Chapitre 19: Mommy and Daddy Summers

T-5 Days to Incident

With the rising sun on the next fine day of spring, the morning broke its repose and left the embrace of night behind the eastern horizon. As if the alarm went off, two souls woke from their slumber, like some early morning birds. After performing their morning toilette and breakfast, they quickly left their homes for the same destination—Ogologos High.

#The Park Near The Baker Residence

Tom, on the way to school, sat on the same empty bench. He came out too early this morning. He needed to think. Yesterday, he was able to get scot-free.

But what about today? Those bullies will find me again.

Even the thought of their appearance brought the phantom pain back to his buttocks.

“Wait a second! I was so badly hurt that day! How am I healed within two nights? It should have taken more time than that! He placed his hand where there was the wound from the beating to feel it.

"Was it here?”

Immediately, the memory of the last beating struck him like lightning.

“That humiliation! Those bastards! One these days…,” He couldn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t know what to do to them. He was too powerless to commit to any lofty promises.

“Beating is one thing! But they…they…unforgivable!” He remembered how he was left bare-naked in front of the whole world.

He couldn’t decide whether to attend school today. Spending his sweet time on the park bench, he began his journey, full of reluctance, toward the school.

#Bus Stop Near Summers Residence

Cacey was terrified. As she walked to the bus stop, she felt she was about to have a nervous breakdown at the thought of going back to school only to face those bullies and those boys from her fan club.

“Aah! Do I have to face them? Again?” The memory of her cute little adventure yesterday just vanished overnight. A world full of worries weighed her down.

When you avoid a certain confrontation, the fear only gets bigger. If you keep running away to avoid something fearful, the spiritual distance from the origin of the fear will only increase along with the size of the fear itself. One day, you will find yourself so far away from that origin that it will be absolutely impossible for you to return to that same place again. But Cacey didn’t know that. She was still in a dilemma about whether she should attend school or skip it today.

Cacey sat on the bench under the shed. Everyone around her slowly found their bus and boarded. The busy, bustling crowd of the morning rush hours slowly thinned out. In the end, Cacey was left alone, sitting on the bench, still undecided. She looked at her wristwatch. A pang of guilt kept striking a cord in her heart.

Someone screamed in her mind, “Go to school!"Isn’t this your duty as a filial responsibility? Isn’t this a betrayal? Will you betray the trust your parents have in you?”

She felt an urge to go to school. Then another voice screamed, “Did you tell your parents what’s happening at school? Do you have the courage to face the bullies and those discomforting boys? The overwhelming attention—can you go through that again? You can't... one more day, just one more day. You can go to school tomorrow, alright? Just for today! Just one more day!”

A tug of war began between the voices, and Cacey just sat there, not moving an inch.

#Summers Residence

Living room. Mr. Sullivan Summers, Cacey’s dad, sat on a sofa, sipping on his morning tea while reading the newspaper. Mrs. Eliza Summers joined him with her coffee. These days she started drinking strong coffee. She sat near her husband.

Mr. Sullivan, a good-looking man for his age of sixty-six, looked over his bi-focal reading glasses with clear and piercing Nordic eyes and grizzled hairs to testify to his age. He sensed something was wrong, although his better half was saying nothing. He put down his cup and newspaper and repositioned himself on his sofa, clearing his throat.

“....” He just kept looking at his wife but said nothing. He was patiently waiting for Eliza to talk. He loved his wife way too much. The result was Cacey.

Eliza intently sipped her coffee. I still didn’t say anything. She gazed back at Sullivan, as if she wanted him to guess what she was trying to say. This was a big problem for Sullivan. He wanted her to speak first, but she always waited for him to take a guess at the topic of the conversation. Eliza, at fifty, was sixteen years younger than Sullivan. She gave birth to Cacey at thirty-four. Compared to her husband, Eliza was still quite young.

“Say something; don’t just drink coffee!!” Mr. Sullivan broke his silence with a smile.

“Yes! That’s what I always wait to see!! That beautiful evergreen smile of yours!” Eliza thought, and she immediately put her cup down, smiling back at him.

“Cacey…”

“Yes, what about her?” Mr. Sullivan spoke straight with just one word. He madly adored his youngest child.

Eliza sighed. “What else! She’s at it again!”

“Ah!! She wants to drop out!” Mr. Sullivan released a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry, she says that every year she secures one of the first five places in her class!”

Eliza furrowed her brows. “You’re always so nonchalant! There must be a reason why she said that! Why don’t you talk to her? You know, with you, she shares things that she doesn’t talk to me about! If it’s you, you can get it out of her. There must be something wrong with our baby! We should act before it’s too late! She isn’t a little girl anymore. Many things can worry her at her age."

Mr. Sullivan sighed. “I’m afraid of creating an unintended distance between us by asking the right questions at the wrong time. Shouldn’t we wait for her to open up?”

Eliza was silent. She also thought the same. “But if something happens to her while we sit and wait, What if she asks us, then why haven't w made any effort to know what’s going on?”

“You asked her, right?”

“Of course I did!! Which mother won't?"

“And she evaded?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Then I will wait. You keep asking indirectly, I will be the good cop, and you, the bad.”

Eliza smiled. “You want me to be the bad one?”

Mr. Sullivan smiled and resumed his reading; he didn’t answer the question. Eliza had already finished her coffee. She went to the nearby bookshelf to get a book—it’s her reading time.

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