When he opened his eyes, he looked at Patrick, his brother, and shook his head while whispering:
"Not now."
The latter stared at him a while longer then nodded. During this time, the voice, not receiving any answer, asked once again loudly:
"Patrick ?"
"Don't worry, Mom, it was a friend I had an appointment with. We will be in my room."
"Alright. Just don't forget dinner will be ready soon so don't irresponsibly let yourself go hungry."
"Got it, Mom."
With that, the two brothers moved toward the said room that was on the side of the courtyard.
Taking off his cap to scratch his now dry hair, Lucas started observing his brother while walking, remarking that he had not changed much apart from losing some weight, due to stress and life difficulties maybe.
Still, he remained a handsome African descent man of average height about to welcome his thirtieth birthday.
"But certainly not as handsome as me even when I'm all skin and bones." Lucas muttered to himself with a narcissistic smile.
With their lips and nose being not too big but more modest in proportions and harmonizing well with other not bad facial features, the brothers were indeed on the better side of the scale in terms of appearance. That made them have quite a few maiden hearts beating during the school days.
With a look of reminiscence, he continued his mutterings:
"Ahh, the carefree times."
"What?"
"No, nothing."
Well, it seemed that his brother managed to catch part of his mutterings. They arrived at his room and went inside.
It was less than sixteen square meters with minimal but complete furniture.
After just a glance that told him the unchanged state of things, he looked at his brother:
"So-"
Patrick, tired of his brother doing all the talking and controlling the rhythm of their exchange since coming back tonight, cut him with a glare while putting one hand up:
"Look, I'm seriously happy that you are alive and came back but what happened? And why the hell are you so skinny with the hair of a terminal patient?"
By the end of his questions, Patrick showed some anger because only when he looked at his brother under the lights of his room did he realize how much he had changed physically, and not for the better. And who knew how he was affected in the psyche.
Maintaining his calm, Lucas raised an eyebrow as he looked at his brother sitting on the side of his bed, sat down on the only chair in the room then asked teasingly:
"Not even some small talks, bro?"
"No." Was all Patrick drily answered.
"Alright, first of all, please lower your voice. I don't want to startle Mom. Secondly, for your questions, it is a long story but I will give you the short version of it."
"Why not the long version?" Asked Patrick with a biting tone.
"Let's just say that I can't bother and more importantly, I don't have the time." Now it was his turn to raise a hand to prevent any question.
"As I was saying, the short version is that an idiot that used to be my superior almost caused my death and since the rest of my unit did not have my luck, the only other survivor of the incident, while I can't be sure, might have been him ironically."
"In the desert?"
"Yes. So I survived through an opportunity and I would rather stay dead to pursue it. It would be a real bother to have the army breathing down on my neck for desertion if they know I'm alive and I would not want to splash you guys with the dangers I might face on the road."
Frowning after a few minutes of staring contest, Patrick sarcastically said:
"Your short story was really short, huh?"
Seeing Lucas lackadaisically shrug, he continued bitingly with a bit of anger in a loud whisper:
"How can you stay so nonchalant after almost dying and coming back looking like a famine refugee?"
"Chill bro. You already know how I am. I am rational, I have instincts but I don't have wild emotions. The little bit of fluctuations generated were already processed in the desert and as I told you, I don't have time." Answered Lucas with a relaxed smile.
Seeing his brother like that, Patrick could only unwillingly retract his glare.
"At least you didn't change much. Normal people being glared at would have had a reaction but you always take it in stride with that indifferent little smile of yours. I hope you will have someone punch it off your face someday."
Seeing Lucas smile widening, he rolled his eyes:
"Alright, knock it off. I won't ask for more details. It is already good that you came back and I suppose you will leave soon to do what a dead man would want to stay dead for so, what is you plan?"
Losing his smile, Lucas became serious:
"Let's leave that for later. How have things been and how have the parents been?"
This made Patrick let out a tired sigh:
"Sigh... As you can imagine, dad is still being dad, trying to distract himself from all the troubles of the family. As for Mom, she won't allow herself to collapse before her children have succeeded in life-"
"And you are still being a miser." Cut off Lucas.
That made Patrick face harden a little:
"Or another way to see it is that I am trying to succeed and be financially stable to create a family and a life of my own. And I too am under a lot of stress with work, freelance jobs, home and your supposed death. Did you know that your death had not been announced? It was by accident that I found some thread that led me to some uncertain information. There was not even any confirmation and the compensation must have either been late or embezzled somewhere, maybe both. So, even I was not sure, making me keep things to myself."
With Patrick stopping to breath, Lucas hurried to ask what mattered for him:
"So dad and mom don't know what happened to me?"
"No."
He felt relief wash over him as he would not have to brace through the parents worry, grief and anxiety plus the shock of him coming back from the dead.
For once, he felt that those foreigners that forced their help on Africa and would have all news announce every single scratch of their soldiers while suppressing the information about the sacrifices of the owners of the land against the terrorists they helped create and keep feeding, did a favor to him.
It won't make him love them, but at least they spared his family from the grief of losing a child.
"Good, good. Things will be known someday since many really died but fortunately I will be able to talk to mom and dad before that happens."
Now more relaxed, Lucas brought his full attention back to his brother:
"Now let's talk about the plans I have for coming back."