabbering townspeople. A flash of lightning lit up the dim surroundings and thunders started rumbling in the distance. Liam blinked at the blood-coated side of the road, then heaved a sigh. His heart pulsated with such rapidity. He did not know why, but his guts felt like flipping over. His feeling was off the wall.