Breath Megan,
Breath!!!
She was staring at him and a thousand questions was running through her head.
Why was he here,why? Did anyone tell him about Kiki? Was he here to take her daughter away from her, steal her behind her back, why was he here? How did he know about Kiki, did… did Tonia tell him, did her parents tell him, did he find out and how… why was he here?
“why are you here?” she says, pushing Kiki further behind her, holding her tight
“I came to deliver Uniforms and texts, my company is the one handling schools in this district and surrounding areas“
“Why are you here?’’ she repeats
Sean frowns staring at the woman and then at Kiki behind her, she suddenly pushes Kiki behind her again-okay, that’s unsettling.
“Look” he says dropping his hand “I don’t mean any harm if that is what you think, I am perfectly harmless”
“That is what the perverts, pedophiles and serial killers say right before they cause one harm”
He was taken aback “Look lady you don’t know me”
“Oh but I do, you want to take my daughter but I won’t allow you” she snaps
“What? If I wanted to … take your daughter which is utterly ridicules, if I wanted to cause her harm I wouldn’t do it in broad day light and have someone catch me I was just harmlessly talking to Kiki-”
“Don’t call her name” Megan snaps
“Whoa okay, I am sorry, you obviously got the wrong idea or just a wrong perception of me, I am sorry ma’am if I came off as someone who is dangerous but I am not, I promise. Let’s start all over, my name is Sean O’Conner, I almost ran down your little girl and I felt like shit smashing her ball, I got her another one and when I saw her again today after I came to deliver the school’s orders I decided to say hello… I am sorry if I came off as a threat to your daughter but I am not, I assure you” he places his hands to his chest, speaking genuinely, then he stretches his hands forward” And you are?”
Megan eyes his outstretched hands“No one”
She says hitting his hands away and walking fast down the hall with Kiki who turns to look at him, then waves.
He smiles and waves back as they disappear.
Walking down Sean frowns, lost in thoughts.
What did he do wrong? Okay he could understand how a parent would feel when they see their kids with a random stranger but come on, the heat and anger radiating from that woman was enough to burn down a building and he did apologize to her, twice or three times if he wasn’t mistaken, he told her who he was and what he came to do, surely she should have been nice enough to return the courtesy.
There was something about the way she looked at him, as though she hated him, but why? He had never met the woman in his entire life, never! And she kept saying he wanted to steal her daughter away from her. Steal? Did someone try to steal Kiki away from her to keep her on a defensive like that? Did something happen to that little girl at some point to warrant the mother to be rude and snappy towards a stranger?
He sighs,
Maybe that was the reason for her coldness, no one was saying be nice to a total stranger but her coldness was too strong.
Then another thought creeps into his mind, her daughter seemed sad, or afraid. Was she maltreating the child, was she?
He had heard of parents physically and emotionally abusing their children, he could see the fear leap into the child’s eyes as her mother called her name, maybe that was the reason she didn’t want her daughter to tell on her, this were signs.
What if the little girl was in danger, what if?
He picks his phone and dials “hey Zackary, if you suspect a child is being abused by her parents, what do you do?”
“Mind your business!”’ Zackary’s voices comes through
“Dude be serious”
“I am, what do you want to do? Be the hero and whisk the child away from them? If it bothers you so much get child services on it, they would investigate it and know what to do about it. What’s this about? whose child do you want to reap away from their parents?”
“You remember that kid I almost ran over a couple of weeks ago?’
“Yep, the little monster”
“Dude, kids not monsters”
“Well to me they are. They cry a lot, throw tantrums, can’t let you sleep, always wanting something and very annoying, they are only sweet when they are asleep.They are monsters”
“How do you know that much?”
“My ex had this twin niece and nephew and always brought them over during the weekends, I think it was her way of telling me she was thinking of a family anyways we had them for a month and I was going completely out of my mind, they did things to me, my bed, my cloth, my food, my phone. They terrorized me. I wake up with makeup or a cartoon character on my face, I see vitamins in my food, I get mucus and spittle on my cloths… I was going crazy, I broke up with her soon after”
“You broke up with her just because of the kids?”
“Well, that and the fact that I wasn’t ready to settle down and she was pushing for it ,plus, she became a lazy lay after some time”
Sean shakes his head “You need help brother, everyone likes kids, you are just scared shit to commit that is all, I am sure by the time you find the one, and get married, you would eventually fall in love with your child and wouldn’t mind or bother about their little tantrums and whatnot because the fatherly love would kick in and you would see it’s perfectly normal for kids to be hyper-active, especially when they have too much sugar, it’s like weed to them’’
“Oh that explains the craziness! To shut them up I usually let them take sweets, chocolates and cake, you know juice and whatever they asked hoping while they are eating I get to have a little peace but I was wrong, they begin to get like monkeys and roar like Tarzan”
Sean laughs “There you go, you can see that you turned them into the monsters”
“Did not, but really, what about that little girl, you saw bruises on her body or what?”
“Not that I could see physically but there was something off about her mother, the way she was acting and the way she was hiding the girl behind her stopping her from talking and the girl seemed sad, she didn’t have any friends and I don’t know but something didn’t feel right”
“Hmmm, I think it’s nothing, don’t go rustle leaves when there is nothing underneath. Really it’s none of my business neither is it yours, it might be nothing”
“Well nothing hurts to make sure, I wouldn’t be okay until I do so”
“Fine, so how did her mother look? Despite that the little girl is still a monster, she is a beautiful child”
Sean frowns “yeah,she gets her beauty from her mother.”
“Oh you checked her out?’
“Barely, I was trying to get her to relax but she was throwing darts and knives with her eyes and mouth. Look I gotta go, talk to you later,still hanging out tomorrow right?’’
‘You betcha!!’’ Zachary’s voices says
“Cool”
Sean cuts the call and heads out, he was going to come check on the little girl during the week and maybe ask around about her relationship with her mother and if he suspects anything foul he was calling child services. No child needs to stay with an abusive parents, he had heard firsthand how this kids turn out to be depressed and begin to inflict pain on others. “Prevention was better than cure” he came to realize
*****
“What’s wrong?” Tonia says entering into her house “Is Kiki okay?” she asks coming to sit opposite her friend
Megan is seated, holding a cup of tea
“I saw him today”
“Saw who? Where is kiki?”
“She is watching cartoon in the room. I saw him today, he was just there talking to her, I felt fear, then I became angry”
“Who Meg?”
“Sean, he was at the school today”
“How, why, does he know?”
“I don’t know, I mean why was he talking to kiki, and today wasn’t the first day he had seen her, you remember me telling you how she got that yellow ball?”
“Yes” Tonia nods “Wait, he was the one who almost hit her?”
Megan nods “Oh dear, but what was he doing there in the school”
“He said he was the company supplying school stuffs, the same company that the school has been using for uniforms and texts over the years, I guess he is the new person in charge there and he came to deliver supplies and I don’t know I just saw him with kiki and I didn’t know what they were talking about and I was so scared I took my daughter and left’’
“Does he know?”
“I don’t know“
“Did you tell him who you were?’’
Megan shakes her head
“Okay, maybe he doesn’t, maybe he was just saying hello to the girl he almost ran over”
“But we don’t know that, Kiki kept asking why I was rude to her new friend, imagine, her friend”
Tonia bends her head to the side and then leans forwards “one thing I have realized in life is that, things we run away from keeps coming towards us.
Maybe, you should tell him, I mean he has ran into Kiki twice already and this was without my doing or yours, it’s nature taking its course of events”
“I will pull her out and take her elsewhere”
“And you think that would be wise, pulling out and where will you relocate too?”
“I don’t want him near my daughter!’’ she says getting up
“Yes and I do understand that, but right now, he is already her friend according to Kiki, are you going to keep having to explain to your daughter why you are constantly rude to a random stranger who is trying to be nice?”
Megan is quiet “I don’t want him near my daughter” she repeats. She would have to pull her out, no questions about that.
“Fine, do you Megan, do you. But think about Kiki for a minute, does she needs this change? Will it be okay for her? You already know she had withdrawn from making friends with kids her age, you want to pull her out and dump her into another school and have her keep withdrawing more into herself?
“I don’t want him close to my daughter Damnit!!!’’ she snaps
Tonia keeps quiet “Kiki also deserves the right to normalcy, she does”
Megan doesn’t respond.
*****
“where are we going to Mummy?” Kiki asks her mother as she opens the car for them to enter
“Just taking a drive sweety” she tells her as she belts her up with the seat belt “Just a drive into town”
“Who is the gift for mama?”
“Someone really really special to me”
“Me?’’
Megan smiles “You? Yahl you are more than extremely special to me, extremely, but this person is also special to me”
“okay”
“Okay”
She puts the car on drive and they head into town. Today was her mother’s birthday, and like today for the past four years she had driven into town, went to her house, rang the bell and dropped a gift on her parent’s birthdays or their wedding anniversary with a note wishing them well and beside the gifts, within is also a picture of kiki, from when she was a baby and till now that she is four years old, she drops her address, her phone number and the school Kiki was in, then she tells them they were outside waiting.
Then she waits, by the corner with Kiki inside the car with with her. One of them will come out, pick the parcel on the floor and go in, and she would wait in her car, hoping they would come out again to beckon her in or leave the door open for her.
But they never do, despite she waiting outside with their granddaughter, they never come out, they just never do.
She always returned back with tears streaming down her eyes as she drives home. Her parent didn’t want to forgive her, and it hurts being away from them, it hurts not able to have her daughter know her grandparents. She had dropped messages for them they never replied, they drop the call as soon as they hear her voice and it breaks her heart… everyday being away from her parents kills her..
