IT was the middle of night and Marcuz was up with thoughts.
He’d put on the TV to keep him company. But those thoughts wouldn’t just go.
So the boy sat staring in space, even when the device went on showing in front of him.
So, when the screen showed for quite a while without human activity, it warned that it would hibernate; so it did.
Still Marcuz sat there in the dimly lit room, accompanied by his thoughts.
It was the same day that he returned from Cannon. And he’d spent every moment of the day brooding.
He’d wondered why he’d got to witness some murder just when he was leaving school.
He’d been bothered about the things he heard that night.
The boy wished there was an adult he could talk to. But he’d lost his mum and dad, so he missed them.
He dropped his head and dropped a sigh.
Marcuz and Luca lost their parents in an auto crash about 2 years before. So the older boy took charge of their family.
The young brothers had refused the guardian hands of their distant relatives. As Marcuz had insisted that he was past 18 and could take care of them.
Luca also trusted him to keep them afloat.
Well, the brothers had no immediate problems with fund, as their parent left them property and investments.
Yet their relatives were pretty sure they would soon run out of funds and return for help.
So, the daring boys were ready to prove them wrong.
Marcuz was a brilliant boy whose degree was funded by scholarships...
Still he worked part-time in a few coaching classes, teaching paid tutorials in chemistry.
He worked on campus with coaching classes that ran on-site tutorials and equally the online ones.
Luca, on the other hand, was a full-time sportsman, as he played badminton on both club and national levels.
Their parents lost their lives while on the way to watch one of his games, and he felt so responsible for losing them.
Luca was the disciplined type, as his training as a sportsperson made him so.
And so, when he took a break to mourned his parents for a whole year, he had a newsworthy comeback the year after.
The boy told the media, “I came back to win for Jamaica... yes, that’s what my parents would’ve wanted!”
Yet ever since their parents died, Luca wouldn’t permit his brother to watch his march.
They’d got just them to call family, after all.
So, at that instant when Marcuz wished he could have just any adult around – an older person at all who he could share his troubles with...
That instant it came back to him that he’d told everybody off.
But just then when he heaved a sigh, his phone beeped with an arriving text.
He looked up to check the time and it was 12.
So he assumed it was just one of the promotional texts sent by his network provider.
He wanted to scan through, then tap on delete. But to his surprise, it was family who sent it.
A man he saved his contact as “Small Dad.” That man’s name was Macaulay...
Vincent Macaulay.
So the growing boys would call him “Uncle VC.” He was their maternal uncle around.
Hey Marcuz! I heard you’re done with school & back. News just happened to reach me.
Let’s talk over a meal when you have the time, boy. You must’ve grown so much that I like to see you.
Stay healthy & have a good night.
—Uncle VC
Marcuz read this and found himself smiling. And as he smiled a bead of tear rolled down his eye.
That text was good soothing balm on a tender sore. It was as if Marcuz’s uncle knew he was being pensive.
But Vincent had heard that he was. And it was Luca who told him.
Earlier that morning when the sport kid went inside to wash up, he’d stayed longer behind to chat with his uncle.
He’d been afraid for his brother’s sake, as he didn’t want to lose him too. Yet he couldn’t give a shoulder to cry on.
So in a desperation that wouldn’t show on his face, he’d reached Vincent and told him Marcuz was back from school.
But more importantly, that he’d like to hear from him.
Marcuz went over the text again, then again.
And while he did, the tears kept dripping, and dripping.
Comments
Post a Comment