After Alfred left, I rolled to the edge of my bed beside the wall and peered out through the slightly opend curtain of my window. The sky was quite bright and I caught sight of the rainbow Alfred talked about, the blasted girl wasn't lying about the appearance of the rainbow.
I got up almost immediately and left my room. I went outside for a better view of the rainbow, I closed the door and leaned on it with hands tucked in my trousers as I looked up at the sky painted with the beautiful colors of the rainbow with conflicted emotions, my gaze drifted off and lingered for a while around the small empty compound of our very old and run down family house which has just me, my mom and little sister as residents.
The only new thing in the compound was the recently renovated gate. The old double ones that had almost fell off it's hinges has been changed to a smaller single gate and more blocks added to the side, the walls of the fence already had very visible cracks and a few weeds sprouting out looking like it will get blown over at the slightest wind or push but I know better, the arrogant old wall will still have it's chest held up high even in decades to come. I could almost see the damned wall smirking proudly at me for surviving through the ages of time without wavering but just the nineteen years of life I've lived seems to have fallen a hundred times and couldn't be more miserable.
At the other end of the house was a little bycicle parked leaning on the wall with the amount of dust and cobwebs in it looking no less than the amount of years it has been in that particular position without being touched or adjusted and a few inches apart from our house my dogs house.
Sigh..this is where I've been living for eleven years now, I looked back up, the sky was still very beautiful with the rainbow very visible in it. The sun was already setting and I wondered why I haven't seen Nan the stray black dog I adopted since morning, he's never home and I'm not exactly bothered as my mom never liked dogs from the start and won't let it enter the house so I had to build a little house for him outside. It could linger for as long as it cared.
Feeling a little tired from standing I slid to the floor and sat with my knees folded to my chest, bringing my gaze back up to the sky, the rainbow has started to disappear little by little and the sky was starting to turn gloomy really fast.
I felt it again, the familiar feeling of nothingness and loneliness. Seeing the rainbow made me recall memories with my father.. dad, I miss him so much. He is not dead, he travelled out of the country and has not returned for over six years now.
Ever since our well established family business crumbled due to mismanagement from who my dad Mr. Felix Green entrusted his business to Henry and an incident that occurred, our business rival was murdered right in our restaurant six years ago. We own a five star restaurant in the city Jena's Taste, mainly managed by my father while my mom focused mainly on her cloth line business, most celebrities get their clothes from her store and she was already close to owning her own brand so we were filthy rich before everything started to fall apart.
Henry had been squandering my father's money right under his nose without getting discovered until years later when the business started to take a huge blows from lack of capital. A case was filled against him but then he couldn't provide even 20% of the money he embezzled, he has a very lavish lifestyle and was a terrible gambler so we could only recover just little money and had his properties seized with a jail term but it wasn't easy for my father both emotionally and financially and I couldn't blame him.
I know he trusted Henry a tad bit too much not bothering about his business when Henry was around but who could have known that innocence was far beyond the face and appearance. Henry was always looking sophisticated and capable with that perfect aura around, a little full of himself though but I guess such a management won't be left in his care if he didn't pull off the look and act.
I was still quite little then and didn't really understand what was going on but I never liked Henry and I won't have believed he would do what he did because of how my dad treated and trusted him like a brother, I knew something was off about him as I'm never comfortable with him around but I thought it was just me being paranoid and shrugged off the feeling.
My mom was doing quite well in her business so she could still support my dad to keep the business up for a few more years and he was beginning to stand until the murder happened, six years ago. One of our popular fierce competitor in business Ken's Palace Restaurant's owner Kennedy Diwil was killed at Jena's one black morning and my dad was almost accused of killing him as they were business rivals people said he had more to gain from his death, he was almost arrested but his lawyer made sure he wasn't without any solid evidence to charge him for a murder case.
However, he was still a suspect and an employee said he saw Mr. Kennedy and my dad in some kind of argument before he was found dead in the rest room.
Whatever happened that day is still a mystery as I can't understand what Mr. Kennedy was doing at our restaurant early in the morning and why he died because I know my father would never have killed him, they have no personal grudges against each other, just business competitors and Jena's was ranked top 1 in the list followed by Ken's Palace.
After that incident, Jena's Taste now had the label of where a person was killed, gone were the days when it was know for it's exclusive cuisine, delicacies and customer value. My dad made sure the chefs were top notch and employees works in decurom to uphold our reputation and please customers but none of that was remembered as the death of Ken's Palace CEO was announced to have occurred at Jena's. Public opinion wasn't in our favor.
Business became really bad and was losed stand really quick, employees resigned, customers stopped patronizing. It wasn't all great for my mom also as her husband was now a murder suspect, she lost many important clients.
The family of Mr. Kennedy came seeking an explanation and compensation for their loss but refused further investigation into to the death of the man only asking for compensation and they were given a huge amount of money, the CCTV footage was destroyed but my dad had a backup and it showed he just slumped in the rest room, no one attacked him. Then, it was concluded that our restaurant poisoned him.
Things became really bad, we were bullied to the extent that our house was sold without our consent, we had to relocate and moved down to the country side with the little money left. Months later, my dad had to leave the country when our ears caught wind of a rumor about my dad being wanted, villagers were already whispering at the sight of him and saying things so he left but since then we've not seen the cops coming to look for him.
That proves the rumors were false, but better to be safe than sorry as we don't even have money to hire a lawyer for a case anymore.
Later my mom started an ice cream bar and went into farming to make ends meet for me and my little sister Wenie.
When I was seven I remember having very low grades in school and he promised to get me something special if I improved next term.
Being tempted by what could be the special thing dad was going to get me I also promised him to do better but I didn't my grades remained same and I knew he'd be disappointed so I didn't tell him about my grades. I woke up one morning to a note in my table, I'll always remember the content of that note till tomorrow. Maybe it's because I've lost count of how many times I've read it.
"My little Jena, silly girl! hiding your scores from me right? well I already know, I won't be your father if I don't know little things like you breaking your knee as a result of falling in your grades at school.. hehe dad knows but I promised you something special which I have no intention of going back on, so your little surprise is outside:)" I rushed out with excitement, only for my jaw to drop at the sight of a bycicle.. a damn bycicle! I was just pouting all through the day as I had my own car and a bycicle is the last thing I was interested in then and that's the same that one has accumulated dust where it was parked now. Funny enough it's the only thing I have left now.
I wondered where my dad was now and what he was doing at the moment, I miss him so much.
The creaking of the gate jolted me back from the millions of miles I was away in my thoughts, I didn't even notice it was starting to get dark and the rain had started to drop in tiny bits. My eyes flew to the gate, Nan was already sprinting towards me and Wenie was just behind closing the gate behind her as she entered, turns out she took Nan out or probably met him outside.
"Sis Jena sorry I came back late, stupid Colton won't let me alone. Luckily Nan scared him away" she said in a winy voice and Nan was looking so proud of himself.
I ruffled his head and made him go to his house I already kept his food earlier while I went inside with my sister.
"I've always told you to just ignore that dummy Colton" I said, fatigue obvious in my voice as I made for my bed again
"Mom asked about you Wenie, go find her"
She left.