"Hey, Rob, can you spare a minute?"
"What's up?"
"We're out of water, again."
"That's the 2nd time this week."
"Rob, I don't think we could do this."
"What!? But it's been yea- "
"We can barely feed 3 kids and your parents, 2 more basically feels impossible."
"Oh, well, I see what you mean, but- "
"Rob, you have a kind heart, but please, we need to figure something out."
"We can't just toss our nephews into the middle of a desert!"
"I know, but we also can't feed almost 10 mouths!"
I tried not to make any noise while sneaking back into my bedroom. Acting like I never heard anything. We're going to have to leave, aren't we? But I don't know what we are supposed to do.
I enter the room I've been sleeping in to see Anra lying in bed. He looks like he just lost 100,000 Baros.
He looks at me when the door opens and asks, "Where is mommy?"
Should I tell him the truth or not? Will he even understand it? Maybe, instead of telling him a lie, I can just bend the truth in a way he would understand.
After giving it multiple thoughts, I think I found the best response, "A bad guy stole them from us."
"If we get rid of the bad guy, will they come back?" He asked.
That's a good question, will revenge bring someone back?
I reply to his question with, "No, but it'll bring peace to our minds."
I don't know who did it. But I will find out. After we buried the bodies of my parents, I wanted to burn the money. But no, after giving it some thought, I realized that this was most likely Keyminean currency. These coins were made out of Keyminite, I'm sure of it. I know what must be done with the money.
"Come on," I grab my brother by his hand and lift him off the bed, "Let's go outside, it's been a while since we've touched the stupid sand."
___________________________
I sit outside of my uncle's house, just trying to figure out what we're supposed to do now. I watch Anra and my younger cousin play with a stick and a ball. My cousin, who is a year older than Anra, would throw a ball at him. Anra would then hit the ball with a stick. My uncle taught us the game yesterday, and apparently, the stick is called a bat. I chose to sit out for a while since it's been proven that I have an unfair advantage against the little kids. The last time I hit the ball, it landed on another house about 30 gillos away from my uncle's. Though my aunt still made me stay outside to keep watch.
My cousin throws the ball with what seems to be using all of his strength, but it doesn't even reach Anra's feet. He picks up the ball and decides to throw it a little closer to the batter. He then brings his arm the way back and then launches the ball like a slingshot. Anra has the perfect opportunity to hit the ball. But he doesn't even swing the bat.
"You know that the whole point of the game is trying to hit the ball, right? Even if you think that you aren't gonna hit it, you might as well try!" my cousin shouted.
Anra's eyebrows drop inward, and he clenches his teeth. "I wasn't ready!"
"You had all day to get ready!"
"You're throwing the ball way too fast!"
It's about time that I intervened, but suddenly I get hit by something in the face, and it then bounces onto the ground. I pick it up, and it's a newspaper. I look in the direction of where I believe the newspaper came from. It's a boy riding a bicycle with a scar under his left eye. He's wearing a white helmet over his hair that stretches to his shoulders. His shirt is striped white and blue, and his shorts are green. He has a newspaper in his right hand, and he throws it at the house right next to us.
I throw the newspaper at the door, and then I run over to the kids to stop the fighting.
"Can you see?" my cousin barks at my brother.
I stand between the two, "Why does it matter? This isn't some professional game," I pick up the ball and throw it at my cousin. "Just take the ball and throw it again, I'm sure he'll hit it this time."
"No!" my cousin screams. He throws the ball down and storms back into the house. I sigh and look at my brother.
"You know what, I'll throw the ball, and you can continue batting." I offer him. He nods and gets ready to hit the ball. I stand a little far from him, unlike my cousin, I can throw the ball far enough to reach Anra. I give Anra a few more seconds to get ready and I swing my arm, throwing the ball like a catapult. Since I backed up quite a bit, Anra has a lot more time to react. I can tell that he's nervous due to him sweating, or maybe that's just because it's really hot outside. Anra swings the bat, and it hits the ball. The ball then flies several gillos, maybe even karas (About a yard) away from us. It then bounces twice on the ground before it begins to roll. I ran up to Anra and threw him upwards into the air. "You did it!"
"I did it!" he says as he raises his arms and drops the bat.
We played a couple more times, not switching batter and pitcher. It seems playing is helping both of us get distracted from what happened. Once we went inside, I was going to give my aunt the newspaper. But I want to take a peek at it myself. I remove the rubber band and unfold the newspaper, and then I begin reading it.
TENSIONS BETWEEN KEYMINEA AND AZRABA INCREASE AFTER KING ANDREX IV OF KEYMINEA MEETS WITH KING VERA II OF AZRABA. NEITHER COUNTRY COULD COME TO AN AGREEMENT AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK. IN THE LAST 7 YEARS, KEYMINEAN BOUNTY HUNTERS HAVE BEEN SNEAKING THROUGH THE BORDER INTO AZRABA FOR CONTRACT KILLINGS. KEYMINEA HAS NOT DONE ANYTHING TO COMBAT THESE BOUNTY HUNTERS AND HAS MOST LIKELY BEEN SUPPORTING THESE CONTRACT KILLINGS. LAST WEEK, TWO MEN, WHO ARE MOST LIKELY CONTRACT KILLERS OR BOUNTY HUNTERS, WERE SPOTTED NEAR THE BORDER AND WERE SHOT DEAD BY A GROUP OF AZRABA SOLDIERS GUARDING THE BORDER. IN RETALIATION, KEYMINEAN GUARDS SET THESE SOLDIERS ABLAZE, KICKSTARTING DEADLY WAREFARE RIGHT ON THE BORDER OF THE TWO COUNTRIES. IT TURNS OUT THAT THE TWO MEN SHOT DEAD WEREN'T BOUNTY HUNTERS AND KING ANDREX BLAMES AZRABA. BUT THIS ISN'T AT ALL TRUE BECAUSE IT'S KING ANDREX'S FAULT FOR SUPPORTING THESE CONTRACT KILLINGS AND BOUNTY HUNTERS. DURING THE MEETING, KING ANDREX BEGAN CURSING AT KING VERA WHILE HE WAS BEING POLITE AND CIVIL DURING THE CONVERSATION. WE'RE STARTING TO BELIEVE THAT KING ANDREX WILL USE THIS ALL AS AN EXCUSE TO DECLARE WAR ON AZRABA. KEYMINEA HAS BEEN WANTING TO ANNEX OUR COUNTRY FOR YEARS AND WANTS TO BRING SUFFERING TO US ALL. WE REQUEST ALL CITIZENS OF AZRABA TO REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY AND TO GIVE ALL THEIR SUPPORT TO OUR COUNTRY…
That's about all I read. I remember hearing about what happened at the border, though I didn't think much about it. I wonder, if a war does begin, will Anra or I have to join in fighting the war? Probably not, both of us are too young, especially Anra. I leave the newspaper on a table for my aunt and uncle to read.
Contract killings though, I might know what had happened to mom and dad, but I'm not sure. There's no reason for someone to kill my parents; they lived simple lives. Why would someone want them dead? I can't jump to these conclusions; I'll have to wait till the police find more evidence.
I go into my room to see Anra and his cousin staring at each other on different beds that are parallel to each other. Why can't we all get along?
My door slams open, making the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil. Like always, I flinch. I turn around to look towards the door. My cousin stands there, holding my shoes.
"We're going out for dinner." He says while throwing my shoes. One of them hits my head, the other hits my shoulder.
"The heck?"
"What, you don't wanna go out?"
"No, why did you? Never mind," I say as I stand up.
As I put on my shoes, my cousin asks me, "Hey Eraq, why are you so cheerful today? Yesterday, you and Anra were basically sobbing." I turned my head up to face him, "I know Dad doesn't want me to talk about this too much, but I'm a little concerned. Your parents are dead, yet you and Anra are playing bat and ball as if nothing happened. Shouldn't you guys be mourning for a little bit longer than 2 days?"
I looked around, trying to find an answer to his question. Anra is playing with some blocks with my younger cousin, looks like they made up. "Well, if I'm sad, Anra will be crying as well. I don't want him to have those feelings at such a young age."
"Hm, pretty philosophical."
The death of my parents did, in fact, make me feel something still. But it wasn't just something melancholy; it was lust. The lust for revenge.